August 2011

U.S. Races to Ease Critical Drug Shortage Nationwide

Though you may not know it if you're not in regular need of these medications, there's a serious shortage in this country of vital drugs.

    

Federal officials, pharm companies and doctors are scrambling to find medications to fill a serious shortage, including drugs that treat bacterial infections and several forms of cancer. Dr. Michael Link, Director of the American Society of Clinical Oncology told the New York Times, “These shortages are just killing us... these drugs save lives, and it’s unconscionable that medicines that cost a couple of bucks a vial are unavailable.” This year a record number of drugs are unavailable for a range of diseases, including childhood leukemia, bacterial infections, and others; 180 different medicines in all.

     For many of these medications scarcity has drive up prices as much as twenty-fold, and created life-threatening lulls in treatment for many cancer patients. In addition, those drugs that are available are falling into short supply as people fall back on other brands or types that might have similar effects.

Genetically Engineered T-Cells May Provide A Cure for Cancer. Scientists Optimistic.

A preliminary test on Leukemia patients shows unprecedented results.

    

A recent report in the Health and Science section of THE WEEK provides some incredibly encouraging news for cancer patients and their loved ones. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have held only a preliminary study, but are "wildly buoyant" about the results. Three Leukemia patients underwent a special treatment in which their T-Cells, or natural immune system's disease-fighting cells, were genetically re-engineered to specifically target cancer cells; a kind of cellular serial killer. The results are startling: two of the Leukemia patients are cancer-free, and reduced cancer cells in the third by 70%.

     According to a report by ABC News, earlier attempts at re-purposing T-Cells have not gone well, with the cells reproducing poorly and eventually disappearing altogether. However, Dr. Carl June, a gene therapy expert at UPenn and one of the researchers on the project, changed their approach. The used a new carrier to bring the new genes into the T-Cell, which then told it to multiply and kill the particular leukemia cells in their patients. Each of the patients were middle-aged men with advanced Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), and their options had nearly run out. However, with June and his team's efforts, the men experienced unprecedented reversals in their conditions. June said that the T-Cells typically attack viruses, killing viral material in the body and then going after any new viruses that pop up, but that's precisely how they attacked the cancer.

Scientists in movies are either loveable buffoons or really want to take over the world

As I see it, there are about five scientist archetypes in American movies. Frizzy-haired, whacked-out scientist makes an invention that may be brilliant, but it goes COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL! Young, geeky science kid grows up, gets those braces off, buys a nice suit and becomes grown-up, rich scientist who all the kids are sorry for teasing in the first place. You get the picture. It's a trend. And none of these stereotypes serve as very good role models to get kids to pick up their Bunsen burners all too quickly. They might think science could make them rich in their 20's or 30's, but their dreams will be thwarted when there's so much labor actually involved. These movies tell them that they may be smart, but who wants that anyway? The best thing a scientist can do, film tells us, is hide her scientific proclivities under physicality, money or fame. Let's take a look at some of the major scientist archetypes in American cinema and see what they mean for our next budding science geniuses:

The Personal Information Device

The Future of Everyday Computing

The earliest version of the mobile phone was first implemented in 1946. The first handheld mobile phone placed its first call in 1973. Six years later, NTT launched the very first 1G network in Japan. IBM premiered the very first smartphone, the IBM Simon, in 1992. Apple Inc. made smartphones the purview of the public in 2007 with the first iPhone and from there things have only started moving faster. Mobile is where information technology is going, not just for high-end luxury gadgets but for everyday personal and business computing. It's only a matter of time before the desktop and laptop disappear from our lives, replaced by 100% mobile tech that, for our purposes, I'm calling the PID (the Personal Information Device). Here's how such a pocket computer might look.

Early Modern Humans Outnumbered Neanderthal Populations By Almost 9 to 1

The massive discrepancy in populations may have had some effect on modern humans displacing their earlier cousins.

    

As a companion piece to my earlier article on "inter-special breeding" between early Modern Humans and Neanderthals, a new report shows that sheer numbers of early modern humans may have pushed out, over-taken, or destroyed much of the Neanderthal population in France, which is the largest archeological site for this period in hominid history. The period, roughly between 35,000 and 45,000 years ago as human populations migrated out of the African Continent thousands of years after Neanderthal populations had already braved the colder northern wastes of the "mini ice age". What's unclear is how these two populations interacted. Were they peaceable? After all, there's been genetic evidence to suggest that there was the two peoples mated (primarily in the Middle East before migrating further). Did they fight for land, territory, or resources? Was the decline of the Neanderthal enough removed from the rise of early humans that by the time they arrived in Europe, their predecessors were ghost stories? New evidence may have, at least partially, and answer to these questions.