Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[hodgkal]

Wow! That is an accomplished Buchanan family! Jeff, did they get all those brains from their mother? :-) I am interested in the PhD in biomedical engineering although even the title of her paper is way over my head. Amazing what smart young people are accomplishing these days.

And of course Sean B. has been an enlightened poster at this forum for a long time.

Great work Jeff B!

[*JD*]

Toxic Hogweed. I'm thinking that Tressel planted it:

http://www.detroitlionsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=774677#post774677

[entropy]

Watching video feed on the weather channel and they are saying this may be worse than the 1999 F5 tornado. Looks as though most of Moore is gone.

[Dr. Strangelove]

There's a report saying maybe 24 kids killed at one of the schools

[Tony G]

At least one school was in the tornado's devastation zone in Moore, Oklahoma. Lance West, a reporter for CNN affiliate KFOR, said that rescuers were searching for students trapped in debris at Plaza Towers Elementary School. There were no immediate reports on the condition of the children but rescuers swarmed to the scene to begin a painstaking search.
There were 75 students and staff at the school when the storm hit, KFOR reported.

[Dr. Strangelove]

At least 37 dead latest report says

Edit: Sorry, tv now says 51

[entropy]

Sad... And that number will get larger.

[madootra]

Tragic.

[DennisT]

Congrats on your daughter's accomplishment upstream, Jeff.

[DennisT]

And congrats also to Mr & Mrs Whodean who are parents of a newborn, their first I believe.

[Tony G]

whoSpawn?

[whodean]

And congrats also to Mr & Mrs Whodean who are parents of a newborn, their first I believe.

Thanks Dennis, hope he becomes a young man from a small town with a very large imagination

[DennisT]

Or lucky for him, he looks like his momma.

Gonna see Prine at a zoo concert here next month. And then Hiatt the following month.

[entropy]

[ame]http://youtu.be/dxaM1codWRs[/ame]

[Jeff Buchanan]

...... I am interested in the PhD in biomedical engineering although even the title of her paper is way over my head. Amazing what smart young people are accomplishing these days.

True ...... after a shift in the ER, during which I see dozens of young people from middle Georgia with various complaints, no medical care, and abysmally deficient knowledge about basic health, I'm always dismayed about the quality of America's youth.

Seeing these 6 young people in Cara's class who defended for their PhDs with her makes me feel like the world is in good hands.

I asked Cara to give me one of her posters that she takes to conferences when she presents her research because there is no way I can explain what she does. Its in my office now, on a wall and when people ask, I point to it and say read that.

Basically, scientists are trying to learn how the body's own immune system reacts to cancer (something Cara has told me is an inevitable fact of aging. You are going to get it at some point and in some form because that's what old cells do!).

Apparently, the body is imminently capable of killing cancer cells. They are recognized and attacked in an astoundingly effective manner. Its just that they aren't fast enough and soon the bad guys outnumber the good guys and the cancer cells win - stripping your body of nutrients to grow themselves and eventually, the lack of nutrients being stolen from your healthy cells causes them and you to die.

Tomorrows (actually even some of today's) Cancer therapies involve helping your immune system build the right kind and the right numbers of killer proteins (which develop into DNA which become active cells) to stop cancer cells from taking over.

The thinking is that the lymphatic system is the vehicle or the roadways by which the body's war fighting mechanisms get to the battle field where the enemy cancer is starting to grow. Also, it is believed that at the micro level, killer cell emergence occurs among endothelial cells of the vessels that make up the lymph system.

This is what Cara and others are studying ..... how do you create the right kind of environment (fluid dynamics) within these endothelial cells of the lymph system for the killer cells to flourish.

Most of you will be aware that in breast cancer (actually most cancers), surgeons remove lymph nodes to keep the cancer from spreading. The question is now, maybe we should not be doing that. Seems counter intuitive to any one who has studied medicine but being counter intuitive, thinking differently than the crowd, is certainly risky but it is where where great discoveries usually come from.