Well, I came across this article today and thought it was realli a breakthrough: "LONDON - Scientists have discovered how cancer spreads from a primary site to other places in the body in a finding that could open doors for new ways of treating and preventing advanced disease.
Instead of a cell just breaking off from a tumor and traveling through the bloodstream to another organ where it forms a secondary tumour, or metastasis, researchers in the United States have shown that the cancer sends out envoys to prepare the new site.
Intercepting those envoys, or blocking their action with drugs, might help to prevent the spread of cancer or to treat it in patients in which it has already occurred.
"We are basically looking at all the earlier steps that are involved in metastasis that we weren't previously aware of. It is complex but we are opening the door to all these things that occur before the tumor cell implants itself," said Professor David Lyden, of Cornell University in New York.
"It is a map to where the metastasis will occur," he added in an interview.
Landing site for cancer cells
Cancer's ability to colonize other organs is what makes the disease so deadly. Once the cancer has spread beyond its original site it is much more difficult to treat.
In research reported in the journal Nature, Lyden and his colleagues describe what happens before the arrival of the cancerous cells at the new site.
"The authors show that tumor cells can mobilize normal bone marrow cells, causing them to migrate to particular regions and change the local environment so as to attract and support a developing metastasis," Patricia Steeg, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, said in a commentary.
Cells at the site of the metastasis multiply and produce a protein called fibronectin, which acts like a glue to attract and trap the bone marrow cells to create a landing pad or nest for the cancer cells.
"These nests provide attachment factors for the tumor cells to implant and nurture them. It causes them not only to bind but to proliferate. Once that all takes place we have a fully formed metastatic site or secondary tumor," said Lyden.
"This is the first time anyone has discovered what we call the pre-metastatic niche."
Without the landing pad, the cancerous cell could not colonize the organ. In animal and laboratory studies, the scientists looked at how breast, lung and oesophageal cancer spread. The envoys from the tumor determine the site of the secondary site.
Lyden said measuring the number of special bone marrow cells circulating in the body could help to determine whether a cancer is likely to spread.
"This opens up the door to new concepts of how metastasis is taking place. If we can understand all these multiple processes we can develop new drugs that block each step. That way we have a much better future than just trying to treat the tumor cell, which is almost like a last step in this process," he added. "
[acknowledgement: Reuters ]
I agree with Prof. Lyden that "If we can understand all these multiple processes we can develop new drugs that block each step. That way we have a much better future than just trying to treat the tumor cell, which is almost like a last step in this process" There is always hope for everything, now that this had been discovered. This is just like finding something more complicated than the primary data. At first, it was discovered that cancer cells spread through the bloodstream. But now, we are able to determine the mechanism behind it. But I was thinking, the drug might be hard to develop as more time is needed to know more about this and to come up with something to fight it. I read about something in Discover and a link from this article about how nanotech can be used to treat cancer. I might post it the next time.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
DNA restriction enzyme analysis workshop
Looking at the title, you might have wondered whether am I holding it or sth. lol. no.. In fact, I went to it last Friday, 18th nov. It was held in the Singapore Science Centre. I thk I can roughly remember the details of it:
Introduction: This workshop is mainly about restriction enzyme analysis and gel electrophoresis. In restriction enzyme analysis, specific enzymes are used to digest DNA, thus resulting in banding pattterns for comparisons and analysis. Gel electrophoresis separates the digested DNA fragments in an electric field to produce bands of DNA ( you can try guessing: DNA moves to the +ve or -ve side of the field?) . This technique is also the basis of DNA fingerprinting - often used in screening for diseases and solving criminal and paternity cases
09:30 - 11:30 a.m.: The workshop starts. Of course, the trainer introduces herself and went to introduce some facts abt DNA and also the micropipette and other apparatus in the lab. One micropipette costs abt S$500 and a bottle of agarose powder costs I thk S$800 if I'm not wrong. Ok, so then, we sort of practise with all the apparatus especially the micropipette. We did a run on sample dyes to get bands and we do case studies. After all that, we started on the real thing coz time will be needed for incubation in 37 degrees celsius environment in which that time will be our break. Okay, so it was like a case study thing again in which lots of bottles restriction enzymes were broken but onli 4 bottles were unbroken and we have to analyse and identify each restriction enzyme in the bottles. The 4 different restriction enzymes used by the company in the case study are EcoRI, HindIII, BamHI and NcoI. Lambda DNA (it's a bacteriophage which is a bacterial virus) was used as it is only 48, 502 bair-pair long, so is good for analysis. So four microtubes were labelled 1-4 and inside were different restriction enzymes. But of course, we have to make the agarose gel first. After the agarose was done, we have to wait for it to set. So in the mean time, we prepared the digestion mixture which is a mixture of the restriction enzymes, dye and DNA. The tubes were centrifuged to ensue that all the liquid in the tube settles to the bottom of the tube. And the tubes were placed in a 37 degrees celcius incubator/ water bath (I thk it's incubator) and time was also given to the enzymes for them to digest. Then, time for break.
11:30 - 13:30 p.m.: Break-time. Me and my friends had lunch at Macdonalds' and explored the science center. It was realli cool. I mean, its been like 4/5 years since I've been there haha. There was this human body exhibition, some physical science exhibition and of course we explored a little of the DNA trail since we had to go back for the workshop.
13:30 - 15:30 p.m.: The workshop continues. Now, the samples are ready for gel electrophoresis. 10 micro litres of each samples were loaded into four different wells in the agarose gel. We had to let it run for 45 min. In the mean time, we have to interpret restriction maps and calculate the sizes of the different fragments that each restriction enzyme will cut at specific sites of the lambda DNA. Then we did a drawing on the positions of the DNA fragments on a diagram of an agarose gel as these will be seens as bands on the actual agarose gel after it has been appropriately stained with ethidium bromide (highly mutagenic substance, must be handled very carefully and appropriately) and viewed. We watched some videos and very soon, the 45 mins were up. The gels were then taken for staining by the instructors and in the mean time, we did some more case studies. Soon after, the results of each group were printed and the enzymes were identified. The first tube is just the DNA sample with no digestion coz there was actually no enzyme inside. The second tube contains EcoRI, the third - HindIII and the last one is a mixture of EcoRI and HindIII. Yep. Then we did a group survey and it was the end of the workshop.
15:30-16:30 p.m.: One hour of exploration once again before it was time to leave for school.
It was a really fun and enjoyable experience althogether especially with the handling of the micropipette and other apparatus although I've handled a micropipette before when I was in secondary school, this time, I had longer time with it and more usage too. Not only that, I gain more knowledge about DNA profiling from the case studies. The case studies were realli interesting too. The videos shown were also very educational and enriching for us. This workshop reinforces my skills and knowledge in this area and not one minute was wasted ;). It was realli cool to be in the lab and wear the lab coat as well, makes all of us feel like scientists, haha.
Introduction: This workshop is mainly about restriction enzyme analysis and gel electrophoresis. In restriction enzyme analysis, specific enzymes are used to digest DNA, thus resulting in banding pattterns for comparisons and analysis. Gel electrophoresis separates the digested DNA fragments in an electric field to produce bands of DNA ( you can try guessing: DNA moves to the +ve or -ve side of the field?) . This technique is also the basis of DNA fingerprinting - often used in screening for diseases and solving criminal and paternity cases
09:30 - 11:30 a.m.: The workshop starts. Of course, the trainer introduces herself and went to introduce some facts abt DNA and also the micropipette and other apparatus in the lab. One micropipette costs abt S$500 and a bottle of agarose powder costs I thk S$800 if I'm not wrong. Ok, so then, we sort of practise with all the apparatus especially the micropipette. We did a run on sample dyes to get bands and we do case studies. After all that, we started on the real thing coz time will be needed for incubation in 37 degrees celsius environment in which that time will be our break. Okay, so it was like a case study thing again in which lots of bottles restriction enzymes were broken but onli 4 bottles were unbroken and we have to analyse and identify each restriction enzyme in the bottles. The 4 different restriction enzymes used by the company in the case study are EcoRI, HindIII, BamHI and NcoI. Lambda DNA (it's a bacteriophage which is a bacterial virus) was used as it is only 48, 502 bair-pair long, so is good for analysis. So four microtubes were labelled 1-4 and inside were different restriction enzymes. But of course, we have to make the agarose gel first. After the agarose was done, we have to wait for it to set. So in the mean time, we prepared the digestion mixture which is a mixture of the restriction enzymes, dye and DNA. The tubes were centrifuged to ensue that all the liquid in the tube settles to the bottom of the tube. And the tubes were placed in a 37 degrees celcius incubator/ water bath (I thk it's incubator) and time was also given to the enzymes for them to digest. Then, time for break.
11:30 - 13:30 p.m.: Break-time. Me and my friends had lunch at Macdonalds' and explored the science center. It was realli cool. I mean, its been like 4/5 years since I've been there haha. There was this human body exhibition, some physical science exhibition and of course we explored a little of the DNA trail since we had to go back for the workshop.
13:30 - 15:30 p.m.: The workshop continues. Now, the samples are ready for gel electrophoresis. 10 micro litres of each samples were loaded into four different wells in the agarose gel. We had to let it run for 45 min. In the mean time, we have to interpret restriction maps and calculate the sizes of the different fragments that each restriction enzyme will cut at specific sites of the lambda DNA. Then we did a drawing on the positions of the DNA fragments on a diagram of an agarose gel as these will be seens as bands on the actual agarose gel after it has been appropriately stained with ethidium bromide (highly mutagenic substance, must be handled very carefully and appropriately) and viewed. We watched some videos and very soon, the 45 mins were up. The gels were then taken for staining by the instructors and in the mean time, we did some more case studies. Soon after, the results of each group were printed and the enzymes were identified. The first tube is just the DNA sample with no digestion coz there was actually no enzyme inside. The second tube contains EcoRI, the third - HindIII and the last one is a mixture of EcoRI and HindIII. Yep. Then we did a group survey and it was the end of the workshop.
15:30-16:30 p.m.: One hour of exploration once again before it was time to leave for school.
It was a really fun and enjoyable experience althogether especially with the handling of the micropipette and other apparatus although I've handled a micropipette before when I was in secondary school, this time, I had longer time with it and more usage too. Not only that, I gain more knowledge about DNA profiling from the case studies. The case studies were realli interesting too. The videos shown were also very educational and enriching for us. This workshop reinforces my skills and knowledge in this area and not one minute was wasted ;). It was realli cool to be in the lab and wear the lab coat as well, makes all of us feel like scientists, haha.
Monday, November 14, 2005
High IQ in childhood tied to longer life
This is quite an interesting article as read from the title alone. It was from MSNBC health but they got it from Reuter so its essentially from Reuter. Anyway, so here it is: " NEW YORK - Smarter children may enjoy longer lives, the results of a new study suggest.
The study, which followed elderly adults deemed gifted by childhood IQ tests, found that the higher their early IQs were, the longer they lived -- up to a point, at least. The survival advantage began to plateau after a childhood IQ of 163, an intelligence level few people reach.
Dr. Laurie T. Martin and Laura D. Kubzansky of the Harvard School of Public Health report these findings in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Though the reasons for the link between IQ and longevity are not clear, it does not appear to be merely a reflection of income and social position. As children, the participants were from affluent families and most were white. Yet childhood IQ was still a factor in their lifespan.
Similarly, in an earlier study of Americans with more varied childhood IQs and family incomes, Martin found that IQ was related to health problems independently of socioeconomics.
This, she told Reuters Health, suggests that IQ affects longevity among lower-income people as well.
As research has already linked IQ to mortality, the current study, according to Martin, was in part an attempt to see how far the IQ-health advantage extends. The researchers expected there to be a cutoff at which a high IQ no longer brought any extra health benefits.
And there was. But, Martin said, they were surprised at how high that cutoff turned out to be.
IQs of 163 or higher are not often seen; the average IQ score in the general population is 100 (by definition), and children who score above 130 are considered “gifted.”
Smarter children, healthier habits
The current study is based on data from 862 men and women followed since childhood, starting in 1922, until 1986. All had childhood IQs of 135 or higher, with the average being 151.
The researchers found that, up to the cutoff point of 163, participants’ risk of dying during a given period decreased as their IQ increased; for example, those with a childhood IQ of 150 had a 44 percent lower risk of death than those with an IQ of 135.
Though it’s not clear why childhood IQ itself might affect a person’s lifetime health, Martin and Kubzansky point to several possibilities. For one, these children may be more likely to take up healthy habits like regular exercise, while shunning health risks like smoking. They are also more likely to get high-paying, prominent jobs as adults, with all the advantages that confers.
And in general, Martin noted, IQ scores reflect a “set of skills,” like reasoning, planning and communication, that affect how people manage their health -- from talking with their doctors to dealing with a complex healthcare system.
Understanding exactly why IQ affects longevity, according to Martin, could ultimately help improve health and healthcare for everyone."
Yep, this is a rather cool article. But from what I think, to me, it just seemed to be an incentive for the very high IQs. For the average, their lifespan are average too. While those with high IQ live longer. If they are those genius kind, at least living longer means they can contribute to the society more too since they are cleverer than the average and they are independant of their socioeconomic status. So its quite fair. And anyway, some high IQ ones are those born with it so its somewhat genetic and if its genetic then probably the genes are "tougher" and so they live longer. Oh yea, and I watched this documentary yesterday on Channelnewsasia, and its abt "Global dimming", its actually happening now and the most impt point that they mentioned is that if we dun control global warming, if warm temp sort of overrides the cool temp, then by 2030 (from one of the models) , the world will warm by 4 degrees and by then, all the ice sheets from Greenland could melt, tropical rain forests could wither and burn from the heat, there'll be heat stroke and many more. By 2100, the world might warm by 10 degrees. So unless we do something, these predictions might be true. [ all the info should be like that, I was quite engrossed in the show to catch some of the words] The documentary called "A species' odyssey" is just great too. It's about the evolution of men and I think it started from Australopithecus anamensis (I didnt realli catch the name) yep and it was in two parts, and it went all the way to Homo Sapiens. Its one of the best documentaries I've watched so far.
The study, which followed elderly adults deemed gifted by childhood IQ tests, found that the higher their early IQs were, the longer they lived -- up to a point, at least. The survival advantage began to plateau after a childhood IQ of 163, an intelligence level few people reach.
Dr. Laurie T. Martin and Laura D. Kubzansky of the Harvard School of Public Health report these findings in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Though the reasons for the link between IQ and longevity are not clear, it does not appear to be merely a reflection of income and social position. As children, the participants were from affluent families and most were white. Yet childhood IQ was still a factor in their lifespan.
Similarly, in an earlier study of Americans with more varied childhood IQs and family incomes, Martin found that IQ was related to health problems independently of socioeconomics.
