Mesothelioma Infected

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos.^[1] In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body’s internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart).

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking

• 1 Signs and symptoms
• 2 Diagnosis
• 3 Screening
• 4 Staging
• 5 Pathophysiology
• 6 Epidemiology
  • 6.1 Incidence
  • 6.2 Risk factors
  • 6.3 Exposure
    • 6.3.1 Occupational
    • 6.3.2 Paraoccupational Secondary Exposure
    • 6.3.3 Asbestos in buildings
    • 6.3.4 Environmental exposures
• 7 Treatment
  • 7.1 Surgery
  • 7.2 Radiation
  • 7.3 Chemotherapy
  • 7.4 Immunotherapy
  • 7.5 Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy
• 8 Notable people who died from mesothelioma
• 9 Notable people that have lived for some time with mesothelioma
• 10 Legal issues
• 11 Legal History
• 12 References
• 13 See also
• 14 External links
• 15 Sources

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IOWA CITY, IA—University of Iowa neuroscientists studying spatial learning and the effects of stress on memory announced Tuesday that a little son-of-a-bitch mouse ruined an experiment on cognitive performance by effortlessly navigating a maze that researchers spent nearly a year designing and constructing.

The test subject, a common house mouse, briskly traversed the complicated wooden maze in under 30 seconds or, according to the study’s final report, roughly 1/8,789,258 as long as it took the lab to secure funding for the experiment. According to researchers administrating the standard Y-maze test, the fucking bastard never even broke his stride during the first trial, always selecting the correct route while consistently avoiding blind dead-end alleys.

“We were unable to observe any statistically significant behavioral changes in the subject, largely due to the fact that he was in such a goddamn hurry to finish the maze,” said Dr. Richard Barret, who was forced to estimate the mouse’s various reaction times after one of his assistants smashed the lab’s stopwatch in anger. “Further analysis will be required to garner any useful knowledge regarding this particular mouse’s neurological processes, his reflex response to stimuli, and how in the hell that stupid jerk reached the goal without screwing up once.”

Despite attempts to condition the mouse by screaming directly into its face, the researchers reported that the subject smugly completed the second and third runs of the three- dimensional spatial task with ease. A videotape of the mouse pausing during the final run has been subjected to a thorough review by the lab in order to determine if one of the maze’s obstacles managed to momentarily confuse the mouse or if the test subject was, in fact, gloating.

“Had we obtained any usable data, perhaps that information would have led to the development of a cure for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s,” said Dr. William Eng, who led the team responsible for creating the maze. “What is unclear at this time is why this particular mouse had to be such a dick and render useless all the work we had put into this controlled behavioral experiment.”

In order to create the maze, Eng hand-drew 15 drafts of the 5-foot by-6-foot wooden puzzle and utilized 3-D-modeling software before painstakingly gluing each 7-inch-tall piece of wood together. Even though Eng said the maze’s interconnecting pathways were designed to provide a challenging series of obstructions to disorient the mouse, after completing the course, the subject reportedly ran back through to the starting line twice as fast.

“It is regrettable to spend such a tremendous amount of money studying mammalian neuropathways, only to have some hotshot mouse ruin everything,” Eng said. “However, we have compiled substantial data on this species’s ability to breeze right in and destroy an entire postdoctoral legacy.”

Repeated trials yielded similar results, with the mouse performing equally well despite added variables of Dr. Eng trying to “scoot” it back with a pen and Dr. Barret tipping the entire maze upward 45 degrees. Additional attempts to deceive the mouse by placing a reward of cheese in an impassable section of the maze were also unsuccessful.

“Taking into account my past successful experiments with chimpanzees, it is my final analysis that we are dealing with one smart little fucker,” said team member Dr. Russell Sutton, who has already applied for an additional grant to study cognitive learning in the same mouse. “I wonder if he’ll be so smart without a functioning hippocampus.”

Technorati Tags: bitch mouse, IOWA CITY, neuroscientists, Science News, University of Iowa

In as little as 5 years, scientists may be able to grow eggs and sperm from ordinary body cells, an international consortium of scientists and ethicists announced in a consensus statement yesterday. The technological advance could be a boon for infertile couples as well as for research on reproduction, providing policymakers don’t ban the tools, the group says.

Last year scientists announced that they had learned to turn back the clock on body cells (ScienceNOW, 20 November 2007). By inserting a select group of genes, they were able to convert skin cells into pluripotent stem cells (PSC)–cells capable of developing into any type of body tissue. This capability has opened up a whole new world of research–and it’s brought closer to reality the possibility of generating embryos from gametes (i.e., sperm and eggs) grown in the lab, bypassing the need to collect oocytes from women.

