Author Archives: kushani

Diamonds are the cure to cancer???

Posted on March 18, 2011 | 3 comments


Source:Chemical and Engineering News


Cancer treatment research is ever evolving and according to an article in Voice of America it seems like nanodiamonds maybe the result of all this new research. Nanodiamonds are tiny particles of carbon that are just a couple of nanometers in size and there are hopes that they will make cancer drugs more effective and decrease the use of chemotherapy.

According to Dean Ho at the Northwestern University, nanodiamonds attract water which allows it to bind to anti-cancer drugs. This is a very important property because generally tumors reject the drugs, but when they are attached to nanodiamonds they do not. In fact, they were better able to retain the drug for a longer period of time. Based on the studies conducted on mice, the use of nanodiamonds has shown to be more effective with fewer side effects. They were also able to administer the drugs at an elevated level without causing any harm to the mice while successfully reducing the tumors to their smallest size.

However, nanodiamonds are not just restricted to the use of cancer treatment. It can be used in other areas of medicine. For example, Dean Ho and his team found it very useful when used in conjunction with therapeutic drugs such as insulin which is used in wound-healing applications.

A lot more studies need to be done before this test can be tested on humans, but the fact that these nanodiamonds are made from the “byproducts of industrial explosions such as mining” means this technology will not cost much more than regular cancer treatment, which will come as good news for future society.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Fun!, Issues in Science, New and innovative science, Uncategorized

Alzheimer’s Disease

Posted on February 16, 2011 | Comments Off on Alzheimer’s Disease

A recent clinical trial on the hit show “Grey’s Anatomy” that was being conducted to find the cure to Alzheimer’s inspired me to write this blog post because I really don’t know much about this disease other than the fact that patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s suffer from dementia and therefore, wanted to know more about the causes of this disease.

Alzheimer’s is a “progressive and degenerative disease” and is the most common form of dementia. The name for this disease comes from the doctor who first identified the disease: Dr. Alois Alzheimer. According to his research there are two main features to this disease: Plaques and Tangles

Plaques are made of a protein already consisting within the brain called A-beta. A patient with Alzheimer’s generally has more of this protein that accumulates in the brain. They accumulate in such high numbers that it makes it difficult for the enzymes in the brain whose job is to get rid of this protein overwhelming the whole system. Over time as they accumulate they condense into plaques that are toxic.  Researchers believe that these A-beta proteins somehow change the genetic code of the tau protein thereby promoting development of “Tangles”.

Tangles as mentioned before are made of tau protein. These are located in the nerve cells and perform key duties such as self-repair of the nervous system as well as maintaining a transport system within the nerve cells. However after these are modified by the A-beta protein they tend to pile up and create tangles. By creating these tangles the transport system of the cells is disrupted and therefore the cell dies.

The toxic plaques along with the tangles leads to the slow degeneration of cells in the brain, thereby causing the brain to shrink as seen in the following picture.

"Normal Aged brain vs Alzheimer's patient"

I hope to look into more research that has been done on the purpose of the A-beta protein as well as other further research into how doctors might proceed to deal with this disease in the future. Until then I will direct you to the following link that has more information on Alzheimer’s Disease.

http://www.alzheimer.ca/english/

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Posted in Biological Sciences, General, Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News, Uncategorized

13th Zodiac Sign: Ophiuchus….?

Posted on January 28, 2011 | 2 comments

“I will not settle for being a PISCES!! I’m so sad! I want to stay an ARIES!!”

“Eww I’m a Taurus!!! NOOOOOO!!!

          These were just a couple of the status updates that we saw all across the social web on January 14th, when news started to come out of the addition of a 13th zodiac sign. The new sign was called Ophiuchus. Now for some this may not matter, but for those people who avidly check their horoscope or even have a tattoo of their zodiac sign this was bad news because it initially meant a shift in zodiac signs for everyone.

So why do we have the new zodiac sign?

             According to the initial comments made by an astronomer by the name of Parke Kunkle from Minnesota, the Earth has been wobbling slightly on its axis due to the gravitational pulls from the Moon; thereby changing its position with relation to the Sun. According to him the change has been enough to change the dates of zodiac signs and has also made it necessary to add a 13th sign, Ophiuchus.

So is this really “new” news? Does this mean we have different horoscopes readings/signs?

        No, because according to popular astronomers such as Susan Miller as well as the more recent clarified statements made by Parke Kunkle stated that  none of this is actual new information, and according to them “astronomers have known this since 130 B.C”. Furthermore, this has no effect on our horoscope readings here in the West because Western astrologers use the Tropical zodiac where as Vedic astrologers, such as those based in India use the Sidereal zodiac. “The Tropical zodiac is based on the movement of the seasons where as the Sidereal zodiac is based on the actual positioning of the stars.” This is important because as the Earth shifts Vedic astrology changes along with it. So while this 13th sign might be important to Vedic astrologers, to us in the West nothing changes and our zodiac signs and dates stay intact.

              Hopefully this will clear up any concerns that you may have had about your sign. I also think this serves as a great reminder for all of us on the importance of always doing our research before we get caught up in all the media hoopla that surrounds us.

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Posted in Fun!, Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News