Review: Pint of Science Launch Event

First up was Tolu Taiwo with her talk, What a Load of Rubbish. Tolu's research has been in biochemistry and microbiology and she is especially interested in bacteria. Specifically, how these bacteria can help turn waste into wealth through the use of biotechnology. This is a discipline combining computers, engineering, biochemistry and microbiology. It's all about the use of micro-organisms to produce human products such as food medicine and fuels. We already make products such as yoghurt, cheese, penicillin and beer using micro-organisms. However, the key next steps are using waste as a resource.

But what types of waste? Well, there is actually a collection of attributes that indicate ‘perfect’ waste - it has to be accessible, easy to process and lead to the creation of a high value product. For example, something such as spent coffee grounds (6.1 million tonnes of coffee waste are produced globally every year) or agricultural waste.

Waste coffee grounds can be broken down in the same way that yeast breaks down grain and barley to create alcohol. However, it is not as easy as it is currently in beer and wine production because of the way that the sugars are trapped in the fibres of the coffee grounds. To get it out is not a sustainable process. However, there is great hope that biotechnology is the future of innovation. Work is continuing on making this process more efficient and there are also attempts being made to increase yield by making bacteria more resistant to alcohol.

Next up was Khalil Thirlaway talking about Back-seat Drivers and whose talk beings with a picture of fossilised shark poo. This is poo that's older than the human race, it's even older than the dinosaurs. When scientists sliced up the poo in order to examine it under a microscope, they discovered that it contained tapeworm eggs. As hosts we have had to evolve to protect ourselves from parasites but they are also evolving. It's a constant game of cat and mouse and in many ways it satisfies the Red Queen Hypothesis where we're both running just to stand still.

Let's look at sex - it's a really inefficient way of procreating. You need two people of the opposite sex and most of the time you only create one offspring. Bacteria just bud off. However, sex is a good way to outfox parasites. For example, if we say that each parent has a unique set of "locks" keeping out the parasites, then the offspring will have a different set of these locks. So, even if the parasite can infect a parent, it won't necessarily be able to unlock the offspring, keeping us ahead in the arms race.

Disgust is another thing that we have evolved to keep us away from parasites. Our dislike of poo, vomit and pus is advantageous. In the words of Brian Aldiss, "civilization is the distance man has placed between himself and his excreta".  Kosher and Halal foods are another way of minimising your risk of catching parasites. They both only allow the eating of herbivores - carnivores can pick up parasites from their prey. Similarly they don’t allow the eating of pigs, which will eat absolutely anything. Shellfish are off limits - these are filter feeders which isn't ideal if your sewage is flowing out into the sea. They also don't allow any blood which is an indication of how well meat is cooked.

Finally, Khalil talks about how parasites have changed the course of human history. For example, if you consider the parasite that is responsible for sleeping sickness which is transmitted by the tsetse fly. This held back development in sub-Saharan Africa because of the huge negative impact on productivity due to sick animals. Even when Europeans arrived, all of their horses died and they were mainly left colonising coastal regions. Now, just imagine how different history would have been if this parasite had been prevalent in Europe rather than Africa.

After a break for everyone to go to the bar, the night resumed with Sophie Millar's talk, The Secret Life of Bones. What are the functions of bones? Support, movement and protection. This is pretty much Bones 101, but are our bones alive? Yes! As we age, we go through bone growth and then bone loss. Our bones can repair if they are broken and the cavities in your bones are where your blood cells are created.

Nutrition, physical activity and lifestyle, for example whether you smoke or not, can all affect the balance of your osteoblasts and osteoclast cells. Osteoblasts are like Tetris, they build up the bone while osteoclasts are like Pacman, they re-absorb bone tissue. We suffer from bone loss as we get older due to these being out of balance.

Your skeleton also produces hormones. Inside the skeleton, these can impact the osteoblasts and osteoclasts, while outside the skeleton the hormones can impact things such as insulin production. They can also cause the cells in blood vessels to start acting like bone cells and start hardening. This is not a good thing since cardio-vascular disease is the number one killer worldwide. If we can understand whether the narrowing of blood vessels is down to bone hormones then maybe we can help.

Finally it was Dr Sara Goodacre talking about "what makes spiders fly?" How do spiders manage to travel around the globe? And why are we bothered about this? Well, spiders are excellent pest controllers and they are mostly harmless. Spiders have adapted to their environments in many ways. Similar variations crop up again and again - in some cases spiders are finding the same solutions for survival.

Co-operation solves some problems - some spiders live in groups, in perfect harmony. All the spiders pull their weight and none of them freeload. Being able to move great distances solves other problems. Spiders use their silk as a sail to fly although they have absolutely no control over where they end up. They are essentially "aerial plankton". Some spiders are too large to fly, for example tarantulas grow too big but money spiders fly throughout their lives.

Risk avoidance on the part of the spider isn't the only factor determining when they fly. Scientists have also observed that parasites can influence when the host takes to the sky. When spiders were cured of their parasites through the use of antibiotics, they flew more than infected spiders.

Spiders that fly can also use their silken sails to swim and surf. This means that they can survive water landings and helps to explain why spiders are so well distributed across the globe. There are also spiders that can dive by surviving in silken bubbles. In fact spiders have at least seven different types of silk and they can change the composition depending on circumstance.

Pint of Science runs from the Monday 23 to the Wednesday 25 May at venues throughout the city. 

Pint of Science Nottingham