Aug 8

Shake and Bake Cancer
Cancer often spreads because the body's immune defenses somehow sleep through the invasion. A new technique that uses ultrasound may wake up the immune system to cancer wherever it may hide.

Duke University engineers and cancer doctors reported that certain frequencies of high intensity focused ultrasound shake cancer cells until they leak proteins. In lab animals those leaked proteins triggered strong immune system responses. The HIFU technique already heats cancer tumors to kill them. But shaking breaks cancer cell walls, and triggers an immune system attack on cancer cells, even those hiding in the blood stream or elsewhere in the body. Those so- called metastatic tumor cells are how cancer spreads even after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Doctors want to combine both the heating and shaking to up the odds of cancer survival.

Secret Lives of Elephant Seals
From the San Mateo coastline to the Arctic and the Antarctic, elephant seals roam the oceans diving for food and trying to avoid sharks. For the first time, scientists have precise tracks and unprecedented detail about the animals’ behavior, condition and responses to changing climate.

An international team of researchers reported results from small satellite transmitters that show where, how deep and how often the seals dive for fish, as well as log the seals’ body fat density inferred from rate of dive descent.

Weighing up to a ton, and diving an astonishing 5000 feet below the surface, the seals swam thousands of miles searching for fish.

Certain groups of seals prefer to forage around ice packs, and dwindling sea ice caused some seals to lose weight and die. The tags were glued to seals’ fur and recorded up to a year of data, before falling off then the seals returned to the same beach to molt.

It's Alive
An 8 million year old bacterium frozen in Antarctic ice has come back to life. Researchers at Rutgers University say the bacteria are growing but appear to have suffered DNA damage from cosmic rays that are stronger at the Earth's poles. Scientists say as glaciers and ice caps melt, more and more ancient bacteria and viruses will be released. Researchers say there’s little chance of epidemic, since the bacteria appear relatively weak.

The new bacteria are ten times older than the previous record for ice-trapped bacteria, but nowhere near the oldest revived living thing.

That record belongs to an ancient microbe brought back to life after it was found in salt crystals that formed 250 million years ago.

Aug. 3

New Ecstasy Warning

If you still need a reason to avoid MDMA, scientists say warmer temperatures increase brain damage from the drug. A new study from the University of Navarra School of Pharmacy, shows increased ambient air temperature increases neurological damage caused by 3.4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (‘Ecstasy.’)

Measuring the effect on lab animals at 59F, 70F and 86F, scientists found significantly higher brain damage at higher temperatures. They said heat speeded up the metabolism of the drug and increased its toxic effects.

This is important for humans who may be tempted to take MDMA in crowded and enclosed spaces. In this study, as in previous research on humans, ‘Ecstasy’ damaged the serotoninergenic neurons, which control basic biological functions including sleep, appetite and mood regulation.

---

Europe Heats Up
Heat waves in the Old World are getting hotter and longer. University of Bern researchers say the most accurate measurements yet of temperature, corrected for a variety of errors, show the length of summertime hot periods has doubled in Europe since 1880. They say the frequency of heat waves has almost tripled in the same period.

The scientists said measurements in the 19th century over-estimated temperature, mainly because thermometers were usually left out in the sun, rather than in modern instrument shades. By correcting for this bias, they say they have a more accurate temperature history.

From Croatia to Sweden, the average heat wave now lasts three days, compared to one and a half days in 1880. They say this is compelling evidence that global warming creates a particularly strong effect in Europe.

---

Save Stomach Lose Brain
Taking the most popular medicines sold in America may cause memory problems. Indiana University researchers report long-term use of histamine2 receptor agonists (H2A) is associated with significantly increased cognitive impairment.

The drugs are sold over the counter as Pepcid, Tagamet and Zantac among others. Generic drug names include ranitidine and famotidine. The study was in African-Americans over 65, and showed almost one in five who took the acid blockers had signs of cognitive impairment. That is more than twice the rate expected. Doctors say they need more study to see what causes this and if it occurs in the population at large.

---

Climate Fix Worse than Global Warming?
Geo-engineering a fix for rising global temperatures could trigger a catastrophe, according to new research. Some scientists have proposed spewing sulfur into the atmosphere to cool Earth’s climate, mimicking the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions.