This, she told Reuters Health, suggests that IQ affects longevity among lower-income people as well.
As research has already linked IQ to mortality, the current study, according to Martin, was in part an attempt to see how far the IQ-health advantage extends. The researchers expected there to be a cutoff at which a high IQ no longer brought any extra health benefits.
And there was. But, Martin said, they were surprised at how high that cutoff turned out to be.
IQs of 163 or higher are not often seen; the average IQ score in the general population is 100 (by definition), and children who score above 130 are considered “gifted.”
Smarter children, healthier habits
The current study is based on data from 862 men and women followed since childhood, starting in 1922, until 1986. All had childhood IQs of 135 or higher, with the average being 151.
The researchers found that, up to the cutoff point of 163, participants’ risk of dying during a given period decreased as their IQ increased; for example, those with a childhood IQ of 150 had a 44 percent lower risk of death than those with an IQ of 135.
Though it’s not clear why childhood IQ itself might affect a person’s lifetime health, Martin and Kubzansky point to several possibilities. For one, these children may be more likely to take up healthy habits like regular exercise, while shunning health risks like smoking. They are also more likely to get high-paying, prominent jobs as adults, with all the advantages that confers.
And in general, Martin noted, IQ scores reflect a “set of skills,” like reasoning, planning and communication, that affect how people manage their health -- from talking with their doctors to dealing with a complex healthcare system.
Understanding exactly why IQ affects longevity, according to Martin, could ultimately help improve health and healthcare for everyone."
Yep, this is a rather cool article. But from what I think, to me, it just seemed to be an incentive for the very high IQs. For the average, their lifespan are average too. While those with high IQ live longer. If they are those genius kind, at least living longer means they can contribute to the society more too since they are cleverer than the average and they are independant of their socioeconomic status. So its quite fair. And anyway, some high IQ ones are those born with it so its somewhat genetic and if its genetic then probably the genes are "tougher" and so they live longer. Oh yea, and I watched this documentary yesterday on Channelnewsasia, and its abt "Global dimming", its actually happening now and the most impt point that they mentioned is that if we dun control global warming, if warm temp sort of overrides the cool temp, then by 2030 (from one of the models) , the world will warm by 4 degrees and by then, all the ice sheets from Greenland could melt, tropical rain forests could wither and burn from the heat, there'll be heat stroke and many more. By 2100, the world might warm by 10 degrees. So unless we do something, these predictions might be true. [ all the info should be like that, I was quite engrossed in the show to catch some of the words] The documentary called "A species' odyssey" is just great too. It's about the evolution of men and I think it started from Australopithecus anamensis (I didnt realli catch the name) yep and it was in two parts, and it went all the way to Homo Sapiens. Its one of the best documentaries I've watched so far.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Scientists look to DNA for personalized diets
Firstly, I'll like to thank all the comments that was posted so far and in the future if any. I'll try and improve this blog in anyway I can. Okay, so back to this. I chanced upon this article while searching for articles for my general paper. This is from MSNBC heath and I thk it's realli cool:
"NEW YORK - As a registered dietitian, Ruth DeBusk has eaten a healthy diet for a long time. As a geneticist, she wondered if she could do better.
So earlier this year, she had her DNA tested by a company that gives personalized nutrition advice based on genetics. The results indicated she needed more folate.
So DeBusk doubled her minimum amount of folate, a B vitamin found in leafy greens and citrus.
“I’m more diligent about being sure that I get it every day if possible, because it really matters,” said DeBusk, who has a private practice in Tallahassee, Fla., and has written a book on nutrition and genetics.
“I’ll actually make an effort to drink a glass of orange juice or eat an extra big salad in the evening, being aware it hasn’t been one of my better folate days.”
Personalized dietary advice
That’s the way it’s supposed to work in a field called nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics. The basic idea is this: There are genes that affect the risk of getting illnesses like heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes, and the impact of those genes can be modified by what you eat. Everybody carries one version or another of each of those genes. So why not find out what gene versions you have and base dietary advice on that?
“Every time we go to the supermarket we’re using educated guesses about what we should eat and what we shouldn’t eat,” says Raymond Rodriguez, director of the National Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics at the University of California, Davis.
In the future, more of that guesswork may be replaced with accurate, personal DNA-based dietary advice, which Rodriguez says is “rapidly emerging on the horizon.”
But that time isn’t here yet, most experts say. Nutrigenomics is still in its infancy, with plenty to be learned, and it’s not yet clear what role it may play in standard medical practice.
Most of the research targets heart disease and cancer, and scientists may be ready to deliver personalized diet recommendations in those areas within five years, said Jose Ordovas, director of the nutrition and genomics laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston.
“We have scientific evidence that the concept is right, that we can provide something along those lines in the future,” Ordovas said. “We are not there yet.”
DNA test kit
No? You can walk into some pharmacies or grocery stores right now and pay $99 for a DNA test kit that will get you personalized diet advice for heart health, bone health, or any of three other areas. It’s from Sciona Inc., a small company based in Boulder, Colo., that started offering DNA-based diet advice in 2001. Such tests are also available by mail order and on the Internet.
Sciona customers collect their own DNA with a cheek swab, complete a diet and lifestyle questionnaire and send it all in for analysis. Sciona encourages customers to review its advice with a doctor.
The company acknowledges that some scientists say it’s too soon to offer such a service, but says its testing is based on solid research. Current testing focuses on 19 genes and the company is studying others, said Rosalynn Gill-Garrison, chief scientific officer and a company founder.
Sciona’s approach basically starts with standard healthy-eating recommendations and modifies them when genetic analysis indicates a need for something more, Gill-Garrison said.
After a DNA test, Sciona may recommend steps like eating more broccoli or omega-3 fatty acids, she said, or limiting caffeine to protect against bone loss.
Gill-Garrison said studies show that people with a certain version of a gene called MTHFR tend to have high blood levels of a substance called homocysteine, which has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease and stroke. Studies also show that people with this gene version can reduce their homocysteine levels by taking in more folate, she said. So that’s the advice Sciona customers with that gene version get.
High levels of homocysteine also can be spotted with a standard blood test at a doctor’s office.
A work in process
Ordovas said the trouble with anybody providing gene-based dietary advice now is that scientists don’t yet have the whole picture of what genes should be considered. With current tests, it’s like trying to size up a landscape by looking through a keyhole, he said. You can’t tell what you’re not seeing.
“At least in that very narrow region of our genome that they are looking, they have potential that they may provide some valuable information, and it could benefit some people,” he said. But advice based on current tests “can also be misleading because you are ignoring pieces that are very important,” he said.
Rodriguez said he doubts anybody will be harmed by the current tests, and that they’re beneficial because they get people to think about diet and lifestyle. But he said they remind him of the first VCRs or CD players to hit the market.
“It is an expensive new technology ... and it will probably, in my estimation, become more efficient, more accurate and more affordable with time.”
DeBusk, who said she has no financial ties to any of the companies, figures the time for DNA-based diet advice has come.
“The scientist in me says we shouldn’t do this now, we need to wait another 20 years until many studies have been done,” she said. But her clients want to know what the best science is right now, and “it’s difficult to say, 'Come back in 20 years.' You can’t do that.
“Do we know everything we’d like to know? No. ... Do we know enough to start introducing this type of technology and start the long process of educating people? I would say yes.”"
Cool, isn't it? Personalised diets using DNA. Might be a great help to me since I need to gain a lot of weight, haha. Maybe I just lack in sth. Anyway,somehow I thk this technology seems a little dangerous. I mean, yea it's a new technology but just sth is missing, i thk. What if the genes that they are looking at indicated a person needs calcium but yet there is a gene undiscovered in the person that actually too much calcium could harm him so only a certain right amount is enough, not too much, not too little. So, yes, more studies should be done so that personalised diets become even safer and more accurate.
"NEW YORK - As a registered dietitian, Ruth DeBusk has eaten a healthy diet for a long time. As a geneticist, she wondered if she could do better.
So earlier this year, she had her DNA tested by a company that gives personalized nutrition advice based on genetics. The results indicated she needed more folate.
So DeBusk doubled her minimum amount of folate, a B vitamin found in leafy greens and citrus.
“I’m more diligent about being sure that I get it every day if possible, because it really matters,” said DeBusk, who has a private practice in Tallahassee, Fla., and has written a book on nutrition and genetics.
“I’ll actually make an effort to drink a glass of orange juice or eat an extra big salad in the evening, being aware it hasn’t been one of my better folate days.”
Personalized dietary advice
That’s the way it’s supposed to work in a field called nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics. The basic idea is this: There are genes that affect the risk of getting illnesses like heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes, and the impact of those genes can be modified by what you eat. Everybody carries one version or another of each of those genes. So why not find out what gene versions you have and base dietary advice on that?
“Every time we go to the supermarket we’re using educated guesses about what we should eat and what we shouldn’t eat,” says Raymond Rodriguez, director of the National Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics at the University of California, Davis.
In the future, more of that guesswork may be replaced with accurate, personal DNA-based dietary advice, which Rodriguez says is “rapidly emerging on the horizon.”
But that time isn’t here yet, most experts say. Nutrigenomics is still in its infancy, with plenty to be learned, and it’s not yet clear what role it may play in standard medical practice.
Most of the research targets heart disease and cancer, and scientists may be ready to deliver personalized diet recommendations in those areas within five years, said Jose Ordovas, director of the nutrition and genomics laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston.
“We have scientific evidence that the concept is right, that we can provide something along those lines in the future,” Ordovas said. “We are not there yet.”
DNA test kit
No? You can walk into some pharmacies or grocery stores right now and pay $99 for a DNA test kit that will get you personalized diet advice for heart health, bone health, or any of three other areas. It’s from Sciona Inc., a small company based in Boulder, Colo., that started offering DNA-based diet advice in 2001. Such tests are also available by mail order and on the Internet.
Sciona customers collect their own DNA with a cheek swab, complete a diet and lifestyle questionnaire and send it all in for analysis. Sciona encourages customers to review its advice with a doctor.
The company acknowledges that some scientists say it’s too soon to offer such a service, but says its testing is based on solid research. Current testing focuses on 19 genes and the company is studying others, said Rosalynn Gill-Garrison, chief scientific officer and a company founder.
Sciona’s approach basically starts with standard healthy-eating recommendations and modifies them when genetic analysis indicates a need for something more, Gill-Garrison said.
After a DNA test, Sciona may recommend steps like eating more broccoli or omega-3 fatty acids, she said, or limiting caffeine to protect against bone loss.
Gill-Garrison said studies show that people with a certain version of a gene called MTHFR tend to have high blood levels of a substance called homocysteine, which has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease and stroke. Studies also show that people with this gene version can reduce their homocysteine levels by taking in more folate, she said. So that’s the advice Sciona customers with that gene version get.
High levels of homocysteine also can be spotted with a standard blood test at a doctor’s office.
A work in process
Ordovas said the trouble with anybody providing gene-based dietary advice now is that scientists don’t yet have the whole picture of what genes should be considered. With current tests, it’s like trying to size up a landscape by looking through a keyhole, he said. You can’t tell what you’re not seeing.
“At least in that very narrow region of our genome that they are looking, they have potential that they may provide some valuable information, and it could benefit some people,” he said. But advice based on current tests “can also be misleading because you are ignoring pieces that are very important,” he said.
Rodriguez said he doubts anybody will be harmed by the current tests, and that they’re beneficial because they get people to think about diet and lifestyle. But he said they remind him of the first VCRs or CD players to hit the market.
“It is an expensive new technology ... and it will probably, in my estimation, become more efficient, more accurate and more affordable with time.”
DeBusk, who said she has no financial ties to any of the companies, figures the time for DNA-based diet advice has come.
“The scientist in me says we shouldn’t do this now, we need to wait another 20 years until many studies have been done,” she said. But her clients want to know what the best science is right now, and “it’s difficult to say, 'Come back in 20 years.' You can’t do that.
“Do we know everything we’d like to know? No. ... Do we know enough to start introducing this type of technology and start the long process of educating people? I would say yes.”"
Cool, isn't it? Personalised diets using DNA. Might be a great help to me since I need to gain a lot of weight, haha. Maybe I just lack in sth. Anyway,somehow I thk this technology seems a little dangerous. I mean, yea it's a new technology but just sth is missing, i thk. What if the genes that they are looking at indicated a person needs calcium but yet there is a gene undiscovered in the person that actually too much calcium could harm him so only a certain right amount is enough, not too much, not too little. So, yes, more studies should be done so that personalised diets become even safer and more accurate.
“At least in that very narrow region of our genome that they are looking,
they have potential that they may provide some valuable information, and it could benefit some people,”
But advice based on current tests “can also be misleading because you are
ignoring pieces that are very important,” he said.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Commentary
Today I won't post any articles but I will be commenting on events and disasters that has happened/are happening in the world today after the tsunami on Dec 26th 2004. First ,Dec 26th; tsunami; Coastal parts of Indonesia and some countries around the epicentre ;the effects of the tsunami could have been less pronounced if the mangrove swamps had not been cleared.
January 6th-13th, Heavy Weather; California to Pennsalvania;in California, a low-pressure system with drenching rains and heavy snows at higher elevations, dumped up to 11 inches of rain and caused a large mudslide in La Conchita, killing 10. Total storm-related deaths reached 25. Los Angeles has had 17 inches of rain since Dec. 27, 2004. The same system piled up more than 4 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevadas on Saturday, stranding an Amtrak train and closing roads and airports. Since the end of December, the Reno-Lake Tahoe area has up to 19 feet of snow, the most since 1916. In Arizona 7 people died from storms and 7 of 15 counties were declared states of emergency. More heavy weather from Indiana to Pittsburgh caused flooding all along the Ohio River where state emergencies have been declared for 56 of 88 counties in Ohio. Three people died in a Pittsburgh tug boat accident and 5 in Ohio from storm-related causes.
January 8th to 12th, wild storms; Europe; wild storms battered many European countries, leaving 19 dead; High winds and flooding left people without power and shut down ferries, trains, and highways.
January 22nd to 23rd, Snow storm; Eastern U.S. ; strong snow storms swept across the Midwest to the Atlantic coast, killing 20 people. A blizzard blanketed parts of the Northeast with snow depths up to 38 in north and south of Boston and the entire island of Nantucket lost power. By the end of January, Boston had the snowiest month on record with a total of 43.1 inches of snow.
February, Extreme winter weather; South-East Asia; extreme winter weather including cold, snowfall, avalanches, and flooding in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan killed more than 1,400 people in the last month and a half; Due to the lack of communications actual numbers were hard to confirm.
March 18th-22nd, Heavy rains and melting snow; Afghanistan; more than 200 killed; thousands homeless; this followed what was already the worst winter in years that had killed several hundreds of people.
