Tag: June 25, 2005

A THOMASIAN alumna has developed a cost-effective method for detecting food-borne bacterial toxins.

Philippine American Academy of Science and Engineering (PAASE) researcher Dr. Marjorie Medina said latex agglutination assay, an economic form of detecting antigens, can be used to visually detect toxins.

EVER wonder what the universe was like a split second after the big bang? You just might know in 2007.

According to Newscientist, the Centre Etudes et Recherche Nucleaire (CERN), the European Centre for Particle Physics near Geneva, is nearing the completion of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27-kilometer cylinder laid 100 meters underground straddling the French and Swiss borders that will smash protons into each other with a collision energy of 14 teraelectronvolts—almost as powerful as a nuclear explosion.

TOO MUCH thyroid hormone can cause maternal risks, a new research shows.

According to Dr. Maria Honolina Gomez and Dr. Mary Flor Gafate of the UST Hospital (USTH) Section of Endocrinology and Metabolism, hyperthyroidism, too much thyroxin in a pregnant woman’s body is associated with poor maternal and fetal outcomes. Thyroid hormones are responsible for body metabolism, growth, and development.

Lyka Cervantes, 18, loves munching American potato chips. Every time this junior Science student goes to the supermarket, she never fails to include a bag or two of potato chips, unmindful whether her favorite snack has Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) ingredients or not.

GMOs are crops, and animals which incorporate beneficial traits by changing chemical composition of products, improving on their poor characteristics, and fortifying their vitamins and minerals in foods.

The GMO debate

April 1998 - European Union’s (EU) last approval of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) products.

August 2001 - Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay files House Bill No. 1376, proposing a five-year moratorium on the entry, sale, processing and field release of GMO containing products.

October 2001 - Swiss Healthcare group Novartis confirms samples of baby food containing GMO soy are in the Philippines.

AS THE school year starts, so does the rainy season. More often than not, students will find themselves bringing umbrellas and raincoats with them to school, but getting wet should not be the only thing on students’ list of things to be avoided.

Rain, rain, go away

According to Dr. Rodelio Lim of the UST Hospital, no sickness is more common during the rainy season than the common cold, a viral illness that can anywhere last from two to 14 days, and can cause coughing, fever, sore throats, and headaches.

CIVIC Welfare Training Service (CWTS) students will no longer have to clean the campus to pass the course unlike in previous years.

CWTS coordinator Dr. Lito Maranan said the program has been revised.

“We have two main programs: Thomasians’ concern for the environment and CWTS program on social transformation,” Maranan said. The two practicum programs will be implemented in the second semester.

A UNIVERSITY scientist and Microbiology professor at the College of Science won the Tom Bergan Memorial Award in the 24th International Congress of Chemotherapy (ICC) at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) last June 4 to 6.

OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs) called for a re-orientation of family values to cure the chronic dependency of families and immediate relatives on OFWs during a conference on diaspora and philantrophy hosted by UST.

“Let us not allow our families get used to giving them all they want because it just makes them all the more dependent on us,” said Ma. Luisa Tayco, a domestic helper and founder of Pinokyos Welfare in Singapore, said in Tagalog.

FACULTY of Civil Law (Civil Law) students now have a reason to look up upon entering the Faculty’s lobby: murals that depict the history of Law in the University and in general.

“The Faculty wanted to show the history of Law. But instead of confining it to the history of law in UST, we also included its background which is natural law. That’s why there are biblical and human figures in the mural,” Civil Law Dean Augusto Aligada Jr. said.