All posts tagged: gum

Phyllida Barlow: Disruptor review – sexy latex and gobs of gum as a stately home gets trashed | Art

Phyllida Barlow: Disruptor review – sexy latex and gobs of gum as a stately home gets trashed | Art

Published by Sam Flores

Wolterton Hall is folded so deeply into the countryside of the Bure Valley that you can’t even see the grand Palladian mansion when you enter the gates to the estate. This was once one of the four power houses of Norfolk, built by Thomas Ripley for Horatio Walpole. Inside, Wolterton is dripping in 18th-century treasures, furniture, then-fashionable Belgian tapestries, fusty old portraits of important types – but now also, knobbly bodily things, strange almost familiar shapes stuck to walls and chucked down the stairs, as if someone– namely Phyllida Barlow – had come in and trashed the place. It’s a difficult thing to know what to do with these former country stately homes. Many have adopted a contemporary art programme as a way of challenging their history and bringing in new visitors. Simon Oldfield – Wolterton’s artistic director, brought in by the new owners, the Ellis family, two years ago – has done more than that. He has reinvented the space, making room for new ideas to take over. There’s no better artist for that …

Teens invent first chewing gum to tackle anxiety

Teens invent first chewing gum to tackle anxiety

Published by skeptic

adolescent: Someone in that transitional stage of physical and psychological development that begins at the onset of puberty, typically between the ages of 11 and 13, and ends with adulthood. annual: Adjective for something that happens every year. (in botany) A plant that lives only one year, so it usually has a showy flower and produces many seeds. antioxidant: Any of many chemicals that can shut down oxidation — a biologically damaging reaction. They do this by donating an electron to a free radical (a reactive molecular fragment) without becoming unstable. Many plant-based foods are good sources of natural antioxidants, including vitamins C and E. anxious: (n. anxiety) A feeling of dread over some potential or upcoming situation, usually one over which someone feels they have little control. chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H2O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe …

Prebiotic chewing gum could be helpful for gum disease

Prebiotic chewing gum could be helpful for gum disease

Published by skeptic

A clinical trial compared the effects of two kinds of chewing gum PeopleImages/Shutterstoc​k People with gum disease could soon benefit from chewing gum containing nitrate, a compound that reduces the growth of inflammatory bacteria. Gum disease, known as gingivitis in its milder form, occurs when a thin film of bacteria, known as plaque, accumulates on teeth, causing inflammation and bleeding in the gums. Brushing your teeth twice a day, cleaning between them with floss or interdental brushes and using antibacterial mouthwash can help to prevent or treat the condition, but this isn’t always easy to do consistently, says Shawn Green at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in West Carson, California. Left untreated, the condition can progress to a more severe form, known as periodontitis, which can lead to mouth abscesses and tooth loss. Prior studies suggest that eating nitrate-rich foods, such as leafy greens and beetroot, reduces gum inflammation by enhancing the growth of anti-inflammatory bacteria – but not everyone has access to, or enjoys eating, such foods, says Green. To test an alternative way to …

UPenn researchers develop bioengineered chewing gum to fight head and neck cancers

UPenn researchers develop bioengineered chewing gum to fight head and neck cancers

Published by Jenni Sidey

A piece of chewing gum may sound out of place in a cancer lab. Yet in this case, it became the delivery system for two plant-based compounds. These were aimed at something doctors often struggle to control: the microbes tied to head and neck cancer. Researchers led by Henry Daniell of the UPenn School of Dental Medicine tested extracts from a bioengineered chewing gum against oral samples from patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, or HNSCC. The gum was built from lablab bean powder and carried two active ingredients, FRIL, a naturally antiviral protein, and protegrin-1, an antimicrobial peptide. Together, they sharply cut levels of three microbes linked to these cancers. These microbes are human papilloma virus, known as HPV, and the bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum. That matters because HNSCC is a common cancer that forms in the lining of the mouth and throat. It can be aggressive, and outcomes are often poor when it is found late. Daniell said many recently approved cancer drugs have not made a major difference …