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Greenland ice is melting 7 percent faster than previously thought

Full Text:

The same hotspot in Earth's mantle that feeds Iceland's active volcanoes has been playing a trick on the scientists who are trying to measure how much ice is melting on nearby Greenland. According to a new study by National Science Foundation-funded researchers at The Ohio State University, the hotspot softened the mantle rock beneath Greenland in a way that ultimately distorted their calculations for ice loss in the Greenland ice sheet. This caused them to underestimate the melting by about 20 gigatons (20 billion metric tons) per year. That means Greenland did not lose about 2,500 gigatons of ice from 2003-2013 as scientists previously thought, but nearly 2,700 gigatons instead -- a 7.6 percent difference.

Image credit: Anders A Bjork, courtesy of The Ohio State University

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Pretending to be a badger wins Oxford Don 10 TRILLION DOLLARS

And that's just one of last night's Ig Nobel Prizes

The annual Ig Nobel Prizes were handed out on Thursday night, as always “honoring achievements that make people laugh, then think”.…

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Cannabis And Cancer

With ever-increasing costs of conventional healthcare, and continuing issues with insurance coverage, alternative medicine is growing in popularity. Inasmuch as it is still officially denigrated, cannabis is about as "alternative" as it gets.

This, despite no shortage of historic references to cannabis, or its extract marijuana (prepared from the dried and crushed flowers and leaves of the plant) as to its medicinal effects. Chinese Emperors Fu Hsi (2900 BC) and Shen Nung (2700 BC) are said to have touted its healing effects. Some authorities claim that the anointing oil in Exodus 30:22-25 contained cannabis, and that "cane" is a mistranslation from the original Hebrew (1450 BC). Getting more into modern times, marijuana was added to the US Pharmacopeia in 1850, and its use is indicated for an astonishingly diverse litany of illnesses.

According to this PDQ Review from the National Cancer Institute, and referring to this illustration, cannabis may lessen the progression of cancer cells. It also alleviates pain, lowers inflammation and decreases anxiety.

An oft-cited study from 1996 on mice and rats suggested that cannabinoids (any of various chemical constituents of cannabis) may have a protective effect against the development of hepatic adenoma tumors and hepatocellular carcinoma. The study also noted decreased incidences of benign tumors in other organs (mammary gland, uterus, pituitary, testis, and pancreas).

A review article (2006)—appearing in the British Journal of Pharmacology—entitled "Cannabinoids and cancer: pros and cons of an antitumour strategy" listed few cons, and displayed a largely positive picture:

Cannabinoids have the advantage of being well tolerated in animal studies and they do not present the generalized toxic effects of most conventional chemotherapeutic agents. Cannabinoids selectively affect tumor cells more than their nontransformed counterparts that might even be protected from cell death. Even if further in vivo research is required to clarify [their] action in cancer and especially to test their effectiveness in patients, the cannabinoid system represents a promising target for cancer treatment.

As to the palliative aspects of Cannabis during cancer treatment, the official version of things is... curious. According to a recent document from PubMed Health...

Several controlled clinical trials have been performed, and meta-analyses of these support a beneficial effect of cannabinoids (dronabinol and nabilone) on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (N/V) compared with placebo. Both dronabinol and nabilone are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention or treatment of chemotherapy-induced N/V in cancer patients.

Thus, the FDA has approved two drugs, which are nothing more than synthetic versions of chemicals in cannabis. In addition to the anti-nausea/vomiting properties, dronabinol is used to treat loss of appetite in people with AIDS. Analgesic properties are also claimed for both drugs.

However, owing to the bizarre stigmatization of cannabis, and the difficulty in obtaining proper clearance to study it in clinical settings, there is only a limited amount of published research available on the palliative properties of the source plant itself. Yet, anecdotal evidence of its effects is widely disseminated.

The website Surviving Mesothelioma offers inspiring stories of several people who have survived this rare form of cancer. The disease develops from cells of the mesothelium, a membrane that protects the body's major internal organs and allows them freedom of movement (for example, lung contractions). The five-year survival rate is poor—at nine percent or less—and has not improved much over the last 30 years.

The chronicle of Andy Ashcraft is quite compelling. He was diagnosed with late stage pleural mesothelioma in 2010, and given three months to a year. Far from being resigned to this fate, Andy and his wife investigated and embarked on alternative therapies, including cannabis oil. Six years later, alive and well, he really has beaten the odds, and is another one of those "anecdotal" cases of an alternative approach success.

The stigmatization of cannabis is fading, but it won't come easy. After all, lining up on the other side are Big Pharma and Big Law Enforcement. But if a therapy works, and it costs less...

