Silver: not only effective against werewolves
In a paper entitled “Silver Enhances Antibiotic Activity Against Gram-Negative Bacteria,” researchers Jose Ruben Morones-Ramirez, Jonathan Winkler, Catherine Spina and James Collins have found that the element is effective in fighting bacteria.
Bacteria, which can be divided into gram-negative and gram-positive categories, have cell walls that must be broken down by antibiotics to be destroyed. Silver weakens these cell walls, which is especially helpful in combatting tough gram-negative cells that are more difficult to break down with antibiotics alone.
This research could be extremely helpful, considering that strains of bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics — but not silver.
With files from The Cascade
Stressed learners are faster learners
New research coming out of the University of Saskatchewan suggests that reaction time may improve when under stress.
Professor John Howland’s experiment places a rat in a box where shown two images, one of which when touched rewards the rat with food. Once the rat learns which image gives the reward, it is removed and placed into a tube for 30 minutes, keeping it immobile and increasing its stress. It is then replaced in the box, where it must learn to distinguish between two new images.
The results showed that the rat’s reaction time improved with stress, and it learned the new rewarding image much more quickly.
With files from The Sheaf
Class dismissed: Professor arrested for allegedly producing child pornography
Last Monday morning, Professor Benjamin Levin, Canada Research Chair in Education Leadership and Policy of the University of Toronto, was arrested by Toronto police on five counts relating to the creation of child pornography.
Levin has been teaching at U of T since 2005, but has also been involved politically as the Deputy Minister of Education under Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty from 2005–2007 and again from 2008–2009.
Although the investigation is ongoing and information is coming in by the hour, the university has released an official statement, announcing that U of T “takes these charges seriously and is cooperating fully with the police investigation in this matter.”
With files from The Varsity