In June, there was flooding in Southern China; Many were killed; Rain not historic high but too heavy in such a short period of time. There was also a hailstorm in Beijing, someting rare indeed as it was summer. (A rainstorm on July 12 04' in Shanghai claimed 7 lives, a disaster which happens only once a century.)
July 7th, terrorist attack;London; four bombs exploded in three subway stations and on one double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, killing 52 people plus 4 bombers, and wounding more than 700.
On July 21st, terrorist attacks;London; four bombs partially detonated but did not explode on three trains and a bus in London exactly two weeks after the July 7th bombings.
July 26th, Monsoon;Mumbai; a record of 37 in of rain fell in Mumbai (Bombay) in a 24 hour period; the most ever recorded in India. A week of relentless monsoon rains left 1,000 dead in western India.
August 29th, Hurrican Katrina; Los Angeles, Missisipi, New orleans; Predicted to be a category 2 but ended up being a 5; devasting effects; the third deadliest hurrican in the U.S.; More than 1,200 killed .
September 1st-3rd, Typhoon Talim ; China; major flooding and landslides, extensive crop damage; killed at least 129 people.
September 6th-7th, Typhoon Nabi; Japan; killed at least 18 people.
September 24th, Hurrican Rita; Category 3; Strong storm surges and heavy winds caused major damage in the Louisiana and Texas coastal areas; Heavy rains also drenched New Orleans, causing the Industrial Canal levee to breach, re-flooding parts of the city.
September 20th-25th, typhoon Damrey; Philippines, China, Thailand, Nepal; killed at least 122, primarily from flooding.
October 1, terrorist bomdings; Bali; Three suicide bombers hit Bali restaurants in the resort beach area; killed 22 people.
The last few months , Dengue fever; Singapore and Malaysia; Dengue fever was (and still is) a major concern in these two states as the warm climates were perfect breeding places for them; Number of people infected was on record high in both states.
October 19th, Hurrican Wilma; Mexico; Wilma is the 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season, the largest number of hurricanes recorded since 1969.
Now, fear of a bird flu pandemic; World;H5N1 strain might mutate into another form where human-human transmission will be high and widespread(for now it's from infected birds to humans) . It might cause deaths up to millions; Many drug companies are planning to produce large quantities of vaccines and medications like Tamiflu to fight the pandemic if it strikes; However, there was a sign that the strain might be resistant to Tamiflu, a powerful antiviral drug. Therefore, they are now currently working on a flu vaccine that can be inhaled.
"Experts consider the avian flu the single biggest threat to human health in the world today.
The H5N1 virus has killed and forced the destruction of tens of millions of birds and can on occasion be transmitted to people, often killing them.
A slight mutation would enable the virus to be passed easily from person to person and because it is such a new virus, experts believe it would sweep around the world, killing millions of people, if it is not stopped." (MSNBC health)
Latest from NewScientist(oct 18): Antarctic glaciers calving faster into the ocean; "The edges of the Antarctic ice sheets are slipping into the ocean at an unprecedented rate, raising fears of a global surge in sea levels, glaciologists warned on Monday.
The findings confound predictions made just four years ago, by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that Antarctica would not contribute significantly to sea level rise in the 21st century. In one area, around the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica, glaciers are dumping more than 110 cubic kilometres of ice into the ocean each year, Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, US, told a meeting at the Royal Society in London, UK. This loss, which is increasing each year, is many times faster than the ice can be replaced by snowfall inland, he says.
The impending ice disaster centres on Pine Island Bay on the shores of the Amundsen Sea, where the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers enter the sea. These glaciers, like many in West Antarctica, are perched on underwater mountains. The meeting heard that warmer ocean waters are circulating beneath the ice and melting their bases at a rate of 50 metres a year.
As this happens, the glaciers float clear of the submarine mountains and slide into the ocean. According to Andy Shepherd at the University of Cambridge, UK, they are discharging ice three times faster than a decade ago.
These glaciers are being dubbed the “plug hole” of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. If the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers disappeared, they alone could raise sea levels worldwide by more than a metre, says Rignot.
Antarctic glaciers are much bigger than those in warmer climates. They are up to a kilometre thick, tens of kilometres wide and hundreds of kilometres long. Connected to inland ice tributaries, they drain the continent’s ice caps, which are the largest stores of frozen water on the planet.
In many places, the glaciologists reported that the recent acceleration in glacier flows has been triggered by the break-up of a series of floating ice shelves at the continent’s edge. These shelves acted like a cork in a bottle, holding back the glaciers.
After the Larsen B ice shelf – a 3000 square kilometre floating slab of ice – broke up over three days in 2002, glaciers behind it afterwards accelerated eight-fold. “The ice mass balance of Antarctica is controlled by these ice shelves,” says Rignot, who believes Antarctica is now responsible for the majority of global sea level rise.
Researchers also warned that the larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet is not as stable as thought. A recent study suggested that it might be accumulating snow in its high interior – possibly supporting the IPCC’s predictions – but it warned that little was known about events on the coast (Science, vol 308, p 1898).
Rignot revealed that several major coastal glaciers in the east are now known to be accelerating, like their counterparts to the west."
[Acknowlegdement: Infoplease.com(for most of the disasters I've listed), NewScientist, MSNBC health]
Comments: I''m sure many of us have watched "The Day after Tomorrow" and many have also said it will never happen because it is not possible. But looking at all these events around the world in just a year. The chance of being possible could have increased, maybe except for the ice-age part in the movie as I myself dun thk it's possible too. Global warming, a possible bird flu pandemic and terrorist attacks are now major concerns of everyone in the world now. And we definitely have to deal with each carefully.
Global Warming: In the movie, one of the characters mentioned "strongest hurricane, strongest typhoons, hailstorms, they all fit" Hasn't it all happened alreadi? Hurrican Katrina, typhoon Talim, extreme weather and the melting of glaciers; they are all because of Global Warming, because we did not take care of the environment well enough and it's either us or our children or grandchildren who is going to suffer and try to salvage everything. Is there anything? anything at all we can do? except to run, evacuate, save everything we could, help each other and to sacrifice sometimes. As for Earthquakes, sometimes there's just nothing we can do as well, except to wade them out and survive.
Terrorist attacks: The World is an uncertain place.Everyday is unpredictable. You could be on a train on the way to work/school and suddenly your whole world blanks out from a bomb which exploded on the train that you are taking. But no one really knows. How would you know that the guy who looks innocent, carrying a school bag, is actually carrying a bomb? It depends a lot on fate. If you are fated, you are just fated. However, You can't refuse to go anywhere because you are afraid of the world out there either. Even staying at home is unsafe too. Who knows, someone might plant a bomb in the lift when you are going downstairs. I'll be praying for World Peace.
Bird Flu: Bird flu used to be transmitted bird-bird but now there are cases of bird-human and soon, it will be human-human. The chance of it mutating is high and after mutation, its new strain is gonna be fatal and will cause a pandemic as predicted by many scientists, etc. The U.N. health agency has warned countries to prepare for a death toll of up to 7.4 million. 7.4 million; that's about 1/3 of the global population (I thk so, my math is not realli that good) and this is definitely a big figure.
If this generation of Homo Sapiens were to be extinct, will those who survive, evolve to be a new species of beings?(natural selection selects those who are able to survive and when they survive, they sometimes evolve because they grow stronger and are different). If all of our teachnology gets destructed with nothing except trees and stuff then its like starting all over again. We would have to start from the beginning, from scrap.I am currently still writing something about evolution, I dunnoe if I am going to blog it or not(most likely I'm not) but I did make some comments that early Homo Sapiens care for the Earth a lot, they let nature be nature but as we grow and change, we began to use its resources without replenishing it and even harming it with our waste. Are we able to reverse all these so that we may still survive? No one knows.
January 6th-13th, Heavy Weather; California to Pennsalvania;in California, a low-pressure system with drenching rains and heavy snows at higher elevations, dumped up to 11 inches of rain and caused a large mudslide in La Conchita, killing 10. Total storm-related deaths reached 25. Los Angeles has had 17 inches of rain since Dec. 27, 2004. The same system piled up more than 4 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevadas on Saturday, stranding an Amtrak train and closing roads and airports. Since the end of December, the Reno-Lake Tahoe area has up to 19 feet of snow, the most since 1916. In Arizona 7 people died from storms and 7 of 15 counties were declared states of emergency. More heavy weather from Indiana to Pittsburgh caused flooding all along the Ohio River where state emergencies have been declared for 56 of 88 counties in Ohio. Three people died in a Pittsburgh tug boat accident and 5 in Ohio from storm-related causes.
January 8th to 12th, wild storms; Europe; wild storms battered many European countries, leaving 19 dead; High winds and flooding left people without power and shut down ferries, trains, and highways.
January 22nd to 23rd, Snow storm; Eastern U.S. ; strong snow storms swept across the Midwest to the Atlantic coast, killing 20 people. A blizzard blanketed parts of the Northeast with snow depths up to 38 in north and south of Boston and the entire island of Nantucket lost power. By the end of January, Boston had the snowiest month on record with a total of 43.1 inches of snow.
February, Extreme winter weather; South-East Asia; extreme winter weather including cold, snowfall, avalanches, and flooding in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan killed more than 1,400 people in the last month and a half; Due to the lack of communications actual numbers were hard to confirm.
March 18th-22nd, Heavy rains and melting snow; Afghanistan; more than 200 killed; thousands homeless; this followed what was already the worst winter in years that had killed several hundreds of people.
In June, there was flooding in Southern China; Many were killed; Rain not historic high but too heavy in such a short period of time. There was also a hailstorm in Beijing, someting rare indeed as it was summer. (A rainstorm on July 12 04' in Shanghai claimed 7 lives, a disaster which happens only once a century.)
July 7th, terrorist attack;London; four bombs exploded in three subway stations and on one double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, killing 52 people plus 4 bombers, and wounding more than 700.
On July 21st, terrorist attacks;London; four bombs partially detonated but did not explode on three trains and a bus in London exactly two weeks after the July 7th bombings.
July 26th, Monsoon;Mumbai; a record of 37 in of rain fell in Mumbai (Bombay) in a 24 hour period; the most ever recorded in India. A week of relentless monsoon rains left 1,000 dead in western India.
August 29th, Hurrican Katrina; Los Angeles, Missisipi, New orleans; Predicted to be a category 2 but ended up being a 5; devasting effects; the third deadliest hurrican in the U.S.; More than 1,200 killed .
September 1st-3rd, Typhoon Talim ; China; major flooding and landslides, extensive crop damage; killed at least 129 people.
September 6th-7th, Typhoon Nabi; Japan; killed at least 18 people.
September 24th, Hurrican Rita; Category 3; Strong storm surges and heavy winds caused major damage in the Louisiana and Texas coastal areas; Heavy rains also drenched New Orleans, causing the Industrial Canal levee to breach, re-flooding parts of the city.
September 20th-25th, typhoon Damrey; Philippines, China, Thailand, Nepal; killed at least 122, primarily from flooding.
October 1, terrorist bomdings; Bali; Three suicide bombers hit Bali restaurants in the resort beach area; killed 22 people.
The last few months , Dengue fever; Singapore and Malaysia; Dengue fever was (and still is) a major concern in these two states as the warm climates were perfect breeding places for them; Number of people infected was on record high in both states.
October 19th, Hurrican Wilma; Mexico; Wilma is the 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season, the largest number of hurricanes recorded since 1969.
Now, fear of a bird flu pandemic; World;H5N1 strain might mutate into another form where human-human transmission will be high and widespread(for now it's from infected birds to humans) . It might cause deaths up to millions; Many drug companies are planning to produce large quantities of vaccines and medications like Tamiflu to fight the pandemic if it strikes; However, there was a sign that the strain might be resistant to Tamiflu, a powerful antiviral drug. Therefore, they are now currently working on a flu vaccine that can be inhaled.
"Experts consider the avian flu the single biggest threat to human health in the world today.
The H5N1 virus has killed and forced the destruction of tens of millions of birds and can on occasion be transmitted to people, often killing them.
A slight mutation would enable the virus to be passed easily from person to person and because it is such a new virus, experts believe it would sweep around the world, killing millions of people, if it is not stopped." (MSNBC health)
Latest from NewScientist(oct 18): Antarctic glaciers calving faster into the ocean; "The edges of the Antarctic ice sheets are slipping into the ocean at an unprecedented rate, raising fears of a global surge in sea levels, glaciologists warned on Monday.
The findings confound predictions made just four years ago, by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that Antarctica would not contribute significantly to sea level rise in the 21st century. In one area, around the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica, glaciers are dumping more than 110 cubic kilometres of ice into the ocean each year, Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, US, told a meeting at the Royal Society in London, UK. This loss, which is increasing each year, is many times faster than the ice can be replaced by snowfall inland, he says.
The impending ice disaster centres on Pine Island Bay on the shores of the Amundsen Sea, where the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers enter the sea. These glaciers, like many in West Antarctica, are perched on underwater mountains. The meeting heard that warmer ocean waters are circulating beneath the ice and melting their bases at a rate of 50 metres a year.
As this happens, the glaciers float clear of the submarine mountains and slide into the ocean. According to Andy Shepherd at the University of Cambridge, UK, they are discharging ice three times faster than a decade ago.
These glaciers are being dubbed the “plug hole” of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. If the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers disappeared, they alone could raise sea levels worldwide by more than a metre, says Rignot.
Antarctic glaciers are much bigger than those in warmer climates. They are up to a kilometre thick, tens of kilometres wide and hundreds of kilometres long. Connected to inland ice tributaries, they drain the continent’s ice caps, which are the largest stores of frozen water on the planet.
In many places, the glaciologists reported that the recent acceleration in glacier flows has been triggered by the break-up of a series of floating ice shelves at the continent’s edge. These shelves acted like a cork in a bottle, holding back the glaciers.
After the Larsen B ice shelf – a 3000 square kilometre floating slab of ice – broke up over three days in 2002, glaciers behind it afterwards accelerated eight-fold. “The ice mass balance of Antarctica is controlled by these ice shelves,” says Rignot, who believes Antarctica is now responsible for the majority of global sea level rise.
Researchers also warned that the larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet is not as stable as thought. A recent study suggested that it might be accumulating snow in its high interior – possibly supporting the IPCC’s predictions – but it warned that little was known about events on the coast (Science, vol 308, p 1898).
Rignot revealed that several major coastal glaciers in the east are now known to be accelerating, like their counterparts to the west."
[Acknowlegdement: Infoplease.com(for most of the disasters I've listed), NewScientist, MSNBC health]
Comments: I''m sure many of us have watched "The Day after Tomorrow" and many have also said it will never happen because it is not possible. But looking at all these events around the world in just a year. The chance of being possible could have increased, maybe except for the ice-age part in the movie as I myself dun thk it's possible too. Global warming, a possible bird flu pandemic and terrorist attacks are now major concerns of everyone in the world now. And we definitely have to deal with each carefully.