Atmospheric sulfur reflects sunlight back into space. But Bay Area-based climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institute at Stanford warns that a so-called ‘sulfur sunshade’ could backfire and cause a sudden spike in temperatures. He says problems of a quick warming could be even worse than the slow heating of the atmosphere. Other scientists today predicted widespread drought as a result of a sulfur sunshade.

Better and less worrisome tactics include changing to fluorescent light bulbs, driving less and buying solar panels. We can do it.

---

GPS Makes Drivers Greener and Safer
Buy a gadget and save the planet. Taiwanese researchers say GPS car navigators save gas and reduce stress on drivers, making them less prone to accidents.

People who have satnav help are less aggressive, more attentive and more likely to drive directly to where they’re going, say the researchers. They cautioned drivers to use only up-to-date systems and not to rely too heavily on the software. They said some drivers have tried to drive on railroad tracks and go the wrong way on one-way streets. It’s also good to read street signs, traffic signals and avoid long tunnels.

---

Disgraced Korean Cloner Blew It: He Did Make History
A new report by a team of US researchers says the human embryonic stem cells generated in a now-discredited experiment in South Korea, actually were a first. When Woo Suk Hwang announced three years ago he had created the first human patient-specific ESC, he was hailed as a science hero.

He said he did it with a cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, a tricky process in which a nucleus is inserted into a cell. Last year he and other researchers were fired after it turned out they fabricated data. But now, Harvard scientists say analysis of Hwang’s embryos show they were in fact the first-ever human cells created by parthenogenesis, virgin birth. The multiplying cells were the result of an egg alone.

The kicker is the Korean team had apparently hit upon a technique that scientists say could have resulted in a major advance for stem cell research, and were years ahead of anyone else. Had they been truthful, Hwang and colleagues might still be heroes, and embryonic stem cell therapies would be that much closer to reality.

---

What’s the news about sex?
In a University of Texas survey of college-age folks, which discovered 237 reasons for having sex, the leading reason sounded like Homer Simpson. Both men and women agreed: “I was attracted to the other person.” Doh! “To give the other person a disease” thankfully ranked last.

The five-year privately funded study (who was going to write that grant proposal?) also found that men and women did it for basically the same reasons. “It’s fun” was guys’ number 4, and girls’ number 8 rationale for doing it. Other Top Ten reasons were similar between men and women. “This refuted a lot of stereotypes,” said the study co-author Prof. Cindy Meston.

She said she expected what we all did -- that guys wanted to get physical and gals wanted love.

Not so, Meston said. “None of the gender differences was that great.”

And that is great. At least for college kids.

Expect much bigger differences in people not ruled by raging hormones.

---

Fossil find fills-in fin flap
A 400-million year old first-ever discovered fossilized fin of a coelacanth bridges the gap between fins and legs, scientists say. It shows how fins and limbs diverged from common relatives and how certain characteristics were conserved in both branches of the evolutionary tree.

University of Chicago scientists say details of the old ‘lobed fin’ show evolutionary relationships to modern fish fins and to four-legged land creatures. The fossil also shows we shouldn’t be calling the coelacanth a ‘living fossil’ since modern examples of the fish are more evolved. In fact, they say, the fossil fin is more closely related to a human arm than a modern-day fish fin. The coelacanth is a slow-moving and big bottom feeder that has four ‘leg-like’ fins which experts once thought it used to walk on the sea floor. Now they know it swims. The fossil fin find ends the debate, scientists say, and confirms lobed fins as an ancestor to legs.

---

Exercise surprise
Do you run three miles a day five times a week? Lift weights two hours a day? Good thing you don’t. Duke University researchers found that just 30 minutes of walking a day is the most effective way to lower health risks. And they found effects last for a few days even if you stop walking.

In a study of middle-aged people who didn’t exercise before, a program of daily walking beat out couch- potato, of course, but also surprisingly, the gym rat and marathoner routines. Moderate exercise was most effective at lowering levels of triglycerides in the blood. Triglycerides are the little particles that carry fat around your bloodstream, and higher levels predict heart disease and diabetes. Do a little something for yourself. Start walking. But do come back.