UPDATE: Sept 30 – The day after British teenager, Natalie Morton, died, preliminary post mortem results reveal that she had a serious underlying medical condition and that Cervirax was likely not to blame for her death.

A British teenage girl has tragically died after feeling unwell before being inoculated with Cervarix, the vaccine being rolled out in the UK and Europe to protect against HPV (human papilloma virus) infection. The vaccine batch has been withdrawn as a precaution.

There is currently no evidence that the death of the 14-year old was linked to the injection. Indeed, the BBC, reports that her mother told reporters that the girl was feeling unwell before she left for school that morning well before she was given the shot.

GlaxoSmithkline’s Cervarix is created using the L1 protein of the HPV viral shell, or capsid, to produce highly immunogenic particles that induce the body to make neutralizing antibodies to HPV. The vaccine contains no live virus and no genetic material, so it cannot infect the patient. The vaccine was developed, in parallel, by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center, the University of Rochester, USA, the University of Queensland in Australia, and the US National Cancer Institute.

The most common side-effect are simple residual pain at the injection site, which was 78% of side-effects. Other symptoms are much less common, but are mild and include headaches, dizziness, occasional rashes, and rarely heart palpitations according to the Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency. There have been rare reports of more serious conditions such as convulsions.

The BBC says that other girls at the same school in Coventry, England, had dizziness and nausea. These are, however, common symptoms seen in young teenage girls at the time of being given any injection with a hypodermic syringe, one expert in vaccination practice told me.

NHS Coventry is investigating the death. It reports that the girl fainted an hour after the injection and says that it would have expected a more immediate reaction if there were to be one.

The HPV vaccine could save hundreds of lives a year by preventing infection with HPV, which is the primary cause of cervical cancer (HPV type 16 and 18 cause some 70% of cases). Well over a million doses have already been administered with minimal reports of known side-effects. Should it be shown in the post mortem examination that the girl’s death was due to the vaccine, then regulators and healthcare providers must put that into the context of the million-plus vaccinations that have already been provided safely.

Of course, the anti-vaccine lobby will have pounced on this death to add to their propaganda and will already be claiming that there is a cover-up.

Carisoprodol is a muscle relaxant known in the US as Soma, and Sanoma and Carisoma in the UK and elsewhere. It acts as a painkiller for treating various types of pain, including those caused by muscle spasm. It has analgesic-sparing (potentiating) effects on opioid analgesics. It is available on prescription alone or as a formulation with aspirin, codeine, and caffeine.

Carisoprodol is a centrally-acting skeletal muscle relaxant whose safety and efficacy is well established. However, it has become a drug of abuse because it is a pro-drug for meprobamate and a potentiator of hydrocodone, dihydrocodeine, codeine and similar drugs. Numerous cases of dependence, withdrawal, and abuse have been reported. It is now a controlled substance in several parts of the world, including several of the United States. It’s a seriously major keyword for spammers. I counted 23 of 167 spam messages that arrived in just one of my email accounts overnight.

Not to be confused with: Soma – a ritual drink used by the early Indo-Aryan and the later Vedic and Persian cultures. Frequently revered for its energizing qualities. It was prepared by extracting juice from the stalks of a certain plant, although no one knows for certain which plant, speculation points to ephedra, psilocybin mushrooms, Amanita muscaria, blue lotus, Cannabis, or even honey.

Also not to be confused with the fictional drug, soma, of Huxley’s Brave New World. Everyone is encouraged to consume soma in the story, as an enjoyable, hangover-free “vacation”, developed expressly for this purpose and to preclude the need for religious experiences. It is probably an historical allusion to the soma of the Indo-Aryan ancestors of the present day peoples of India.

Thanks to GrrlScientist and several other people for alerting me to this song. It’s not quite got the same degree of gentle wit as Tom Lehrer’s Periodic Table song, but it’s a catchy tune and the video is just plain, good old-fashioned silly fun.

Evidence mounted for glutathione itself in 2000, when Emory University researchers led by Dean Jones reported that a lozenge or oral spray containing glutathione might help prevent infection with influenza. Trials in humans had not been carried out but details were reported in Free Radical Biology and Medicine and elsewhere.

