New Breast Cancer Indicator

We all know that in the case of cancer the earlier the diagnosis the better. So it should come as no suprise that scientists and researchers are always trying to find early indicators of cancer. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center believes they have found a potential indicator in EGFR, epidermal growth factor recptor, levels. EGFR sends a signal for cells to grow,divide, and multiply.
Scientists took the blood samples of two groups of 688 women each controlled for ethnicity, race, and age for the study. One group of women had developed cancer and one group did not. Women that had the most EGFR in their blood sample were three times as likely to develop breast cancer than those who had the smallest amounts of EGFR. The risk for cancer was even higher for women on therapy medication for menopause such as estrogen pills. These women were nine times as likely to develop breast cancer.
The presence of elevated EGFR can help doctors to prescribe medicines that can fight antibodies specifically tied to the growth stimulant. The study shows that increased levels of proteins can signal tumors that would otherwise remain in hiding until much later. Doctors are hesitant to say the EGFR can stand alone as a sole indicator of breast cancer. They do believe that in combination with history of cancer or other indicators it can be very helpful in diagnosis. People may say that the results of the study arent largely signifcant. Though the study may not point out the cure for cancer, it is a step in the right direction. Sometimes cures and solutions come in multiple stages. Future scientists can later build on this study to add to the general body of knowledge. Doctors could be one step closer to the cure.

Flight tutorials from insects

Scientists recently decided to take a closer look at how insects are able to fly so well. Their mastery of aerodynamics is impressive and a lot can be learned from it. In this case scientist wanted to apply the way fruit flies fly to new technology for better flying robots.
The general question researchers wanted to answer was if fruit flies beat their wings faster than neurons can fire how much of the flight process are they in control of. They placed fruit flies inside of box where they then subjected them to LED projections that made them dizzy and fly in u-turns. What was recorded on cameras was later analyzed to look at wing posistions. The final consensus from the study was that fruit fly wings operate in two ways. Their wing motions are similiar to "oars" and similiar to "wind up toys". The oar motion happens when the fly turns. They discovered with as little as a 9 degree difference between wings a change of direction can be accomplished. The article compared this to when a rower pulls harder on one oar to turn the boat. The wind up toy analogy helps explain how vital the flies unique joints are to flying. The joint acts like a spring that is triggered by one muscle to create a certain wing tilt.
All of these discoveries have the potential to substantially influence they way engineers think about designing things that fly. This could be anything from a robot to an airplane. These technologies that function on being light weight and very aerodynamic can lead to higher efficiency. I think the whole idea of art imitating nature's phenomenon is once again seen here and you can thus see how important it is to science and advancement.

Clean water for everyone may be possible

I have always been interested in how access to clean water is something millions of people do not have. I have been amazed by the fact that the basic need for water has left a large part of the world's population debilitated by cholera, typhoid, and dysentry. Water purification plants are just too expensive for the people in third world countries where most of the clean water issues are. LifeStraw technology has offered a solution to the problem. They have devoloped a drinking straw that purifies water as it is being sucked. Another similiar technology is Steripen that uses UV light to purify gathered water. I plan to use these two new technologies to introduce revolutions in clean water technology. I want to talk about how engineers and scientists are using cutting edge research to address global health concerns in innovative ways.

Blog #7 Weisman chapters 2&3

I found the writing by Weisman super interesting. I think it really captured the power of nature. I think that sometimes people underestimate natural forces only to remember them with massive hurricanes,tsunamis and earthquakes. So, the way the article depicted nature as something that human innovation competes with on a daily basis is very refreshing. Though erosion, corrosion, and overgrowth don't produce effects in one day,over a long period of time they can completely destroy the strongest and newest of structures.The example with the New York subway system's daily competition with water erosion was a really good example of nature's dominance. The sense that nature has only temporarily allowed for humans to develop what they please could be an interesting concept for engineers and developers to consider in the future. They can't design beyond the limits of nature without dangerous consequences.There is only so much we can build before nature decides to take back its claim and leave humans utterly defenseless. That thought should always be in the back of our minds.

Radio wave groceries

What if someone told you that you would never have to wait in a long line at the grocery store ever again. Most people would be thrilled to find out more. In todays times people look to technology to make everyday things in life faster and more effiicient. Inventors and engineers seem to have responsed to this desire yet again with the creation of a radio frequency identification tag.
This super fancy bar code uses ink made with carbon nanotubes to print electronic information on paper or plastic. The ink is a semiconductor and is thus able to store electric charge.Being a semiconductor and not a full conductor is the only way to make sure that information is able to be stored without filitering out. The research done James tour allowed for the creation a coating for the nanotubes to make sure that they are semiconductors. For everyday people this means in a grocery line someone could just run their cart through some kind of scanner and the cashier would instantly have all the information about the groceries within the cart.
The tags have already been proven to be effective as seen in their widespread use on library books and passports. However this are silicon tags with the frequency technology. The ones that will hopefully revolutionize grocery shopping researchers were able to create on paper. With the ability to store 1 bit of information at 3cents compared to 50cents for silicon tags the new invention will be really affordable for food packagers. This could also mean that implementation may not be to far into the future.

The time it takes to do the right thing

I came across a article about the difference between the Lusitania and the Titanic ship wrecks. Scientist now believe that more women and children suvived the Titanic simply because the Titanic took more time to sink. The Titanic sank in 2 hours and 40 minutes however the Lusitania went down in 18 minutes. Australian scientist analyzed the two ships survival records. They were able to properly compare the two ships because although the ships sank for different reasons they had similiar numbers and types of passengers. To me this reflects responsible research where scientists compare situations and that can actually be prepared.

Scientists analyzed the data on surviving passengers based on age, sex, and cabin class. They found that on the titanic women were 50% more likely to survive than on the Lusitania. The cabin class also meant differing things for the Lusitania and the Titanic. On the Lusitania whether or not the passenger was first class had no effect on survival. On the titanic however first class passengers were 44% more likely to survive. Much like in the Titanic movie women and children were put in the lifeboats first. This explains the study's findings that 31% of the children survived on the Titanic, much more than those on the Lusitania.

The study concluded that in emergency situations were time is a huge factor people think about themselves first rather than trying to create organized safety plans. The general consensus being that "coordinating social norms takes time." This study can prove to be important in understanind social behaviors in all kinds of disaster situations. These understandings can apply to anything from terrosit attacks to natural disasters. The study said that social norms take time. With this knowledge evactuation and safety techinques can be created to optimize the most amount of social norms in the least amount of time. This can lead to a totally new way of handling crisises and potentially saving a lot more lives.

Copernicum: Element 112

After 14 years of research and testing scientists have now created the heaviest element on record. The element has an atomic mass of 278 and is named after famous scientist and astronomer Copernicus.

To create the new element German scientist had to break the repulsive electrostatic force. After doing this they could get to the heart of the atom where the attractive forces are. With the combination of the repulsive and attractive forces scientist were able to fuse two nuclei together. With careful tracking of steps scientist then try to classify what element they actually created. Uranium is actually the heaviest element that can actually be found naturally with an atomic mass of 92. It will be placed on the periodic table near transition metals and may possibly have similiar properties to other elements in that group such as zinc and mercury.

I thought this article was really interesting because it shows how science often pushes limits and dares to create things never imagined possible. I think that as long as scientist keep striving for higher heights of scientific discovery then solutions to practical problems will continue to be possible. I have a feeling that scientist wont stop at copernicum. The periodic table will continue to expand and maybe a stable wonder element can be created that will give significant benefits to mankind.