Medicinal Plants

Posted on March 24, 2016  Comments (0)

Another great webcast from SciShow. In this webcast Hank Green discusses how we have used plants to treat us and improve our health.

In the webcast, Hank also does a good job touching a bit on the scientific inquiry process (which is something I find interesting and I think is very important for people living in society today to understand).

Related: Youyou Tu, The First Chinese Woman to Win a Nobel Prize – Rubber Trees – Photosynthesis: Science Explained

Gut Bacteria Explored as Medical Treatment – even for Cancer

Posted on March 14, 2016  Comments (0)

The interaction between gut bacteria and human health continues to be a fertile area of medical research. It appears to be in the very early days of such research. Of course, as I have said before, headline making news often doesn’t result in medical breakthrough, and even when it does a decade isn’t a long wait for it to happen.

How Gut Bacteria Are Shaking Up Cancer Research

In November, University of Chicago researchers wrote that giving mice Bifidobacterium, which normally resides in the gastrointestinal tract, was as effective as an immunotherapy in controlling the growth of skin cancer. Combining the two practically eliminated tumor growth. In the second study, scientists in France found that some bacterial species activated a response to immunotherapy, which didn’t occur without the microbes.

The complex interactions involved in human health is another area that has huge room for research going forward.

Related: Some Bacteria Might Fight Cancer (2008) – Cancer Vaccines (2011) – Using Diatom Algae to Deliver Chemotherapy Drugs Directly to Cancer Cells (2015) – Webcast of a T-cell Killing a Cancerous Cell (2012)