5 February 2011 - Cancer.

I went ahead and changed the Tue-Thur-Sun Schedule on the site header because...well we all know how dependable I am!  So yes.  I sure do wish blogging was all I did all day!  Instead, here is a picture of a kitten:

That's in my office.  Only a few days older.  Lookitthelittlenose.

Anyhoo.

Today, I'd like to talk about a couple of stories I very recently tweeted regarding cancer.  Oh, by the way - I noticed that twitter gadget was a little bit of fail, so to make it easier for you guys to use from the site I've switched to the Twitter-created version.  Stories should now open in a new tab or window, making it easier for you to read each and come back to the list.  :)  Okay, anyways, CANCER.


First, something called "Cornell dots."  Earlier today I was ranting and raving about how nutty the FDA could get, but here, we see they've graciously permitted the testing of something really nifty - inorganic, tiny dye beads inside a small silica ball.  The little balls are small enough to safely pass from the body, as well as being coated with "don't-destroy-me" chemicals.  Organic binding bits are stuck to the little dye nanoparticles, making them seek out and stick to tumor cells.  Once exposed to "near-infrared" light, they fluoresce brightly, allowing examiners to spot problem sites very easily.  They're using radioactivity to double-check results, and will be looking for how long it takes the particles to reach and tag different organ systems, and the length of time needed to leave the body.

Next, most people recognize that sun damage ups your risk for skin cancer, specifically melanoma, but exactly HOW that occurs is still a bit foggy.  Well, new research based on previous findings (that a certain kind of interferon moving when exposed to UVB radiation can actually lead to cancerous growth) shows that adding a drug that may block that interferon's activity enough to prevent or halt cancer growth.  I don't think there are results on that yet, but it'll be interesting to see where this goes, fo sho.


Mmkay, I know this one was brief, but there was a kitten, so you can't blame me.  :)  Keep reading the twitter feed, and I'll be around!

-Miss Mouse



References and Links:
Cancer Dots
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110205162831.htm

More "we're-at-least-onto-something" Science
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110205141314.htm

6 April 2010 - Links

Hey!

I'm sorry, I was way too overwhelmed today to write a decent post, :( BUT I did find a bunch of great articles yesterday and today!  So, here are your links:

Armored T-Shirts

http://ow.ly/1v72R

Nanotube black holes

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406125716.htm

Rising River Temperatures in the US

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406101444.htm

Early Emphysema Tests

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406101450.htm

Pyrimidines for Cancer Treatments

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406093512.htm

For Those Concerned about the Speed of Nano Progress without Health Testing (me)

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-04/enzyme-blood-cells-breaks-down-carbon-nanotubes-paving-way-nano-delivered-drugs

Toxoplasmosis via the Iberian Lynx

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406074641.htm

Neurons Cooperating to Get Message Heard

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/562910/?sc=swhn

Drug That Caused Birth Defects in 60s May Be Useful in Stopping Bleeding

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/notorious-drug-stanches-bleeding.html

Enjoy, and I'm sorry I couldn't write more!  I promise a real post on Thursday!  :)

-Miss Mouse

4 April 2010 - Massive Quarks, Nanoprobing, HIV, Space, and Smelly Ants

Happy Easter, if that's your thing  ;)

A lot happened between Thursday and today - it was pretty tough to pick what to write about!

First, a group of researchers have recently nailed down the mass of up and down quarks to a 1.5% certainty - a big jump from the previous 30%!  Using a simulation technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), they have narrowed down the mass of the up quark to 2.01 MeV give or take 0.14 MeV, and the down quark to 4.79 +/- 0.16 MeV.  Not only is this a pretty impressive accomplishment, it should be very helpful information for current research - especially if it can help the fellows over at the LHC.  It does still need to be challenged and replicated, but it's still pretty exciting!  For details about how they did it, check out the link at the bottom of this post.

Next, in the ever-growing world of nano, a new probe has been created capable of incorporating itself into cells without damaging them.  Mimicking transmembrane proteins, the tip of the probe is coated with two chromium layers with a gold layer in between them, to line up with the hydrophilic and hydrophobic sections of the cell's membrane.  Before, if you wanted to study the internal workings of a cell via probe, you would have to puncture a hole in it for the probe and it would die within a couple of hours.  This 600 nm long silicon probe, however, may be able to remain in place without disturbing a cell for potentially up to a week.  The developers are currently testing it for future uses including medicine delivery, observing signals within and between cells, and monitor therapy responses.

Over at the California Institute of Technology, scientists have discovered key information about a specific protein on the surface of a common variety of HIV.  Called gp120, the protein is commonly utilized in attempts to create vaccines for the virus.  Not only was the protein's structure verified in their experimentation, but they also noticed that an antibody called 21c interacting with the protein on the HIV envelope also simultaneously bound with a CD4 receptor on a T-cell - meaning it's marking the T-cell to get killed as well as the virus.  This is called polyreactivity, and it raises many questions about the use of that antibody and ones like it in the future.  Definitely not what they expected, just looking for the structure of the gp120 protein!

Now, news in space!  Blasting off Friday and docking Sunday, the Russian Soyuz carried one US and two Russian astronauts to the International Space Station for a half year visit.  Following them Monday will be 8 tons of supplies aboard the Discovery, including coolant and equipment for scientific studies.  There was a problem noted with a valve in one of the rockets, but it's been determined to not pose a major risk to the flight.  NASA has only four more flights planned.

