13 April 2010 - Sneaky Brain Cancer Cells, Watery Glue, Monopole Magnets, and Dance-Powered Street Lamps

Heya!

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!  I guess technically it's Wednesday, but does it still count as Tuesday if I've been up all night?  ;)

I found a very interesting article regarding glioblastoma today, a very common and deadly brain cancer.  The average patient only survives about 15 months past diagnosis, and closer research may show why.  The main tumor generally shoots off occasional cells into the surrounding tissue, which then behave very differently from the growth itself.  Those cells are not responsive to the same therapies given to the cancer patients alongside removal of the tumor, and will actually spawn new growths later on.  As a result, pretty much every patient with glioblastoma relapses after treatment.  Now that the cells have been looked at closer and this fact about their resistance revealed, new treatments to target them as well can start to be explored.

Over at the University of Utah, a lab is checking out sea creatures and their construction habits in an effort to uncover new ideas on underwater adhesives.  Specifically, they're looking at Phragmatopoma californica, called the "sandcastle worm," which builds little, compartments for itself via tiny drops of glue and sand bits.  Other labs around the country are looking at various other sorts of marine animals looking for clues to apply to the goal.  Hopefully the methods they're working toward will aid not only in ocean-stuff, but also have first aid and health applications.  Apparently they're making progress, although it is still too soon to try it out on people.  :)

Not too long ago scientists managed to actually produce a magnet with only one end -  a monopole, but it would only work in very, very cold temperatures.  Now, however, an artificial version of this "spin ice" has been created that can behave like a monopole in room temperature.  The method employs arranging nano-sized magnets into a honeycomb structure, which as a whole behaves as hoped.  Very interesting!  I believe the applications lie in quantum computing, but I'd be talking out my rear if I tried to go into more detail.

Last for today is just really neat - France has actually installed and tried out eight modules created by Sustainable Dance Floor on the streets.  They're these sections installed into the pavement that generate power when walked across.  The goal is to reduce waste in powering city public areas (like street lamps), and to change where that power comes from.  Check it out:

Photo: Robin Utrecht/EPA

That's it for today (yesterday?), but check out the twitter feed on the right for more stories I didn't include here.  :)

See you Thursday!

-Miss Mouse

References and Links:

Brain Cancer Relapses

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100413095858.htm

Watery Glue

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/13adhesive.html

Warmish Magnets

http://www.physorg.com/news190318257.html

DDR Power

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/13/pavement-power-toulouse-streets

11 April 2010 - Stressed Mice, Tuned In Medicine, Drug Resistance, and Viruses Creating Energy

Hi!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  :)

I don't know if you noticed or not, but I added this nifty little Twitter feature to the right hand side of the page, just under "Labels."  This is for those of you who don't want to wait for each post to see new headlines!  I'll be tweeting links to various articles I find here and there, or retweeting as the case may be.  Just a nifty little idea.

First off, experiments in mice have found that the brains of those mice with only one copy of a gene that produces "brain-derived neurotrophic factor," or BDNF, are more affected by stress.  Apparently, stress in these mice causes the hippocampus area of the brain to shrink and the dendrites to withdraw, whereas mice with the normal two copies of the gene, and therefore a normal amount of BDNF, show no physical change in that area of the brain.  Researchers are now searching to find ways to control the amount of BDNF protein so they can determine when in development supplementation would be most effective.  Very interesting!

I know I heard about hallucinogenic testing going on here and there in the recent past, but I just found another article about it.  Scientists are gathering in California this week for a pretty big conference on the topic, particularly for use with OCD, end of life anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other psychological disorders.  I cannot say this doesn't make me pretty happy.  Check out the article link at the bottom of the post to read about various tests and reactions to psilocybin in groovy experiments.  :)

Everyone's biggest fear when it comes to antibiotics is that a superbug will become resistant to everything and we'll have nothing left to beat infections with, right?  Or is that just mine?  In any case, researchers have taken a close look at vancomycin, the "last resort" antibiotic, and actually determined the mechanism by which bacteria develop resistance to it.  It had been debated whether bacteria were tipped off to the antibiotic by noticing it directly, or noticing what it was doing to their cell walls.  It turns out the former is the case, the knowledge of which may help to develop sneakier antibiotics that could still go unnoticed.  Considering the growing number of people who are affected by resistant infections, this is pretty great progress!

Last for the weekend - researchers have devised a more direct method of splitting water molecules for use in solar powered energy...things.  Mimicking the photosynthesis process of plants, a group of scientists have utilized a harmless virus in a gel (to hold conformation) to do the splitting so that hydrogen can be stored for use at any time, rather than only when the sun is shining.  Original in its particular method, the system is still in its creation phase and needs to become more cost effective, efficient, and complete before going into effect.  An end date isn't set, but it's a valuable concept and it's nice to see that it works!

Check out the Twitter feed on the right hand side of the page to see the articles I didn't include today, but were still pretty neat.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you Tuesday!

-Miss mouse

References and Links:

Stressed Out Mice

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100410141344.htm

Psychedelic Medicine

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html

Resistance!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100411143401.htm

Virus Energy

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100411143403.htm