Comment Documentary on this (Score 1) 388
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/programmed-to-be-fat.html
Should be viewable free online.
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Comment Comment from the submitter (Score 2) 94
To me the Canada flag thing has become a tongue-in-cheek posting icon. The system auto-selects it depending on the keywords entered by the submitter. Given the Canadian article and research team I thought the tag was appropriate, but I have to chuckle when the flag appears (though I suppose it does help us canucks with USA inferiority complex feel a bit better - how many flags can we get up here guys!).
Bottom line: this sounded like something people need to know about. The way the article reads it seems as though interfering with the protein synthesis mechanism (as long as the patient is not at 10,000 feet) would result in some very good news for a lot of people. Like another commenter, I was hoping that someone in the audience who works in a related field could tell us if this would be effective for all or just some cancers. In any case, it sounds like a big step forward and I look forward to hearing more about it.
Submission + - Low Oxygen Cellular Protein Synthesis Mechanism Discovered (ottawacitizen.com)
_prime writes: Until recently the mechanism by which cells make proteins in low-oxygen environments has been unknown. As published in Nature this week, the discovery of the mechanism by an Ottawa-based team of researchers potentially means it could be "very easy to kill cancer cells" without harming normal cells because cancer cells leverage the same low-oxygen protein synthesis mechanism even in the presence of normal oxygen levels.
Comment CBC documentary on this available online (Score 1) 317
FWIW CBC did a nice documentary on this that covers the process of measuring the shifts, the airport phenominon, what might happen in when greater shifts occur, etc.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2010/northgoessouth/
Not sure it will be playable globally, but it's worth a shot:
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/video.html?ID=1678474875
Pac-Man's Ghost Behavior Algorithms 194
An anonymous reader writes "This article has a very interesting description of the algorithms behind the ghosts in Pac-Man. I had no idea about most of this information, but that's probably because it's difficult to study the ghosts when I die every 30 seconds. Quoting: 'The ghosts are always in one of three possible modes: Chase, Scatter, or Frightened. The "normal" mode with the ghosts pursuing Pac-Man is Chase, and this is the one that they spend most of their time in. While in Chase mode, all of the ghosts use Pac-Man's position as a factor in selecting their target tile, though it is more significant to some ghosts than others. In Scatter mode, each ghost has a fixed target tile, each of which is located just outside a different corner of the maze. This causes the four ghosts to disperse to the corners whenever they are in this mode. Frightened mode is unique because the ghosts do not have a specific target tile while in this mode. Instead, they pseudorandomly decide which turns to make at every intersection.'"
X-37B Robotic Space Plane Returns To Earth 55
Kozar_The_Malignant writes "The secretive X-37B robotic space plane has returned to Earth after a seven-month mission. This was the vehicle's first flight. Looking like a cross between a Predator Drone and the Space Shuttle, it landed at Vandenberg AFB in California, which was to have been the military's shuttle launch facility. Speculation is that the X-37B is an orbital spy platform."
Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242
likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
