Fred Sandsmark's Blog

Tonight's NOVA scienceNOW includes a segment on the THEMIS project -- the study of the aurora borealis, on which my friend John McDonald works.

Check here for an earlier post on THEMIS with more links.

Labels: friends, science, TV, weather

I've looked at my fair share of brain MRIs and even played with OsiriX. Turns out I'm not the only person who finds neuroscience and brain imaging compelling.

A study, blogged about at Cognitive Daily, says that brain images make science articles more compelling to readers.

Not long ago we discussed work led by Deena Skolnick Weisberg showing that most people are more impressed by neuroscience explanations of psychological phenomena than plain-old psychology explanations. Talking about brains, it seems, is more convincing than simply talking about behavior, even when the neuroscience explanation doesn't actually add any substantive details.

The article's interesting and compelling. The comments are also worth reading; get ready for the advent of neuromarketing.

Labels: language, marketing, neuroscience, psychology, science

The Washington Post has an informative article on Senator Kennedy's surgery. My thoughts:

First, I'm not surprised that the Senator went to Duke, and Dr. Allan Friedman, for his surgery. I predicted to a friend that he would either see Dr. Friedman, Keith Black at Cedars Sinai, or Mitchel Berger at UCSF (Jane's surgeon). These three are probably the top guns in deep brain tumor surgery in the US.

Second, I'm not surprised that the Senator was talking and feeling good after the surgery. Done well, brain surgery is surprisingly easy on a patient. There aren't any nerves in the brain -- just in the scalp -- so there's not a lot of pain associated. The biggest worry is swelling, and this will likely be approached with fluid restriction for a day or two and Dexamethasone (the hated Decadron).

Third, it's interesting to note that the Senator is planning to do both chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This is an aggressive path, and good for him. The latest treatment mode seems to be to take Temodar (an oral chemotherapy) concurrently with 3D Conformal radiation therapy. They'll likely radiate a 1-centimeter buffer area around the tumor resection cavity (the hole where the tumor was) to try to zap as many stray tumor cells as possible. That is, if it was a good resection. If there were parts of the tumor that couldn't be safely removed surgically, they may try to extend the radiation therapy into those areas.

Last, the Post article makes the point that the Senator's tumor type is not yet known. As I noted in the earlier post, "malignant glioma" is a generic term. I'm curious whether the specific tumor type will be released to the public.

One postscript: is disheartening to see the vitriol spilled in the comments section on the Post's article about Senator Kennedy's affliction. It's one thing to disagree with a person's political point of view; it's quite another to wish a person ill in such an awful, vicious way. I wonder how people who write such things can look themselves in the mirror. I hope they never get ill and have to face such hatred on top of their health challenges.

Labels: brain tumor, health, Jane, media, medicine, politics, science

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University may have found a brain chemistry connection between brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer's. It's good to see people taking creative tacks toward the unraveling of these problems.

[Researcher Paul B.] Fisher and his colleagues were interested in identifying how the promoter region of the EAAT2 gene controlled the expression of glutamate in a group of brain cells called astrocytes. Using molecular biological approaches, the team examined all the regions and sequences in the promoter region and systematically eliminated them to then define which region was necessary to respond to ceftriaxone.

According to Fisher, this led the team to a critical transcription factor called nuclear factor kappaB, NF- kappaB, which regulates many functions in the brain and other parts of the body. This is a central molecule involved in regulation of genes controlling cell growth and survival. Once they identified critical regions in the EAAT2 promoter that might regulate activity, they found that alteration of one specific NF-kappaB site by mutation in the promoter was responsible for up-regulation of EAAT2 expression and consequently glutamate transport by ceftriaxone.

“This work not only has implications for the field of neurodegeneration and neurobiology, but may also help us more clearly understand brain cancer, including malignant glioma, an invariably fatal tumor, and how it impacts brain function,” said Fisher[.]

The full article from Physorg.com is here.

Labels: brain tumor, Jane, medicine, science

After a brief hiatus, Symantec has resurrected its CIO Digest magazine. for the current (April 2008) issue, I interviewed three healthcare IT leaders, asking them about their challenges with device management, enterprise security, storage, compliance, and communications. The article, entitled Best Medicine, can be found here (pdf).

Labels: clips, health, marketing, medicine, science, technology, writing

An article in today's San Francisco Chronicle tells of a vaccine trial for glioblastoma multiforme brain tumors going on at Stanford (and other medical centers) and an Indian fellow named Harakhchand Savla who is participating in the trial.

There's been talk of BT vaccines in development for years, and it's good to hear that another one is entering clinical trials.