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Computer Scientists Solve Mystery Of The Ein Gedi Scroll By 'Virtual Unwrapping'

Researchers used a new kind of analysis to make a virtual image of a crumbling ancient scroll from Israel. Biblical scholars were able to read the re-created text, which is from Leviticus.

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Can We Get Rid Of EpiPen Price Gouges With Science? An Interview With Ajan Reginald
When I was little, I accidentally stepped on a bee hidden in some grass. My foot and leg immediately began to swell and my day out with a friend ended up in a rush to the emergency room. I was found to have a severe allergy to bee stings and was prescribed an Epipen, which I kept up to date until into my late teens. I have no idea if I'm still allergic, as I haven't been stung in at least 15 years, but it's always something I keep in the back of my mind as one of those things I should probably get checked out. Oh, and I should probably get another Epipen, just to be safe. It became one of those things I'd "get around to" doing, but never did.

Lately this nonsense with price gouging made me wonder if there were alternatives. What if we could somehow cut out the middleman of pharmaceutical companies and instead look to something else for a solution? What about all of that crazy stem cell technology that's happening now, could that be the way out of this mess?

It was a crazy idea, but I reached out to Ajan Reginald, a former dentist-turned-life-science-entrepreneur and founder of Celixir, which focuses on stem cell technology, about my hypothesis and hope for a solution to removing the worry of price increases on life-saving medicines.

What's an "explain like I'm 5" way of looking at allergies?

AR: "The body's defence system is the immune system which is made of immune cells. The immune system recognises safe substances and dangerous foreign objects.

If something is recognised as dangerous the immune system tries to destroy this substance to protect the body. The immune cells release chemicals to try to destroy the dangerous substance but these are potent chemicals that can damage the body as well.

An allergic response is when a safe substance (e.g., peanut) is wrongly recognised as dangerous by the immune system. This can produce the most severe and dangerous allergic response - anaphylaxis, when the body can go into shock; blood pressure drops suddenly and airways narrow, blocking normal breathing."

Is there a way stem cells can lessen the severity, or completely remove, allergies?
AR: "Yes cellular therapies (not necessarily stem cells) can reduce the response of the immune cells to allergies. Though vaccines may be a better way to treat allergies."

How long do you anticipate we'll need to keep relying on things like EpiPens instead of combating the problem with science and stem cells?

AR: "Broadly applicable vaccines for Peanuts and other common allergies are still in clinical trials so may be available in 5-10 years from market. However these won't replace EpiPens completely and emergencies you'll still need these products. Easy to use competitors to EpiPen are expected in 2018."

So, as with all things that are worth waiting for, getting away from the potential of having to make life-threatening decisions in regards to "money or medicine?" will take some time, but is still on the horizon so don't feel hopeless just yet. The more we find out about stem cells and how they can correct our immune system triggers, the sooner we'll be able to move away from a world where lifesaving medicines are a privilege and not a right.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Computer Scientists Solve Mystery Of The En-Gedi Scroll By 'Virtual Unwrapping'

Researchers used a new kind of analysis to make a virtual image of a crumbling ancient scroll from Israel. Biblical scholars were able to read the recreated text, which is from Leviticus.

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As a GMO Pillar Wobbles, Biotech Companies Promise New Insect-Killing Genes

Scientists have discovered a soil microbe with a gene that kills the corn rootworm, an insect that farmers spend $1 billion each year trying to control.

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Chip shifts frequencies of photon qubits
New technology could help to link-up quantum devices

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Flash Physics: Giant glowing 'space blobs', SCOAP3 extended for three years, European Spallation Source gains momentum
Today's selection of need-to-know updates from the world of physics

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Heat transfer in solids and fluids with COMSOL Multiphysics
Register now: Wednesday 19 October
A webinar sponsored by COMSOL

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Adventures in search of auroras
This fascinating account of the Northern Lights taught reviewer (and space plasma physicist) Colin Forsyth a thing or two about aurora science

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Adventures in search of auroras
This fascinating account of the Northern Lights taught reviewer (and space plasma physicist) Colin Forsyth a thing or two about aurora science

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Between the lines
Books on the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens, the physics of golf and pioneering women in science, reviewed by Margaret Harris

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Between the lines
Books on the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens, the physics of golf and pioneering women in science, reviewed by Margaret Harris

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Unlocking the mysteries of the formation of our solar system with CHIMERA
Register now: Thursday 22 September
A webinar sponsored by Andor

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AFM-IR Workshop
Workshop: 9 Nov 2016, Manchester, United Kingdom. Organized by Anasys Instruments, Scanwel, University of Manchester.

