Vampire Star

Vampire Star Reveals it's Secrets

VAMPIRE STAR

Astronomers just discovered something amazing! By using the light of 4 telescopes at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory, they created a virtual telescope thats 50 times sharper than a NASA Hubble space telescope and obtained the best images ever of a star loosing most of it's material to a vampire companion. Suprisingly, the new results they got, shows the transfer of mass from one star to the other.

I found this article interesting because space is a world of wonders and I really like learning about it, and I had never really heard of a vampire star so it was really cool to learn about it.

This article can relate to my life because a couple of years ago when I was learning about the solar system, I was researching Europa (Jupiter's Moon) and I found so many interesting facts about it, and I really enjoyed it and an other thing was that when I looked through a telescope and saw so many interesting things about space it would be very cool if I ever got the chance to see a Vampire Star.

I think this can relate to Human Ingenuity because these astronomers are thinking outside the box. I feel that space is a world of knowledge just waiting to be explored, and these astronomers are exploring it.

Extreme Melting

October 25th 2011

EXTREME MELTING!!

Scientist say that Global Warming is melting the ice sheets extremely, and they are ABSOLUTELY right. The ice sheet in Greenland was explored by Dr. Marco Tadesco which is a professor of in the Department of Earth. His findings in Greenland of the ice sheets show that glaciers could under-go and self-amplifying melting cycle and warming that would be very difficult to stop. Marco Tadesco and his teams found at the bottom of a super glaciers a lake while on an expedition in summer.

I think this article is very important and very interesting because this is a very important global issue because if it keeps on melting I feel that polar bears might get to the point where they extinct

This article relates to my life because a couple of years ago I researched about the melting it the arctic and I saw that it was a very important issue, and when I see that it keeps going on in other places it concerns me, and it makes me worried and I think people should be more aware and we have to start doing more about it!

I think this article relates to Environment because these group of scientist are going there to see what is going on and they are caring for the environment and making people more aware of this issue

Saffron takes on cancer!!

August 30th, 2011

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/333911/title/Saffron_takes_on_cancer

Saffron, best known as food spice or dye, was discovered in September with the Hepatology test, that the "spice suppresses a slew of cancer-realted compounds and boosts beneficial ones". Saffron is an expensive spice that comes out of the "Crocus Sativus" flower and research has hinted that it benefits against depression, inflammation, memory loss, and as an antioxidant. "Studies in animals and certain cells, research has suggested that saffron can inhibit certain cancers". "Although the spice has been used as a folk remedy for centuries, only in recent decades has its values been tested in a laboratory. In a new study Amin and his colleagues fed saffron to 24 rats daily for 24 weeks. Two weeks into the regimen the researchers injected animals with diethylnitrosamin and 2 acelytlaminofluorene, a chemical combination which is known to cause liver cancer." "8 other rats getting a similar injection combo received distilled water instead of saffron" 6 of the 8 rats developed serious cancer nodules on the liver, meanwhile 4 of the 24 rats getting saffron developed nodules, and out of 8 rats that actually got the highest dose of saffron, none of them, developed nodules. "Saffron kept in check a cell-proliferation protein called Ki-67 and reduce other compounds linked to liver damage and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress results from imbalance between unstable, reactive molecules called free radicals and the antioxidants sop them up.""A separate series of tests on human liver cancer cells showed that saffron inhibits the action of key proteins like NF-Kappa B, Interlukin-8, and tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 that contribute cell proliferation and inflammation. Other evidence shows that saffron switches on programmed cell death in cancerous cells, a failsafe mechanism that is ofter shut down in cancer." Still Saffron is very expensive and it has to be hand-picked, so its going to be very expensive.

I think this article is interesting because there has been almost no possible cure to cancer but now, a natural resource has the possibility of curing it.

This can relate to my life because my cousin was trying to create an operation where you could remove the cancer with a tube you insert and you isolate the cancerous area and remove it.

I think this article is more related to human ingenuity because these people are researching and they finally found a cure to cancer (liver) after many years of searching.