Global Warming: In the movie, one of the characters mentioned "strongest hurricane, strongest typhoons, hailstorms, they all fit" Hasn't it all happened alreadi? Hurrican Katrina, typhoon Talim, extreme weather and the melting of glaciers; they are all because of Global Warming, because we did not take care of the environment well enough and it's either us or our children or grandchildren who is going to suffer and try to salvage everything. Is there anything? anything at all we can do? except to run, evacuate, save everything we could, help each other and to sacrifice sometimes. As for Earthquakes, sometimes there's just nothing we can do as well, except to wade them out and survive.
Terrorist attacks: The World is an uncertain place.Everyday is unpredictable. You could be on a train on the way to work/school and suddenly your whole world blanks out from a bomb which exploded on the train that you are taking. But no one really knows. How would you know that the guy who looks innocent, carrying a school bag, is actually carrying a bomb? It depends a lot on fate. If you are fated, you are just fated. However, You can't refuse to go anywhere because you are afraid of the world out there either. Even staying at home is unsafe too. Who knows, someone might plant a bomb in the lift when you are going downstairs. I'll be praying for World Peace.
Bird Flu: Bird flu used to be transmitted bird-bird but now there are cases of bird-human and soon, it will be human-human. The chance of it mutating is high and after mutation, its new strain is gonna be fatal and will cause a pandemic as predicted by many scientists, etc. The U.N. health agency has warned countries to prepare for a death toll of up to 7.4 million. 7.4 million; that's about 1/3 of the global population (I thk so, my math is not realli that good) and this is definitely a big figure.
If this generation of Homo Sapiens were to be extinct, will those who survive, evolve to be a new species of beings?(natural selection selects those who are able to survive and when they survive, they sometimes evolve because they grow stronger and are different). If all of our teachnology gets destructed with nothing except trees and stuff then its like starting all over again. We would have to start from the beginning, from scrap.I am currently still writing something about evolution, I dunnoe if I am going to blog it or not(most likely I'm not) but I did make some comments that early Homo Sapiens care for the Earth a lot, they let nature be nature but as we grow and change, we began to use its resources without replenishing it and even harming it with our waste. Are we able to reverse all these so that we may still survive? No one knows.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
sorry
haven't blog for quite long as I'm having exams so I'll post after my exams finishes..around oct 4th maybe..
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Problem with posting but nevertheless..
Seems I have a problem posting a long article but not with a short article. So I shall make do with it then. Here's the website of the article that I would want to comment about. Oh yea and sorry for not updating for so long. Here's the website http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7950&print=true . My comment about it: I agree strongly to the statement "The research is a setback for stem cell science and contradicts an earlier study which found no significant changes to the genomes of lab-cultured stem cells" The moment I read the first paragraph, this statement had alreadi been formed in my mind. Well, I guess nothing is perfect in the world, including human stem cells. In my opinion, I thk that yes there might be a problem with the medium(as mentioned in this article) and there might also be a problem with the genetic make-up of the cells when they are cultured. The mutations could already have been there and the cells may also have a problem carrying out apoptosis. So the mutations remain and develop.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Does e-mail make you dumber?
Sorry for not updating my blog for so long..have been really busy and stressed. Anyway..this is a rather interesting article from Discover, August: If you feel like a zombie at work, perhaps you’re suffering from infomania, the term the Hewlett-Packard affiliate in Britain coined for people addicted to e-mail, instant messaging, and text messages.
A recent study for the company found that British workers’ IQ test scores drop temporarily by an average of 10 points when juggling phones, e-mails, and other electronic messages—more of an IQ drop than occurs after smoking marijuana or losing a night’s sleep. “This is a very real and widespread phenomenon,” said Glenn Wilson of the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, who conducted the tests on some 1,100 volunteers. Just how long it takes to recover is unclear.
The study found that modern-day communications have become addictive: Sixty-two percent of adults check work messages after office hours and on vacation. Half of those surveyed reply to an e-mail immediately or within 60 minutes. About 20 percent were “happy” to interrupt a business or social meeting to respond to a telephone or e-mail message. Yet 89 percent of those surveyed found it rude for colleagues to do so.
Whether infomaniacs are less intelligent is another question. “It didn’t affect their IQ at all; it affected their performance on an IQ test,” says Bob Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University. “When you’re taking an IQ test, you probably want to be really focused. That’s the antithesis of the state you get into when you do a lot of multitasking.”
The human brain has evolved different modes for concentrating on a single thing versus jumping from one thing to another. “The reason we have these systems that quickly shift between each other is because what’s right for you now might not be right later,” Stickgold says. “There are basic brain-stem mechanisms that will cause you to shift and focus your attention on a change in stimulus.”
Whether that change is a saber-toothed tiger popping out of the woods or a phone ringing suddenly, the consequences are the same. “The switch signal comes fast and powerfully. This system knows at a moment like this that what’s important is to shift your state quickly, and damn the cost. And the cost is that it takes several minutes to shift back,” says Stickgold. “That’s the way we’re wired.”
haha..well..I would agree that yes, e-mailing, instant messaging and text messaging can be addictive (considering the fact that I was addicted to it before but now a little too busy with my life that I'm not that addicted now..lol). But I guess it's a means of communicating with our family and friends in a more closer way? I mean..when we speak face-to-face we may not have the courage to say things but through means of communicating through the net and phone we may actually say more things than we want to and may also be more closer that when we meet for lunch or something,a conversation could be so easily started, it just with communication. Sometimes the prospect of recieving e-mails, instant messsaing with friends after a busy day and text messaging just makes them addictive.
A recent study for the company found that British workers’ IQ test scores drop temporarily by an average of 10 points when juggling phones, e-mails, and other electronic messages—more of an IQ drop than occurs after smoking marijuana or losing a night’s sleep. “This is a very real and widespread phenomenon,” said Glenn Wilson of the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, who conducted the tests on some 1,100 volunteers. Just how long it takes to recover is unclear.
The study found that modern-day communications have become addictive: Sixty-two percent of adults check work messages after office hours and on vacation. Half of those surveyed reply to an e-mail immediately or within 60 minutes. About 20 percent were “happy” to interrupt a business or social meeting to respond to a telephone or e-mail message. Yet 89 percent of those surveyed found it rude for colleagues to do so.
Whether infomaniacs are less intelligent is another question. “It didn’t affect their IQ at all; it affected their performance on an IQ test,” says Bob Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University. “When you’re taking an IQ test, you probably want to be really focused. That’s the antithesis of the state you get into when you do a lot of multitasking.”
The human brain has evolved different modes for concentrating on a single thing versus jumping from one thing to another. “The reason we have these systems that quickly shift between each other is because what’s right for you now might not be right later,” Stickgold says. “There are basic brain-stem mechanisms that will cause you to shift and focus your attention on a change in stimulus.”
Whether that change is a saber-toothed tiger popping out of the woods or a phone ringing suddenly, the consequences are the same. “The switch signal comes fast and powerfully. This system knows at a moment like this that what’s important is to shift your state quickly, and damn the cost. And the cost is that it takes several minutes to shift back,” says Stickgold. “That’s the way we’re wired.”
haha..well..I would agree that yes, e-mailing, instant messaging and text messaging can be addictive (considering the fact that I was addicted to it before but now a little too busy with my life that I'm not that addicted now..lol). But I guess it's a means of communicating with our family and friends in a more closer way? I mean..when we speak face-to-face we may not have the courage to say things but through means of communicating through the net and phone we may actually say more things than we want to and may also be more closer that when we meet for lunch or something,a conversation could be so easily started, it just with communication. Sometimes the prospect of recieving e-mails, instant messsaing with friends after a busy day and text messaging just makes them addictive.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Climate warning as Siberia melts
Sorry for not updating for a week again..have been realli busy...Anyway, this article is a pretty urgent news I just read in NewScientist . Details: "The world's largest frozen peat bog is melting. An area stretching for a million square kilometres across the permafrost of western Siberia is turning into a mass of shallow lakes as the ground melts, according to Russian researchers just back from the region.
The sudden melting of a bog the size of France and Germany combined could unleash billions of tonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
The news of the dramatic transformation of one of the world's least visited landscapes comes from Sergei Kirpotin, a botanist at Tomsk State University, Russia, and Judith Marquand at the University of Oxford.
Kirpotin describes an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming". He says that the entire western Siberian sub-Arctic region has begun to melt, and this "has all happened in the last three or four years".
What was until recently a featureless expanse of frozen peat is turning into a watery landscape of lakes, some more than a kilometre across. Kirpotin suspects that some unknown critical threshold has been crossed, triggering the melting.
Western Siberia has warmed faster than almost anywhere else on the planet, with an increase in average temperatures of some 3 °C in the last 40 years. The warming is believed to be a combination of man-made climate change, a cyclical change in atmospheric circulation known as the Arctic oscillation, plus feedbacks caused by melting ice, which exposes bare ground and ocean. These absorb more solar heat than white ice and snow.
Similar warming has also been taking place in Alaska: earlier this summer Jon Pelletier of the University of Arizona in Tucson reported a major expansion of lakes on the North Slope fringing the Arctic Ocean.
The findings from western Siberia follow a report two months ago that thousands of lakes in eastern Siberia have disappeared in the last 30 years, also because of climate change (New Scientist, 11 June, p 16). This apparent contradiction arises because the two events represent opposite end of the same process, known as thermokarsk.
In this process, rising air temperatures first create "frost-heave", which turns the flat permafrost into a series of hollows and hummocks known as salsas. Then as the permafrost begins to melt, water collects on the surface, forming ponds that are prevented from draining away by the frozen bog beneath. The ponds coalesce into ever larger lakes until, finally, the last permafrost melts and the lakes drain away underground.
Siberia's peat bogs formed around 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Since then they have been generating methane, most of which has been trapped within the permafrost, and sometimes deeper in ice-like structures known as clathrates. Larry Smith of the University of California, Los Angeles, estimates that the west Siberian bog alone contains some 70 billion tonnes of methane, a quarter of all the methane stored on the land surface worldwide.
His colleague Karen Frey says if the bogs dry out as they warm, the methane will oxidise and escape into the air as carbon dioxide. But if the bogs remain wet, as is the case in western Siberia today, then the methane will be released straight into the atmosphere. Methane is 20 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.
In May this year, Katey Walter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks told a meeting in Washington of the Arctic Research Consortium of the US that she had found methane hotspots in eastern Siberia, where the gas was bubbling from thawing permafrost so fast it was preventing the surface from freezing, even in the midst of winter.
An international research partnership known as the Global Carbon Project earlier this year identified melting permafrost as a major source of feedbacks that could accelerate climate change by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. "Several hundred billion tonnes of carbon could be released," said the project's chief scientist, Pep Canadell of the CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research in Canberra, Australia."
I was reading this article and omg-ing all the way..it's realli shocking and this is one evidence showing that climate warming is going to get worse with the release of so much methane. It's getting more and more serious now. And I think it was on wednesday, I watched the news and it reported that it was snowing in Melbourne and Tasmania and probably moving to Queensland..I was shocked..I just found an article about it: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1434243.htm . Here it says "Snow is falling in low-lying areas of Victoria and Tasmania for the first time in up to 50 years, as a cold snap hits south-eastern Australia.", "Stephanie Jones from the newsagency at Korumburra south-east of Melbourne says it was snowing when she drove to work at 5:30 this morning.
"It's horrible," she said. "It's snowing and raining and wet and cold. It stuck around about 25 minutes, then it started to rain and then about 8:30am it started to snow again.
"It looks like it's set - it's snowing now, it's covering the road white." It's realli weird for it to be raining and then snowing..and it's like supposed to be summer now..how can it be snowing? Even Autumm doesn't have snow.
The sudden melting of a bog the size of France and Germany combined could unleash billions of tonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
The news of the dramatic transformation of one of the world's least visited landscapes comes from Sergei Kirpotin, a botanist at Tomsk State University, Russia, and Judith Marquand at the University of Oxford.
Kirpotin describes an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming". He says that the entire western Siberian sub-Arctic region has begun to melt, and this "has all happened in the last three or four years".
What was until recently a featureless expanse of frozen peat is turning into a watery landscape of lakes, some more than a kilometre across. Kirpotin suspects that some unknown critical threshold has been crossed, triggering the melting.
Western Siberia has warmed faster than almost anywhere else on the planet, with an increase in average temperatures of some 3 °C in the last 40 years. The warming is believed to be a combination of man-made climate change, a cyclical change in atmospheric circulation known as the Arctic oscillation, plus feedbacks caused by melting ice, which exposes bare ground and ocean. These absorb more solar heat than white ice and snow.
Similar warming has also been taking place in Alaska: earlier this summer Jon Pelletier of the University of Arizona in Tucson reported a major expansion of lakes on the North Slope fringing the Arctic Ocean.
The findings from western Siberia follow a report two months ago that thousands of lakes in eastern Siberia have disappeared in the last 30 years, also because of climate change (New Scientist, 11 June, p 16). This apparent contradiction arises because the two events represent opposite end of the same process, known as thermokarsk.
In this process, rising air temperatures first create "frost-heave", which turns the flat permafrost into a series of hollows and hummocks known as salsas. Then as the permafrost begins to melt, water collects on the surface, forming ponds that are prevented from draining away by the frozen bog beneath. The ponds coalesce into ever larger lakes until, finally, the last permafrost melts and the lakes drain away underground.
Siberia's peat bogs formed around 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Since then they have been generating methane, most of which has been trapped within the permafrost, and sometimes deeper in ice-like structures known as clathrates. Larry Smith of the University of California, Los Angeles, estimates that the west Siberian bog alone contains some 70 billion tonnes of methane, a quarter of all the methane stored on the land surface worldwide.
His colleague Karen Frey says if the bogs dry out as they warm, the methane will oxidise and escape into the air as carbon dioxide. But if the bogs remain wet, as is the case in western Siberia today, then the methane will be released straight into the atmosphere. Methane is 20 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.
In May this year, Katey Walter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks told a meeting in Washington of the Arctic Research Consortium of the US that she had found methane hotspots in eastern Siberia, where the gas was bubbling from thawing permafrost so fast it was preventing the surface from freezing, even in the midst of winter.
An international research partnership known as the Global Carbon Project earlier this year identified melting permafrost as a major source of feedbacks that could accelerate climate change by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. "Several hundred billion tonnes of carbon could be released," said the project's chief scientist, Pep Canadell of the CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research in Canberra, Australia."
