Astronomers' Discovery May Lead To Improved Cancer Treatments; Another Argument In Favor of Basic Science Research

For many people who suffer from any number of cancers, radiation treatments are a vital part of the regime along with chemotherapy.

A discovery by astronomers studying black holes may make that radiation treatment far more effective and safer.

Pradhan conducted computer simulations to calculate how individual atoms would react to every wavelength of energy -- no small feat. They logged many hours at the Ohio Supercomputer Center to complete the analysis.

But the effort was worth it. Pradhan found that some of the prior measurements of chemical abundances inside stars might be off by as much as 50 percent. They were also intrigued by how certain heavy metal atoms absorb radiation: they emit low-energy electrons when exposed to x-rays at specific energies. For example, bombarding iron, gold and platinum with a small dose of x-rays tuned to a narrow frequency range results in a burst of low-energy electrons.

Both x-rays and heavy metals like gold and platinum are routinely used in medical imaging and cancer treatment, hinting at more practical applications. It's the fine-tuning of the x-ray source that seems to be key.

The scientists are now examining how to take advantage of this observation and the assembly of a device that would take advantage of the fact that gold or platinum nanoparticles amass naturally in cancerous tumors in the body, and could then be zapped with the focused x-ray beam. The beam wouldn't require the levels of radiation utilized at present and could be even more focused than existing technologies. It would allow cancer cells to be killed without damaging nearby health tissue. The goal is to combine radiation therapy with chemotherapy, using platinum as the active agent.

It would also be able to target cancers that are previously considered to be inoperable or resistant to current medical treatment.

Once again, this is the result of basic science research and a multidisciplinary view on basic science. Projects like the follow-up to the Hubble Telescope are under fire for being over cost and may be cut by the current Congress. That would be a huge mistake considering the vast amount of knowledge gleaned about the universe from the Hubble and other similar technologies. Canceling the Webb telescope would hinder further discoveries that may have spinoff applications in other fields, including medicine.

It's yet another reason to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light the Night campaign, which is fighting for a cure for a wide range of blood cancers, including the kind that Legalbgl wrote of that struck his wife, Non-Hodgkin’s disease called Primary Mediastinum B-Cell Lymphoma.

The Gorgeous Science of the Hubble Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope was saved from an early ignominious shutdown after public opinion forced NASA to reconsider a mission to repair the Hubble. NASA had not wanted to carry out the mission because a flight profile to the Hubble would mean that if the shuttle were damaged during liftoff there was no way for the shuttle crew to seek refuge at the international space station while a replacement shuttle was sent up to rescue the crew.

It's a good thing that the Hubble was repaired and improved with new technologies, because the new images being beamed back to Earth are positively gorgeous.

The ultraviolet and infrared images of galaxies and nebulas are sharper than previous photos taken of the by Hubble before the upgrades.

"We couldn't be more thrilled with the quality of the images," said Keith Noll, leader of a team at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which planned the early release observations. "The targets we've selected to showcase the telescope reveal the great range of capabilities in our newly upgraded Hubble."

Hubble has beamed amazing images back to Earth before. Earlier this summer, the telescope snapped pictures of the planet Jupiter when an asteroid smashed into it.

NASA said it plans to keep the powerful telescope in operation until 2013.

More images are here. There's much science to be done before the telescope is replaced in 2013, when a new space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope is placed in orbit.

Shuttle Atlantis Launch Footage

This is the last time that a space shuttle is expected to service the Hubble Space Telescope, so it has special significance. It's also among the riskiest missions that NASA has planned because if there's a problem with the shuttle that prevents it from returning to earth, NASA would have to send up another shuttle within days to rescue the stranded Atlantis.