Cocaine Biosensor 180
Aaron Rowe writes "The MIT Technology review reports that a lab at UC Santa Barbara has created a biosensor by attaching a special type of DNA called an aptamer to a gold electrode. When cocaine is present, the aptamer tightly hugs a cocaine molecule and leans over so that a metal tag can touch the gold surface. This causes a spike in a plot of current versus voltage when the electrode is attached to a machine called a cyclic voltmeter."
Gold? (Score:4, Interesting)
What are the reasons for gold being used in these situations? I'm very familiar with gold's uniqueness, but it surprises me that it is becoming such a popular metal again -- even beyond the computer and audio industry. Is it really unique for these applications, or is it just a great way for the manufacturers to pad their bottom lines?
Re:Gold? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not a drug user by any means (other than tobacco on rare occasions and good quality liquor infrequently), but I also don't shop at stores with an open no-drug policy. Home Depot doesn't get my business anymore, and I openly let them know that I think their policy is ridiculous.
That being said, I have penalized employees for coming to work still drunk or high. I haven't fired anyone, but I have openly reprimanded them as business IS affected if you're a mess. On the other hand, I had an employee once come to work high on Xanax or some other anti-depressent, and I was stuck as to what to do about it. Lucky for me we found her a better job elsewhere and that was off my back completely.
Much more than cocaine (Score:5, Interesting)
This is, of course, a very hypothetical future - it might not work out this well.
Go nuts around money-counters (Score:3, Interesting)
testing (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course if you look at the history of the CIA in the 80's, one might hypothesize that the government has no interest in stopping cocaine consumption.
At least we all know marijuana is very bad.....there's this new movie out, Reefer Madness......really informative.
Re:Mod down parent - Answer to his question is... (Score:4, Interesting)
The answer I was looking for was why gold specifically for this application and medical applications in general, above and beyond the typical electronic applications.
Re:Gold? (Score:2, Interesting)
Just a thought: isn't boycotting these stores going to hurt the employees too? Losing a few thousand dollars will put more pressure on jobs than it will on the no-drug policy.
(Disclaimer: I'm not condoning either drug testing or drug use.)
Re:Gold? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Here's a list of some who DON'T... (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't do drugs and I hate the effects of even recreational use of drugs on people. I don't even like most prescription drugs.
I have suffered because of the idiots trying to stop drug use by this detection and repression regime. So has everyone else. I cannot get Pseudopedrine for my allergies without going through the hoops and hurdles of their system. I am limited to 20 pills a month. It gets worse when you consider the high cost of getting needed medicines going through the Rx system with the MD's. I take synthroid and am on total replacement therapy. My dosage is never going to change. I have been on the same dose for 8 years now. Why can't I just buy it at the pharmacy and forget the $150 a year going to the MD and the $75 lab fees to validate my dose? The drug for a year only costs about $50 and that price is 10 times higher because of this system.
We are headed into a police state where every micro droplet from our body could cause loss of job, family and freedom forever. Worse yet this could be a form of sabotage where someone could sneek a few micrograms of dust onto us and destroy our lives.
None of this addresses drug abuse. The Pseudoephedrine issue was over Meth-labs. There are less meth labs but now the Mexican imports of the drug have more than made up for the supply that was being produced locally. The problem is not gone, it is just moved. Drug abuse is not the result of access to drugs. It is only the result of the desires of people and these are related to other factors we do nothing about using such invasive technology.
Having worked on work sites where people did drugs, I hate the effects. But the problem is that we will not deal with our DRUNKS. I mean drunk on anything that makes them drunk. The US Problem with drugs is not in Mexico and it isn't in Columbia. It is entirely in our own population.
I am painfully aware of the causes of our drug abuse problem. It is mostly a problem of our society raising a bunch of "useless people." We raise our children prohibiting them access to useful occupations and valuable jobs at a young age and making sure they stay away from work which makes them valuable to others for such a long period of time that they never become useful and they destroy their lives because they know they are worthless and useless. This is particularly a disease of our "modern" society where we trash occupations and trash people in the name of progress. This is only going to get worse with the march of technology as we reneder almost all work obsolete. As we permit industrialists to trash entire communities of people saying their skills are "obsolete" etc while not providing for their adjustment and usefulness this problem is going to become universal. I am not against progress and technology but unless it is required (I MEAN WITH LAW) to accomidate people the temptation to dump people is going to be impossible to resist. With the globalism and "free trade" we now see going on, the avoidance of these costs will be simply to shift trade from one nation to another. As it happens all nations will be trashed this way. This is a threat to all hunanity.