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This column is for self-study or classroom use and gives guided help with reading the wide variety of writing styles and topics that appear as feature articles in the Bangkok Post. The lessons include background information, skill-building practice and vocabulary explanations. May 4, 2004 Slippery science INTRODUCTION
If you’ve ever sat in a science lesson, confused and bewildered by all the jargon and complex ideas you have to take in, spare a thought for the poor old science journalist. He or she is often put in the position of having to convey all sorts of weird and mind-boggling scientific information to readers who, through no fault of their own, don’t really know very much! However, their job is not an impossible one. In our feature article this week, David Kramer has managed to enlighten us with a bizarre story on how detergents can be made out of…poisonous snake venom! This is the kind of story that journalists love to write about because it is different and a little bit unusual. It also involves something that is quite scary (snake venom can kill) so it will draw a lot of attention. In the article, Kramer manages to make the subject interesting by describing the reasons that make snake venom a good detergent clearly and effectively. Even so, there is still a bit of technical jargon in there. Do you know what an enzyme is? Okay, maybe you are clever and can tell us it’s a substance that helps bring about a chemical change. But what about antivenins? Of course, anyone who is smart can tell you it’s a vaccine that reverses the effect of venom (I was smart enough to look it up). Yet, even if you don’t really know the meaning of those words, it’s still fairly easy to understand the article. Amusing angle Kramer avoids too much detail, as this would no doubt confuse the non-scientific reader. We can enjoy the article more because of the tone – it is quite humorous in places and this makes it much more ‘accessible’. This means that more people will be able to understand and relate to the article which would not be the case if it were filled with scientific jargon. Unravelling the complexity How difficult do you think it would be to describe something really complex to someone who knows very little about the topic you are explaining? It would be hard but it could be done. So, why not give it a go? For example, you could try to write an explanation of the Premiership football rules, along with rules for ‘off-side’ or taking a corner, intended for someone who has never even seen a football. Once you’ve done that, you could show it to a friend who could pretend to have no understanding of the topic you have chosen. They could then tell you if you have been successful in making it understandable. Enjoy! OUR STORY FROM THE BANGKOK POST
Venomous detergent Snakes can help do the laundry DAVID KRAMER Chemists have stumbled on a bizarre source for a useful detergent: poisonous snake venom. Enzymes in the Florida Cottonmouth’s spit dislodge bloodstains from clothes, researchers told a meeting of the American Chemical Society held recently in Anaheim, California. Devin Iimoto, a biochemist from the Whittier College in California, was initially interested in the snakes because he was looking for novel ways to treat heart attacks and strokes. Snake venom has compounds that stop blood from clotting, which the snake uses to its advantage when attacking its prey. The same compounds could be used in drugs to break up clots in the human body. But it occurred to Iimoto that those properties might be useful elsewhere: in soap. Other researchers have toyed with this idea, he says, but he hoped to get better results using different enzymes. Luckily for Iimoto's students, they did not have to milk the poisonous snakes themselves. This is normally done by forcing the snake to bite through a latex sheet stretched over a container. But the venom can be bought commercially, because it is used to produce antivenins. The team isolated an active, non-toxic ingredient from the venom, and applied it to white denim stained with dried blood. The enzyme removed some, but not all, of the blood. Detergents usually contain enzymes that help pry blood out of clothes, most of which have been derived from bacteria. In theory, any animal that injects venom or sucks blood could be harvested for enzymes to counter blood clotting, says Iimoto, including leeches, spiders and ticks. Iimoto says his venomous enzyme works by cleaving the mass of fibrin molecules that form a scab over a wound. The snake product, if mixed with other enzymes, might be able to remove bloodstains completely, he says. But there are other hurdles to get over before the product makes it onto supermarket shelves. For example, most natural enzymes only work in a narrow temperature range. Iimoto’s team plans to test whether their enzyme works in both hot and cold water. There is also the matter of a tricky public image. “I can imagine that people might not warm to the idea of using a component from snake venom to clean their clothes,” says Iimoto.	SOME VOCABULARY HELP jargon words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group of people, and are difficult for others to understand detergent a liquid or powder that helps remove dirt from clothes, dishes, etc dislodge to force or knock out of position novel different form anything known before stroke a blood-related illness that causes paralysis or death compounds substances formed by chemical reaction prey an animal that is killed or hunted by another clots blood which has thickened properties qualities toy experiment latex a thick white liquid produced by rubber plants isolated separate one thing from others non-toxic not poisonous pry forced to separate derive develop from something harvested to cut and gather a crop cleaving cut up fibrin molecules fibrous protein component one of several parts of which something is made

• This lesson was prepared by Neil Stoneham,
an experienced secondary school teacher and trained journalist.

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Last modified: May 3, 2004