Articulatory Loop

Plastics are all too often at the center of environmental crises. Petrol used to make them gets spilled, and plastic wastes clog landfills with their near-endless lifespan. And of course there's the cute stuff (see picture).

But now researchers have found a way for a plastic to be potentially Earth-saving: US and Korean scientists developed a plastic film with hourglass-shaped pores, which act like semi-permeable membranes found in plants, filtering CO2 and other smaller molecules selectively. The technology could go a long way not only in improving processing of waste gas and harvesting fuels, but also in cleanup of things like oil spills. Cool!

Speaking of novel, a phase I trial of an ovarian cancer vaccine yielded very encouraging results. The vaccine contains an immune stimulant and some surface proteins from common cancer cells, and seem to effectively stimulate the body to kill cancer cells (which it usually won't do). If this pans out in Phase II and III trials and in life, it would be huge, not only for cancer but potentially for many other diseases as well.

And finally, we have the oldest cure (and my favorite): booze! US researchers found that red wine (but not white) seems to inhibit infection by food-borne pathogens Listeria, Salmonella, E. coli, and H. pylori. Grape juice had a similar effect, but that's no fun. Plus, an Australian man's life was saved (after he drank antifreeze) by a three-day IV drip of vodka. Sadly, he was unconscious and didn't get to enjoy it.

Labels: booze, cancer, diarrhea, environment, food-borne pathogens, plastics, red wine, technology, vaccine, vodka

Everything has side-effects, especially medications. Many are bad, some are good, and most come as a bit of a surprise.

A household item, so basic it's hard to even think of it as medicine, may turn out to be a powerful weapon against cancer: talc, when applied to the chest cavity, appears to greatly (and lastingly) stimulate production of the powerful anti-cancer hormone endostatin. Yay for baby powder!

On the downside (or possibly not, depending on how evil you are): those wheeled shoes that seem so popular these days, sending already-bothersome children (and frat boys...hi Mark!) careening down supermarket aisles at ever-increased velocity, appear to be linked to a rash of orthopedic injuries. Hah-hah!

In a recent study, US researchers found that a popular anti-hypertension drug, isradipine, seems to slow, and maybe even halt, the neurodegenerative process of Parkinson's disease. They found that young dopamine neurons used sodium gradients for their electrical activity, but older ones used calcium - a much more unruly and dangerous ion for cells - and that isradipine seems to force the cells to 'rejuvenate,' reverting to less-damaging sodium pump function. Aside from how awesome it'd be to really have a treatment for Parkinson's (to which I am rather strongly genetically predisposed), this discovery is bloody cool!

More good news for Parkinson's sufferers (at least in countries that aren't run by anti-science nimrods): researchers injected human neural stem cells into Parkinsonian monkeys, and found that they showed sustained improvement in symptomology. Awesome!!!

Drugs aren't the only things that have multiple surprising effects: Alzheimer's disease whipping-boy protein gamma-secretase (an enzyme responsible for production of AD's signature amyloid plaques) may not be a good place to target drug interventions. You see, it also acts as a potent tumor suppressor by lowering activity of epidermal growth factor receptor, which is implicated in skin cancer development. Bad as AD is, patients probably won't be lining up to get cancer instead.

Speaking of brains. Those of medical residents work better on more sleep, and patient care improves as a result. Well, OK, maybe not strictly as a result of more sleep, but certainly as a result of less overworked residents: a Yale study has found that patient care improved after the training program moved to the new 80-hour maximum week for residents.

And, last but not least, the Bad News. At least, for those looking for a quick-fix miracle diet pill, now that TrimSpa is ... errr ... not so hot anymore. We've all been awaiting the FDA study results on rimonabant, aka Acomplia, aka Zimulti, aka that-CB-1inhbitor-Michael-keeps-blabbing-about.

Well here's the thing: it seems to be fairly effective for weight loss (a promising but unthrilling 5% over placebo), but it has a very prominent side effect: depression and suicidal thoughts. I have to admit though, I'm not really impressed so far: people likely to be prescribed such a drug are likely to be highly sensitive about their self-esteem in the first place. If the drug doesn't work the almost-certainly advertised "miracles" they might get really disheartened. On the other hand, CB1 is rather profoundly linked to mood and cognition, and to motivation/executive functions, so that its inhibition could cause depression doesn't shock me one bit.

