Questões de Inglês

Tattoo Regret? A Topical Removal Cream May Help

By Paula Mejia

Tats all, folks: A Ph.D. student has developed a cream that targets cells, not pigments, to get rid of unwanted ink. Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters

Today, before getting inked, one must have a serious think so as to avoid tattoo remorse. In the future, though, you may not have to worry about laser removal, or surgery, or a touch-up tattoo for those inky regrets anymore, though. Alec Falkenham, a Ph.D. candidate at Halifax, Nova Scotia‘s Dalhousie University, has developed a painless tattoo removal cream that causes tats to gradually fade away.

The application of the cream, which he hopes will eventually become commercially available, involves none of the inflammation, redness, blistering or scarring side effects that traditional tattoo removal procedures can have, either. He believes the procedure might even be anti-inflammatory. All you have to do is apply the topical cream to your skin.

Unlike lasers, which target the pigments in tattoos, the Bisphosphonate Liposomal Tattoo Removal (BLTR) cream targets macrophages, immune system cells that work to rid foreign agents from your body. When you tattoo your body, you are injecting ink deep into the dermis—and the macrophages recognize tattoo ink as ―foreign‖ invaders. Some of these macrophages absorb the ink and then carry it to lymph nodes, where both cells and ink are destroyed.

Scientists Figure Out How to Unboil an Egg

By Zoë Schlanger

Chemistry major Stephan Kudlacek is part of the team that has developed a way of unboiling a hen egg.

Scientists at the University of California Irvine have developed a way to unboil egg whites by ―untangling‖ their proteins, a development that has the potential to significantly reduce costs for any biotechnology process that requires the folding of proteins.

―Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg,‖ UCI biochemistry professor Gregory Weiss said in a statement. ―We start with egg whites boiled for 20 minutes at 90 degrees Celsius and return a key protein in the egg to working order.‖

Proteins are the workhorses within human cells. They copy DNA, and make it possible for the body to read the DNA. The folding of proteins is key to several fields; industrial chemists use it to make chemical reactions possible, and the medical industry needs to fold proteins for therapeutic treatments of diseases such as cancer. Often, though, when scientists attempt to fold proteins, they come out as ―scrambled messes,‖ Weiss says.

The process doesn‘t result in a gooey raw egg you would want to cook up and eat, because the egg white has been dissolved in other compounds. But one of the key proteins found in egg white is returned.

Weiss and his team have filed for a patent, and are raising funds to scale up the process to meet the needs of biotech companies. If all goes well, the invention has the potential to save several industries a lot of headache, and money.

Disponível no site: <http://www.newsweek.com/scientists-figure-out-how-unboil-egg-chemistry-301791>. Acesso em: 25 jan. 2015 (fragmento).

Snowden on Cyberwar: America Is Its Own Worst Enemy

By Lauren Walker

A hand is silhouetted in front of a computer screen.

After a year punctuated by hacks and data breaches, most notably a cyberattack against Sony, President Barack Obama used part of his State of the Union address on Tuesday to mention the growing threat to cybersecurity. ―No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids,‖ he said.

The president‘s speech came a week after the White House outlined a cybersecurity policy proposal that calls for more information sharing between the private sector and government, an increase in penalties for hacking and an update in the standards for when companies have to report that their customers‘ data has been compromised.

Disponível no site: http://www.newsweek.com/snowden-cyber-war-america-its-own-worst-enemy-301175. Acesso em 25 jan. 2015 (fragmento).

Drug-Resistant ‘Super Bacteria’ Reportedly Found in Rio’s Olympic Waters

By Lucy Westcott

A man sits on a deck over the Rio Carioca, near Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dec. 16, 2014.

Windsurfers and sailors beware: Drug-resistant ―super bacteria‖ have been found by researchers in the same waters off Rio de Janeiro where many water-sports events are scheduled to take place during the Summer Olympic Games in July 2016.

Researchers at Brazil‘s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a scientific research center, discovered the bacteria in samples collected from three locations, including Rio‘s Flamengo Beach, popular among swimmers, and the Rio Carioca, a river that runs into the Guanabara Bay, where sailing and windsurfing events will take place, Reuters reports.

Rio‘s residents have been told to exercise caution when swimming off Flamengo Beach, another area studied by researchers that is ―frequently declared unfit for swimming,‖ the BBC reports, although most people ignore the warning.

As part of their Olympic bid, Rio agreed to clean Guanabara Bay by up to 80 percent, although the city's Mayor Eduardo Paes has said that target would not be met.

Ana Paula D'Alincourt Carvalho Assef, coordinator of the study, said the bacteria has potential to cause infections that could result in hospitalization. So far, there have been no recorded infections from the contaminated waters.

"Since the super-bacteria are resistant to the most modern medications, doctors need to rely on drugs that are rarely used because they are toxic to the organism," she told the Associated Press.

Disponível no site: <http://www.newsweek.com/drug-resistant-super-bacteria-reportedly-lurking-rios-olympic-waters-292582>. Acesso em 25 jan. de 2015 (fragmento)

Feds Settle Over Fake Facebook Profile Used in Drug Case

By Lauren Walker

A DEA agent created a fake Facebook profile in a woman's name using the contents from her seized cellphone.

The Justice Department reached a $134,000 settlement with a woman in upstate New York on Tuesday after the Drug Enforcement Administration used information from her cellphone to create a fake Facebook page in her name in an attempt to nab an alleged drug ring.

The settlement comes more than a year after the woman, Sondra Arquiett, sued the Justice Department saying the DEA had caused ―fear and great emotional distress‖ by creating the fake account. The government initially defended the agency, saying that Arquiett implicitly consented to the page by ―granting access to the information stored in her cellphone and by consenting to the use of that information to aid in ... ongoing criminal investigations.‖ But as the case attracted widespread media attention over privacy concerns, the Justice Department decided to review the case.

The drama began in 2010 when the authorities arrested Arquiett and seized her cellphone as part of a drug bust. Arquiett later pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and a judge eventually sentenced her six weeks of time already served, in addition to a period of home detention and five years probation.

But as Arquiett was awaiting trial, DEA Special Agent Timothy Sinnigen used information taken from her cellphone and created a fake Facebook page. He then used this fake account to gather information about an alleged drug ring.

In 2013 Arquiett sued the agency, claiming the page endangered her well being as it ―initiate[d] contact with dangerous individuals,‖ such as sending a friend request to a fugitive, and made it appear as if she was cooperating with a federal investigation.

Disponível no site: . Aceso em 25 jan. 2015 (adaptado).

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