Lastly, "odorous" house ants, Tapinoma sessile, are known to take up residence in acorns in the woods of North America and remain in small groups of 50-100 ants.  However, researchers have noticed that when these ants live in urban settings, they form gigantic colonies of more than 5 million ants and interfere with the growth of other colonies.  Scientists are going to start looking toward their genetics for an answer to why the drastic shift.



Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone had a great weekend!  See you Tuesday!
-Miss Mouse



References and Links:
Quarks
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/mass-of-the-common-quark-finally.html
Nanoprobe
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/stealthy-nanoprobe-slips-seamlessly-cell-walls
HIV Protein and Antibodies
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100402154919.htm

Space
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6310EO20100402
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6330BJ20100404
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6943278.html
Smelly Ants
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/scienceshot-country-ants-go-to-t.html

1 April 2010 - Invisible Mice, Vegetable Lambs, Gene Therapy with Nano, and Lukewarm Planet Earth

First for today...check it out!  New news on the science world's favorite test animal.

That's your prank for the day.  :)  Now, while I'm pretty nervous about browsing the headlines for serious happenings in science, here are a few that caught my eye anyway.

First, and only slightly less silly, a group of scientists are doing a broad study checking out several plants used in old medicines in Vietnam.  This has led them to the "vegetable lamb" plant, whose picture is simply too amazing not to include (credit "Wikimedia Commons"):

While this plant does NOT actually spawn baby sheep, like once thought, it does in fact contain interesting chemicals which prevent the body from breaking down bone.  Hopefully, this new information will lead to more doors opening for the many people affected by osteoporosis!

Next!  If you're familiar with gene therapy, you already know that to introduce new genes to a subject you need a vector, or something to carry those genes to where they need to go.  A virus makes a pretty good vector, but the world of nano seems to be offering better.  Scientists at Buffalo, Cleveland, and OKC have used a nanoparticle vector carrying a normal gene to replace faulty genes in mice with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that causes retinal cells to die and eventually cause blindness.  Mice injected with the carrier and gene both stopped deterioration of the retina cells AND experienced improved tissue, while mice injected with the gene alone or saline solution continued to lose vision.  In addition, there seemed to be no negative effects caused by the nanoparticle vector!

Lastly, researchers are taking global warming debates back a few billion years to attempt to explain why, if the sun was 30% dimmer 4 bya, was the planet not a completely frozen popsicle.  New findings in rock from Greenland shows CO2 content in the atmosphere of not more than 1000 ppm, which is around 3 times the current amount.  This shoots a bit of a hole in the idea that the planet stayed warm because of massive amounts of CO2 causing a greenhouse effect, but leaves a big question mark on why.  Those researchers are suggesting that perhaps reduced cloud cover (due to little of the required gases being produced by young life) in addition to greater ocean cover absorbing more sunlight could be the answer, but others argue these things could not have made enough of a difference, and that greenhouse gases still have to play a role to keep the earth thawed.  We'll see!

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you Sunday!

-Miss Mouse

References and Links:

Vegetable Lamb

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100331122652.htm

Gene Therapy Helps Blind See

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100331141623.htm

Lukewarm Earth 4 BYA

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/03/why-didnt-early-earth-freeze-the.html

27 March 2010 - Eggs, Nano-Healers, and Baby Stars

Hellos!

I just came across an article stating that mother birds leave “messages” for their chicks within the eggs, so that the chicks develop differently when they hatch.  The association seen here is that chicks (canaries, in this experiment) born from “generous” (well-fed?) parents beg more as adolescents, where as eggs birthed by stingier parents beg less.  This was tested by switching the eggs between two mothers of said habits/nutrition and noting the begging done by the chicks.  This makes two interesting points, imo.  First, depending on at what point in nesting the eggs were switched, the development of feeding expectations has less to do with the care of the egg and more to do with the signals within once laid.  This might not have been news to them, but it was pretty new to me.  Second, as the article points out, the begging behavior which corresponds with the two different conditions seems to be more focused on the energy necessary to be expended by the chick, in constant asking for food, and less to do with the mother’s convenience.  I wonder if this will bring about a new form of selection in birds?

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Lab have recently put forth findings by computer simulations of nanocrystalline materials “healing” damage to nuclear reactors by exposure to high radiation.  Basically, radiation hitting the materials of the reactor cause some atoms to be forced out of place, leaving a tiny hole where they used to be.  The frequent damage over time causes the material to become affected in a nasty way.  However, nanocrystalline materials have been shown, through this program in various simulations, to trap or “load” these lost particles from damage, then, and this is the surprise part, to “unload” these later on into gaps in the material near them, filling in the damage caused by radiation and effectively healing it.  Now, we were already pretty sure they took in these particles in the first place, but releasing them into nearby gaps?  That’s pretty cool.  Now, this is definitely outside my expertise, so if you’d like a better explanation of how they did it and what they found, check out the link at the bottom of this post for the report in Science Daily.  :)

Last for today, astronomers have captured beautiful and amazing photographs of a “star nursery” from 10 billion light-years away.  Normally, this would be a tough thing to accomplish.  However, very large galaxy clusters happen to be in the way, bending the light just enough for us to get a terrific view.  Apparently, the effect of those clusters makes the nursery (SMMJ2135-0102) appear 16 times larger.  Check out the photo gallery here:  Photo Galleries at PopSci

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you Tuesday with more Science!
-Miss Mouse

References and Links:
Egg Messages

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100311141209.htm

Self-Healing Nuclear Reactors

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325151347.htm

Bending Light to See a Star Nursery

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-03/bending-gravity-researchers-capture-star-birthing-region-10-billion-light-years-away