If glutathione is actually effective against influenza infection, and it may well not be, then it would presumably have to be present at the infection site – mouth and nose and upper respiratory tract. No definitive clinical trials have proven efficacy one way or the other yet.

FRIEL, H., & LEDERMAN, H. (2006). A nutritional supplement formula for influenza A (H5N1) infection in humans? Medical Hypotheses, 67 (3), 578-587 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.02.040

The production and distribution of energy is about to change for ever. Why? Because in the coming years, we will be the ones producing and distributing the energy. And for those utilities companies who’ve sat at the very heart of the energy infrastructure for so long, they will struggle to survive…

I hope he’s right. But, I think it’s going to take a lot more than cheap solar panels, home biomass generators, and domestic wind turbines to democratize the energy industry, even with the possibility of a personal profit.

These devices are still very much at the low efficiency stage for most realistic applications for all but the richest with plenty of windy land or plenty of waste. Moreover, such devices don’t last forever, have to be maintained, can get easily damaged. They are also still intrinsically of low efficiency and that’s a particular problem on cold, dark, cloudy and windless days in Scotland for instance.

Twenty years ago I sat through a symposium that promised us the idea that we’d have domestic fuel cells that turned a gas stream (natural or from biomass) into electricity. The same system would burn that intake for heat and cooking. At the time, leading experts told me we’d have those domestic fuel cells by the end of the century…well that was almost a decade ago and I’m still waiting.

Things are changing…but….very, very….slowly.

Those who can already afford to may become early adopters of alternative energy sources, but I don’t see my neighbours rushing out to cover their roofs with photovoltaics or even installing solar-heating for hot water. More to the point, so long as the companies are pumping oil and gas from the ground and making billions of dollars doing so, we are unlikely to see any serious democratization of energy.

The Centre for Food Safety apparently found traces of cocaine at levels of 0.1-0.3 micrograms per liter, which is well below safety limits.

Cocaine (benzoylmethyl ecgonine) is a tropane alkaloid found in the leaves of the coca plant. It affects the brain’s mesolimbic reward pathway and so is an addictive. It acts as a central nervous system stimulant as well as an appetite suppressant. Its mode of action is as a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor and a serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

The use of the drug has been illegal for non-medicinal and non-government sanctioned purposes in virtually all parts of the world for decades. However, back in the early days of the Coca Cola company, one of the not-so-secret ingredients of that sugary beverage was, you guessed it, cocaine, a fact that has become part of cokelore.

Indeed, the name Coca Cola was derived in 1885 from the two physiologically active ingredients added by the manufacturers to their tonic: coca leaf extract and kola nut extract. Exactly how much cocaine was present in the original formula for Coca Cola is not known. By law, Coca Cola and other beverages, including Red Bull, cannot contain cocaine.

Drinks manufacturers, however, were always cutting it fine when one (Redux Beverages) marketed the brand drink “Speed in a Can“, “Liquid Cocaine”, and “Cocaine – Instant Rush” in 2006. They claimed that these drinks had no actual cocaine but provided a rush that rival caffeine and sugar drinks such as Red Bull couldn’t beat.

But, in May German authorities allegedly identified small amounts of cocaine present in Red Bull. Surely, the manufacturer wasn’t trying to compete with a quasi-drug brand?

More Bull News

• You: Red Bull’s New Cola: A Kick from Cocaine? (time.com)
• Traces of cocaine found in Red Bull in Hong Kong (beinghealthyhomeandaway.blogspot.com)
• Trace Amounts of Cocaine Found In Red Bull (manolith.com)
• Germany Bans Red Bull for Containing Cocaine (blippitt.com)
• Cocaine Test Prompts Red Bull Removal In Germany (news.slashdot.org)
• Cocaine found in Red Bull? (boingboing.net)

For instance, you generally have to know the precise name of a compound for which you hope to find information and even if you do know that one name you will only find pages that use that specific synonym. What about all the pages that use a different synonym for the same molecule?

The Molport molecular search tool is apparently different, it’s not a database or indexing tool, and it speaks the language of chemistry. It recognizes synonyms and allows you to search the web via its built in structure tool for whole molecules or sub-structures.

