Category Archives: Biological sciences

Can Exercise Help to Prevent Cancer?

Posted on March 12, 2014 by | 7 comments

Many people have believed cancer is found in people’s genes and therefore cannot be prevented. It is a good thing to see that simple exercise is proving people wrong. However in as much as it is true that certain types of cancers run in the family; most cancers are not linked to genes we inherit from our parents. In fact, only a small portion of all cancers is inherited. Cancer is highly preventable and not just cancer, many other diseases too; such as heart attacks and chronic illnesses. These killer diseases can be prevented by a simple general change in a person’s lifestyle.

A large study in 2008 found out that a combination of four healthy behaviors could automatically improve your health or even help prevent killer diseases. These behaviors were: not smoking, moderating how much alcohol you drink, keeping active and eating five daily portions of fruit and vegetables everyday. The people who ticked all the four healthy boxes are more likely to gain fourteen years of life compared to those who do not follow what the healthy boxes require. At the end of the study, health doctors said that they were less likely to die from cancer or heart disease.

(image from: wikimedia)

Exercise is a good take to battle cancer with. Exercise even prevents people from being overweight, which is another cause for diseases like diabetes, heart failure and cancer. Exercise is simple to do and a God sent healer. Why don’t people just embrace it and do it wholeheartedly and eventually save lives. Furthermore, it is inexpensive; you do not need to have a gym instructor to discipline yourself in exercise. It is a matter of a decision – to wake up early in the morning and go jogging for a couple of hours. This will increase your blood circulation and make sure your body is fit and healthy.

This is a call for everyone who values their health, no matter what your weight is. A list of that can be prevented by exercising is: Being active boosts high density lipoprotein or cholesterol which in turn decreases unhealthy triglycerides. It prevents cancer, heart attacks, stroke, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, depression, metabolic syndrome, falls and basically almost every single disease. So, worry no more about your health and embrace exercise.

Anti-cancer food (image from: wikimedia)

Eating right is the next big thing that anyone can engage in to save their lives. A study has shown that being overweight after completing cancer treatment was the cause of shorter survival times and a higher risk of cancer recurrence. People talk of eating a balanced diet but which foods really prevent cancer? Anti-cancer foods really work, yes; it’s being tried and tested. While you exercise your way to a healthy living, you can try these foods too to help prevent occurrence and recurrence of cancer: blueberries, green tea, garlic, broccoli, onions, cooked tomatoes, red wine, soybeans, turmeric and watercress. The delicious foods have also, in addition to exercise, been on the front line in battling prostrate, breast, lung, and colon cancers.

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Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Science communication, Science in the news

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Synesthesia, a Real-life Superpower

Have you ever wanted to have night vision, or Clark Kent’s super-hearing? Although those particular powers may be firmly set in the realm of comic books, there are real people in the world with what many describe as a special ability; synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a phenomenon where one stimulus triggers two or more of the areas of the brain that deal with processing sensations. Basically, synesthetes (people who have synesthesia), have the sensation of tasting colors, seeing music or experiencing other, even more amazing examples of the blending of perception. A synesthete may taste raspberries just from seeing the color blue, or vice versa!

There are many different types of synesthesia, however the most prevalent is grapheme-color synesthesia, which means that someone associates color to a particular letter.  Patricia Lynn, a writer and a famous synesthete, explains how she sees text:

“For as long as I could remember, each letter of the alphabet had a different color.  Each word had a different color too… and so did each number.  The colors of letters, words and numbers were as intrinsic a part of them as their shapes, and like the shapes, the colors never changed.”

How synesthetes with grapheme – color synesthesia might see these letters.

Besides being a cool get-to-know-you fact, synesthesia can have practical benefits. Patricia explains how synesthesia helped her learn her letters as a child: “[To] make an ‘R’, all I had to do was first write a ‘P’ and then draw a line down from its loop. … I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange one just by adding a line,”.  Other perks include having a better memory for certain tasks, or identifying musical notes more easily thanks to this biological quirk.

Like many other synesthetes, Patricia went a large part of her life without knowing that the way she saw the world was unique.  This fact has somewhat impeded our ability to study what is going in the brains of people with synesthesia; potential subjects don’t know that they are different from others.  Worse still is that just a few decades ago, those who actually realized they could feel what others didn’t would be labeled as having an overly-active imagination. Knowledge about this phenomenon was just too niche and most did not believe that this is how synesthetes legitimately saw the world.

Thankfully, that’s changed in the past few decades. We now have a better understanding of what is happening when, say, a dog barking sets of a display of fireworks in the mind of the synesthete. In the average brain, all the major regions are quite predictably interconnected; our functional networks are hooked up to give us the every-day perception of reality (how dull!). One theory states that unlike us, people who have synesthesia have significantly greater connectivity  between two or several of their perceptual centers .  Say, a person who experiences music as sensations in their body would have a greater amount of connectivity between the auditory and somatosensory (the part that processes touch) centers of the brain. How this occurs is still mostly a mystery.

