Regalado A (2015) The cancer test experiment. MIT Tech Review 118:22
People usually find out about having cancer by finding a lump in their body or by showing symptoms. Sometimes going to the doctor and getting tumors removed is just not enough. Cancers are very invasive and scientists have been trying to find different ways to not only treat them but to also detect them at an earlier time. There is a new test called liquid biopsy, which scans a person's blood for small fragments of DNA released by cancer tumors. These tumors have proven to be very effective in detecting different gene mutations in a person's genome. For example, Deborah Fletcher was a 54-year-old woman who suffered from inflammatory breast cancer and got a liquid biopsy to be able to see how this cancer affected her genes. When the results came in they found that there was a mutation in her genes, which was making her cancer cells resistant to the drugs she was taking. Because of this liquid biopsy they were able to detect that mutation and change her medications
The most important use of liquid biopsies is to catch a cancer in its early stages so that a doctor can go in and cut it out with minor invasion. However, not many institutions are accepting these liquid biopsies due to their expensiveness. The places that are able to use these biopsies use them as tests to guide decisions about the treatments that patients will undergo. Although the treatments are not very popular right now, they have proven to be very effective in detecting cancer genes. More places are using this test daily and many clinical trials are launching to make it a more known test.
Hesselberg T (2015) Exploration behavior and behavioral flexibility in orb-weaver spiders: a review. Curr Zoology 61:313-327
This study focuses on exploration behavior, or the action some animals take to gather information about their environment. This skill is especially relevant to animals that build structures that serve a purpose in either food capture or shelter. Spiders (order Araneae) are a group of organisms that exhibit considerable variability in the architecture of their webs, which serve both to capture food and to shelter the organism.
In this study, the results of a 2013 paper also published by Thomas Hesselberg on the effects of spatial constraint in the orb-weaver spider Eustala illicita are further discussed. This previous 2013 study found that when E. illicita spiders were placed into frames that significantly reduced the space available for web construction, they built webs that were more compressed than webs built in frames that mimicked that lack of spatial constraint found in most natural settings. Since orb-weavers are basically blind, this study suggests that their pattern of web construction relies heavily upon the formation and retention of a cognitive map during the exploration stage of web-building. This study concluded that since there is a paucity of information on the web-building behavior of spiders, it is difficult to draw concrete conclusions about the existence of this cognitive map - though it is hard to imagine how spiders would construct webs without use of such a map, their simple nervous systems may limit possibilities for the retention of such a map. This paper served as a summary of data from other studies performed by the same author in an apparent effort to inspire further study of the behavior of spiders when constructing webs.
Dunn T (2015) Striving for the perfect diet is making us sick. Pop Sci 286:24
Today's dieting scene has gone far beyond the traditional food pyramid. Some of the current prominent diets include detoxifying cleanses, gluten free, and paleo, just to name a few. The diet industry has grown immensely over the past few years and with its growth, the amount of people who strive to overhaul their current diets increases. The food pyramid continues to lose its importance as a nutritional guideline, with people eliminating categories of it from their diets. However, this intense desire to control one's eating can become compulsive and people may experience immense feelings of anxiety when they consume something that they or someone else deems "bad." This desire has developed into a new eating disorder that is called orthorexia, which is an obsession to have a so-called "pure" or healthy diet and nutrition. It is the fear of eating and being unhealthy. Since a number of these diets lack essential areas of the food pyramid, they can cause the body to be unable to absorb the vitamins and minerals that are present in fruits and vegetables. In addition, these diets can cause a number of health problems such as fragile bones, hormone imbalances, and psychological problems. Thus, while it is important to eat healthy, there is such a thing as eating too healthy.
Larson CM, Haselton MG, Gildersleeve KA, Pillsworth EG (2013) Changes in women's feelings about their romantic relationships across the ovulatory cycle. Horm Behav 63:128-135
Larson et al. (2013) investigated how ovulation affects women's feelings towards their romantic partners. Women evaluated their partners' desirability and their satisfaction in their romantic relationships before and during ovulation. They found that women who felt their partners were less attractive before ovulation felt less close to them during ovulation and more likely to stray from them, while women who rated their partners as more attractive before ovulation felt even closer to them while ovulating and were less likely to stray. These results demonstrate that women may be using the dual mating strategy when ovulating, looking for sexually ideal partners to father children when ovulating, and supportive and reliable partners when not ovulating.
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