Hmmmmm......

Labels: Alzheimers, cancer, CB1, disease, drugs, fat, health care, hypertension, injury, kids, Parkinson's, rimonabant, science, stem cells, stupidity, weight-loss

My first week of my internship has been tons of fun, but very busy. Thus, here are a ton of quick-link type things to the many big important sciencey news stories that are going on:

American and Japanese people read faces very differently, the former focusing on the mouth and the latter on eyes. It makes for a very interesting contrast, and has interesting implications even beyond emoticons - :-) versus (^_^).

Taking tons of vitamin supplements may be linked to more malignant and fatal cancers: bloody eat your vegetables and take less pills people!

British food is notoriously tasteless: it may also be less nutritious! A Warwick study found that boiling brassicas (broccoli and the like) for 30 minutes severely reduces the amount of cancer-fighting glucosinolate in the meal. Why the fuck would you boil a vegetable for 30 minutes, even if you're English?!?!?

California researchers found that N-acetylglucosamine, which is similar to but is NOT the popular supplement glucosamine, may help block the autoimmune responses seen in multiple sclerosis and diabetes type I. Cool!

US still has worst, most expensive healthcare in the "industrialized world."

The US and DC have reached agreement on a plan to 'fix' St. Elizabeth's Hospital...including such lofty goals as halting patient abuse. This old place has been in trouble for so long, that it'll be really kinda weird if they ever do fix it up! But I hope they do, since aside from being necessary to help mental patients in DC, it's a gorgeous old campus.

And the NIH has given Erin Brockovich more to crow about. They've finally released findings that Chromium 6 may indeed cause cancer by ingestion, not just inhalation. Whether or not this means that the EPA will actually act to reduce its release into the environment is an entirely different issue.

Labels: autoimmune, cancer, chromium, culture, DC, diabetes, emotion, health, healthcare, mental health, science, St. Elizabeth's

So there's bad news out there today: oral sex is linked to throat cancer. HPV, the same virus famous for causing cervical cancer in women, has been linked to a dramatic increase in throat cancer risk in both men and women. The upside is that there's a vaccine, but the downside is, it's not approved for use in men. Hopefully this research will motivate a quicker turnaround to see if it does, and then either get men to take it or find something that works.

Speaking of things that go down your throat (and, ultimately, about sex), Canadian researchers have found that omega-3 fats from fish oil seem to improve muscle mass (site in French). Cattle fed a diet supplemented with marine omega-3's showed improved insulin sensitivity and better protein metabolism - twice the amount of amino acids was used by their bodies to synthesize proteins, especially in muscles. The applications for farming is clear, and applications to human problems (and vanity, lest we forget) are on the horizon, pending further study. Cool!

Labels: cancer, cattle, diet, fat, health, HPV, insulin, metabolism, muscle, omega-3, oral sex, proetein, sex, vaccine

Since September 2001, American travelers have been subjected to ever-increasingly ridiculous and ineffective 'security measures.' The most recent set of rules, which comprise TSA's War on Moisture, bans passengers from carrying any liquids or gels onto a plane, in response to a botch attempt at a scientifically impossible attack.

Now, it comes out that the rules themselves are posing a real health threat to passengers: people attempting to comply have been putting contact lens solution into smaller containers, only to inadvertently put other things in their eyes. Admittedly, doing this borders on Darwin Award territory, but due to poor general knowledge about such things as sterility, etc., it is a serious health risk and one that can be easily prevented.

Speaking of Darwin Awards, smoking should garner some sort of honorable mention. We all know how bad it is for us, but people continue to insist that they're *special* or don't care and keep smoking, dragging down everyone else's health too. And, of course, this is all more than a little bit due to tobacco companies' aggressive marketing tactics. The newest game - "potentially reduced-exposure product" (PREP) cigarettes - are claimed to be 'less likely to cause cancer,' an easy out for smokers who don't want to quit. Needless to say, there is no evidence to support these safety claims, but I doubt that will stop anyone making them.

Finally, Indian car maker Tata has licensed technology to produce an air-powered car. I don't really understand how the powertrain works, but if it does like it claims, it'll be a GINORMOUS deal: to eliminate fossil fuel burning engines (or even just reduce their use) would have incredible benefits for everyone. Except Halliburton and Exxon, so don't expect the things to be available in the US anytime soon.

