All That Matters

Hydrogen sensing at the nanoscale. Hydrogen molecules (red) are absorbed by a palladium nanoparticle (silver) and the resulting changes in optical properties amplified by a gold antenna. (c) Mario Hentschel, Na Liu, Harald Giessen

Sensing the presence of molecules in gases and liquids is a billion dollar business. Just think about all the carbon monoxide detectors in private homes, or blood glucose sensors. In particular for many technical and scientific applications, ultrasmall and precise sensors are desired. This includes sensors to measure gases in catalytic nanoreactors and fuel cells, or the monitoring of biochemical processes.

Laura Na Liu and Ming Tang from the group of Paul Alivisatos, director of Lawrence Berkeley Lab in the USA, and Mario Hentschel from Harald Giessen‘s group at the University of Stuttgart in Germany have now developed a new class of optical nanoscale sensors that are able to measure specific molecular concentrations down to single particles. This, says Alivisatos, “should pave the road for the optical observation of chemical reactions and catalytic activities in nanoreactors, and for local biosensing.” Their paper is published this week in Nature Materials (declaration of interest: I was the handling editor of this paper, although I like to stress that I don’t benefit in my day job by blogging about this work). Continue reading…

Following the letters of the law can sometimes lead to seemingly absurd situations. A university in Germany elects a new rector. Two months later the science ministry rejects her appointment, because she had previously cancer, and the possibility of a recurrence is too high for the government to accept. No, she doesn’t have cancer at present, but the mere possibility seemed enough to prevent her from taking her office.

Sounds incredible? Well, that’s exactly what happened to Renate Lieckfeldt (link in German), who got elected rector of the University of Leipzig, a college in the German state of Saxony end of last January.

The dilemma is that Lieckfeldt is a professor at a college in a different German State. And the law is that she has to become a civil servant of Saxony to assume her new position. In Germany, being a civil servant means that you have sponsored access to expensive medical healthcare, typically with much better privileges than those who are on general healthcare. All the way into retirement! And what at least I wasn’t aware is that apparently if you are in danger of costing the state a lot of money because of a medical condition it can mean you are denied becoming a civil servant. And that’s exactly what is the situation now.

Of course, this law isn’t only for university rectors, it holds for every civil servant there. Therefore, my feeling is that the state wants to avoid a costly precedent. So that’s what they follow the law without exception, even though I am sure there would be room for maneuver.

Still, looking beyond Lieckfeldt, what I find outraging here is that a government takes decisions on hypothetical medical conditions. Where would you stop this? Would you stop employing overweight people for the danger of them becoming diabetic? What if you have a gene that has you predisposed for certain diseases? Genetic profiling is widely criticized particularly in Germany. Yet, taking such a decision based on potential health implications such as that following prior cancer is little different in its consequences.

Governments have to lead by example.  There are statistical possibilities lurking in all our genes. Stigmatizing the healthy for past and possible future diseases therefore seems just plainly wrong to me. The State of Saxony in my eyes would be wise to chose the first choice for the job – the already elected candidate.