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Steffie Tomson (Synesthesia Researcher) [Creative Commons attribution licence]

Although almost all synesthetes are born with their ability, there have been incidents of people getting synesthesia as a result of brain trauma. Although I would love to see  songs give me a personal visual display when I go dancing, I don’t think I’d ever resort to such extreme measures.

 

Written and published by Alena Safina

 

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Posted on March 10, 2014 by in Biological sciences, Science communication

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It’s in the Blood

Posted on March 10, 2014 by | 7 comments

Breakthrough research was published on March 9th 2014 by Dr. Howard Federoff and a team of researchers in Washington DC. They developed a blood test that identifies 10 biological markers which has been shown to determine if healthy individuals will develop Alzheimer’s Disease within two or three years. This amazing stepping stone could help individuals receive treatment before developing symptoms of this horrible neurodegenerative disease.

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35 million people all over the world have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, and this number is rising rapidly. The ripple effect of this disease touches many family members by having to care for them or put them in care-homes. Individuals with onset Alzheimer’s disease become confused, frustrated, and forgetful and eventually progress to where they cannot talk, feed, or even dress themselves. Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease affecting many innocent elderly people and hopefully in the near future, there will be tremendous progress in the treatment of Alzheimer’s; it may just start before symptoms even begin.

Visual representation of Alzheimer’s (Shuttershock)

“This is a very exciting time,” says Federoff, who leads the team. He states that the test could help patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and perhaps delay or even stop the progression. “We don’t really know the source of the ten molecules,” admits Federoff, but he suggests that they reflect the destruction of neurons in the brain, which ultimately leads to cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. When neurons are destroyed in the brain, they cannot come back online or be built again.

Simon Lovestone, a University of Oxford neuroscientist is also excited about the findings in this study. “We desperately need biomarkers which would allow patients to be identified – and recruited into trials – before their symptoms begin”, says Lovestone, who is also a coordinator of a European public-private partnership that searchers for new biomarkers for Alzheimer’s.

Blood Vials (Flickr: loscheiner)

Previous studies have emphasized treatment after diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, but no one has ever been completely cured. This new and important research uses blood that is easily accessible, and it has the ability to identify potential risk factors before any symptoms arise. Stopping the disease before it even happens could be an incredible advancement in this field.

Federoff highlights that larger studies must be done exploring a more diverse range of individuals including different races and ages. When these large-scale studies show positive results, perhaps early diagnoses can prevent the disease from becoming aggressive and debilitating to controlled and stable. Overall, this is very promising research that I see possibly flooding the medical field.

By Danielle Marcoux

Sources:

  • http://www.nature.com/news/biomarkers-could-predict-alzheimer-s-before-it-starts-1.14834
  • http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3466.html
  • http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp
  • http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-medications-fact-sheet
  • http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/guide/treatment-overview

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Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Science in the news, Uncategorized

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What’s my title again?

Posted on March 10, 2014 by | 2 comments

A new study by Howard J. Federoff and his team of researchers has been released, and they have discovered a new way of identifying people who are at risk of having Alzheimer or other mental brain impairments within three years. This five year study took place at Georgetown University Medical center,  and the study states that their discovery is capable of predicting the presence of the disease with 90% accuracy, by identifying ten specific  lipids (fats) in your blood that are believed to present disease onset.

Alzheimer is a life altering degenerative disease that is one of the more common types of dementia, a loss of cognitive ability, and it is affecting an estimated 40 million people worldwide, with the World Health Organization stating that the number will double every 20 years.  By 2050, the numbers are expected to rise to over 115 million, a staggering number for something with no cure.

But our current way of predicting Alzheimer is not useful in preventing or treating the disease. At this time, Alzheimer is typically diagnosed when the various symptoms of Alzheimer starts showing up, such as memory loss. However, this comes at a time where there is already irreversible damage to the brain, and as there is presently no cure, the damage is already done.  Although there are various drugs presently available to try and combat these effects, they have all failed and Federoff believes this is due to the drugs being used far too late into the disease timeline.

Comparison of a normal brain and one with Alzheimer’s.
Photo by: National Institutes of Health (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

However, this study gives us a cheap and effective basis for diagnosing the disease, so while it only predicts with 90% accuracy, this is an improvement over the previous method of waiting for the first stages of the disease. Howard J. Federoff explained “We consider our results a major step towards the commercialization of a preclinical disease biomarker test that could be useful for large-scale screening to identify at risk individuals”.

