Month: January 2006

Dogs Sniff out Cancer

Can dogs detect cancer? There have been numerous popular science stories doing the rounds over the last two years and anecdotal evidence is mounting. But, in a world where lung and breast cancers are among the leading causes of cancer death, it seems that any early detection method is highly desirable, however canine it might be.

Now, a study published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies presents astonishing evidence that man’s best friend, the dog, may indeed be able to sniff out cancer.

Apparently, the dog’s extraordinary sense of smell can distinguish between healthy people and those with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy controls.

The Music of the Spheres

The Pandora project, is an applet that emerged from the Music Genome Project, which analyses and categorises music and styles. It solves the eternal question facing every iPod user once they’ve worked through their old CD collection – “I’ve downloaded all my favourite bands, what do I download now?” Are you brave enough to lift the lid on Pandora’s Box and play some new mp3s?

Hydroseeding

Some time ago I created a website for the UK’s leading and first (I believe) hydroseeding company CDTS Ltd. Hydroseeding basically amounts to spraying a specially selected mixture of seeds suspended in a nutrient-rich solution on to any tract of brownfield land that you wish to convert into green fields with flowers and grasses. CDTS have used it to great effect all over the UK, specifically beautifying motorway cuttings, brownfield sites and the entrance/exit to the Channel Tunnel. Take a look at their site to find out more about the whole process of hydroseeding (sometimes called hydraseeding).

Coughing and spluttering

Scientists at Northwestern University in the US have determined the molecular structure of a viral protein, the parainfluenza virus 5 fusion (F) protein. The parainfluenza virus 5 is part of a family of viruses (paramyxoviruses) that causes everything from pneumonia, croup and bronchiolitis to cold-like illness and is responsible for many hospitalizations and deaths each year. The results are published in the Jan. 5 issue of the journal Nature. Also, check out our how to avoid colds and flu page for advice on sidestepping viruses.

Detox – Don’t Bother

Feeling chock full of cr*p after the festivities, wondering about which detox program to choose? Don’t bother! According to The Sense About Science group, a charitable trust that aims to provide the public with the truth about purportedly scientific and medical claims, a glass of tap water and an early night are the best remedies.

As it turns out, evolution has endowed us with our own built-in “detox” mechanisms, thankfully. The gut, for instance, prevents bacteria and many toxins from entering the body in the first place. If you think about it you are a hollow tube from mouth to anus, the interior of that tract is essentially “outside”.

However, when harmful chemicals enter the body, the liver, that great chemical plant, rips apart toxin or makes them water soluble so that they can be filtered out and excreted by the kidneys. The body thus detoxifies itself. That phrase “water soluble” is key to understanding how to help things along. The body is re-hydrated with ordinary tap water. It is refreshed with a good night’s sleep.

These processes do not occur more effectively as a result of taking ‘detox’ tablets, wearing ‘detox’ socks, having a ‘detox’ body wrap, eating Nettle Root extract, drinking herbal infusions or ‘oxygenated’ water, following a special ‘detox’ diet, or using any of the other products and rituals that are promoted. They waste money and sow confusion about how our bodies, nutrition and chemistry actually work.

Accelerated Aging

Chemical analysis spots malfunctioning protein.

Jin-Shan Hu and colleagues at the University of Maryland, National Cancer Institute, the National Centre for Scientific Research, France, have used NMR to determine the structure of the protein thought to malfunction in premature aging conditions, such as Werner syndrome. The structure might one day lead to a better understanding of this rare genetic disorder as well as other aging-related diseases.

Wedding Anniversary

Wedding AnniversaryWell…it’s our fourteenth wedding anniversary this year, today, so a good time to remind sciencebase readers of our alternative chymical wedding anniversary list where you will discover that the fourteenth is “pyrolytic carbon“, which is used to make heart valves.

If you favour the traditional list, then it’s ivory, so we won’t expect gifts, for obvious reasons.