Ovarian Cancer Not Detectable For Years

A recent scientific study indicates that ovarian cancer may not be detectable in the blood using current technology until 10 years after the disease first starts to develop.
The researchers say their work could make future efforts to develop diagnostic blood tests more efficient.

Dr Laura McCallum, Cancer Research UK’s science communications officer, said:

“Detecting cancer at an early stage when treatment is more likely to be successful is one of the most promising ways to reduce deaths from the disease. Biomarkers have the potential to offer a simple, non-invasive way to detect cancer early and scientists, including our own, are working hard to find ones that can do this reliably.
“Mathematical models like this, designed to predict the most effective biomarkers, could help improve the bench to bedside success of such tests in the future.”

Cancerous cells do not die. On the contrary, healthy cells continue replacing the old and dead cells. This makes the cancerous cells multiply amassing to a tumor. It is for the above reasons that the ovarian cancer tumors are very vigorous in body destruction. They mature to hostility without notice and thus silently killing.

Though the cancer appears asymptomatic in early stages, it is detectable in late stages. Most people are diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the 3rd to 5th stage of the disease. This is when almost nothing or too little can be done to cure the patient.

TV Media Commits Scientific Crimes Chapter One

SCIENTIFIC CRIMES (I call scientific crimes to all those acts that denigrate science in all its forms)

Some people use television and other sources of media as their main tool of information, so much that they believe what they are told through the news, including twisted scientific data and statistics. People, as a result, become mis-informed and this creates a not-well educated, fearful, brainwashed society incapable of thinking for themselves.

Here there are some strategies that the  media uses to manipulate the masses, according to Noam Chomsky

The strategy of distraction

The primary element of social control is the strategy of distraction which is to divert public
attention from important issues and changes determined by the political and economic elites,
by the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.
distraction strategy is also essential to prevent the public interest in the essential knowledge
in the area of the science, economics, psychology, neurobiology and cybernetics.

 

Misquoting Albert Einstein a Scientific Crime

Integrity is more important than a set of beliefs, whether it be scientific or spiritual.

Scientific crimes, scientific “sins” committed by people who do not have any regard for science really makes me uncomfortable and uneasy. Yes, I have matured, I do not get angry quite easily anymore, but it is not a pleasant feeling to know that there are people in the world making up stuff just to get noticed and to get financial profit, either on television, radio or the internet.

There are many scientific crimes (as I personally call them) that I especially dislike, and those are the ones related to medicine.  But I will get to them on future posts, and I will address the disrespect for medical science amongst other topics related to medical issues. Now I would like to continue to talk about the above quote, because it has been attributed to Albert Einstein many times, even in Facebook, in forums and blogs; but although he has said many wise things, even quotes that could be classed as spiritual, this particular quote was not authored by Einstein.

Both spirituality and science represent humankind’s search for truth. Two differing perspectives that provide wonderful insights into the nature of existence. There is no doubt that both spirituality and science share the view that everything is energy, or should I say, truth that everything is energy; but it is unfortunate that someone would twist or manufacture a quote in Albert Einstein’s name to further their own cause/beliefs. Einstein said enough wise things that there is no need to make up our own. Integrity is more important than a set of beliefs, whether it be scientific or spiritual.

Dolphins and Humans Brain Intelligence Increased by Teamwork

The average adult human’s brain weighs about 1.3 kilograms, has 100 billion or so neurons, and sucks up 20% of the oxygen we breathe. It’s much bigger than an animal our size needs. According to a new computer model, the brains of humans and related primates are so large because we evolved to be social creatures. If we didn’t play well with others, our brains would be puny.

The idea behind the so-called social intelligence hypothesis is that we need pretty complex computers in our skulls to keep track of all the complex relationships we have with each other—who’s a friend, who’s an enemy, who’s higher in the social ranks. Some studies have supported this idea, showing for example that bigger-brained primates tend to live in bigger social groups. The same appears to hold true for dolphins. But these studies only identified associations between brain and group size; they don’t show how evolution might have worked.

Since they didn’t have a few million years of time on their hands, Ph.D. student Luke McNally and colleagues at Trinity College Dublin simulated evolution on a computer. They started with 50 simple brains. Each had just three to six neurons. The researchers then made each brain challenge the others to one of two classic games: the prisoner’s dilemma or the snowdrift game.

In the prisoner’s dilemma, two people have been taken in for questioning by the police. If both keep their mouths shut, they’ll both be set free. If one sells out the other, the snitch will get off and the other will do a long stint in jail. If they tell on each other, both get shorter sentences. If the game lasts only one round, it’s better to turn in your accomplice. But over the long term, players can start remembering who’s done them a favor and learning to cooperate by maintaining their silence. In the snowdrift game, two people need to dig themselves out of a snowdrift. The best outcome for each player is to sit back while the other one digs, but digging cooperatively isn’t bad, either. In each game, a player’s only choice is whether to cooperate.

After playing one of the games, the brains reproduced asexually. Individuals that did better were programmed to be more likely to have offspring. Then all of the brains in the new generation had a chance to undergo a random mutation. The mutations could change the brain’s structure, number of neurons, or the strengths of the connections between those neurons. Each simulation ran for 50,000 generations, with 10 runs of the simulation for each of the two games.

