Cancer: More good news

One thing I can say is that I really enjoy the nifty pictures that go with science news. But that’s beside the point. James Gallagher of the BBC brings the news:

Scientists have discovered how cancerous cells can “elbow” their way out of tumours, offering clues for new drugs to prevent cancers spreading.

They say they have identified a protein called JAK which helps cancerous cells generate the force needed to move.

Writing in Cancer Cell, they say the cells contract like muscle to force their way out and around the body.

Cancer Research UK said the study provided fresh understanding of ways to stop cancer spreading.

When cancers spread, a process known as metastasis, they become more difficult to treat, as secondary tumours tend to be more aggressive.

It is thought that 90% of cancer-related deaths occur after metastasis.

Go Team Human. Here’s to beating that JAK off.

I admit, this is surprising

All things considered, the numbers are surprising to me. Then again, I’m not hip, anymore.

The top-earning tours of 2010, from Pollstar via BBC:

1. Bon Jovi, $201.1m
2. AC/DC, $177m
3. U2, $160.9m
4. Lady Gaga, $133.6m
5. Metallica, $110.1m
6. Michael Buble, $104.2m
7. Walking With Dinosaurs, $104.1m
8. Paul McCartney, $93m
9. The Eagles, $92.3m
10. Roger Waters, $89.5m

Notes for Em

I’m going to have to become some sort of physicist. Damn. I hate math.

No, actually, I don’t; I’m just a pathetic mathematician. Or, more accurately, not a mathematician at all. But that’s beside the point. Except, damn. I’m going to have to become some sort of physicist.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Some of the questions my brother and I asked thirty years ago probably astounded my father the way my daughter can absolutely befuddle me. “What,” she asked, not too long ago, “is a solar sail?”

Seven, by the way. Now eight.

Of course I told her about this far-flung idea of using a laser to push a spacecraft, and how the vessel could reach speeds near light. You know, stuff from fifteen years ago.

But I had no idea.

A BBC article brings me up to speed with lightfoil, which is a cool word despite the fact that no superhero will ever use it as a name:

Just as air causes lift on the wings of an aeroplane, light can do the same trick, researchers have said.

The effect, first shown in simulations, was proven by showing it in action on tiny glass rods.

Like the aerofoil concept of wings, the approach, published in Nature Photonics, works by making use of the radiation pressure of light.

The results are of interest for steering “solar sails”, a spacecraft propulsion based on the same force.

Each photon – or packet of light – carries its own momentum, and this “lightfoil” works by gathering the momentum of light as it passes through a material.

This radiation pressure has been considered as a fuel-free source of propulsion for long-distance space missions; a “solar sail” gathering up the momentum of the Sun’s rays can get a spacecraft up to a significant fraction of the speed of light.

But until now, no one thought to use the pressure in an analogue of an aerofoil, said Grover Swarzlander of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

In Memoriam: Recalling a hazy chapter of my past

Sad.

Simon MacCorkindale has died:

Actor Simon MacCorkindale, who starred in BBC One’s Casualty, has died aged 58 after suffering from cancer.

His publicist, Max Clifford, said he died in the arms of his wife, actress Susan George, on Thursday night in a London Clinic.

The actor revealed last year he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2006, but was told it was terminal after it spread to his lungs a year later.

He spent six years on the BBC medical drama as Dr Harry Harper.

He was also known for starring in 1980s series Manimal and Falcon Crest and appearing in the 1978 Agatha Christie film Death on the Nile.

Ms George said: “No-one could have fought this disease any harder than he did since being diagnosed four years ago.

“He fought it with such strength, courage and belief. Last night, he lost this battle, and he died peacefully in my arms.

“To me, he was simply the best of everything, and I loved him with all my heart. He will live on in me forever.”

That’s quite the résumé, and yet I recall MacCorkindale from the overlooked television series Counterstrike. Yeah, that’s right. That one. Yeah … that one.

Never mind.

Raise the glass. Thanks, Simon.

Quote of the Week – Sedighi says what?

Via BBC:

“Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes.”

—Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi

World’s Dumbest Crimefighters?

And here I was complaining about reality television … what, just yesterday? It might be time for a new reality show: World’s Dumbest Crimefighters.

The BBC brings us the latest in brilliant anti-terrorism tactics:

Irish police have released a man held over an explosives find, after Slovakian authorities admitted planting them in his luggage.

The explosive was one of eight pieces of contraband placed with unsuspecting passengers at Bratislava Airport last weekend, broadcaster RTE reported.

The 49-year-old unwittingly brought the material into Dublin when he returned from his Christmas holidays.

He was arrested on Tuesday morning but has since been released without charge.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he was very concerned that Irish police had not been alerted for three days.

Airport security detected seven of the illicit items, but the eighth – 90g of research development explosive – managed to escape detection.

What, aside from, “I would hope TSA isn’t this stupid”, can we possibly say?