Labels: airplanes, cancer, car, cigarettes, Darwin Awards, energy, environment, health, security, Tata, travel, TSA, War on Moisture

Yeah, being in 'good shape' via diet and exercise is good - it may even make you smarter!* - but there are more interesting shape-changing things around today. First off, it appears that global warming may be exerting noticeable evolutionary impact already: Scottish sheep have been getting smaller as winters get more mild. If we're seeing a change in sheep, we can pretty safely assume changes in other animals as well**!

But it's possible that sheep won't need to be as big, or produce enough wool, if Philips Electronics' newest patent works out: the company has woven 'muscle fibers' into clothes, which can be activated by a power source to auto-fit them to your body (PDF). Sounds pretty cool, but I can't imagine it being comfortable. And what if you get rained on? Will you be rusted in to your clothes?!

Changing shape in the bad sense, human papilloma virus (HPV) causes cells to grow abnormally, often leading to genital warts and cancer. With an effective vaccine available to women, some attention has turned to seeing if it works on men too. I can't imagine why it wouldn't, nor can I think of a reason not to give it to us - if for no other reason than lowering the number of reservoirs in which resistant strains might develop. But, of course, this is America, and some people don't like saving lives.

Speaking of cancer - it appears that vitamin C is still good for you. It may protect against oral cancer, reducing the risk of pre-cancerous lesions. BUT! You have to get it from real food, not pills. One more reason to add more fruits and veggies to your diet!

* Like all stereotypes, the whole dumb-jock archetype isn't a myth, but also not the whole story. People who focus on one thing - athletics or academics - aren't likely to be great at the other. Similarly, his sample of neuroscience students just doesn't scream "external validity."

** It's not clear whether warm weather also makes sheep gay.

Labels: cancer, clothes, electronics, exercise, fruit, HPV, intelligence, sheep, vaccine, vitamin C

Michigan researchers have found that tyrosine kinase SH2B1 appears to act as a central modulator for body weight. The protein interacts with leptin and insulin signaling molecules in the brain, and eliminated weight gain in mice on a high-fat diet. SH2B1 knockout mice got really fat.

Women getting fat for a different reason - pregnancy - may need to cut out one less thing they love for the duration: coffee! A pretty large Danish study suggests that low-moderate (3 cups/day) coffee consumption was not related to risk of low birth weight or prematurity. Probably still better to avoid caffeine, but maybe a little would help take the edge off.

But that may be moot, because after pregnancy is over, American conservative women tend not to really care what happens to children. The latest evidence? Complaints from parents and rabble-rousers have convinced the sponsor of a Maryland bill to require school-aged girls get the HPV vaccine to pull the measure. Why? Because being absolutely sure we don't do anything that might in any way encourage teenagers to do what comes naturally to them (fool around) is more important than preventing painful and fatal diseases. No, there is no gray area here. Parents have a duty to protect their kids as best as they can, and that includes doing things that may involve your 12-year-old knowing what her bits are for.

Finally: Yes, I'm still sick. Will go to the doctor if not better tomorrow.

Labels: caffeine, cancer, coffee, HPV, idiocy, legislation, leptin, Maryland, mice, obesity, pregnancy, sex, SH2B1

But stress is still bad: women who were more stressed out while pregnant have kids who are more likely to develop ADHD, lower IQ, and other developmental/behavioral problems. The effect seems to be modulated by amniotic cortisol, and so it could be possible to block it, even if the moms won't chill.

Lots of good news for what's bad for you today. Mice with a model condition for Multiple Sclerosis showed a significant reduction in symptoms when exposed to carbon monoxide. It's not clear if the researchers tested for side effects here (there must have been a few!), and certainly the method used in mice would be lethal to humans, but it's an interesting step. It seems to work by blocking free radical production, but I wonder why then high doses of, say, vitamin C isn't effective as well. Hmm.

Patients with an rare, deadly form of cancer - acute promyelocytic leukemia - seem to do very well on a combination of radiation and chemo with arsenic trioxide. I wonder if old lace helps?

And finally, a new way to quit smoking: brain damage!!! Neuroscientists found that many patients with damage to the insula spontaneously lose the urge to smoke. The thing is that not all of them do, and it's not clear why. Also, discussion of surgical smoking-cessation techniques is frankly a bit scary: yes, smoking is amazingly bad for you, and yes it's hard to quit, but the risks (not to mention the costs!) of any kind of brain surgery is way too much to even consider, I think.

