Private spacewalks postponed as scientists warn of new cancer surge
This week’s news roundup covers a new blood test for cancer, a helpful cat parasite and a new type of wood.
Anaisa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific American
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners. Let’s kick off the first week of August with some science news. I’m Rachel Feltman with Science Quickly for Scientific American.
Last Wednesday, researchers from the American Cancer Society published a study suggesting that the incidence of some cancers is increasing with each generation. For eight of the 34 cancers studied, the researchers found that incidence rates increased every five years between 1920 and 1990. In other words, the 1965 birth cohort had a higher incidence than the 1960 birth cohort, but a lower incidence than the 1970 birth cohort. For the other nine cancers, incidence rates had declined for a while, but have started to rise again in younger cohorts. The researchers emphasized that they still do not have a definitive explanation for this trend. While the recent surge in colon cancer among young people has often been covered in headlines as being mainly due to sedentary lifestyles and weight gain, some experts warn that these factors alone cannot explain the surge.
But there was some good news on that front: Last Monday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new blood test for colon cancer. The test, called Shield by Guardant Health, was previously offered as a diagnostic tool by doctors, but at a cost of about $900 out of pocket. Shield is not a replacement for colonoscopies, which are essential for finding (and even removing) polyps that can lead to colon cancer, or for detecting the cancer itself. Studies have shown that the noninvasive blood test is 83% effective at finding colon cancer, but it’s most effective in the later stages of the disease. Still, colonoscopies are notoriously time-consuming because they require bowel preparation, which is often a bit of an unpleasant task, so hopefully the blood test will fill some of the gaps in screening.
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Another recent cancer study underscored the increasingly obvious importance of a good microbiome. Scientists found that certain oral bacteria may provide some benefit to patients with head and neck cancer, leading to better outcomes. The researchers also found that the types of bacteria in question, the so-called common oral flora, Fusobacterium, It may be possible to completely kill some cancer cells in the environment of a petri dish.
In a completely separate health news story, let’s talk about cat poop. Most of you have heard of cat poop. Toxoplasma gondii, A parasitic protozoan that causes toxoplasmosis. The parasite thrives in the intestinal tract of cats and spreads to other mammals through contact with the cat’s feces. Humans can also become infected by eating raw or undercooked meat. The parasite is notorious for causing infected rodents to become averse to cats and for increasing the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women. Last week, researchers published a new study suggesting that the parasite could be harnessed for beneficial purposes. Simply put, the scientists exploited the microbe’s ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, a notoriously difficult barrier to deliver drugs through. While the research is still in its early stages, Toxoplasma It could be designed to deliver therapeutic proteins to the brain, and scientists have had some success using rodent models.
Now, on to the bird flu story. There’s been a lot of health news this week. I don’t know what to tell you, but this is just news.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a $5 million effort to vaccinate farmworkers against seasonal influenza. The vaccine doesn’t target H5N1, one of the viruses that causes bird flu, but it does lower the risk of catching a strain of influenza circulating among humans. The aim is to minimize the two risks of people contracting influenza and carrying H5N1 bird flu at the same time as a more common human flu strain. When viruses coexist in a human host, they have the opportunity to exchange genetic material. The result could be a new bird flu strain that can be transmitted from person to person. Since only about half of the U.S. population is prone to getting seasonal flu shots, this kind of intervention could really make a difference. Still, some argue that the U.S. should also vaccinate farmworkers against H5N1 itself, as the Finnish government reportedly plans to do. But CDC officials say they’re still weighing the pros and cons.
Ok, enough of the healthy stuff, let’s enjoy some junk food.
SpaceX is set to send billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman on the first-ever private spacewalk, but it’s not going as well as either party hoped. The Polaris Dawn mission, which Isaacman funded, was originally scheduled to launch in 2022 on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, but the company recently said the launch could happen as soon as last Wednesday. In a press conference on July 26, SpaceX postponed the launch to mid- to late August. Let’s hope everyone involved feels good about diving into the money, Scrooge McDuck-style.
Finally, we often hear about discoveries of new planets, discoveries of new species, and so on. But what about the new thing: wood? Scientists say they’ve found just that. So when we talk about types of wood in general, we draw a line between hardwoods and softwoods. This doesn’t necessarily refer to the actual density of the wood. Hardwoods are generally taken from trees that flower and have seasonal changes in their leaves. Softwoods are generally taken from trees that have softwood leaves.
In the new study, scientists looked at the two surviving species on a nanoscale. Liriodendron The researchers found unconventional wood in two species of trees, Liriodendron tulipifera and Chinese tulip tree. This “middle wood” structure may help explain why the trees grow so quickly and are so good at capturing carbon. Understanding the mechanism may help scientists select the best trees for carbon sequestration and even design plants that are better at it.
That’s it for this week’s news roundup. We’ll have some bigger science news on Wednesday, and on Friday be sure to tune in for the final episode of our ongoing “Fascination” miniseries, which looks at the wildest varieties of archaeological research.
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for Scientific American, This is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!