From: ping.fm

People who take Ritalin are far more aware of their mistakes

A new study, by Dr Rob Hester from the Department of Psychological Sciences and colleagues at the Queensland Brain Institute, investigated how the brain monitors ongoing behaviour for performance errors — specifically failures of impulse control.

It found that a single dose of methylphenidate (Ritalin) results in significantly greater activity in the brain’s error monitoring network and improved volunteers’ awareness of their mistakes.

Diminished awareness of performance errors limits the extent to which humans correct their behaviour and has been linked to loss of insight in a number of clinical syndromes, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Schizophrenia and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The findings demonstrate that activity within those parts of the brain that deal with human error, including the dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) differs depending on whether participants are aware of their performance errors. Critically, researchers showed that a single, clinically relevant dose of methylphenidate, which works by increasing the levels of catecholamines in the brain, dramatically improved error awareness in healthy adults.
Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that methylphenidate was able to promote the conscious awareness of performance errors by strengthening activation differences within the dACC and IPL for errors made with and without awareness, compared to placebo and other comparison drugs.
While the study provided only a single dose of methylphenidate to healthy participants, and needed to be replicated in people using standard clinical doses, the data highlights the potential of pharmacotherapy in addressing problems of awareness and insight that features in a range of neurologic and psychiatric conditions.
Dr Hester said failure to recognise errors was related to poor insight into a person’s clinical condition, which can impair treatment.
“For example, in conditions such as Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease, poor error awareness has been associated with delusions, paranoia and has been the cause of considerable distress to patients,” he said.
“Failing to recognise your own error at the time can account for the difference between your recollection and the reality that confronts you. Understanding the brain mechanisms that underlie how we become conscious of our mistakes is an important first step in improving error awareness, and potentially reducing these symptoms.”

From: http://ping.fm/USYOZ

NASA Northern Lights Video Image

Breathtaking images taking from the ISS

They were created by the Crew Earth Observations team at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre from the series of still images.
The northern lights can be seen above Earth’s northernmost regions, with their counterparts over the southernmost regions called the aurora australis. Nasa previously predicted 2012 would be an extraordinary year for the displays.
They are associated with the solar wind – electrically charged particles continuously spewing outward from the sun.
The Earth’s magnetic field lines reach far out into space as they store energy from the solar wind.
The winds sometimes play havoc with the world’s satellite communication systems.

From: http://ping.fm/xCksw

NASA DARPA US Military Satellites

US military drones soon will be a thing of the past. Now DARPA has created military satellites to “watch out for soldiers” through the “SeeMe” program, because they are cheaper to manufacture, operate and dispose of them.

An illustration shows how swarms of military satellite could give ordinary soldiers battlefield images on demand. CREDIT: DARPA

The military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) research lab aims to launch about two dozen satellites — each costing about $500,000 — for missions lasting 60 to 90 days in low-Earth orbit. Such satellites would not only launch cheaply from aircraft rather than ground-based rocket launch pads, but could also de-orbit at the end of their mission lifetime and burn up safely in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“We envision a constellation of small satellites, at a fraction of the cost of airborne systems, that would allow deployed warfighters overseas to hit ‘see me’ on existing handheld devices and in less than 90 minutes receive a satellite image of their precise location to aid in mission planning,” said Dave Barnhart, program manager for DARPA.

Having a satellite swarm could allow for more constant space-based surveillance compared with using U.S. military drones. But keeping the costs down may depend on whether DARPA can get its airborne satellite-launching system off the ground — a system intended to launch satellites into any required orbit.

“SeeMe is a logical adjunct to UAV technology, which will continue to provide local or regional very high-resolution coverage, but which can’t cover extended areas without frequent refueling,” Barnhart said. “With a SeeMe constellation, we hope to directly support warfighters in multiple deployed overseas locations simultaneously with no logistics or maintenance costs beyond the warfighters’ handhelds.”

Source: Space.com

NASA Big Sunspot Remains Active

I just wish for these sunflares to go away soon; they interfere with my satellite dish TV reception constantly. But nature is the way it is for ions and in the meantime I will enjoy the pictures NASA captures for us.

On March 13, 2012, the sun erupted with an M7.9-class flare that peaked at 1:41 p.m. EDT. This flare was from the same active region, No. 1429, that has been producing flares and coronal mass ejections all week. That region has been moving across the face of the sun since March 2, and will soon rotate out of Earth view.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of an M7.9 class flare on March 13, 2012 at 1:29 p.m. EDT. It is shown here in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength particularly good for seeing solar flares and a wavelength that is typically colorized in teal. (Image credit: NASA/SDO)

Squids Save Energy When Flying

We have a lot to learn from squids!


High photography has accomplished great advances, and one of them is high-speed. This marvelous techique allows to capture the moments of the squid flying over the water of the ocean. Simply amazing.
Squids can save energy by flying rather than swimming, according to calculations based on high-speed photography.