I was reading this article and omg-ing all the way..it's realli shocking and this is one evidence showing that climate warming is going to get worse with the release of so much methane. It's getting more and more serious now. And I think it was on wednesday, I watched the news and it reported that it was snowing in Melbourne and Tasmania and probably moving to Queensland..I was shocked..I just found an article about it: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1434243.htm . Here it says "Snow is falling in low-lying areas of Victoria and Tasmania for the first time in up to 50 years, as a cold snap hits south-eastern Australia.", "Stephanie Jones from the newsagency at Korumburra south-east of Melbourne says it was snowing when she drove to work at 5:30 this morning.
"It's horrible," she said. "It's snowing and raining and wet and cold. It stuck around about 25 minutes, then it started to rain and then about 8:30am it started to snow again.
"It looks like it's set - it's snowing now, it's covering the road white." It's realli weird for it to be raining and then snowing..and it's like supposed to be summer now..how can it be snowing? Even Autumm doesn't have snow.
Western Siberia has warmed faster than almost anywhere else on
the planet, with an increase in average temperatures of some 3 °C in the last 40 years.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
World not set to deal with flu
Sorry for not blogging for so long..have been really busy..Anyway..I've found that article about the diagnostic kit thing..but I'll first talk about this article since it's a more urgent problem. Well this is a rather long article so I'll cut it short. For the full article go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/30/AR2005073001429.html . Well, I heard about this report on a news radio station this morning so I went to look for this article and I found this similar to the one on the radio and it's rather scary to know somehow : "Public health officials preparing to battle what they view as an inevitable influenza pandemic say the world lacks the medical weapons to fight the disease effectively, and will not have them anytime soon.
Public health specialists and manufacturers are working frantically to develop vaccines, drugs, strategies for quarantining and treating the ill, and plans for international cooperation, but these efforts will take years. Meanwhile, the most dangerous strain of influenza to appear in decades -- the H5N1 "bird flu" in Asia -- is showing up in new populations of birds, and occasionally people, almost by the month, global health officials say.
If the virus were to start spreading in the next year, the world would have only a relative handful of doses of an experimental vaccine to defend against a disease that, history shows, could potentially kill millions. If the vaccine proved effective and every flu vaccine factory in the world started making it, the first doses would not be ready for four months. By then, the pathogen would probably be on every continent.
The public, conditioned to believe in the power of modern medicine, has heard little of how poorly prepared the world is to confront a flu pandemic, which is an epidemic that strikes several continents simultaneously and infects a substantial portion of the population.
The secretary or the chief of staff -- we have a discussion about flu almost every day," said Bruce Gellin, head of HHS's National Vaccine Program Office. This week, a committee is scheduled to deliver to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt an updated plan for confronting a pandemic.
Despite these efforts, the world's lack of readiness to meet the threat is huge, experts say.
In hopes of slowing a pandemic's spread, public health specialists have been debating proposals for unprecedented countermeasures. These could include vaccinating only children, who are statistically most likely to spread the contagion; mandatory closing of schools or office buildings; and imposing "snow day" quarantines on infected families -- prohibiting them from leaving their homes.
Other measures would go well beyond the conventional boundaries of public health: restricting international travel, shutting down transit systems or nationalizing supplies of critical medical equipment, such as surgical masks.
But Osterholm argues that such measures would fall far short. He predicts that a pandemic would cause widespread shutdowns of factories, transportation and other essential industries. To prepare, he says, authorities should identify and stockpile a list of perhaps 100 crucial products and resources that are essential to keep society functioning until the pandemic recedes and the survivors go back to work.
Pandemics are caused by strains of virus that are highly contagious and to which people have no immunity. Such strains are rare. They arise from the chance scrambling and recombination of an animal flu virus and a human one, resulting in a strain whose molecular identity is wholly new.
The microbe called influenza A/H5N1 appeared in East Asia in 1996 and has flared periodically since. It is highly contagious and lethal in chickens, but it can be carried without symptoms in some ducks -- a combination that helps keep it in circulation.
Birds occasionally infect humans, and scientists recently found evidence that the virus is sometimes passed person to person. That form of transmission is now difficult and rare, but the virus could evolve so that it becomes easy and common.
If H5N1 never becomes easily transmissible in human beings, it will never become a pandemic. If it does become transmissible, the consequences are difficult to imagine. But history provides some clues.
The "Spanish flu" in 1918 and 1919 was the biggest and, along with AIDS, the most important infectious disease outbreak of the 20th century. It is on the short list of great disasters in human history.
At least 50 million people, and possibly as many as 100 million, died when the world's population was 1.9 billion people, one-third its current size.
Tests are underway at three U.S. hospitals on an experimental vaccine against H5N1. But it is not the first H5N1 vaccine.
As the first, small hedge against disaster, the government last fall ordered 2 million doses of H5N1 vaccine from Sanofi Pasteur, one of the country's three flu vaccine makers, even though nobody yet knows whether it works.
A half-dozen other countries are also working on pandemic vaccines. But making enough to fight an outbreak is a tall order.
About 300 million flu shots are made worldwide each year. The vaccine protects against three flu strains. If the global production capacity were directed to make only H5N1 vaccine, the output could be 900 million shots.
Can the world produce more flu shots? Not easily.
In theory, even a modest amount of vaccine might be useful. Fighting disease outbreaks is like fighting fires. You do not have to hose down the whole world to put the fire out, but you do have to hose down the perimeter to keep it from spreading. It might be possible to contain an H5N1 outbreak at its source if the surrounding population were immediately vaccinated.
In the absence of a vaccine, the only pharmaceutical bulwark against H5N1 is oseltamivir. It can shorten the illness's duration, and if taken immediately after exposure, it can even prevent infection. But the world's supply of the drug is limited.
Sold as Tamiflu, it is manufactured by just one company, the Swiss giant Roche, in a laborious, expensive process that takes eight months.
Would having lots of vaccine or oseltamivir make a difference?
In a study published last year, Ira M. Longini Jr. of Emory University ran a mathematical model of what might happen if a pandemic such as the 1957 Asian flu, which was caused by a virus far milder than bird flu, hit the United States.
He and his colleagues estimated that with no vaccine or antiviral drugs, there would be 93 million cases and 164,000 deaths. Vaccinating 80 percent of people younger than 19 -- the group most responsible for spreading the virus -- "would reduce the epidemic to just 6 million total cases and 15,000 total deaths in the country."
Giving that group eight weeks of oseltamivir would have the same effect, at least temporarily. But it would take the equivalent of 190 million courses of treatment -- more than anyone thinks the country will have in the next few years.
Somewhat more realistic is deploying the drug to where the outbreak begins. One researcher, Neil M. Ferguson of Imperial College in London, said in an interview that results of his not-yet-published mathematical modeling "are encouraging."
But unless antiviral drugs squelch a pandemic at the outset, their ultimate usefulness will be small. Without widespread immunity through vaccination or infection, the virus will simply move into a population when the drugs run out."
I remembered watching this show on channelnewsasia, it's like a documentary from national geographic..it's called "End Day" or sth liddat..It's a show whereby they show four different endings in the same day and they are all predicted by scientists. I missed the first part of the show and i thk it showed the ending like in the movie "the day after tmr" . Anyway so I watched the second part of it on Tuesday and they showed an ending whereby there was a flu epidemic and the flu strain was highly contagious that many people contracted it and it looks pretty bad..Yep..so..what if it really happens? It's realli hard to imagine..*sigh* Anyway, I'll post the article abt the diagnostic kit next time as i'm rather busy now and I'm having dinner soon too. Remember..for this full article go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/30/AR2005073001429.html .
Public health specialists and manufacturers are working frantically to develop vaccines, drugs, strategies for quarantining and treating the ill, and plans for international cooperation, but these efforts will take years. Meanwhile, the most dangerous strain of influenza to appear in decades -- the H5N1 "bird flu" in Asia -- is showing up in new populations of birds, and occasionally people, almost by the month, global health officials say.
If the virus were to start spreading in the next year, the world would have only a relative handful of doses of an experimental vaccine to defend against a disease that, history shows, could potentially kill millions. If the vaccine proved effective and every flu vaccine factory in the world started making it, the first doses would not be ready for four months. By then, the pathogen would probably be on every continent.
The public, conditioned to believe in the power of modern medicine, has heard little of how poorly prepared the world is to confront a flu pandemic, which is an epidemic that strikes several continents simultaneously and infects a substantial portion of the population.
The secretary or the chief of staff -- we have a discussion about flu almost every day," said Bruce Gellin, head of HHS's National Vaccine Program Office. This week, a committee is scheduled to deliver to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt an updated plan for confronting a pandemic.
Despite these efforts, the world's lack of readiness to meet the threat is huge, experts say.
In hopes of slowing a pandemic's spread, public health specialists have been debating proposals for unprecedented countermeasures. These could include vaccinating only children, who are statistically most likely to spread the contagion; mandatory closing of schools or office buildings; and imposing "snow day" quarantines on infected families -- prohibiting them from leaving their homes.
Other measures would go well beyond the conventional boundaries of public health: restricting international travel, shutting down transit systems or nationalizing supplies of critical medical equipment, such as surgical masks.
But Osterholm argues that such measures would fall far short. He predicts that a pandemic would cause widespread shutdowns of factories, transportation and other essential industries. To prepare, he says, authorities should identify and stockpile a list of perhaps 100 crucial products and resources that are essential to keep society functioning until the pandemic recedes and the survivors go back to work.
Pandemics are caused by strains of virus that are highly contagious and to which people have no immunity. Such strains are rare. They arise from the chance scrambling and recombination of an animal flu virus and a human one, resulting in a strain whose molecular identity is wholly new.
The microbe called influenza A/H5N1 appeared in East Asia in 1996 and has flared periodically since. It is highly contagious and lethal in chickens, but it can be carried without symptoms in some ducks -- a combination that helps keep it in circulation.
Birds occasionally infect humans, and scientists recently found evidence that the virus is sometimes passed person to person. That form of transmission is now difficult and rare, but the virus could evolve so that it becomes easy and common.
If H5N1 never becomes easily transmissible in human beings, it will never become a pandemic. If it does become transmissible, the consequences are difficult to imagine. But history provides some clues.
The "Spanish flu" in 1918 and 1919 was the biggest and, along with AIDS, the most important infectious disease outbreak of the 20th century. It is on the short list of great disasters in human history.
At least 50 million people, and possibly as many as 100 million, died when the world's population was 1.9 billion people, one-third its current size.
Tests are underway at three U.S. hospitals on an experimental vaccine against H5N1. But it is not the first H5N1 vaccine.
As the first, small hedge against disaster, the government last fall ordered 2 million doses of H5N1 vaccine from Sanofi Pasteur, one of the country's three flu vaccine makers, even though nobody yet knows whether it works.
A half-dozen other countries are also working on pandemic vaccines. But making enough to fight an outbreak is a tall order.
About 300 million flu shots are made worldwide each year. The vaccine protects against three flu strains. If the global production capacity were directed to make only H5N1 vaccine, the output could be 900 million shots.
Can the world produce more flu shots? Not easily.
In theory, even a modest amount of vaccine might be useful. Fighting disease outbreaks is like fighting fires. You do not have to hose down the whole world to put the fire out, but you do have to hose down the perimeter to keep it from spreading. It might be possible to contain an H5N1 outbreak at its source if the surrounding population were immediately vaccinated.
In the absence of a vaccine, the only pharmaceutical bulwark against H5N1 is oseltamivir. It can shorten the illness's duration, and if taken immediately after exposure, it can even prevent infection. But the world's supply of the drug is limited.
Sold as Tamiflu, it is manufactured by just one company, the Swiss giant Roche, in a laborious, expensive process that takes eight months.
Would having lots of vaccine or oseltamivir make a difference?
In a study published last year, Ira M. Longini Jr. of Emory University ran a mathematical model of what might happen if a pandemic such as the 1957 Asian flu, which was caused by a virus far milder than bird flu, hit the United States.
He and his colleagues estimated that with no vaccine or antiviral drugs, there would be 93 million cases and 164,000 deaths. Vaccinating 80 percent of people younger than 19 -- the group most responsible for spreading the virus -- "would reduce the epidemic to just 6 million total cases and 15,000 total deaths in the country."
Giving that group eight weeks of oseltamivir would have the same effect, at least temporarily. But it would take the equivalent of 190 million courses of treatment -- more than anyone thinks the country will have in the next few years.
Somewhat more realistic is deploying the drug to where the outbreak begins. One researcher, Neil M. Ferguson of Imperial College in London, said in an interview that results of his not-yet-published mathematical modeling "are encouraging."
But unless antiviral drugs squelch a pandemic at the outset, their ultimate usefulness will be small. Without widespread immunity through vaccination or infection, the virus will simply move into a population when the drugs run out."
I remembered watching this show on channelnewsasia, it's like a documentary from national geographic..it's called "End Day" or sth liddat..It's a show whereby they show four different endings in the same day and they are all predicted by scientists. I missed the first part of the show and i thk it showed the ending like in the movie "the day after tmr" . Anyway so I watched the second part of it on Tuesday and they showed an ending whereby there was a flu epidemic and the flu strain was highly contagious that many people contracted it and it looks pretty bad..Yep..so..what if it really happens? It's realli hard to imagine..*sigh* Anyway, I'll post the article abt the diagnostic kit next time as i'm rather busy now and I'm having dinner soon too. Remember..for this full article go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/30/AR2005073001429.html .
Friday, July 29, 2005
Genes predict cancer spread
This is an article from Health24.com, 28th July stating that researchers have discovered a set of genes which could help tremendously in predicting if breast cancer would spread to the lungs and how serious it will be:
"Researchers have identified a set of genes that seems to predict if breast cancer will spread to the lungs and how serious the disease will be.
The finding could eventually help doctors to predict whose disease will become aggressive and spread, and potentially help them to better target treatments. The lungs and the bones are frequent sites for cancer that spreads from the breast. And cancer that spreads from the breast to organs such as the lungs accounts for the majority of breast cancer-related deaths, research has shown.
"We are the first to identify a clinically relevant set of genes that can predict metastases (spread) of breast cancer to the lungs," said study co-author Gaorav Gupta, a graduate student and researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City.
A report on the finding appears in the July 28 issue of Nature.
How the study was conducted(sub-title)
The researchers began with a set of cancer cell lines from 82 human breast cancer tumours. "We used a mouse model to mimic metastases," Gupta said. "We take these cells and inject them into a special type of mouse that allows you to inject human cells into them. We allowed lung metastases to form. We took out the lung metastases and took the cells and asked, 'What is special about these cells that will allow them to create the metastases?' "
To answer the question, the researchers used a "microarray" technique that allowed them to look at 22 000 genes all at once. Then they identified the genes that created the cancer spread to the lungs, and then put the genes back into the original cells to verify they were responsible.
Then they took another look at the human tumours. "We asked, of these 82 tumours, which ones expressed our genes (identified as those responsible for the spread). We found a subgroup that expressed the genes and these patients were much more likely to develop lung metastasis."
