The next time you wake up with morning breath, you can take pride that though it smells bad, no one else’s is quite like yours. According to a recent study, you’ve got a “breathprint” that is not only unique to you, but could also predict diseases. More »
Researchers and medical professionals have been attempting to find the cure for cancer for countless years, with their efforts resulting in an increased survival rate in recent years, but no real cure for the terrible disease is currently available. The American Society of Clinical Oncologists are announcing a new system that may help drastically speed up the process of finding a cure.
ASCO has completed a prototype called CancerLinQ, which is a learning health system that can collect and analyze cancer care data from millions of patients’ charts from around the country. Doctors currently only have access to three percent of the clinical trial data of the 1.6 million patients diagnosed with cancer every year. ASCO’s hope is for its CancerLinQ system to help doctors learn about treatments used on the majority of people diagnosed with cancer as previously patients’ records were “locked way in unconnected servers and paper files.” (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Smart Wound Dressing Glows Whenever Bacteria Are Around, Robot Arm Breaks Off In Patient During Surgery, 
A team of researchers has identified a single molecule, called TIC10, that kick-starts the body’s tumor-destroying systems—causing a chain reaction that can kill cancer dead. More »
I’ve had problems with computers and video game systems overheating over the years, so I’m all for good cooling systems. And while some computer modders have solved the problem by adding more cooling fans and heat sinks, I think this build might just be a bit more than most of us need.
What you’re looking at here is the Wind Tunnel Computer. It was built by Mike Schropp over at Total Geekdom, and it’s nothing short of awesome, if you ask me. Those giant ducts you see on the left and right are air intakes and outputs for the 6-foot-wide system, which is mounted in a contraction chamber in the middle designed to take full advantage of the increased air speed as it flows through.
The beefy Intel Ivy Bridge 3770k powered system is overclocked to a whopping 4.5GHz, along with overclocked Radeon 7970 GPUs running on Sapphire Dual-X cards. But it doesn’t just run fast, look cool and stay cool – Mike built it for a good cause. It’s connected to the World Community Grid project, and its CPU and GPUs spend their days and night crunching numbers to help cancer researchers find a cure. And thanks to the massive throughput of the system, it’s able to push through about 20x the workload of an average 4-core system. While that’s all awesome, I do wish Mike had actually built a small wind test chamber inside of it for other science experiments. Maybe for version 2.0.
He built the system using large MDF wood panels for the vent sections, and there’s a big box fan installed in one end of it to generate the wind. Mike assembled the main computer section using custom-cut Lexan so you can see through to it, and aluminum pieces to finish the look. It’s even got a control panel on the front with LED temperature gauges and key switches for turning the fans on and off.
Using a wind-speed tester, Mike was able to determine that the inlet takes in air at about 0.6MPH, and the exhaust port pushes out air at 1.4MPH. However, it’s the center contraction section where the computer is that really benefits from the design, where the wind reaches 12MPH – or 9MPH with the computer in place. He actually was able to push wind speeds as high as 26-30MPH with the fan set on a higher setting. He even used smoke testing to ensure optimal airflow over the components.
Check out the complete build log, along with many more photos over on Total Geekdom.
Cancer and HIV are both horrible, terrifying things to have in your body, but a new treatment is successfully pitting the latter against the former, and seven-year-old Emma Whitehead is alive to prove it. Months ago she was near death because of her chemo-resistant leukemia, and now she’s in remission thanks to a defanged version of HIV. More »
Cancer survivors have long reported that chemotherapy changes their brains for the worse, leaving them with memory loss and an inability to concentrate. And now there’s firm evidence from West Virginia University School of Medicine that proves the existence of what has long been known as Chemo Brain. More »
The mesmerizing movements of jellyfish have inspired researchers to design all sorts of things, from mechatronic jellyfish that function as autonomous robots to artificial jellyfish built from rat cells and silicone. Now scientists have built a jellyfish-inspired microchip that can capture cancer and other rare cells in human blood. More »
If you think the picture above looks like droplets of blood being snared in a sticky tentacle, then you have a scarily active — but in this case accurate — imagination. It’s actually a microfluidic chip that’s been coated with long strands of DNA, which dangle down into the bloodstream and bind to any cancerous proteins floating past — directly imitating the way a jellyfish scoops up grub in the ocean. If required, the chip can release these cells unharmed for later inspection. According to the chip’s designers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the catch-and-release mechanism can be put to both diagnostic and therapeutic use in the fight against Big C, and can also be used to isolate good things, like fetal cells. The next step will be to test the device on humans — at which point we may owe an even greater debt of gratitude to our gelatinous friends.
[Image credit: Rohit Karnik and Suman Bose]
Continue reading Jellyfish-mimicking device could snatch cancer cells right out of the bloodstream
Jellyfish-mimicking device could snatch cancer cells right out of the bloodstream originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
IEEE Spectrum | 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Discovery News | Email this | Comments
Four days ago, the rage comic above was posted to Reddit by CappnPoopdeck. It described the true story of her friend, a man who decided to try his ex-girlfriend’s pregnancy test himself. To his surprise and confusion, the results came back positive. Funny? Sure, sort of. But also, Reddit commenters quickly noted, a symptom of a potentially deadly disease. More »
The eternal debate rages on even after this landmark ruling, and I am not referring to Pepsi vs Coke or the Bird vs Johnson, or even Ali vs Foreman, but rather, do mobile phones (smartphones fall under this category too, for that matter) cause cancer in the brain or not? Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled so, citing that they found a ‘causal link’ between 60-year old businessman Innocente Marcolini’s mobile phone use and his brain tumor. Apparently, Innocente used his mobile phone at work for up to half a dozen hours each day – for a good 12 years.
Granted, that is far longer than what the average man on the street would spend on his handset, but then again, can you say that this is not evidence that prolonged exposure to mobile phone use could be a cancer causing agent? Of course, there are also many other factors to take into consideration such as age, genetics, environment, stress levels, the works, but to discount it entirely would be foolhardy. Experts figure out that this landmark ruling would result in even more legal claims to be filed from victims. What do you think, and which side of the fence do you lean on? If you want to remain on the safe paranoid android side, then you might want to explore the use of Bluetrek headsets. Take more calcium in your daily diet too, as there were whispers of radiation from your mobile phone reducing your bone density, too.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Phone valet for schoolkids looks like a viable business idea, Nose-like sensor array to combat cancer?,
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
