Summer time and the living's easy

Wow this is my first blog and probably the last blog of the summer for me. Originally this was class but now I am changing to my own personal blog for whatever I want. So now thats out of the way this summer has been pretty epic. I have spent this summer relaxing, traveling, doing summer classes and training for cheerleading.

Being from New Jersey I have of coarse went down to the shore. One weekend going down i met a great group of kids who i have spent most of my summer with. I also met a girl whom I am completely infatuated with. She is absolutely gorgeous and has an aura about her which I love. Sadly we agreed that we are perfect for each other but not at this moment in time. We are both going to be in different states while we are in college. But if it gonna work out we have breaks and summer to look forward too. So hopefully it will one day.

Aside from traveling to the Jersey Shore i went on a cruise through the Caribbean. I went on the Royal Caribbean ship the Oasis of the Seas. It was a massive ship but everything was poorly located. The ship in entirety was massive but the places in the ship were to tiny and poorly placed. I went to Labadee and Cozumel also via the cruise. Cozumel was amazing and thats all I should be allowed to say.

The summer class of Calculus 2 in itself has not been bad at all, however the place where I am taking them, Montclair State University, has been a headache.

Cheer practice has been the most interesting and exciting thing I've done in a while. This summer I've gone from not knowing anything at all about stunting to being able to do extensions now working on Libs in a matter of 3 months.

So in all this summer has been amazing and now and I have 6 more days until go back to the University of Miami. []_[]

Perpetual Electronics?

Imagine how many times a day you touch your touchscreen phones. Now imagine how frustrated you get when your phone battery dies. Well in the future the battery will not die out the more you touch your phones screen. Researches are developing a touch-responsive nano-generator film that charges your phone while in use. What is in use now are hard electrodes that consume a lot of energy. The theory behind this film is it is a flexible and makes use of of the piezoelectric effect--the tendency of some materials to generate an electrical potential when they're mechanically stressed. By this method every time you swipe and touch your phone you supplement the energy remaining in the battery of the electronic device.

This small breakthrough is a window into developing other tools that recharge for normal use. Creating a quasi-perpetual device that only needs to be recharged every so often instead of all the time. The technique could be applied to artificial hearts. By just the beat of the heart the heart adds more power to itself. Applications are endless with this form of nano technology.

Life After Us

After reading Weisman's Chapters on the the extinction of human beings really made me think. While reading the passages all that went through my mind was ashes to ashes; dust to dust. When contemplated on our existence as humans has been to defy all the odds. Humans unlike other animals are born naked into the world with no protection from any element. For instance some animals have shells when they are born to protect them or others have poison to defend themselves, some can even run as soon as they have been born. As humans we are born with no means to survive. We are born to the mercy of nature. But against all odds we live, survive, and overcome. We defy and use nature to our own wills. We make buildings where there should be hills. We make flat lands where there used to be mountains. We make the energy on earth work to provide us with energy to fuel our drive. But without regular maintenance and care everything would eventually stop working collapse. Without humans around building would collapse and mother nature would take back the lands we stole from her. No matter how hard we hold on and no matter how hard we fight mother nature will be the victor in the end. Bacteria, plants, and animals will all adapt to the environment in which we made and will continue to survive. For it will be pride before the fall for mankind when we do eventually fall.

Green Algae in the Drug Industry?

As we reflect on how important it is that our drugs and vaccines are grown in culture cells of yeast and mammalian cells we also realize how expensive it is. Even before production begins of cells to make medicine researches must invest over $600 million to build a facility that can make them. The facilities have to be sterile and the mammalian cell cultures are difficult to make and maintain. So before a drug is even tested huge amount of money is already used up. In the article, Drug Production Gets Aquatic by Lauren Gravitz, the author discusses how using green algae, more specifically, Clamydomonas reinhardtii, can be used to make the industry more cost effective.

For green algae to grow and maintain itself all it needs is light and carbon dioxide from the air. Unlike mammalian cell cultures which needs expensive food for maintaining itself. The green algae is also better at folding the proteins it creates for medicine. Whereas the mammalian culture cells are not as effective in doing requiring an additional process. It was quoted that the cost of one gram of Tysabri, a drug for multiple sclerosis, is about $150, whereas at the rate the green algae makes it, it is approximately a nickel. The only drawback to algae is that it does not add a sugar to the end of the protein which helps the absorption of it into the body. This sugar is not always needed and if it is needed the green algae can be manipulated into doing so, like yeast was. This is a very valuable area of research that can prove to lower prices of drugs for everyone.

Quantum Dots

Everywhere around us there is complicated technology at work. In the most unlikely places will one find complex mechanism at work. For example in the article Quantum Dot Camera Phones by Kate Greene she explains the use of Quantum dots in camera phones. One does not fully understand how complicated it is for a phone to take pictures. The quantum dots are a semiconductor which are twice as efficient than the silicon used in camera phones in use. The quantum dots collect light and converts it to electricity to make a picture. When a quantum does this the picture is neither grainy or dark. The best part about the quantum dots is that the process to make them and implement them is neither a significant or costlier change from silicon.

The promise of these quantum dots can also be transferred into medical imaging. The quantum dots can make a magnificent picture with very little effort. If fully implemented it could change the world of medical imaging. This would better allow doctors to see problems more clearly and treat them more effectively. This research is very valuable to look into.

Cancer Marker

In the article Multipurpose Molecule for Cancer Surgery the author Lauren Gravitz talks about a protein marker that could be used in treating cancer patients. The marker was created to help surgeons remove cancerous tissue from patients. The protein is made up of two parts. The first part of the molecule gets cut off when in the presence of cancerous tissue. By it getting cut off the second part of the molecule is able to freely enter the tissue of the patient. This labeled protein then fluoresces green. While operating the surgeons would be able to see this fluorescent green and use it as a marker of how much tissue they should remove.

This breakthrough however does not mean it is one hundred percent working. This only helps surgeons find out how much tissue they can remove not how cancer can be treated. This also does not leave out the possibility that some cancer will go unnoticed. For smaller masses of cancerous tissue may not light up as bright as a much larger mass will thus critically affect the surrounding tissue with lower concentration of cancer. The scientists have thought of a way to kill the surrounding tissue that is not in effect yet however. They want to add a third chain that is toxic when hit upon with white light. With this all the tissue that was not removed would be destroyed by the toxin. This does show promise in the removal of cancer and is one step closer to helping the human population fight cancer.

Early Warning For Cancer?

In the article An Early Warning System For Cancer written by Jennifer Chu she discusses a new potential early warning system for cancer. The research consists of testing to see if there are autoantibodies in the bloodstream. Autoantibodies are agents in the bloodstream that attack the body itself found in cases when patients with tumors or have been recently diagnosed with cancer. There is however no strong link proven yet explains the author but the signs are there. The most interesting part about the use of marking autoantibodies is that none were found in healthy patients. However they were in about 20-30% of patients with cancer. This may not seem significant but with more research one may know that having autoantibodies in ones system could be a signal to get checked for cancer. The research is promising and even with not a significant percentage of cancer patients having the autoantibodies in them there is a few percent of people that can be saved because of it.

The author discusses how this test should be included with a yearly physical to let the person be aware if there are autoantibodies to go get checked out. I agree completely with her for the autoantibodies can be a first sign of cancer developing and by stopping it while it is starting would save many lives. This is also promising for it allows a marker that is find in people that have something wrong in their body know there is something wrong. There is also no evidence of there being auto antibodies in healthy individuals. So either way there may be cancer or something else wrong in either case the patient can get checked and potentially get cured before anything happens.