Next, said Gupta, the research team hopes to repeat the findings in a larger group of patients, "to be certain this isn't just something unique about the cohort we selected."
If patients with these genes can be identified, the next avenue of research would be to figure out if there are specific drugs that could prevent the lung tumours from forming. Certain "inhibitor" drugs have already been shown to suppress the genes identified in the new study, Gupta said.
May be of great value in managing breast cancer patients (sub-title)
William C. Phelps, scientific programme director of the research department for the American Cancer Society, praised the new study, saying, "Being able to identify a patient with a higher probability of developing metastasis would be of tremendous importance in terms of managing these patients."
The severity and course of cancer, even the same type, can be very different from patient to patient, Phelps said. "One of the decisions to struggle with is what (treatment) to give to which patients," he said. "Obviously, if you know cells in a particular tumour will be more likely to spread to the lung or bone, you would treat these patients more aggressively."
The identification of the gene pattern is a first step, he said. "If we can identify those genes, the next step may be to target the genes for therapy to prevent the spread of the tumours." – (HealthDayNews) "
This is realli good news as doctors can now be more accurate in their diagnosis and need not worry about whether the medication is given in the right dose or not. Anyway, my bio lecturer today mentioned that in Singapore, some diagnostic kit that could detect viruses like the H5N1 strain, has been created and is fast and accurate unlike the conventional method, so I might comment about it if the newspaper is not taken home by my uncle. Even if it is, I'll probably just wait for my mum to come back from overseas so I could go home and take the newspaper.
"Researchers have identified a set of genes that seems to predict if breast cancer will spread to the lungs and how serious the disease will be.
The finding could eventually help doctors to predict whose disease will become aggressive and spread, and potentially help them to better target treatments. The lungs and the bones are frequent sites for cancer that spreads from the breast. And cancer that spreads from the breast to organs such as the lungs accounts for the majority of breast cancer-related deaths, research has shown.
"We are the first to identify a clinically relevant set of genes that can predict metastases (spread) of breast cancer to the lungs," said study co-author Gaorav Gupta, a graduate student and researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City.
A report on the finding appears in the July 28 issue of Nature.
How the study was conducted(sub-title)
The researchers began with a set of cancer cell lines from 82 human breast cancer tumours. "We used a mouse model to mimic metastases," Gupta said. "We take these cells and inject them into a special type of mouse that allows you to inject human cells into them. We allowed lung metastases to form. We took out the lung metastases and took the cells and asked, 'What is special about these cells that will allow them to create the metastases?' "
To answer the question, the researchers used a "microarray" technique that allowed them to look at 22 000 genes all at once. Then they identified the genes that created the cancer spread to the lungs, and then put the genes back into the original cells to verify they were responsible.
Then they took another look at the human tumours. "We asked, of these 82 tumours, which ones expressed our genes (identified as those responsible for the spread). We found a subgroup that expressed the genes and these patients were much more likely to develop lung metastasis."
Next, said Gupta, the research team hopes to repeat the findings in a larger group of patients, "to be certain this isn't just something unique about the cohort we selected."
If patients with these genes can be identified, the next avenue of research would be to figure out if there are specific drugs that could prevent the lung tumours from forming. Certain "inhibitor" drugs have already been shown to suppress the genes identified in the new study, Gupta said.
May be of great value in managing breast cancer patients (sub-title)
William C. Phelps, scientific programme director of the research department for the American Cancer Society, praised the new study, saying, "Being able to identify a patient with a higher probability of developing metastasis would be of tremendous importance in terms of managing these patients."
The severity and course of cancer, even the same type, can be very different from patient to patient, Phelps said. "One of the decisions to struggle with is what (treatment) to give to which patients," he said. "Obviously, if you know cells in a particular tumour will be more likely to spread to the lung or bone, you would treat these patients more aggressively."
The identification of the gene pattern is a first step, he said. "If we can identify those genes, the next step may be to target the genes for therapy to prevent the spread of the tumours." – (HealthDayNews) "
This is realli good news as doctors can now be more accurate in their diagnosis and need not worry about whether the medication is given in the right dose or not. Anyway, my bio lecturer today mentioned that in Singapore, some diagnostic kit that could detect viruses like the H5N1 strain, has been created and is fast and accurate unlike the conventional method, so I might comment about it if the newspaper is not taken home by my uncle. Even if it is, I'll probably just wait for my mum to come back from overseas so I could go home and take the newspaper.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
High heels can drive you crazy
This is a very interesting article from News24.com, 25th July . It's a relation between wearing high heel shoes and schizophrenia. (There are some rather long and profound medical terms) : "Malmo - Verifying what many women have known for years, a scientist in Sweden says wearing high heels can drive you crazy, and he has drawn alarming parallels between heels and schizophrenia among women.
Jarl Flensmark of Malmo says high heels cause their wearers to tense their calves in a way that normal walking never does. That could prevent neuro-receptors in the calf muscles from triggering release of dopamine, a compound necessary for mental well-being.
"During walking, synchronised stimuli from mechanoreceptors in the lower extremities increase activity in cerebellothalamo-cortico- cerebellar loops through their action on NMDA-receptors," Flensmark wrote in a recent paper in the journal Medical Hypotheses.
Increased schizophrenia prevalence (sub-title)
"Using heeled shoes leads to weaker stimulation of the loops. Reduced cortical activity changes dopaminergic function, which involves the basal gangliathalamo-cortical-nigro-basal ganglia loops," he said.
Long-term wearing of high heels could conceivably explain why Western societies have higher rates of schizophrenia among women then do other societies where high heels are rarely worn.
"Heeled footwear," he writes, "began to be used more than 1 000 years ago, and led to the occurrence of the first cases of schizophrenia. Industrialisation of shoe production increased schizophrenia prevalence.
"Mechanisation of the production started in Massachusetts, spread from there to England and Germany, and then to the rest of Western Europe. A remarkable increase in schizophrenia prevalence followed the same pattern."
"The oldest depiction of a heeled shoe comes from Mesopotamia, and in this part of the world we also find the first institutions making provisions for mental disorders In the beginning, schizophrenia appears to be more common in the upper classes."
Upper classes the hardest hit (sub-title)
He cites evidence from other parts of the world, too - Turkey, Taiwan, the Balkans, Ireland, Italy, Ghana, Greenland, the Caribbean and elsewhere. He then cites studies from India and elsewhere, which seem to confirm "schizophrenia first affects the upper classes".
From these two streams of evidence - the rise of heels and the increase in documented cases of schizophrenia - Flensmark divines a strong connection.
He modestly implies he is not the first to do so. In the year 1740, he writes, "the Danish-French anatomist Jakob Winslow warned against the wearing of heeled shoes, expecting it to be the cause of certain infirmities which appear not to have any relation to it".
Flensmark boils the matter into a damning statement: "After heeled shoes are introduced into a population, the first cases of schizophrenia appear and then the increase in prevalence of schizophrenia follows the increase in use of heeled shoes.
"I have," he writes, "not been able to find any contradictory data." - Sapa-dpa "
Hmm it does sound a little scary to me, I mean, I wear high heel shoes most of the time when i go out (when I do not have school and also when I have the time, haha) so it does sort of shock me for a while. I've read some news last year, that wearing high heel shoes hurt your tendons if u do not message your ankles after you take them off. So, after I wear them, I'll always sort of message my ankles, it does make them feel better. But, wow, now it's linked to schizophrenia..maybe I shouldn't wear them that often then.
Jarl Flensmark of Malmo says high heels cause their wearers to tense their calves in a way that normal walking never does. That could prevent neuro-receptors in the calf muscles from triggering release of dopamine, a compound necessary for mental well-being.
"During walking, synchronised stimuli from mechanoreceptors in the lower extremities increase activity in cerebellothalamo-cortico- cerebellar loops through their action on NMDA-receptors," Flensmark wrote in a recent paper in the journal Medical Hypotheses.
Increased schizophrenia prevalence (sub-title)
"Using heeled shoes leads to weaker stimulation of the loops. Reduced cortical activity changes dopaminergic function, which involves the basal gangliathalamo-cortical-nigro-basal ganglia loops," he said.
Long-term wearing of high heels could conceivably explain why Western societies have higher rates of schizophrenia among women then do other societies where high heels are rarely worn.
"Heeled footwear," he writes, "began to be used more than 1 000 years ago, and led to the occurrence of the first cases of schizophrenia. Industrialisation of shoe production increased schizophrenia prevalence.
"Mechanisation of the production started in Massachusetts, spread from there to England and Germany, and then to the rest of Western Europe. A remarkable increase in schizophrenia prevalence followed the same pattern."
"The oldest depiction of a heeled shoe comes from Mesopotamia, and in this part of the world we also find the first institutions making provisions for mental disorders In the beginning, schizophrenia appears to be more common in the upper classes."
Upper classes the hardest hit (sub-title)
He cites evidence from other parts of the world, too - Turkey, Taiwan, the Balkans, Ireland, Italy, Ghana, Greenland, the Caribbean and elsewhere. He then cites studies from India and elsewhere, which seem to confirm "schizophrenia first affects the upper classes".
From these two streams of evidence - the rise of heels and the increase in documented cases of schizophrenia - Flensmark divines a strong connection.
He modestly implies he is not the first to do so. In the year 1740, he writes, "the Danish-French anatomist Jakob Winslow warned against the wearing of heeled shoes, expecting it to be the cause of certain infirmities which appear not to have any relation to it".
Flensmark boils the matter into a damning statement: "After heeled shoes are introduced into a population, the first cases of schizophrenia appear and then the increase in prevalence of schizophrenia follows the increase in use of heeled shoes.
"I have," he writes, "not been able to find any contradictory data." - Sapa-dpa "
Hmm it does sound a little scary to me, I mean, I wear high heel shoes most of the time when i go out (when I do not have school and also when I have the time, haha) so it does sort of shock me for a while. I've read some news last year, that wearing high heel shoes hurt your tendons if u do not message your ankles after you take them off. So, after I wear them, I'll always sort of message my ankles, it does make them feel better. But, wow, now it's linked to schizophrenia..maybe I shouldn't wear them that often then.
Long-term wearing of high heels could conceivably explain why Western
societies have higher rates of schizophrenia among women then do other societies where high heels are rarely worn.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Showers 'may damage your brain'
This piece of article was from news24. com . It reported: "Traces of magnesium found in household water could be sufficient to cause permanent brain damage to those who take a regular shower, according to a report published in the US journal Medical Hypotheses.
John Spangler of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina and his team suggested that breathing in vapour containing manganese salts could be dangerous over the longer term.
"Inhaling manganese, rather than eating or drinking it, is far more efficient at delivering manganese to the brain. The nerve cells involved in smell are a direct pathway for toxins to enter the brain," Spangler wrote.
The team used animal studies aimed at showing how much a person who showered for 10 minutes a day would absorb.
The effects are dependent on the levels of manganese in household water. In the United States, a limit of 0.5 milligrams a litre of water is imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, while in the European Union, an upper level of just a 10th of that was set only in 1998.
Spangler suggested that even levels below the US upper limit could lead to brain damage.
Ten years of showering in water containing concentrations of manganese around the US limit would expose young people to levels three times higher than that found to leave deposits in rats' brains.
The longer the exposure, the worse the risk.
Manganese poisoning leads to tremors in sufferers - much like Parkinson's disease.
Apart from natural sources in ground water, manganese is sometimes added to petrol. This also finds its way ultimately into drinking water. "
Sounds rather scary, luckily i dun take more than 30 mins in the shower..usually abt 10-15. Anyway..I tot at first it might onli apply to the waters in US but I've checked up the public utilities board website in singapore and they do add manganese (about < 0.05 mg) so...well.. I guess a possible solution to prevent the effect and still be able to take regular showers is to either take away tt manganese and/or substitute it with a safer element.
John Spangler of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina and his team suggested that breathing in vapour containing manganese salts could be dangerous over the longer term.
"Inhaling manganese, rather than eating or drinking it, is far more efficient at delivering manganese to the brain. The nerve cells involved in smell are a direct pathway for toxins to enter the brain," Spangler wrote.
The team used animal studies aimed at showing how much a person who showered for 10 minutes a day would absorb.
The effects are dependent on the levels of manganese in household water. In the United States, a limit of 0.5 milligrams a litre of water is imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, while in the European Union, an upper level of just a 10th of that was set only in 1998.
Spangler suggested that even levels below the US upper limit could lead to brain damage.
Ten years of showering in water containing concentrations of manganese around the US limit would expose young people to levels three times higher than that found to leave deposits in rats' brains.
The longer the exposure, the worse the risk.
Manganese poisoning leads to tremors in sufferers - much like Parkinson's disease.
Apart from natural sources in ground water, manganese is sometimes added to petrol. This also finds its way ultimately into drinking water. "
Sounds rather scary, luckily i dun take more than 30 mins in the shower..usually abt 10-15. Anyway..I tot at first it might onli apply to the waters in US but I've checked up the public utilities board website in singapore and they do add manganese (about < 0.05 mg) so...well.. I guess a possible solution to prevent the effect and still be able to take regular showers is to either take away tt manganese and/or substitute it with a safer element.
"Traces of magnesium found in household water could be sufficient to cause permanent brain damage to those who take a regular shower"
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Cars develop killer heat, even on cooler days
I am so super sorry...i've not updated this blog for like a week? haha..okay..so i've found this rather informative article in NewScientist, 05 July It's title is "Cars develop killer heat, even on cooler days" It's quite important actually especially for parents who drives and usually leave their kids in the car for a while: "Sunlight can heat car interiors to lethal temperatures in just 30 minutes, even if the weather is relatively cool, a new US study has found. The researchers strongly urge parents not to leave children alone in parked cars, no matter how mild the weather.
“Even on relatively mild-temperature days, the internal temperature of a vehicle left in the sun quickly gets very warm – the average rise in one hour is 22°C," says lead author Catherine McLaren at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. "My guess is that parents would be surprised that leaving children in the car is very much like leaving them in a sauna.”
In 2004, 35 children died of heat stroke in the US after being left unattended in a parked car. Previous research has shown that when ambient temperatures rise above 35°C, sealed cars reach a suffocating 65°C in just 15 minutes.
But research on car heating has all been conducted on hot days – never less than 28°C. So McLaren and her colleagues wanted to test how hot cars could get on cooler days, when the dangers of enclosed vehicles might not be as obvious to parents.
Open windows (sub-heading)
On 16 cloud-free days in Northern California, the team measured a car’s inside temperature at 5 minute intervals for one hour post-parking. Ambient temperatures on the study days ranged from 22°C to 35°C.