Although this method is not clinically ready yet, this study is a step in the right direction of finding an effective way to combat Alzheimer.

Here is a link to the original study:

http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nm.3466.html

-Jeffrey Chen

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Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Uncategorized

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Global Warming… and Smallpox?

Posted on March 4, 2014 by | 3 comments

    Heatwaves, droughts, freaky weather, and rising sea levels are just some of the extreme consequences we can expect as global temperatures continue to rise over the next few years. However, according to some scientists, we can add another potential disaster to that list: the introduction of new diseases.

    Researchers based in France and Russia retrieved and analyzed a 30,000 year-old permafrost core, in which was contained a sample of giant DNA viruses. These are viruses that are so big that some are visible underneath light microscopes. This giant DNA virus, which the researchers named Pithovirus sibericum, is believed to have been last active during the previous Ice Age.

The Chukotka region of Sibera, where the permafrost core was taken from. (Source: Wikipedia)

    Researchers were able to bring the sample “back to life” in the lab and believe that its protein coat was a factor in protecting it and ensuring that it could tolerate 30,000 years of being encased in permafrost.

 

    Although this virus only infects amoebas and is therefore harmless to humans, this does have grave implications for people: as permafrost begins to melt across the globe, more viruses with the same protective coating could be introduced again. Some of these viruses may in fact be able to infect humans and we may likely immunity to them (seeing as some have disappeared into the ground before Homo sapiens eventually came about).

Microscopic image of Pithovirus sibericum. (Source: Julia Bartolia and Chantal Abergel of UGS and CNRS-AMU)

    One concern expressed in the comments section is smallpox: although the last case of smallpox was in 1977, many smallpox victims of the 1800’s were buried in northern Canada, where they are encased in permafrost. As temperatures continue to rise and ice continues to melt, many of these bodies may be exposed to the surface. Could smallpox survive? Hopefully not. But in a worst-case scenario, we could see the re-emergence of smallpox and although it would be relatively brief (because of our access to vaccines), it would still be devastating to many.

    However, people must be wary of these alarmist attitudes. For example, we don’t know how likely it is that smallpox could survive. Even if it could, could it be re-animated? Pithovirus sibericum needed the help of a lab to start functioning again. So even if these viruses were exposed to the surrounding environment, could they function and infect people? The ability to infect people is an adaptation: many of these viruses would be older than us, so how would they have to ability to infect humans?

   Global warming is a frightening thought, but we don’t need to scare ourselves silly thinking about things that may be more suited for the script of a science fiction movie.

 – Nicholas MacDonald

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Sharing a bed is always risky for infants

Posted on March 3, 2014 by | 3 comments

Sharing beds with infants is one of the leading causes of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS is an infant unexpected death, which cannot be predicted by scientific history. The syndrome is known to have a higher risk during an infant’s sleep. SIDS was the third primary cause of infant mortality in the United States in 2011. Even though the cause of SIDS is unidentified, some factors such as bottle feeding and the mother’s intake of illegal drugs and alcohol have been known to increase the risk of the fatal syndrome. When sharing a bed with parents, the risk of SIDS increases by five fold, especially babies younger than three months.

Co-sleeping increases the risk of SIDS
photo credit:CBC

   Sleeping with parents for infants is a significant risk source during the first 15 weeks even without any other danger factors such as being exposed to second hand smoking. But this risk is increased to a great extent if either parent is a smoker. Other possible suggested risks may occur when the adult accidentally roll over onto a sleeping infant and the parents’ body heat may not be the suitable temperature for the baby. On the other hand, there is a benefit of an infant sleeping with their parents. It promotes breathing control and enhances mutual awareness between parents and infants. Nonetheless, when infants are put to sleep in the same bed as their parents, there is a great amount of risk and there should be a high level of precaution. Parents or parents to be should possess a sufficient amount of knowledge regarding this syndrome.

 

Some researchers recommend sleeping in a crib for an infant. Photo Credit:CBC

References

Hoyert DL, Xu JQ (2012). “Deaths: Preliminary data for 2011”.National vital statistics reports. (National Center for Health Statistics) 61(6): 8.

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Sleep During the Day Throws Genes Into Disarray

Posted on February 24, 2014 by | 5 comments

Daytime sleeping proves to be more detrimental to health than not sleeping at all. That is whack! Well according to a new study, shifted sleep disrupts gene activity even more than not getting enough sleep. And whether you like to admit it or not, staying up late to write a research paper or to finish up a Science 300 project proposal can be a regular occurrence in a university student’s life. With such a common deprivation as sleep, we are all yearning for that opportune daytime nap. But after you learn how long periods of daytime sleeping can disrupt your gene function – you’ll think again before napping overtime.

