ScienceBlog.com

Pretreating rogue cancer cells with aspirin cripples their resistance to targeted therapy

For years, we have heard about the health benefits of taking low doses of aspirin – preventing everything from Alzheimer’s disease to heart attacks and stroke. The news about aspirin just keeps getting better. In a study published in the Dec. 9 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh researchers report that aspirin, combined with a promising new cancer therapy known as tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), can induce cancer cells previously resistant to TRAIL therapy to self-destruct. The investigators say that if these findings hold up in larger studies, aspirin could become a routine therapy for helping to prevent the recurrence of many aggressive cancers, such as prostate and colon cancers.

Envisat sees smoke from Europe’s worst peacetime fire

London is completely blanketed by the black plume of smoke from Europe’s worst peacetime fire in this Envisat image, taken within five hours of the blaze beginning. This image was acquired at 10:45 GMT on Sunday morning by the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), one of ten instruments aboard Envisat, Europe’s largest satellite for environmental monitoring. This Reduced Resolution mode image has a spatial resolution of 1200 metres, and shows the cloud spread across a span of around 140 km.

Cell phones can increase your distress level

The ongoing use of this communications technology, as compared to computer-based use such as email, is linked to increased psychological distress and reduced family satisfaction. For both men and women, cell phones allow job worries to spill over into home life. But only women also experience the opposite effect–the spillover of home concerns into their work life.

Mental distress due to abortion lasts for years

Women who have had an abortion still experience mental distress related to the abortion years after it happened. A study published today in the open access journal BMC Medicine reveals that five years on, women who have had an abortion suffer higher levels of mental distress than other women and than women who have had a miscarriage.

Sparking Hearts: SPARC Promotes Heart Muscle Formation from Stem Cells

The protein SPARC plays a key role in the development of heart muscle in the embryo. An Austrian Science Fund FWF project has discovered this previously unknown role of SPARC. The protein has a significant effect on the activity of the genes that are responsible for the emergence of heart cells from initially undifferentiated embryonic stem cells. The results of this project, carried out at the Medical University of Vienna, may enable heart cells to be grown for use in cell therapy for heart attack patients.

Explore Newton’s Castle for Inquiry-Based Learning

Recently, I’ve been too busy writing a book manuscript and publicizing my most recent book to mount my soapbox, but I got an e-mail that would be of interest to many of my blog-readers, especially those concerned about inquiry-based learning in K-12 classrooms.

How the neuron sprouts its branches

Neurobiologists have gained new insights into how neurons control growth of the intricate tracery of branches called dendrites that enable them to connect with their neighbors. Dendritic connections are the basic receiving stations by which neurons form the signaling networks that constitute the brain’s circuitry.

‘Computer-Chemistry’ Yields New Insight into a Puzzle of Cell Division

Duke University biochemists aided by Duke computer scientists and computational chemists have identified the likely way two key enzymes dock in an intricate three-dimensional puzzle-fit to regulate cell division. Solving the docking puzzle could lead to anticancer drugs to block the runaway cell division behind some cancers, said the researchers.

Science and Engineering Doctorates Up for Second Year in a Row

According to new survey results, the number of Ph.D. degrees granted in science and engineering (S&E) fields has increased for the second year in a row. Despite the gains, the 26,275 Ph.D. degrees earned in the 2004 academic year–the period the survey covers–are still shy of the 1998 peak of 27,278.

Movement of Earth’s North Magnetic Pole Accelerating Rapidly

After some 400 years of relative stability, Earth’s North Magnetic Pole has moved nearly 1,100 kilometers out into the Arctic Ocean during the last century and at its present rate could move from northern Canada to Siberia within the next half-century. If that happens, Alaska may be in danger of losing one of its most stunning natural phenomena – the Northern Lights.

magnesium matters

Objectives: To determine whether magnesium intake from supplemental and dietary sources is associated with bone mineral density (BMD) in older men and women.

Prelude to an Earthquake?

A geophysicist from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified possible seismic precursors to two recent California earthquakes, including the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that wreaked havoc throughout the Bay Area.

Moon Storms

Every lunar morning, when the sun first peeks over the dusty soil of the moon after two weeks of frigid lunar night, a strange storm stirs the surface. The next time you see the moon, trace your finger along the terminator, the dividing line between lunar night and day. That’s where the storm is. It’s a long and skinny dust storm, stretching all the way from the north pole to the south pole, swirling across the surface, following the terminator as sunrise ceaselessly sweeps around the moon.