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Medicine

Submission + - X-rays for Stargazing turns into cancer treatment (discovery.com)

Submitted by derGoldstein
derGoldstein writes: Discovery posted an interesting story of how X-rays that are used by astronomers for determining the various chemical abundances inside stars could also potentially be used for more effective radiation therapy: "radiation treatment is a coarse instrument at best, since it destroys surrounding healthy cells as well as cancerous tumors. Much research is underway for targeted methods to reduce the collateral damage and attack just the cancer cells, including embedding nanoparticles inside tumors. ... Nahar and Pradham envision a prototype device capable of generating x-rays at the key frequencies to trigger a flood of low-energy electrons in platinum and gold, based on their computer simulations. Gold or platinum nanoparticles would amass naturally in cancerous tumors in the body, and could then be zapped with the focused x-ray beam."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Becoming Savvy In Office Politics 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Geeks are for several things both good and bad. We're not known for public speaking or office politics, and each company does have its share of politics. I've watched people shine the spotlight on other people's issues so no one will pay attention to how badly their projects are going. I also know it's important to manage the message when speaking with someone on why something was or wasn't done. My problem is that I'm not very good at dealing with either issue. I get a deer-in-the-headlights look, because I can't always come up with a good answer without being defensive. I'm wondering what Slashdot readers did to learn and improve their skills in these two areas.

Comment fencing (Score 3, Interesting) 232

by snookerhog (#36403844) Attached to: The Science of Lightsabers
I once had a discussion about light sabers with a Olympic fencing gold medalist. His job was sword fighting and his main gripe with light sabers (which was not addressed in this article) was that since the blade is made of light, it has no weight and thus the speed of your strikes is not limited by the blade in any way, only by how fast you can manipulate the handle. In his opinion (and mine) this would make saber duels quite short indeed.

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