Molport’s Imants Zudans revealed to the Reactive Chemistry Blog that the company is launching version 2 of its system today, which offers even more powerful searching than before and ties the search system into a chemical marketplace, something that has eluded researchers and lab techs since the dawn of the chemical web.

Artemesinin emerged from a Chinese herbal medicine, Qinghaosu, where it was used as a fever treatment for generations. I remember writing about the earliest research in my New Scientist days and have watched the drug discovery process bring us to the point where a potent pharmaceutical could, it seemed, defeat the disease…

…no more. In Cambodia, at least, resistant strains of malaria have been spotted by two teams of scientists, working on separate clinical trials who reported disturbing evidence of reduced drug efficacy.

The BBC says researchers are blaming a weak public health system and poorly controlled drug use, as well as fake drugs, produced by international criminals, for the problem. But, the problem is not really socioeconomic at all – it’s natural selection in action. We present the disease with a changing environment and it evolves to fill the niche.

Apparently, it’s an exothermic reaction (produces heat) that takes place between carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide and “eliminates” both. It operates over a secret heterogeneous catalyst that is apparently readily available and inexpensive. Sounds too good to be true: Solve global warming and acid rain in one go!

According to the Wiki entry on the subject:

The SWAP is not a CO2 capture process. It is a CO2 conversion and elimination process. In a near-instantaneous reaction, it breaks down CO2 and H2S, rearranges their components and produces water, carbon and sulfur.

It then goes on to tell us that SWAP “permanently removes carbon from the carbon cycle.”

I was followed last week on Twitter by Swapsol and my curiosity was piqued. Behind the Swapsol twitter account is Evan Howell (Swapsol’s EVP, Marketing & Communications) and his twitter bio says: “Our company has verified a process that reacts CO2 and H2S, converting the compounds into water, carbon and sulfur.”

The Wiki entry references just one “paper” entitled: “The Kinetic and Thermodynamic Behavior of Gaseous H2S and CO2 over a Heterogeneous Catalyst” from 2008, by a Dr Roy Drayton, who is president of Thermal Hazard Solutions (www.thsusa.com) who apparently did independent tests.

Howell just sent me a report apparently from Drayton that doesn’t give an awful lot away, although it mentions efficiencies being significantly higher above 150 Celsius and at raised pressure; it leaves me totally unconvinced of their earth-changing claims though, I’m afraid:

The Stenger-Wasas Process (SWAP) as described, in which the gaseous reaction between hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide over treated solid heterogeneous catalyst (i.e C09-0108t) was observed to be thermodynamically and kinetically favorable at or below 25oC to 150oC and above. The reaction process is spontaneous and liberates heat. This conclusion is based upon physical experiment data (adiabatic and isothermal calorimetry), as well as theoretical predictive methods.

I asked Howell a direct question about the nature of the catalyst, known enigmatically as C09-0108, this is what he had to say:

Actually, the catalyst is key and what is confidential. Studies are on-going to improve its efficacy.

Fair enough, no company is going to give away trade secrets on such a potentially important development, they’re not going to profit if they do. But I’m worried that so much is being claimed and so little is being said about this. The patent application is for the “process” rather than the key catalyst and only describes the process. The extended abstract doesn’t even mention a catalyst.

This technology could change the world if it’s viable. Morally, shouldn’t it be in the public domain so that it can be validated and applied in industry to clean up the planet?

“Independent verification is important,” Howell told me, “Chemical kinetics and gas chromatography are coming. We’re going slow right now.”

There is one more issue, the process apparently produces carbon and the Wiki entry claims this permanently removes it from the global carbon cycle. Well, that’s not strictly true, unless the carbon byproduct is buried deep underground in an oxygen-free environment it will ultimately revert to its low-energy chemical form – carbon dioxide and re-enter the cycle at some point. Of course, it could be used as fuel or feedstock, which is what I think the company intends, so ultimately it will revert to carbon dioxide sooner rather than later.

Apparently, it was in a New Jersey garage, that “entrepreneur chemist” Jim Wasas and “environmental engineer” Ray Stenger discovered how to convert and eliminate CO2, opening the door to a new energy economy. After pressing Howell a little he eventually told me that the process is more important in terms of oil and gas refining, regarding H2S disposal rather than for its potential in CO2 elimination and solving global warming.

