A Taste of Toxin

A new study shows that your small intestine can “taste” bitter food, and in response releases cholecystokinin, a hormone that, among other things, makes you feel full. Since toxic substances often taste bitter, this is useful because it prevents you from eating more of the toxic food. The implications of this is that by making drugs less bitter, they can hasten the absorption and thus the physiological effect in the body. They also found that bitter substances causes the release of GLP-1 (Glucagon-like Peptide 1), a hormone that stimulates insulin secretion, and this could potentially have implications for the treatment diabetes.

The Nobel Peace Prize

The 2008 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to:

Martti Ahtisaari “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts”

Martti Ahtisaari is a former president of Finland (from 1994-2000), and a long-time UN diplomat. He has previously received awards for his diplomatic work, including The Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in Gold for “his outstanding achievement as a diplomat and commitment to the cause of freedom in Africa and peace in the world”. His website can be found here.

Congrats!

New, cool bacterium

A new bacterium was just discovered in the Mponeng goldmine in South Africa. It has been named Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator , and the really interesting thing about it is that it lives in a community of only one species, which is extremely unusual. Another interesting bit is how it gets its energy. 

Oxygen is toxic to it, so instead it uses the radioactive decay of uranium in the surrounding rocks to provide it with energy. It gets carbon from dissolved carbon dioxide, and nitrogen from the surrounding rocks. It has got a lot of attention from astrobiologists because it represent a kind of bacteria that can be able to live beneath the ground on Mars, and on Enceladus, one of Saturns moons.