Adventure Ausrama Blog

CHEMISTRY What are the French good for? Supplying top class engineers to Britain because they still use the rote system in education maybe? The French do have some good ideas though. They have come up with a way to strengthen bones. For years foam has been injected into walls of houses to improve insulation. The concept has been adapted to health. Calcium phosphate cement has been used for some time to repair bones. It is a bone substitute during surgery. The compound has now been made into a foam. It can be injected into bone to repair defects. Tests have shown it regenerates bone growth in osteoporosis treatment. French chemists at the University of Nantes have used hydrogen to push air bubbles into the calcium phosphate compound. These cavities enable new bone growth to strengthen weakened bones.  Medical breakthroughs are ongoing.  It is a pity health provision in all countries of the world is failing while new treatment techniques continue. ◆ Chemistry by T

A Frenchman was taken by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo and tortured. He escaped and a few years later emigrated to Canada with his wife and children. He began hearing voices and became paranoid fearing someone was trying to kill him. Post traumatic stress disorder was diagnosed by a doctor. Antidepressants did not work. He got headaches and pain in his back. He deteriorated lost his appetite, became weak and dizzy, and contemplated suicide. X-rays showed enlarged lymph nodes. An MRI indicated abnormality in the brain. A spinal tap found a very high white blood cell count and most importantly, eel-like protozoa - trypanosomes. After years of incubation, the man had developed sleeping sickness. This disease is endemic in Africa. It is contracted by being bitten by the tsetse fly which carries the trypanosomiasis protozoa. Death occurs with extreme exhaustion. It can have a myriad of conflicting symptoms. Treatment by a few drugs is possible but also dangerous.