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Daytime sleeping is a necessity for night shift workers, travellers experiencing jet lag, and of course the average university student. This is the condition that scientists from the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey wanted to recreate when they conducted their experiment. They purposefully altered 22 participants’ sleep cycles by using a light controlled sleep lab. Lead researcher Derk-Jan Dijk and his team were able to shift the participants’ biological clocks 12 hours out of sync and over three days, blood tests revealed decreased gene expression.

On a full night’s sleep, after the body’s rhythm is reset, 14,000 genes (6.4%) were in sync with the body. When sleep was shifted, the number of genes matching the body’s clock dropped drastically to only 228 (1%). That is an observed 6-fold drop! Compared to a previous study on sleep deprivation, the gene expression synchronicity only decreased from 9% to 7% from regular to deprived sleep.

Image: Mikael Häggström (Wikimedia Commons)

Genes carry instruction for coding proteins. The timing of when proteins are made is fundamental as their production greatly corresponds to our behaviours, claims neuroscientist at Harvard, Frank Scheer. Just about every chemical signal, hormone and tissue from the tips of your toes to the hair on your head is constructed of proteins. Therefore this disruption can have many negative impacts on everything from metabolism and immune response to stress levels and mood – is this starting to worry you or what? Longterm it can even increase risk of obesity, stroke, early death, and cancer.

Now we know that our overall health based on gene function can be hugely impacted by imbalanced sleep cycles. Although here is no direct link between daytime sleeping and these health problems, this study does begin to enhance our understanding on why sleep has such a powerful influence on our health. Now after hearing these worrisome implications, I think we will all strive a little harder to get some regular sleep at night, don’t you think?

Written by Sophia Hu

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Further reading:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/01/22/jet-lag-and-working-at-night-disrupts-your-genes-new-study-shows/

http://consumer.healthday.com/sleep-disorder-information-33/misc-sleep-problems-news-626/sleeping-during-the-day-may-throw-your-genes-into-disarray-684040.html

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38916/title/Daytime-Sleep-Alters-Human-Transcriptome/

 

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A Speedbump on the Road to Singularity

Posted on February 10, 2014 by | Comments Off on A Speedbump on the Road to Singularity

From the time of their humble origins as slow, hole-punching behemoths, few could have predicted that computers would completely transform our modern age so profoundly. In more recent times, as computing power keeps increasing year by year, many have begun to seriously consider the possibility that soon the computer may outperform the human mind in almost all tasks, not simply in playing chess or conducting assembly lines.

A prominent crusader of these ideas, Ray Kurzweil, goes so far as to claim that one day in the not-so-distant future, we may download the contents of our minds: memories, personality, emotions and preferences into a computer.  In effect  we would reach immortality by merging with a machine. This rather simplistic view is part of the concept of the technological singularity, the notion that computers will become increasingly more powerful and smarter until a point in time when they will radically change the way humans live and function in the world.

To predict that downloading yourself to a computer will be possible, we’d have to rely on many broad assumptions about the human mind.  One such assumption we’d need to make  is already used as the starting point of modern  neuroscience; that our minds, our internal experience of the world, and the rest of the function of the brain is the total of all neural activity.

Scientists know that the brain uses its cells, specifically the connections between neurons, to conduct simple calculations. Basically, this explains consciousness as the output of a biological computer, which uses the principles similar to those in mathematics to create every thought, feeling, insight and perception that we have ever had.  Sounds simple? Hardly. While the bare principles are easy to understand, the sheer immensity and complexity of the brain, is well, massive. The current estimate on the raw computing power is that it’s the equivalent of around 10 000 000 000 000 000  operations per second.

File:FluorescentCells.jpg

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Here is where the unlikely duo of Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist, and Sir Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist, call singularians on their fault. They criticize their ultra-reductionist view based on their Orch OR theory of consciousness. In part, they have proposed that not only does the brain act as a classical computer (the kind that uses bits; ones and zeros), it also has a more fundamental, sub-cellular level found in the microtubule cytoskeleton, that uses quantum effects to do a completely different kind of computation, incompatible with today’s computing knowledge.

So not only does the brain compute with its 10 000 000 000 000 000 operations per second, each neuron’s microtubules may be able to compute at 100 trillion operations per second,   giving the brain a grand total of                          1 000 000 000 000 000 000 trillion operations per second. That’s twenty-seven zero’s! For comparison, the K computer, one of the world’s fastest, can only compute 10 000 trillion calculations per second.

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If the Orch OR theory proves to be correct, then the singularity is still just a dim blip on our radar, not the impeding revolution that some of its proponents suggest.  Of course that’s assuming that we can program these incredibly fast computers to be smart. After all, having enough processing power on its own will not spontaneously give us artificial intelligence. That will be a job for the neuroscientists and programmers of the distant future.

 

Written and published by Alena Safina

 

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