They found that, regardless of outside air temperature, the car heated up at a similar rate – gaining 80% of its final temperature within 30 minutes. Cars that started out comfortable 22°C, for example, rocketed to over 47°C after 60 minutes in the sun. And keeping the windows open a crack hardly slowed the rise at all.
Young children and infants are much more susceptible to heat illnesses than adults, write the authors, meaning that such temperatures could prove dangerous. Toddlers’ body temperatures rise faster and they lose proportionally more water than adults in hot weather, for example.
The team suggest that laws against leaving kids in cars could help to raise awareness of the danger. But they note that because these heat-related deaths are mostly unintentional, additional public education is probably the best way to decrease the number of these preventable tragedies. "
Hmm..This is quite serious, especially for Singapore, where it is a tropical and warm country.Sometimes when my mum leaves me in the car for a while to get something, I do feel realli realli warm even with the door open on my side or with the window open. So, yea,there should be additional public education for this in every country to raise awareness.
“Even on relatively mild-temperature days, the internal temperature of a vehicle left in the sun quickly gets very warm – the average rise in one hour is 22°C," says lead author Catherine McLaren at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. "My guess is that parents would be surprised that leaving children in the car is very much like leaving them in a sauna.”
In 2004, 35 children died of heat stroke in the US after being left unattended in a parked car. Previous research has shown that when ambient temperatures rise above 35°C, sealed cars reach a suffocating 65°C in just 15 minutes.
But research on car heating has all been conducted on hot days – never less than 28°C. So McLaren and her colleagues wanted to test how hot cars could get on cooler days, when the dangers of enclosed vehicles might not be as obvious to parents.
Open windows (sub-heading)
On 16 cloud-free days in Northern California, the team measured a car’s inside temperature at 5 minute intervals for one hour post-parking. Ambient temperatures on the study days ranged from 22°C to 35°C.
They found that, regardless of outside air temperature, the car heated up at a similar rate – gaining 80% of its final temperature within 30 minutes. Cars that started out comfortable 22°C, for example, rocketed to over 47°C after 60 minutes in the sun. And keeping the windows open a crack hardly slowed the rise at all.
Young children and infants are much more susceptible to heat illnesses than adults, write the authors, meaning that such temperatures could prove dangerous. Toddlers’ body temperatures rise faster and they lose proportionally more water than adults in hot weather, for example.
The team suggest that laws against leaving kids in cars could help to raise awareness of the danger. But they note that because these heat-related deaths are mostly unintentional, additional public education is probably the best way to decrease the number of these preventable tragedies. "
Hmm..This is quite serious, especially for Singapore, where it is a tropical and warm country.Sometimes when my mum leaves me in the car for a while to get something, I do feel realli realli warm even with the door open on my side or with the window open. So, yea,there should be additional public education for this in every country to raise awareness.
Researchers strongly urge parents not to leave children alone in parked
cars, no matter how mild the weather.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
How olive oil helps fight breast cancer
Sorry for not updating for a few days..have been studying for my biology exam..Well, I found this article in Discover, June rather helpful and interesting for those of you who like olive oil, heh. So, here goes:
"For decades, epidemiologists have collected evidence showing that a mediterranean diet rich in olive oil offers protection against breast cancer. But they never understood why. Javier Menendez of the Northwestern University School of Medicine recently figured out how it works.
Olive oil is a rich mixture of fatty acids, chiefly oleic acid. When Menendez bathed human breast cancer cells with purified oleic acid, the cells cut production of a cancer-causing gene, HER2, by nearly 50 percent. The fatty acid also increased the effectiveness of Herceptin, a drug made from antibodies that latch onto HER2 proteins and trigger the death of cancer cells.
The HER2 gene is overactive in more than one-fifth of all breast cancer and operates in a host of other tumors that may prove vulnerable to oleic acid. So far, menendez and his collegues have discovered the fatty acid cuts the expression of the gene in ovarian, stomach and colon cancer cell lines. "It will probably turn out to be a universal effect," he says.
The researchers also found that other dietary fatty acids, like the omega-3 fatty acids in fish, can block HER2. It may mean there is an "ultimate molecular mechanism" by which fatty acids in food prevent cancer. Menendez suspects the compounds help the malevolent cells survive and grow, "but when you are getting fatty acids from the diet, the cancer cells fatty-acid factory gets blocked."
Prevention comes in relatively small doses: Olive-oils researchers and health experts recommended 40 to 50 grams of olive oil a day (four to six tablespoons) to help stave off cancers and reduce risk of heart disease. "You can get that very easily in a salad," Menendez says. More of the oil might be necessary to help beat existing breast tumors and other cancers, he says, although just how much is not yet known."
Well, that's a really good discovery. Slowly, as years go by and more and more cancer cures/preventions are discovered, we might not be so afraid of it anymore. The main message is still to have a healthy diet. =)
"For decades, epidemiologists have collected evidence showing that a mediterranean diet rich in olive oil offers protection against breast cancer. But they never understood why. Javier Menendez of the Northwestern University School of Medicine recently figured out how it works.
Olive oil is a rich mixture of fatty acids, chiefly oleic acid. When Menendez bathed human breast cancer cells with purified oleic acid, the cells cut production of a cancer-causing gene, HER2, by nearly 50 percent. The fatty acid also increased the effectiveness of Herceptin, a drug made from antibodies that latch onto HER2 proteins and trigger the death of cancer cells.
The HER2 gene is overactive in more than one-fifth of all breast cancer and operates in a host of other tumors that may prove vulnerable to oleic acid. So far, menendez and his collegues have discovered the fatty acid cuts the expression of the gene in ovarian, stomach and colon cancer cell lines. "It will probably turn out to be a universal effect," he says.
The researchers also found that other dietary fatty acids, like the omega-3 fatty acids in fish, can block HER2. It may mean there is an "ultimate molecular mechanism" by which fatty acids in food prevent cancer. Menendez suspects the compounds help the malevolent cells survive and grow, "but when you are getting fatty acids from the diet, the cancer cells fatty-acid factory gets blocked."
Prevention comes in relatively small doses: Olive-oils researchers and health experts recommended 40 to 50 grams of olive oil a day (four to six tablespoons) to help stave off cancers and reduce risk of heart disease. "You can get that very easily in a salad," Menendez says. More of the oil might be necessary to help beat existing breast tumors and other cancers, he says, although just how much is not yet known."
Well, that's a really good discovery. Slowly, as years go by and more and more cancer cures/preventions are discovered, we might not be so afraid of it anymore. The main message is still to have a healthy diet. =)
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Harmless Virus May Kill Cancer Cells
This is a June 24th article from webMDhealth it's quite interesting and it is quite a breakthrough as well: "A common virus may have the potential to become a powerful cancer fighter.
Laboratory tests showed that the virus, known as adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2), kills many types of cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
"We believe that AAV2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV2 has great potential to be developed as an anticancer agent," says researcher Craig Meyers, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Penn State College of Medicine, in a news release.
Meyers presented the results this week at the 24th annual meeting of the American Society for Virology held at Penn State in University Park.
Virus May Lead to New Cancer Treatments
AAV2 is considered a harmless virus and infects the majority of the population. The virus normally resides in epithelial cells, which form the outermost layer of tissues.
For unknown reasons, people who carry the virus are less likely to develop human papillomavirus (HPV), some strains of which are associated with cervical cancer.
Researchers say AAV2 usually requires a second, helper virus, such as HPV, to become activated. When it finds a helper virus, AAV2 replicates and causes infected cells to die.
In the study, researchers examined the effects of AAV2 on normal human epithelial cells and cells infected with HPV or cancer.
In one test, researchers combined cells infected with both HPV and AAV2 and found that after six days all HPV-infected cells had died.
Similar tests showed that the AAV2 virus killed four different types of cancer cells (cervical, breast, prostate, and squamous cells) within six days of treatment without affecting healthy cells. It did so without the presence of a second, helper virus.
"One of the most compelling findings is that AAV2 appears to have no pathologic effects on healthy cells," says Meyers. "So many cancer therapies are as poisonous to healthy cells as they are to cancer cells. A therapy that is able to distinguish between healthy and cancer cells could be less difficult to endure for those with cancer."
Researchers say future studies are needed to determine exactly how AAV2 causes cancer cell death and how the virus might be developed to more aggressively target and treat cancers."
This is realli great, once the drug or medication is out, it's gonna help mankind in a very big way. Hmm, well at first I thought isn't viruses suppose to be harmful? I mean they will infect a host cell and then exploit it's machinery(ribosomes, enzymes, etc) But like it said, for unknown reasons, it actually helped in preventing or treating cervival cancer with the help of another virus, and the treatment lasts only six days even for other common cancer like breast and prostate cancer, which do not need a helper virus. Oh, by the way, squamous cells are flat, scalelike cells found in epithelial tissue. Cancers that originate in these cells are called squamous cell carcinomas. Hopefully, more viruses like AAV2 which is not harmful, could be discovered quickly so that many cancer patients need not have to suffer anymore.
Laboratory tests showed that the virus, known as adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2), kills many types of cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
"We believe that AAV2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV2 has great potential to be developed as an anticancer agent," says researcher Craig Meyers, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Penn State College of Medicine, in a news release.
Meyers presented the results this week at the 24th annual meeting of the American Society for Virology held at Penn State in University Park.
Virus May Lead to New Cancer Treatments
AAV2 is considered a harmless virus and infects the majority of the population. The virus normally resides in epithelial cells, which form the outermost layer of tissues.
For unknown reasons, people who carry the virus are less likely to develop human papillomavirus (HPV), some strains of which are associated with cervical cancer.
Researchers say AAV2 usually requires a second, helper virus, such as HPV, to become activated. When it finds a helper virus, AAV2 replicates and causes infected cells to die.
In the study, researchers examined the effects of AAV2 on normal human epithelial cells and cells infected with HPV or cancer.
In one test, researchers combined cells infected with both HPV and AAV2 and found that after six days all HPV-infected cells had died.
Similar tests showed that the AAV2 virus killed four different types of cancer cells (cervical, breast, prostate, and squamous cells) within six days of treatment without affecting healthy cells. It did so without the presence of a second, helper virus.
"One of the most compelling findings is that AAV2 appears to have no pathologic effects on healthy cells," says Meyers. "So many cancer therapies are as poisonous to healthy cells as they are to cancer cells. A therapy that is able to distinguish between healthy and cancer cells could be less difficult to endure for those with cancer."
Researchers say future studies are needed to determine exactly how AAV2 causes cancer cell death and how the virus might be developed to more aggressively target and treat cancers."
This is realli great, once the drug or medication is out, it's gonna help mankind in a very big way. Hmm, well at first I thought isn't viruses suppose to be harmful? I mean they will infect a host cell and then exploit it's machinery(ribosomes, enzymes, etc) But like it said, for unknown reasons, it actually helped in preventing or treating cervival cancer with the help of another virus, and the treatment lasts only six days even for other common cancer like breast and prostate cancer, which do not need a helper virus. Oh, by the way, squamous cells are flat, scalelike cells found in epithelial tissue. Cancers that originate in these cells are called squamous cell carcinomas. Hopefully, more viruses like AAV2 which is not harmful, could be discovered quickly so that many cancer patients need not have to suffer anymore.
AAV2 virus killed four different types of cancer cells (cervical, breast,
prostate, and squamous cells) within six days of treatment without affecting
healthy cells. It did so without the presence of a second, helper virus.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
The burden of a lasting memory
This is a pretty interesting article I read in NewScientist website, altho' this is a 28th of May 2005 article, it's still quite recent, heh. The study was done on fruit flies but the results might be the same for humans too. Here's the article:
"If you are forever forgetting people's names or family birthdays, take heart. Forming permanent memories is so physiologically expensive it can result in early death - at least for fruit flies.
When fruit flies form lasting memories, their neurons must make new proteins. Now Frederic Mery and Tadeusz Kawecki at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland have shown that this extra work takes its toll on the flies' ability to survive.
They trained one group of flies to associate a jolt with a bad-smelling mixture of two alcohols, while other flies were subjected either to jolts only or to jolts and odours, but not at the same time. When the flies were subsequently deprived of food and water, the group that had learned the link died an average of 4 hours, or 20 per cent, earlier than the others (Science, vol 308, p 1148).
The study suggests that there is a cost to memory and learning, raising the question of whether humans lost other qualities when they evolved superior intelligence. "We have such an extraordinary memory and learning capacity, we must have paid for it," says Kawecki"
Hmm, yes we must have paid for it. Who knows, people who have short-term memory might have a longer life than people who have long-term memory. Although, I think people who have long-term memory should have more advantage since they are able to remember more things. But ya, they'll need to make more cells to remember more things and etch them inside too. Well, We'll just leave it to more studies then.
"If you are forever forgetting people's names or family birthdays, take heart. Forming permanent memories is so physiologically expensive it can result in early death - at least for fruit flies.
When fruit flies form lasting memories, their neurons must make new proteins. Now Frederic Mery and Tadeusz Kawecki at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland have shown that this extra work takes its toll on the flies' ability to survive.
They trained one group of flies to associate a jolt with a bad-smelling mixture of two alcohols, while other flies were subjected either to jolts only or to jolts and odours, but not at the same time. When the flies were subsequently deprived of food and water, the group that had learned the link died an average of 4 hours, or 20 per cent, earlier than the others (Science, vol 308, p 1148).
The study suggests that there is a cost to memory and learning, raising the question of whether humans lost other qualities when they evolved superior intelligence. "We have such an extraordinary memory and learning capacity, we must have paid for it," says Kawecki"
Hmm, yes we must have paid for it. Who knows, people who have short-term memory might have a longer life than people who have long-term memory. Although, I think people who have long-term memory should have more advantage since they are able to remember more things. But ya, they'll need to make more cells to remember more things and etch them inside too. Well, We'll just leave it to more studies then.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Bear the heat
Now, it's about the heat wave, Climate change models did predict more fatal heat waves, altho' it does happen every year, it just gets worst. And freak weathers are happening around the world, like a report updated by AFP at 05:21 today titled: "Freak storms hit Europe, hundreds of houses flooded" . It says that a violent electrical storm struck the Paris region, flooding hundreds of houses, disrupting two lines on the metro system and causing delays at the city's two main airports. Elsewhere, lightning struck an electrical center in Switzerland, blocking about 100 trains in the second major breakdown to hit the Swiss railway system in two days. Luckily, no casualties were reported, but a motorcyclist had to be rescued when he was engulfed by water under a Paris road tunnel. In addition, South Asia is not the only one under the sufferings of the heat wave. France and other countries like Portugal, Spain, Nepal, and many more are also in the heat. Just from the South Asia heat wave alone, at least 375(yesterday was 200) people have died from sunstroke and dehydration in a month-long heat wave sweeping India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as it endures one of its hottest summers on record, authorities said. From the report: "Temperatures hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in some parts of South Asia this week, parching fields, emptying dams and drying river beds ahead of the annual monsoon.
