Researchers have recently narrowed down a molecule that will force the initiation of the body’s already present tumor destroying abilities, causing cancerous cells to die but not affecting healthy tissue in trials on mice.

The molecule, named TIC10 forces the gene for the tumour necrosis factor related apoptosis inducing ligand, or TRAIL for short, to jump into action attacking cancerous tumors, preventing patients from having to go through debilitating therapies.

Wafik El-Deiry, an oncologist at the Pennsylvania State University in Hershey and lead on the study stated, “TRAIL is a part of our immune system: all of us with functional immune systems use this molecule to keep tumors from forming or spreading, so boosting this will not be as toxic as chemotherapy”

TIC10’s effectiveness is due to the fact that it is much smaller than other proteins that have been previously tested as TRAIL initiators.  It’s small size means it can pass through the body’s blood/brain barrier, a natural defense against microbes penetrating into and infecting the brain.  But until now, it also stopped TRAIL initiators from having any effect on brain tumors.  “We didn’t actually anticipate that this molecule would be able to treat brain tumors – that was a pleasant surprise.” Said El-Deiry.

Not only does TIC10 initiate TRAIL genes in cancerous cells, but also healthy ones.  This makes it possible to create a ‘bystander effect’ in which healthy cells immediately will bind to adjacent cancerous cells, assisting in their demise.

Trials have shown that TIC10 has great effects against many different types of tumors, including, colon and lung cancer, lymphoma and breast cancer.  It showed extreme effectiveness against glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor that traditionally is very difficult to treat.  Mice with glioblastomas, treated with TIC10 and Bevacizumab (a drug commonly used to treat brain tumors) survived three times as long as untreated mice and 6% longer than those treated with just Bevacizumab.

TRAIL type therapies were initially found in the mid 1990’s, but lack luster results when coupled with the current treatments of the day caused many large pharmaceutical companies to abandon the method.  While these current methods have only been attempted on mice, the researchers are very optimistic the new methods will be successful in humans as well.

Could this be the end to the devastating effects of cancer as we know them?  The implications of this new research are very exciting and the potential is huge.

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Drexel University in Philadelphia has started a new program that seems to be the beginnings of something very big.  They have installed a Kiosk style vending machine that dispenses Macbooks for use by Drexel faculty, staff and students.

The machine is the university’s attempt to prevent students from getting mugged while carrying around laptops.  Each machine holds 12 notebooks that can be “checked out” for free for 5 hours by swiping student ID cards.  There is a $5 late fee for overdue notebooks.  While the notebooks are checked in, they get a battery charge and the kiosk does a hard drive cleaning to prevent subsequent users from being able to access previous content.

Drexel’s media relations director, Niki Gianakaris said “We installed it in late December” “Students didn’t want to carry their laptops to the library late at night.”  I imagine the 12 Macbooks spend very little time in the Kiosk, Gianakaris said “This is obviously going to be very popular, we’ll evaluate their use and, depending on the results determine how many more we can install.”  Drexel is also considering a iPad machine as well.

Two other East Coast learning institutions are also trying to get the machines which were developed by Laptops Anytime out of Texas.

I don’t know about you, but I think this is the beginning of a new trend in schools and libraries.  Keep in mind that Drexel previously had laptops for borrowing behind counter at the library, a trend that many other colleges and universities are already adopting. Still, the idea of automating the process with vending machines is pretty cool. What do you think?

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The Meshworm robot is able to move along nearly any surface the same way that a worm does; it scrunches up its body, then it extends it. This crawling motion is referred to as peristalsis and while it may not be very fast, it does allow it to navigate through tough terrain where wheels or legs may not work.

There is a coil that wraps around the soft body and by sending an electric current through this coil, it squeezes the body and thus extends it. When this is released, sections of the body scrunch back up and through this repeated motion, the Meshworm silently moves along. What’s more, the body is made up primarily of soft materials, allowing the Meshworm to survive abuse by way of mallet and even getting stepped on. It’s an autonomous robot to boot.

It’s easy to consider what some of the military applications could be for the phallic-like robot, but the researchers have a broader vision. They’re considering next-generation endoscopes, for example, as well as for implants and prosthetics.

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Let’s pretend we are in science class for a moment. When a plane is traveling at the speed of sound, it is literally compressing the air at the front of the wing and leaving an area of negative pressure in the plane’s wake. What results is actually two sonic booms that are oftentimes experienced as a single sound. The sonic boom is a cool effect, but it’s not so good for people who live on flight paths, nor is it likely all that good for the wildlife in the area either. But we want to travel at that speed.  So, researchers at MIT and Stanford University have come up with a biplane design that effectively eliminates this problem. If you look lengthwise at the wings, you get a couple of triangles pointed at eachother with flat edges on the outside. In effect, the shockwaves get reflected, canceling out the sonic boom effect altogether.

The problem with this design, which was originally conceived by Adolf Busemann in the 1930s, is that it doesn’t generate enough lift at sub-supersonic speeds. The new design by MIT and Stanford allows for the wings to change shape over the course of the flight, giving you the best of both worlds. Shown here is one example as produced by Tohoku University in Japan. Ground level shock waves are reduced by 85 percent. It’s still a work in progress, but this could be the future of commercial flight.

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