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Quantum-Classical Transition in Many-Body Systems: Indistinguishability, Interference and Interactions
Workshop: 13 Feb 2017 - 17 Feb 2017, Dresden, Germany. Organized by Andreas Buchleitner and Juan-Diego Urbina.

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Jean-Francois Niçeron Scientist of the DayJean-Francois...

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Jean-Francois Niçeron Scientist of the Day

Jean-Francois Niçeron, a French cleric and mathematician, died Sep. 22, 1646, at the young age of 33…

And Bill Gates approves

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have promised at least $3bn in funding for a medical initiative to cure, prevent or manage all known diseases by the end of the century.…

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We Really Do Get A Little More Santa-Like, Physically, During The Holidays

All that holiday grubbing does indeed pack on the pounds. How much? Researchers tracked the weights of 3,000 people in Germany, Japan and the U.S. and found a weight spike after every major holiday.

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"Testing in the East": An Episode in Cold War Bioethics
Co-author: Ulf Schmidt, Professor of Modern History, University of Kent, Canterbury, England

In 2013 the influential German magazine Der Spiegel published an expose about clinical trials conducted by Western drug companies in East Germany during the Cold War. The magazine reported that at least 50,000 people had been test subjects for around 900 studies done by manufacturers that included leading companies from Switzerland, the United States, and West Germany. Fifty hospitals were sites of the research, including the prestigious Charite in East Berlin. The principle motivation for the East Germans was money: they desperately needed hard currency for their failing medical system. For their part the companies appreciated the far greater efficiency of recruitment in the East, and paid the East Germans up to 800,000 West German marks per study.

The agency responsible for setting up these contracts? The notorious Stasi, the East German secret police force that included hundreds of thousands of paid agents and hundreds of thousands of more informants.

Der Spiegel's series about the drug trials contained language and themes familiar to many landmark bioethics cases. The revelations were described as a scandal that used the oppressed East Germans as human guinea pigs, including deaths and injuries that had not been properly reported, the indiscriminate use of low-birthweight infants and depressed patients, inadequate informed consent, powerful drug companies and physicians largely eager to cooperate in spite of the occasional protest. Complete with interviews with former test subjects and regretful doctors, the study had all the elements of a classical bioethics case study that could take its place along with the U.S. Public Health Service's Tuskegee syphilis study; the Guatemala sexually transmissible disease experiments; and some of the well-documented human radiation, biological, and chemical warfare experiments in the U.S. and the U.K. The magazine's series concluded on a hopeful note that justice would be served when the distinguished German medical historian, Volker Hess, reviews the study archives.

Hess and two co-authors recently concluded their exhaustive review, published in German as Testen im Osten or "Testing in the East." They concluded that, far from the scandal that the press anticipated, the East German trials were conducted largely within acceptable standards of medical ethics, especially by the conventions of the day. The authors do allow that consent procedures might not have been as thorough as in the West and in some cases there are serious questions about placebo controls and the adequacy of comparative treatment arms, but the practices were not dramatically different from those in West Germany at the time, they say.

Several other groups of historians and ethicists in Germany have also examined the material and published their results. Yet this dramatic episode has received virtually no attention in the bioethics literature, in spite of the fact that it raises compelling questions about the functioning of medical ethics standards and practices in an authoritarian system. With the glaring and extreme exceptions of the Nazi concentration camp experiments and the abuses of Soviet psychiatry, these are questions that are largely absent from the literature. Medical ethics in Central and Eastern Europe during the socialist period is a matter of near total ignorance among scholars.

In the years ahead other scholars will want to weigh in on the conclusions of Hess and others. But one lesson that can already be drawn is that expectations about medical ethics in authoritarian regimes should be critically received. More investigation needs to be conducted about these seemingly contrarian results. Usual explanations don't seem to be available. For example, although East Germany was not a member of the World Medical Association and therefore not philosophically committed to its Declaration of Helsinki, they do not appear to have violated that international agreement. And although Western firms had good reason to want to conduct trials that were in line with Helsinki requirements in order to ensure that their intellectual property would be protected, they often seem to have breached those requirements in other parts of the world. And yet in East Germany they seem to have complied with those requirements. Why was this the case?

Understanding the unique conditions of medical ethics in East Germany and the other socialist states in that period will require incorporating expertise from cultural history, law, and the social sciences, as well as dogged archival work. Challenging though it is, this often troubled region presents an exceptional opportunity to assess the development, interpretation, and application of ethical theories, standards, and practices under circumstances that were quite different from those anywhere else in the world, and to obtain an illuminating comparison with our own place and time.

Originally published on the Hastings Bioethics Forum, September 21, 2016.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Wellcome Trust.

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