The consortium, known as the Hinxton Group, warns that “oversight structures” need to be in place before anyone attempts to deploy such gametes in human reproduction. Such a development raises a host of concerns that include safety issues and the specter of the “ultimate incest”–the same person supplying both egg and sperm. At the same time, the group urges policymakers to be “flexible” in regulating the new technologies, not only because of the insights they can offer into human development but also because they could present new options for infertile couples whose eggs or sperm is defective. In legislation currently being considered in the United Kingdom, it would be illegal to use gametes created in the lab to treat infertility.

Both supporters and critics of stem cell research are already talking about the possibility that gay and lesbian couples might be able to become biological parents with these techniques. The Hinxton Group, however, points out that at present scientists see no way to make eggs from male body cells or sperm from female body cells. The obstacles are particularly great in the latter case, because female cells carry no Y chromosome, which contains genes necessary for sperm production.

Even if the work is only confined to research, it will be hard to avoid controversy, says Ruth Faden, a bioethecist at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and a member of the Hinxton Group. That’s because researchers will need to create an embryo to test the viability of these laboratory-created gametes–a procedure bound to cause more than a bit of a stir.

By Constance Holden
ScienceNOW Daily News
15 April 2008

Technorati Tags: becoming, life, Science News, skin, sperm

Salt and Pepper molecule

Technorati Tags: molecule, pepper, salt, Science News

The University of Pennsylvania and Penn Museum
Join Philadelphia Cultural Organizations to Present
A YEAR OF EVOLUTION April 2008 – May 2009

Full Year of Public Programs Kicks Off with Opening of Penn Museum’s New Exhibition: “Surviving: The Body of Evidence”

SPRING 2008— The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, originator of the modern theory of evolution, is just months away. Now, the University of Pennsylvania, in conjunction with Penn Museum and major Philadelphia cultural organizations, launches an ambitious YEAR OF EVOLUTION of public programs and events, from late April 2008 through May 2009.

The YEAR OF EVOLUTION kicks off for the public on Saturday, April 19, as the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology opens “Surviving: The Body of Evidence,” a new exhibition which explores the process of evolution and its profound impact on humans. Other YEAR OF EVOLUTION public programs so far scheduled at the University of Pennsylvania include:

• Donald Johanson, Director, Institute for Human Origins (May 2008)
• Spencer Wells, Director, National Geographic Genographic Project (October 2008)
• E. Janet Browne, author, Charles Darwin: Voyaging and the Power of Place (November 2008)
• Kenneth R. Miller, author, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution (February 2009).

Penn’s rich offerings will also include programs for children and families, scholarly symposia, and a special Penn Reading Project for entering freshmen.

Penn will be joined by leading Philadelphia cultural institutions, including The Academy of Natural Sciences, The Free Library of Philadelphia, The Franklin, Philadelphia Zoo, Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and American Philosophical Society Museum (APS Museum). They will offer such programs as:

• Exhibitions about the work of Darwin (American Philosophical Society Museum) and geneticist Gregor Mendel (The Academy of Natural Sciences)
• An evolutionary perspective on a medical collection (Mütter Museum)
• IMAX movie programs (The Franklin)
• A closer look at our closest relatives: our fellow primates (Philadelphia Zoo)

Penn’s YEAR OF EVOLUTION website launches on April 16. The site will offer the full schedule of University and city-wide programs, plus updates throughout the year and more information. Visit: www.yearofevolution.org

Dr. Howard Goldfine, Professor of Microbiology in Penn’s School of Medicine, and Dr. Michael Weisberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, are the co-chairs of the University’s YEAR OF EVOLUTION. Dr. Janet Monge, Acting Curator of Physical Anthropology in the Penn Museum and co-curator of the exhibition, was instrumental in organizing the city-wide effort.

“We are at an extraordinarily fast-paced, productive, and challenging time for science,” notes Dr. Weisberg. “Evolutionary biology is the cornerstone of what we know and where we can go in to the future. With the approach of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday – and the 150th anniversary of his seminal book, On the Origin of Species – we felt now was an ideal time to offer our students and the wider public this exciting opportunity to explore evolution and its critical role in science.”

“Philadelphia is the perfect city to come together for a Year of Evolution,” adds Dr. Monge. “With its rich scientific and medical communities, its strong cultural community, and its many schools of higher education, Philadelphia has always been a leader in the advancement of science. The spirit of inquiry has been alive and well in this city from its earliest days – as witnessed by Benjamin Franklin, Penn’s founder, considered by many to be the first American scientist.”

For more information about the YEAR OF EVOLUTION, visit www.yearofevolution.org beginning April 16.