The Beeb also notes that—

The Irish Army said passengers had not been put in danger because the explosives were stable and not connected to any essential bomb parts.

—but, come on, isn’t that just a statistical finding? Are they telling us there is no way these explosives could have detonated? Imagine the news report:

Terrorists struck in Dublin, Ireland today, on a flight that coincidentally crashed of its own accord. According to statements from the three surviving passengers, the flight went fine until the landing, when one of the gear broke on touchdown. Passengers celebrated surviving the rough landing until the bomb, hidden in the luggage compartment, exploded, igniting the plane’s remaining fuel. Four members of the rescue squad were also killed in the explosion and fire, while six more were taken to area hospitals with burns ranging from moderate to severe.

The Slovakian government sent its profound condolences, and thanked the Irish for “courageous” attempts to help Slovakian citizens aboard the plane ….

I mean, really. No danger?

How reckless, this war on terror?

Shutter speed

Okay, I know this sounds stupid, but what is the muzzle velocity, as such, of a mortar round? No, really.

Because this is a great photo:

I mean, that might be as clearly as you will ever see one of those things in flight.

Okay, okay, so it’s another from the BBC’s Year in pictures.

But, y’know … it’s just a really cool photo, even for a pacifist like me.

Who’s your daddy?

Obviously, I’m missing something, or presuming too much. Something like that.

The caption reads, “U.S. President Barack Obama warned of ‘difficult days ahead’ in Iraq as U.S. troops withdraw from towns and cities, six years after the invasion. Here, a young boy reacts upon seeing his father return from a 12 month tour in Iraq”.

Now, like I said, there must be something wrong with my perception of the frame. Perhaps it’s more fun to simply ask if anyone else sees it?

Okay, okay. So, “Welcome Home Daddy”? (What, you see it now?)

I guess I’m wrong to presume that the child in the picture is associated with the pregnant woman, because I find myself wondering … um … you know … a twelve month tour? Welcome home Daddy? What, is the new one waiting a couple extra months for Daddy to get home? Or ….

Or maybe that’s just unseemly. At any rate, this one made the BBC’s Year In Pictures. There’s only twelve of them, so it’s not all that detailed an account of the year, but, you know, check it out if you’re interested. Hell, I figure a little unseemly humor probably works better than war, massive arson, or swine flu.

Anyway, yeah. I won’t claim this a useful post, but it’s something to do. Er … whatever. I’ll shut up now.

The ants go marching ….

Okay, so this is like really, really cool. Victoria Gill, writing for BBC, lets us in on the coolness:

In Africa and in the tropics, armies of tiny creatures make the twisting stems of acacia plants their homes.

Aggressive, stinging ants feed on the sugary nectar the plant provides and live in nests protected by its thick bark.

This is the world of “ant guards”.

The acacias might appear overrun by them, but the plants have the ants wrapped around their little stems.

These same plants that provide shelter and produce nourishing nectar to feed the insects also make chemicals that send them into a defensive frenzy, forcing them into retreat.

It is actually a fairly intricate relationship, with the ants territorially protecting a food source, including the swarming of larger herbivores, and the tree being able to chemically prevent the ants from causing too much havoc. Dr. Nigel Raine, at University of London, explained:

“The flowers seem to produce chemicals that are repellent to the ants,” said Dr Raine. “They release these particularly during the time when they’re producing lots of pollen, so the ants are kept off the flowers.”

In recent studies, described in the journal Functional Ecology, Dr Raine and his colleagues found that the plants with the closest relationships with ants – those that provided homes for their miniature guard army – produced the chemicals that were most effective at keeping the ants at bay.

“And that was associated with the flower being open,” he says. “So the chemicals are probably in the pollen” ….

…. The repellent chemicals are specific to the ants. In fact, they attract and repel different groups of insects.

“[The chemicals] don’t repel bees, even though they are quite closely related to ants. And in some cases, the chemicals actually seem to attract the bees,” says Dr Raine.

The researchers think that some of the repellents that acacias produce are chemical “mimics” of signalling pheromones that the ants use to communicate.

“We put flowers into syringes and puffed the scent over the ant to see how they would respond, and they became quite agitated and aggressive” he explained.

“The ants use a pheromone to signal danger; if they’re being attacked by a bird they will release that chemical that will quickly tell the other ants to retreat.”

Dr Raine says this clever evolutionary system shows how the ants and their plants have evolved to protect, control and manipulate each other.

Two words I didn’t need to hear today: ‘mating plug’

The upside of prudery:

Scientists believe it may be possible to combat malaria by interfering with the sex lives of the mosquitoes which spread the disease.

They have shown that the insects can only mate successfully if the male is able to seal his sperm inside the female using a “mating plug”.

Without the plug, fertilisation cannot occur, and the animals cannot reproduce.

There is a lot in the BBC article about plugs. I haven’t yet decided if that is disquieting.