The Swapsol website says: “It’s time to rewrite the chemistry textbooks.” But, I’m afraid that kind of phrase always sets alarm bells ringing and reminds me of the dozens of emails I’ve received over the years making similar claims about the physics textbooks. The energetics don’t quite add up, but at the time of writing Swapsol is offering very little additional information and is holding off engaging with the media until the autumn. That’s an odd stance too, given that I am in the media and it’s only Spring. Moreover, if they’re holding off engaging with the media what are they doing following science journalists on twitter?

Maybe I am missing something. Is the Stenger Wasas Process (SWAP) a genuine solution to our problems waiting to be unleashed? It’s a very happy coincidence that the names of the two inventors mesh nicely together to form a neat acronym, isn’t it? It’s not that I’m doubting their integrity, I’d just like to see some more chemistry. Let’s hope this is not simply another slow burn to dying embers like Steorn was slow, or cold fusion was, or Perepetia was…

It seems that humans are pre-programmed either to predict the end of the world and to monger doom or to tout global panaceas for energy, climate, and all the world’s ills. It’s almost like a collective bipolar syndrome fed by the fragility of the human condition. Personally, I do not believe the end of the world is nigh, but neither do I believe that are any wonder solutions to the serious problems we currently face.

UPDATE: June 2, 2009

I asked a chemist colleague to take a look at the claims, this is what he had to say:

“Concerning this SWAP process, the essence of their claim is:

(1) “Our company, Swapsol, has verified a process that reacts CO2 and H2S, converting the compounds into water, carbon and sulfur.”

(2) The process is exothermic.

The first statement is obviously inaccurate, since the stoichiometry doesn’t work. You have to add a half-molecule of oxygen to the output to make it balance:
H2S + CO2 -> H2O + C + S + 1/2O2

Although, they seem to have used a different approach to balancing their stoichiometry. I’ve dropped irrelevant CH4 terms from both sides, this is how it comes out:

2H2S + CO2 -> 2H2O + 2S + C

Concerning the second statement, this must be true or false regardless of whether the catalyst is known. A catalyst only affects the activation energy needed to drive a reaction. It can’t affect the chemical potential energies of the inputs or outputs. The trouble is that we don’t know exactly what forms the output C and S take, so we can’t do an exact energy budget to verify “exothermicity”. There is talk of the C coming out as nanotubes, for example. However, if the process really is exothermic and has a low activation energy, that would be crucially important to its economics. An endothermic process is expensive.

That said, we can do an energy budget of sorts. If you assume the C and S are not bonded at all, then in that state their energy is higher than if bonded. Once they bond, more energy is released. Therefore, if the process is exothermic even if the C and S on the output are unbonded, then it is exothermic no matter what form the C and S take.

It may be possible to find the bond energies in a reference like the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics and work out a crude energy budget. I’ll try to get around to doing that sometime. The results probably won’t be conclusive.

My trusty old CRC gives the following bond energies in these molecules (in units of kcal/mol):

H-S in H2S = 90
C-O in CO2 = 127
H-O in H2O = 119
C-C in C crystals (probably meaning graphite) = 171
S-S in S crystals = 66

If we take the above chemical equation at face value, then on the left we have:
4 (H-S) bonds + 2 (C-O) bonds = 614 kcal/mol

while on the right we have

4 (H-O) bonds = 476 kcal/mol

Thus if the C and S end up as free atoms, the reaction is endothermic.

If we manage to bond the C and S into typical crystal structures, then on the right we need to add:

1/2 of a (C-C) bond + 1 (S-S) bond = 151.5 kcal/mol

for a grand total of 476 + 151.5 = 627.5 kcal/mol

In this case, the reaction is indeed marginally exothermic.

However, we don’t know a lot of things, such as, what is the actual output state of the C and S. We also don’t know the pressures and temperatures required to drive the reaction in the presence of the mystery catalyst. That is important. For example, taking free C atoms and turning them into diamond is hugely exothermic, but requires absurdly difficult-to-achieve conditions.”

My chemist friend’s hunch is that the claims probably aren’t true, but since we have been given so little information it is difficult to make a definitive assessment one way or the other.