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I wonder what effects this process has on the organism. For instance what would happen if humans ate graphene?
by Lxr 10y ago
I wonder what effects this process has on the organism. For instance what would happen if humans ate graphene?
- FreeFull 10y agoI think nanotubes are carcinogenic
- echelon 10y agoIndeed, they are: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23751780 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23751780 http://www.psr.org/environment-and-health/environmental-health-policy-institute/responses/iarcs-review-carbon-nanotubes.html http://www.psr.org/environment-and-health/environmental-heal... The mechanism is similar to that of asbestos.
- adenot 10y agoUnless dissolved in olive oil, then it has lifespan extending properties. https://alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-vitality/report/fullerene-c60 https://alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-vitality/report/fullerene...
- ehsanu1 10y agoNot to defend any unsubstantiated claims, but C60 is not exactly the same as a nanotube. There doesn't seem to be evidence that C60 is toxic/carcinogenic (though not necessarily solid evidence in the other direction either): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_impact_of_fullerenes#Buckyballs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_impact_of_fullerenes#Bu...
- therein 10y agoC60 isn't toxic, in fact it is an anti-oxidant, a very strong one. Oxidative stress is sometimes desirable, though, for instance C60 is exceptional at neutralizing Nitric Oxide. You know what is one of NO's functions in the body? Erections. After cessation, the anti-boner effects seem to disappear, though. Such a shame it even had that effect to begin with because it really made me feel more energetic and happier while allowing me to (consistently and basically within a day or two of starting to take it) do twice the reps during my workouts.
- narrator 10y agoNo that's C60 which is 60 carbon atoms in the shape of a geodesic dome. Carbon Nanotubes are completely different, they are long and stringy and get tangled up in cells and break them and can't be removed.
- sndean 10y agoInterestingly, some groups are trying to use them as a delivery platform for cancer therapies [1], though I don't really understand how they'd compete with something biocompatible and tested like liposomes. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210734/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210734/
- ythl 10y agopure carbon is, counter-intuitively, carcinogenic.
- agumonkey 10y agoIndeed, I naively assumed that being a carbon based organism, more carbon couldn't do much harm.
- pkhagah 10y agoBreathing pure oxygen is also harmful.
- jcoffland 10y agoOr drinking too much water.
- snuxoll 10y agoThe Adam Ruins Everything segment on this was great, it takes a large deal of water to poison yourself but somehow people manage to do it because of myths about hydration.
- BurningFrog 10y agoEverything is toxic in too large amount. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison
- agumonkey 10y agoI was recently reading about the blood / kidney salt balance too. Same for pH. Interesting how our body spends time in a balancing act.
- ekianjo 10y agoCarbon based expression is misleading as usual. Organic based life (i.e. based on carbon structure chemistry) is more accurate.
- M_Grey 10y agoThe good news about silkworms is that they're not in it for the long haul anyway, so as long as there are no teratogenic effects, it's all ok.
- analog31 10y agoWhile it's probably a negligible risk, we would breathe the dust from silk fibers if the stuff were produced in significant quantity.
- M_Grey 10y agoWe're already doing that; we produce nanoparticles of carbon from a number of industrial processes, most notably burning coal. IIRC there was an article on HN recently about finding some magnetic nanoparticles which had made their way into human brains.
- hinkley 10y agoDoesn't that make getting an MRI really really dangerous?
- M_Grey 10y agoActually IIRC the article described using MRI's to find those particles, but I don't exactly remember. Either way, no, they're just too small. What effect they have in the production of free radicals and the like though? Who knows yet.
- asciimo 10y ago... because they're boiled alive as soon as they finish their cocoons. But maybe you mean teratogenic effects on humans?
- samstave 10y agouh... can you expand on this? What do you mean they are boiled? (ill go google - but please explain) EDIT: oh... no thanks! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beondegi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beondegi
- cpeterso 10y agoIs force feeding graphene to silkworms unethical?