Freak weather extended as far as northern China, where the heat set off explosives at a chemical plant in Shanxi province that injured hundreds. In central Chongqing city, authorities opened old bomb shelters so people can cool off.
Worst hit was India's impoverished eastern state of Orissa, where almost 100 people were reported killed from the heat.
Streets in the region emptied and many cities and villages resembled ghost towns as residents stayed indoors to avoid the sun. The state ordered government offices to close before noon.
"The heat wave along with occasional power-cuts had made life miserable here," said Lingaraj Panda, a local resident.
Officials reported drinking water shortages in the giant Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as ponds and lakes dried up and villagers were forced to travel 10km to 15km to fetch water from deep wells.
Beer sales in New Delhi hit a record high with nearly 6 million bottles being sold in the first three weeks of this month as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit).
India's weather department says the June-September rains got off to a weak start, but initial showers are now being reported across southern India and Bombay.
The month-long heatwave also killed more than 100 people in neighbouring Bangladesh, while in Pakistan more than 65 people died in the past week, including at least 24 believed killed over the last 24 hours from the heat, authorities said.
Villagers in Bangladesh held prayers in mosques and temples for rain -- though not too much rain. Last year, devastating floods caused by monsoon rains in July-September killed more than 1,000 people and left about 10 million homeless.
"The monsoon is playing truant this year in Bangladesh as well as in India, scorching farmland and killing people," one weather official said.
Tahir Ali Javed, Health Minister of Pakistan's central Punjab province told Reuters all the fatalities have come in the province where temperatures soared to 46 degrees Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
Temperatures shot up to 44 degree Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Tuesday - a four-year record.
At least 11 people have died in neighbouring Nepal, a local media report said, but monsoon rains had now begun in most parts of the country." Well, at least some rain did fall in some parts of some country but it's not gonna be enough to help cool of this heat.
About the heat wave in France: "France was on a heat-wave alert yesterday as the government released its new emergency plan to avoid a repeat of the nearly 15,000 deaths attributed to the scorching temperatures during the summer of 2003.
As the mercury climbed above 30 degrees in parts of France during the past two days, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand released the new heat-wave plan including measures to bolster emergency services and to care for elderly people living on their own.
Meanwhile, extreme or severe drought has gripped 79 per cent of Portugal, the government's water institute said yesterday. The country has slashed the wheat-harvest forecast by as much as 70 per cent.
In neighbouring Spain, farmers also expect huge losses. Environment Ministry data show Spain's water reserves stand at 56 per cent of capacity." Hopefully, the heat wave incident in 2003 could be totally avoided. This, again, shows an obvious consequence - drier countries get drier, wetter countries get wetter.
Freak weather extended as far as northern China, where the heat set off explosives at a chemical plant in Shanxi province that injured hundreds. In central Chongqing city, authorities opened old bomb shelters so people can cool off.
Worst hit was India's impoverished eastern state of Orissa, where almost 100 people were reported killed from the heat.
Streets in the region emptied and many cities and villages resembled ghost towns as residents stayed indoors to avoid the sun. The state ordered government offices to close before noon.
"The heat wave along with occasional power-cuts had made life miserable here," said Lingaraj Panda, a local resident.
Officials reported drinking water shortages in the giant Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as ponds and lakes dried up and villagers were forced to travel 10km to 15km to fetch water from deep wells.
Beer sales in New Delhi hit a record high with nearly 6 million bottles being sold in the first three weeks of this month as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit).
India's weather department says the June-September rains got off to a weak start, but initial showers are now being reported across southern India and Bombay.
The month-long heatwave also killed more than 100 people in neighbouring Bangladesh, while in Pakistan more than 65 people died in the past week, including at least 24 believed killed over the last 24 hours from the heat, authorities said.
Villagers in Bangladesh held prayers in mosques and temples for rain -- though not too much rain. Last year, devastating floods caused by monsoon rains in July-September killed more than 1,000 people and left about 10 million homeless.
"The monsoon is playing truant this year in Bangladesh as well as in India, scorching farmland and killing people," one weather official said.
Tahir Ali Javed, Health Minister of Pakistan's central Punjab province told Reuters all the fatalities have come in the province where temperatures soared to 46 degrees Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
Temperatures shot up to 44 degree Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Tuesday - a four-year record.
At least 11 people have died in neighbouring Nepal, a local media report said, but monsoon rains had now begun in most parts of the country." Well, at least some rain did fall in some parts of some country but it's not gonna be enough to help cool of this heat.
About the heat wave in France: "France was on a heat-wave alert yesterday as the government released its new emergency plan to avoid a repeat of the nearly 15,000 deaths attributed to the scorching temperatures during the summer of 2003.
As the mercury climbed above 30 degrees in parts of France during the past two days, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand released the new heat-wave plan including measures to bolster emergency services and to care for elderly people living on their own.
Meanwhile, extreme or severe drought has gripped 79 per cent of Portugal, the government's water institute said yesterday. The country has slashed the wheat-harvest forecast by as much as 70 per cent.
In neighbouring Spain, farmers also expect huge losses. Environment Ministry data show Spain's water reserves stand at 56 per cent of capacity." Hopefully, the heat wave incident in 2003 could be totally avoided. This, again, shows an obvious consequence - drier countries get drier, wetter countries get wetter.
"The monsoon is playing truant this year in Bangladesh as well as in India,
scorching farmland and killing people,"
China floods kill 536 this year, worse to come
I watched the news yesterday on Channel 8 and they reported about the China floods and the heat wave around the world. I shall talk about the China floods first. I went to check out Reuters this morning and it reported : "flooding and landslides across China have killed 536 people and caused nearly 20.4 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in losses this year, scores in the last week alone, and worse is expected on Friday(which is today). In the past few days, at least 97 people had been killed and 41 were missing in southern China, where days of torrential rain had pushed rivers past their breaking points and sparked mudslides, Xinhua news agency said.
Some 1.4 million people have been evacuated in six provinces, with floodwaters climbing up to four stories tall in the industrial city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region, one of the worst-hit areas(Yesterday is was three stories high). State television showed pictures of rushing, turbid waters crashing through villages and cities alike and rescuers pulling children to safety. With floods peaking in some areas, worse is to come in others. "More than 100,000 people and soldiers are now bracing themselves for the worst peak of the floods on the river as it passes Guangxi," the China Daily quoted an official from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters as saying, referring to the Xijiang River that runs through Wuzhou. " I didn't put in the whole report but most of it is here. Not only that..I forgot to mention that the main reason why the fatalities due to the floods in 1998 in China is the highest should be because that year, 1998 was the warmest year in record as well and the 1990s was the warmest decade. Just look at what Global warming can do to us.
Some 1.4 million people have been evacuated in six provinces, with floodwaters climbing up to four stories tall in the industrial city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region, one of the worst-hit areas(Yesterday is was three stories high). State television showed pictures of rushing, turbid waters crashing through villages and cities alike and rescuers pulling children to safety. With floods peaking in some areas, worse is to come in others. "More than 100,000 people and soldiers are now bracing themselves for the worst peak of the floods on the river as it passes Guangxi," the China Daily quoted an official from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters as saying, referring to the Xijiang River that runs through Wuzhou. " I didn't put in the whole report but most of it is here. Not only that..I forgot to mention that the main reason why the fatalities due to the floods in 1998 in China is the highest should be because that year, 1998 was the warmest year in record as well and the 1990s was the warmest decade. Just look at what Global warming can do to us.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
A link between tofu and male infertility?
I just found this article in The Straits Times..I guess I didn't notice it just now when I first read it..This is rather interesting..I think I'll post the heatwave article tomorrow coz anyway..it's a rather long one..Okay..so researchers in copenhagen has discovered a link between soya products and sperms in male..here's how it goes: "A plant chemical found in soya, tofu and legumes could potentially damage sperm and affect male fertility, a British researcher says.
Professor Lynn Fraser of King's College, London, has shown that genistein, which can mimic the effect of the female hormone oestrogen, affects sperm in mice.But it seems to have an even stronger impact on human sperm.In laboratory tests, Prof Fraser found that small amounts of the chemical can cause human sperm to 'burn out' and lose fertility.'Human sperm proved to be even more responsive than mouse sperm to genistein,' Prof Fraser said at a recent fertility meeting.She said that if women eat soya and foods high in genistein it might have a bigger impact on male fertility because the chemical is likely to affect sperm when it is in the female, preparing to fertilise an egg.'Maternal exposure to the compounds is probably more important than paternal exposure,' she said.Although it is very preliminary research, Prof Fraser speculated that the findings could have an impact on women trying to conceive.'On the basis of what we have seen, it might be a practical thing to do if you are in the habit of eating lots of soya-based products to restrict your diet for a short time over the window of ovulation,' she told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.Professor Richard Sharpe of Edinburgh University, in Scotland, described the research as interesting and the results as surprising.But Prof Sharpe added that oriental societies that traditionally eat a soya-rich diet show no signs of reduced fertility that he is aware of.The effects on sperm in the laboratory may not be directly related to what happens in real life.Dr Allan Pacey of the University of Sheffield said: 'It's early days, but clearly if what happens in the laboratory also occurs in the woman's fallopian tube as the sperm make their way to the egg, then there would be the potential for fertilisation to fail.' " Well..maybe researchers could think of how to develop contraceptives from soya products then?
Professor Lynn Fraser of King's College, London, has shown that genistein, which can mimic the effect of the female hormone oestrogen, affects sperm in mice.But it seems to have an even stronger impact on human sperm.In laboratory tests, Prof Fraser found that small amounts of the chemical can cause human sperm to 'burn out' and lose fertility.'Human sperm proved to be even more responsive than mouse sperm to genistein,' Prof Fraser said at a recent fertility meeting.She said that if women eat soya and foods high in genistein it might have a bigger impact on male fertility because the chemical is likely to affect sperm when it is in the female, preparing to fertilise an egg.'Maternal exposure to the compounds is probably more important than paternal exposure,' she said.Although it is very preliminary research, Prof Fraser speculated that the findings could have an impact on women trying to conceive.'On the basis of what we have seen, it might be a practical thing to do if you are in the habit of eating lots of soya-based products to restrict your diet for a short time over the window of ovulation,' she told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.Professor Richard Sharpe of Edinburgh University, in Scotland, described the research as interesting and the results as surprising.But Prof Sharpe added that oriental societies that traditionally eat a soya-rich diet show no signs of reduced fertility that he is aware of.The effects on sperm in the laboratory may not be directly related to what happens in real life.Dr Allan Pacey of the University of Sheffield said: 'It's early days, but clearly if what happens in the laboratory also occurs in the woman's fallopian tube as the sperm make their way to the egg, then there would be the potential for fertilisation to fail.' " Well..maybe researchers could think of how to develop contraceptives from soya products then?
40 killed and 300,000 flee worsening floods, landslides
I just saw this article in The Straits Times.. This is about the flooding in Southern parts of China, I'll highlight the more important parts in red: "Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain killed more than 40 people in Southern China and forced the evacuation of more than 300,000 in a mountaineous region. In response to the rapidly worsening situation, China Premier Wen Jiabao called for an "all-out effort" to combat floods.The reported death toll from heavy rains and floods in China since last month is now more than 400. In the south-west Guangxi region, the worst hit area in recent days, around 333,000 people have been evacuated from flooding prone areas, reported Xinhuan news agency. 27 people were confirmed dead and 20 others missing there, the regional disaster relief headquarters said. About 100,000 residents in low-lying areas of Wuzhou were evacuated overnight, state media said. It was the industrial city's worst flooding in 100 years. Notices about the mass evacuation were posted on walls, warning sirens blared in the night and residents loaded up cars, trucks and carts with valuables and fled the area for higher ground. Along the Wuzhou River, 8.5m above its danger level, thousands worked to fortify its banks and dams with sandbags, state broadcaster CCTV said. The water reached as high as the thirdflood of buildings in some areas. In south-eastern Fujian province, floods and landslides killed 12 people and left five missing. In Guangdong province, just north of Hong Kong, 10 people were reportedly killed, while more than half a million were affected by the bad weather, the China News Service said. Rainstorms in eastern parts of Guangdong caused cave-ins on part of the Beijing-Kowloon railway line. Dozens of trains were forced to delay or turn back while repairs were made. In the South-western municipality of Chongqing, around 30,000 residents were evacuated after rising waters endangered peoples lives, Xinhua said. Thousands of people perish every year from floods, land-slides and mudflows in China, with millions left homeless. Officials said this year's floods could be worse than usual." adding on another paragraph from Reuters: "While the south is suffering a deluge, much of northern China is sweating through a heat wave, which has driven temperatures to nearly 40 C in the capital Beijing and convinced Chongqing to open air raid shelters to provide shade. " Comments: The green numbers are from Reuters..it was originally 24 and 23..but I just went to check reuters and the death toll went up to 27. About the blue highlighted sentence, the thing i'd want to say is that yes thousands of people perish every year from floods and all that in China..but the thing is..it might get worse this year because of Global Warming..this is the second time that one side of the country is raining heavily while the other side is so hot..it just happened in February this year...which is somewhat the nearing end of winter..It can't be that hot during winter right.. I've also just checked out the flood data of China for last year, 2004..In total..about 1,343 people were killed by the floods. In late july, the death toll was 439..It's only june now and it's alreadi 400..*sigh*..It also mentioned: "While the annual rains and floods usually strike hardest in rural areas, this year(2004) big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have felt the effects with both experiencing freak weather."The country has witnessed extreme weather recently in big cities, such as Beijing's unprecedented rainstorm earlier this month, which paralyzed local transportation," Wang was quoted as saying by China Daily."The rainstorm in Shanghai on July 12 can be said to be a very rare disaster which happens only once a century." The storm claimed seven lives. Look at the hailstorm that just happened recently in Beijing..it's rare. But one good thing..The death toll did decrease over the years..with the worst in 1998 at 4,000 to 1,900 in 2003 and continue to decrease to 1,343 in 2004.. Another point is that it said that in 2004 it was the worst flood in decades...but this year is century..look at the difference.And last year..there was also this pattern whereby "while central and southern China were awash with water, northern and eastern regions were suffering severe drought or scorching temperatures.The provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north are all parched with rain only starting to fall in July, several months later than normal, the newspaper said.Meanwhile, the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou in the east and Chongqing and Chengdu in the southwest are sizzling in temperatures of up to 38 degrees C. "(tenses were changed because it's already in the past) Anyway..if you see the last sentence..the maximum temperature was at least till 38 C..but this year it went up to 40 C. Looking back at the article from Straits Times..the last sentence said that officials said this year's flood could be worse than usual.See. Talking about the heatwave in Northern China..I'll post an article from The Straits Times later about the heatwave in India happening now. I'm off for brunch now..
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