Not All M&Ms Are Created Equal

Links:
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/good-news-animal-lovers-and-folks-spinal-injuries
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/spinal.injury.blue.dye/index.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6729766.ece

Start stocking up on your blue M&Ms, everybody! Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have discovered, working off studies they did five years ago, that the blue dye, BBG, in blue M&Ms and Gatorade can help cure spinal chord injuries. They haven’t tested this on humans yet, but mice injected with the dye immediately after their injuries could walk again, even though they had a bit of a limp, while the control mice, injected with water, could never walk again. The only side effect was that the mice turned temporarily blue, “leaving the white animals with bizarre blue noses, ears, paws and tails. The eyes of the albino rats turned from pink to a deep navy” (TimesOnline). The dye helps by stopping the function on P2X7, which with adenosine triphosphate (ATP), kills off healthy motor neurons (PopSci). It is also the most effective treatment because it “is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier and penetrating the spinal cord” (TimesOnline). This is something that no other chemical has been able to do.

I discovered this article on the Popular Science website and also found it on CNN and TimesOnline. What first drew me to this was the picture of the blue mouse, but after I started reading the article it really held my interest because I would have never thought that the most effective cure for spinal chord injuries could be in an everyday candy. I would love to see what effect this has on humans and if we turn blue too! I think that if it even just relives the injuries a tiny bit in humans that it will still be a great breakthrough since the only spinal injuries that can really be treated right now are mild ones treated with steroids, and even that isn't effective a lot of the time (TimesOnline). I definitely think this is science because medicine is science. It is a discovery about a dye that can help benefit humans, or mice. It’s science because it is a discovery about a compound unrelated to humans that can improve our health.

Works Cited
Devlin, Hannah. “Food dye ‘may help cure spinal injuries but will turn patients blue’.” Times Online. 28 07 2009. Times Online, Web. 13 October 2009.
Jakubek, Anna Maria. “The Blue Dye in M&Ms Cures Spinal Injuries.” Popular Science. 28 07 2009. Popular Science, Web. 13 October 2009
“Same blue dye in M&Ms linked to reducing spine injury.” CNN. 28 07 2009. CNN, Web. 13 October 2009.