Scientists have identified drug targets that could one day make pancreatic cancer less painful — and more survivable — by knocking out key molecular signals. The signals form an essential part of the process by which cancer cells invade and spread through nearby nerves, wounding nerve endings.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
New Drug Targets Could Reduce Pancreatic Cancer Pain, Improve Outcomes
Seventy-plus years into the Atomic Age, the United States still lacks a good radiation-dosage test.
But the ASU Radiation Biodosimetry Test (ARad), a device being developed by Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, could soon help doctors triage victims of a nuclear attack by gauging their exposure to ionizing radiation via changes in gene expression.
ARad is one of only a few tests under development that can detect radiation exposure levels. Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
ASU Radiation Test Uses Genes To Triage Nuclear Attack Victims
4-D printing remains in its early stages, It’s certainly too early to tell if it’s anything more than a buzzword, let alone if its promise will translate into practicality. But the sorts of people who bet on these kinds of things are betting on it.
And why not? Suppose a structure could unfold itself, like origami. Imagine if walls could flex or stiffen in response to shifting loads, or if a buried pipe could change shape to accommodate varying water flows — or to pump water via peristalsis, like your digestive system. Through 4-D printing, nothing is set in stone unless you want it to be.
Zika virus is spreading through a hemisphere with plenty of mosquito habitat and no immunity to the disease, and summer is on its way. But what really chills the blood and drives our dread of what was once considered “dengue’s wimpy cousin” is the virus’s horrifying, yet unproven, link to infant microcephaly.
And so, even as epidemiologists struggle to contain and understand the problem, the news swarms with disturbing images and calls for wiping out the offending mosquito vectors. Clearly, if we’re going to get through this, we need to do our homework. Why not start with my article, in which I cut through the buzz to explore …
Left to our own devices and allowed to live without constant fear of death by hunger or violence, we devise some pretty startling stuff.
Sure, some of our better efforts don’t outlast our calamities, or go obsolete before their time or simply never get their chance to shine because no one yet recognizes the need for them. But you can’t keep a good idea down forever, as I explore in this list of …