The Chronicle article focuses quite a bit on Mr. Savla's positive attitude toward his illness and treatment. (He refers to his tumor as a "happiness tumor.") But he's also not in denial about the challenges he faces; at one point he says "If you live long enough, you're going to die." That's not far from one of Jane's catchphrases: "It's my ambition to grow old."

The full article is here. There's one mistake in the article, to which I've alerted the author: it refers to "epidural growth" factor, when what's meant is "epidermal growth" factor. Still, the article's well worth reading for some insight into aggressive brain tumor treatment.

Labels: brain tumor, Jane, science

Now that I sport a healthy Body Mass Index of 23, I'm more relaxed reading stories about obesity and related health challenges. I sense (but can't document with multiple examples) some pushback against the very concept of an obesity epidemic. I also sense (but again can't document) that science writers stories on this topic to have some fun with language. For example, this paragraph from a story found on PhysOrg.com, discussing a British Medical Journal article on debate about an obesity epidemic:

In summary, a large body of evidence documents that over-nutrition and obesity are a major global health problem, say the authors [emphasis mine].

Cheap joke, but it made me chuckle.

Labels: health, science, writing

Surreal story in today's New York Times about an entrepreneur in the United Arab Emirates who's so smitten with the French city of Lyon that he wants to build a small version of Lyon in Dubai. Among the points of interest:

The Paul Bocuse Institute is hoping to set up a branch to train young chefs and restaurant and hotel managers. The Museum of Textiles is poised to open a silk museum and lend select treasures from its vast silk collection. Lyon’s soccer team has signed up to operate a center to train a Dubai team. Research is under way to cool outdoor spaces naturally to make strolling bearable during dust storms and 105-degree heat. [Emphasis mine.]

I, too, love Lyon. It's the home of our dear friend Hélène and the setting of many wonderful memories. It's a superb walking town -- the Castro Valley Boulevardier would appreciate it. Its festival of lights is breathtaking -- do a Google image search for "Lyon 'Fete des Lumieres'" to see some examples. Lyon has the finest farmer's market in France, which says a lot. (Interpol headquarters is there, too -- what could be cooler than that?)

But loving Lyon is one thing; trying to re-create it under a dome in the Middle East is something else entirely.

Labels: food, France, friends, science, weather

KTVU News last night had a segment on the wild turkeys at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I wrote an article on wild turkeys for the short-lived MyHomeMyTown magazine in late 2003 and reproduce it here. My friend and boss (at the time) Bill Crosby let this fabulous headline stand, for some reason.

Big Birds Bug 'Burbs

At first glance -- maybe out a car window along an East Bay road -- they look like rocks or tree stumps. Definitely too big to be birds. A closer look reveals wild turkeys, scratching for a meal.

They're a thrilling -- and increasingly common -- sight. The wild turkey population in North America has quadrupled to more than 6 million in the last 30 years, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation. And though turkeys aren't native to the state, some of that growth has been in California; indeed, turkeys can be found in every California county except San Francisco.

Once the birds are established, their population growth is a matter of biology and arithmetic. Hens lay 10 to 12 eggs a year, and the chicks, who learn feeding behaviors from their mothers, can grow to adult size in three to four months. At that rate, the birds can quickly get in trouble with homeowners who find them flocking to yards and gardens, making a racket, and delivering unwanted, ahem, fertilizer to lawns, patios, cars, and even roofs. "Almost invariably, people will tell us that when they saw the first five of them, they loved them," says Scott Gardner, a wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). "But four or five years later, when they've got 30 or 50 in their yard, they hate them."

California's turkey population has prompted the DFG to publish a Strategic Plan for Wild Turkey Management this fall. Among its goals is to "minimize unwanted interactions between turkeys and the public." Much of the responsibility for these interactions lies with homeowners who unintentionally domesticate the birds, Gardner says. "The relationship between a human and an animal changes pretty quickly when you start feeding it."

Gardner will be relocating a limited number of "chronic problem" birds from suburban areas (including the East Bay) over the next year and studying the results. But relocating turkeys isn't easy, and the program is subject to California's budget woes, so Gardner also hopes to convince homeowners to admire the birds from a distance -- and not feed them. "The long-term question," he says, "is how we get the turkey population behaving more like wild animals and less like stray cats."

The Strategic Plan for Wild Turkey Management is available at www.dfg.ca.gov/wmd or by calling (916) 445-3406.

Labels: clips, science

Our friend John S. McDonald is involved in NASA's THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) Mission to study the Aurora Borealis.

You know the project has hit the big time now because it's being discussed (ahem) on Slashdot.

The press release for their latest findings is here.

EDIT: Added a link to John's own website; be sure to check out his amazing collection of thumbnail book reviews.

Labels: friends, science