“Photographic study shows that cephalopods travel faster in air than in water.” -Jessica Marshall

Squid of many species have been seen to ‘fly’ using the same jet-propulsion mechanisms that they use to swim: squirting water out of their mantles so that they rocket out of the sea and glide through the air.
Until now, most researchers have thought that such flight was a way to avoid predators1, but Ronald O’Dor, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has calculated that propelling themselves through the air may actually be an efficient way for squid to travel long distances.
The creatures are rarely seen flying, so some researchers argue that the mode of travel is not widespread in migration, but over years of study O’Dor has gathered hints that the behaviour is more common than was thought. Since the 1970s, he has been keeping Northern shortfin squid, Illex illecebrosus, in a 15-metre indoor pool. At first, his research team would often find dead squid around the pool in the morning, the creatures having jumped out of the water over night. “It was clear that if two or three died every night we were going to run out of animals fairly quickly,” says O’Dor. The team ultimately lowered the water level to keep the squid in.

From: http://ping.fm/WJA7M

Multiple Sclerosis Scientific Molecular Map

The molecular structure, described in the February 17, 2012 issue of the journal Science, is unique as the first-ever-to-be-determined lipid G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). Molecules of this type play important roles in everything from cancer to metabolism, and this recent success should pave the way for researchers to establish the structures of other family members.
“There’s something special about the S1P1 receptor,” said Hugh Rosen, MD, PhD, a Scripps Research chemical biologist who co-led the work with Raymond Stevens, PhD, a structural biologist also from The Scripps Research Institute. “The biological consequences of even small changes with this receptor are profound. Understanding its structure provides clues about fundamental processes important in both health and disease.”
“Being able to finally look at a lipid GPCR and the occluded cell surface binding pocket was a surprise but explains many of the issues we wondered about,” said Stevens. “It is likely that other members of this subfamily will have a similar protein architecture.”
The study is a result of decades of research by the Stevens lab to develop methods to determine the structure of GPCRs, much work in the Rosen lab on the receptor biology and chemical tools to stabilize such molecules, and a multi-disciplinary collaboration between the two labs, which Rosen notes is one of the hallmarks of research at The Scripps Research Institute. The scientists acknowledge the support of the National Institutes of Health Common Fund as making the new findings possible.
“This work promises to underscore the importance of research collaboration to accelerate scientific discovery and development of new drug therapies,” said James M. Anderson, MD, PhD, director of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives that guides the NIH Common Fund. “Combining structure-based analysis with small molecule screening serves as a model for effective drug design.”
Controlling Multiple Sclerosis

The new work reveals the structure of the S1P1 receptor, a protein embedded in the membranes of various cell types. When natural ligands such as the signaling lipid sphingosine 1-phosphate or potential drugs make specific interactions deep in receptor, portions of the receptor change shape to trigger cascades of chemical reactions inside the cell important to the maintenance of health.
Researchers have long known that S1P1 receptors play critical roles in controlling multiple sclerosis and other diseases. One way these receptors do this is by regulating the flow of certain white blood cells, or lymphocytes, out of lymph nodes.

This is critical because in patients with multiple sclerosis, auto-reactive lymphocytes attack the protective sheaths of nerve cells in the brain, causing malfunctions in the way the central nervous system transmits signals through the body. The S1P1 receptors are also involved in the progressions of harmful scarring and swelling in response to lymphocyte damages in the brain.
Gilenya, the first oral drug approved to treat multiple sclerosis, reduces this lymphocyte flow out of the lymph nodes in ways first identified by Rosen’s lab about 10 years ago. Based on a screening lead from the National Institutes of Health Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository, Rosen and Scripps Research Chemistry Professor Ed Roberts discovered and optimized other modulators of S1P1 receptors. This led to RPC-1063, a compound in clinical trials for multiple sclerosis by Receptos, a company co-founded by Rosen and Stevens.
Rosen’s lab has also shown that modulating S1P1 receptors can protect mice from a pandemic flu virus. This shows that the receptors may also be good drug development targets for other conditions tied to immune responses.
A Shifting Binding Pocket
The new study used the technique of x-ray crystallography to reveal the high-resolution three-dimensional image of the S1P1 receptor. The results provide scientists with important new details about the receptor’s mechanism of action.
One aspect of the receptor structure that is of particular interest is the binding pocket for the natural ligand or potential drugs that activate the receptor responses. The structure revealed how the binding pocket shifts to activate signaling. Understanding how that occurs makes it easier to identify additional compounds that might have effects in controlling the receptors.
With this structural information in hand, the scientists can now advance efforts to understand the specific chemical transformations that drive the cellular responses tied to multiple sclerosis and other diseases. “Better understanding always allows you to think about applications in a variety of ways that you might not have thought about before,” said Rosen. “This is an area that will keep us busy for many years to come.”
The S1P1 receptor structure has already yielded benefits, according to Michael Hanson, a scientist and director at Receptos, and lead author of the new paper. “The structure has helped us understand the details regarding receptor-ligand interactions for this receptor and structural data can be used more routinely for drug discovery projects of other GPCRs,” he said.

From: http://ping.fm/dGq3z