Labels: ADHD, arsenic, brain damage, cancer, carbon monoxide, cigarettes, development, health, leukemia, mice, MS, pregnancy, smoking, stress

Brains are important. Smart people caused the Democrats to take control of the House and Senate, electing us our first female Speaker, and scientists keep figuring out cool stuff that can make our lives better, and make us all even smarter still!

It seems that millions of people are growing up to be less smart than they could be, and much of this could be alleviated if only they had more toys. That's right: more toys. Well, that and better nutrition, but toys is so much more sensational a thing to say.

Once we get smart, of course, we want to stay that way, and the prospect of Alzheimer's is so scary in part because it takes away our hard-won intelligence and knowledge. The good news is, it seems, that doing simple 'mental exercises' could help stave off dementia, and improve our performance here and now as well.

The results of our smarter selves? Well, there's stuff like this: Johns Hopkins researchers have patented a new sugar combination to fight cancer. By binding cancer-killer butyrate to N-acetyl-D-mannosamine, it allows for quick access to target cells, and seems to effectively kill them. Though the results are only on culture so far, this is a really promising step.

With all this new information flying at us all the time, it needs storage: and smart people at Seagate claim that they've found what looks like a way to make 30+ terabyte drives available pretty soon. What comes after tera?

Finally, people who read this blog are clearly pretty smart. Not just because you're reading it, but because at least 60% of you know better than to read it using Internet Explorer! ...I'm just sayin...

Labels: Alzheimers, brains, cancer, computers, dementia, development, HDD, intelligence, internet, neuroscience, nutrition, politics, storage, toys

In a turn sure to depress, enrage, and otherwise irritate the womens' movement, it seems that women who do more housework may be less likely to get breast cancer. Truthfully, what the researchers found was that women who were not obese and got a good amount of moderately strenuous exercise were less likely to develop the disease, but it seems that the way women were getting said exercise was by doing housework. (insert your own vaguely demeaning and sexist comment about the dust in my apartment here...I'm too tired to think of one)

On the upside, an Austrian has performed a recently discovered 'lost' Mozart composition. If it really is by Mozart, that's pretty cool. Actually, if it's good, it's pretty cool!

Also sadly, but worth coming out to celebrate, is tonight's penultimate Bluestate at the Black Cat. It's free, there will be dancing, and there will be ridiculousness. See you there!

Labels: Bluestate, breast cancer, cancer, feminism, gender roles, housework, Mozart, music, science, society, women

The rise of large animal life has long baffled biologists; the so-called "Darwin's Dilemma" fuels not only scientific inquiry and curiosity, but also gets used by crazies as 'evidence' that evolution isn't real. The 'Dilemma' is this - that for billions of years, life on Earth was pretty simple (well, small anyways), but then suddenly all kinds of large animals started appearing, and it's unclear why.

Queen's College researchers looked at evidence of the atmospheric composition in past eras, and found that the sudden development of large animals happened as atmospheric oxygen levels were dramatically increasing. Oxygen is, of course, critical to sustaining life as we know it on Earth, and large quantities of it are necessary to sustain large animals: before there was much oxygen around, big animals wouldn't have survived, but once there was enough to support them, one can speculate that larger size began to hold many advantages.

In terms of more recent beginnings of life, the evidence strongly indicates that breastfeeding babies is the best thing to do for them. Despite this, about 60% of American women don't breastfeed even for the first six months of life, which is the base recommendation for health, and researchers wonder why. An Australian study found that women who take an epidural pain killer during labor are less likely to breastfeed their babies.

It's not clear whether the drug itself is responsible for the difference, or if it's just that women who go without are more likely to stick it out in terms of breastfeeding. My guess is that it's a bit of column A and a lot of column B, but then, I'm a cynic.

On the other end of gestation, it appears that anti-impotence drugs, which increase NO transmission, may actually help the body fight cancer. That's right: Viagra for cancer! Researchers found that the increased NO levels interfere with immune down-regulating myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), allowing the system to detect and kill cancers more effectively. Awesome!

Labels: atmosphere, birth, breastfeeding, cancer, Darwin, epidural, evolution, nature, NO, science, Viagra