Listen to the podcast from NPR today
Exercise Improves Learning and Memory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1999.
MIT proton treatment could replace x-ray use in radiation therapy:
The fundamental idea is to harness the cell-killing power of protons — the naked nuclei of hydrogen atoms — to knock off cancer cells before the cells kill the patient. Worldwide, the use of radiation treatment now depends mostly on beams of x-rays, which do kill cancer cells but can also harm many normal cells that are in the way.
Cancer cell ‘executioner’ found:
The University of Illinois team created a synthetic molecule which caused cancer cells to self-destruct.
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They found the molecule PAC-1 did trigger the transformation, and cancer cells from mice and from human tumours could be prompted to self-destruct – a process called apoptosis.
Sick of Getting Sick? Embrace Your Inner Bacteria!, NPR:
Right this minute, in the moist, warm grottos throughout your body, encounters with friendly bacteria are teaching your immune cells how to recognize dangerous invaders. The ability to distinguish friend from foe is crucial to keeping you healthy. And by acting as a thick ground cover, these benign bacteria crowd out truly noxious germs — salmonella, say, or dangerous versions of E. coli.
The title of NPR’s article is a bit misleading as the focus of the story is really on the potential harm from antibiotics. Bacterial Evolution in Yogurt provides some additional information on the benefits of bacteria. Here are more good bacteria articles:: Friendly bacteria ‘target ulcers’ – Over-sixties advised to boost daily diet with ‘good’ bacteria – USC researcher underscores the benefits bacteria can provide – Bacteria Added to Gum, Toothpaste and Deodorant – How ‘good’ bacteria could counter overuse of antibiotics
via: Take care of those microbes in your gut
Related: articles on the overuse of antibiotics – Antibiotic Resistance and You
Today more and more locations are becoming viable for world class research and development. Today the following have significant ability: USA, Europe (many countries), Japan, Canada, China, Brazil, Singapore, Israel, India, Korea and Australia (I am sure I have missed some this is just what come to mind as I type this post) and many more are moving in that direction.
The continued increase of viable locations for significant amounts of cutting edge research and development has huge consequences, in many areas. If paths to research and development are blocked in one location (by law, regulation, choice, lack of capital, threat of significant damage to the career of those who would choose such a course…) other locations will step in. In some ways this will be good (see below for an explanation of why this might be so). Promising new ideas will not be stifled due to one roadblock.
But risks of problems will also increase. For example, there are plenty of reasons to want to go carefully in the way of genetically engineered crops. But those seeking a more conservative approach are going to be challenged: countries that are acting conservatively will see other countries jump in, I believe. And even if this didn’t happen significantly in the area of genetically engineered crops, I still believe it will create challenges. The ability to go elsewhere will make those seeking to put constraints in place in a more difficult position than 50 years ago when the options were much more limited (It might be possible to stop significant research just by getting a handful of countries to agree).
Debates of what restrictions to put on science and technology research and development will be a continuing and increasing area of conflict. And the solutions will not be easy. Hopefully we will develop a system of diplomacy that works, but that is much easier said than done. And the United States will have to learn they do not have the power to dictate terms to others. This won’t be an easy thing to accept for many in America. The USA will still have a great deal of influence, due mainly to economic power but that influence is only the ability to influence others and that ability will decline if diplomacy is not improved. Diplomacy may not seem to be a science and engineering area but it is going to be increasingly be a major factor in the progress of science and engineering. Continue reading
Drug-resistant germs more common in USA by Anita Manning:
Researchers at UCLA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, accounted for 59% of skin infections overall, from 15% at a hospital in New York to 74% at one in Kansas City, Mo.
The finding suggests that doctors should consider drug resistance as a factor when diagnosing and treating skin infections, says Rachel Gorwitz of the CDC, a co-author of a study in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.
This is another sign of the increasing health threat posed by drug resistant bacteria. The problem of drug resistant bacteria is made much worse by the improper use of anti-biotics.
Related:
Fastest-evolving human gene linked to brain boost by Gaia Vince
Katherine Pollard and colleagues at the University of California Santa Cruz, US, suggest that the fast-changing gene may help explain the dramatic expansion of this part of the brain during the evolution of humans.
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There are only two changes in the 118 letters of DNA code that make up HAR1 between the genomes of chimps and chickens. But chimps and humans are 18 letter-changes apart. And those mutations occurred in just five million years, as we evolved from our shared ancestor.
Summer health tips from Google
Other posts include: Who is Living Longer and Avoiding Nursing Homes.
How do antibiotics kill bacterial cells but not human cells? (pointy haired bosses (phb) at Scientific American broke the link so I removed it – see links in comments below that are not broken by phb behavior)
Read more blog posts on antibiotics and on health care.
A Diabetic Battle of the Bulge by Diane Garcia
Update – AAAS broke the link so I removed the link. I hope those responsible for web sites eventually take the time to learn what that responsibility entails: Web Pages Must Live Forever. I find these failures to follow the most basic web usability practices displayed most often in organizations where burocrates that don’t understand technology make decisions on how web sites should work instead of allowing those that have the necessary understanding of the technology do so.