You Can Grab And Fold This Drone Without Hurting Yourself

Following cancer with tiny magnets

Life-saving surgery and treatments rely on doctors being able to accurately track the spread of cancers.                                

A new device that uses iron particles and a magnetic probe will allow clinicians to narrow down exactly which lymph nodes tumours spread to.

Developed by Aidan Cousins with colleagues at the University of South Australia, the novel approach is more sensitive and safer than existing methods for monitoring cancer.

“Pre-clinical trials of our approach suggest it gives a very clear picture of where tumours are most likely to spread,” Aidan explained.

“It will allow subsequent surgery and treatment options to be refined for better standards of care and improved prognosis.”

The technique involves injecting biodegradable iron particles at the primary site of a tumour, from where – as part of their normal surveillance activities – cells of the immune system transport them to the draining lymph nodes.

More information: A. Cousins et al. Novel Handheld Magnetometer Probe Based on Magnetic Tunnelling Junction Sensors for Intraoperative Sentinel Lymph Node Identification, Scientific Reports (2015). DOI: 10.1038/srep10842        

Electron microscopic image of a single human lymphocyte. Credit: Dr. Triche National Cancer Institute                                  

Why wildfires are necessary

Did you know that several forest species need fire to survive?

In the conifer-rich forests of western North America, lodgepole pines constantly seek the sun. Their seeds prefer to grow on open, sunny ground, which pits saplings against each other as each tries to get more light by growing straighter and faster than its neighbors. Over time, generations of slender, lofty lodgepoles form an umbrella-like canopy that shades the forest floor below. But as the trees’ pine cones mature to release their twirling seeds, this signals a problem for the lodgepole’s future: very few of these seeds will germinate in the cool, sunless shade created by their towering parents.

These trees have adapted to this problem by growing two types of cones. There are the regular annual cones that release seeds spontaneously:

And another type called serotinous cones, which need an environmental trigger to free their seeds:

Serotinous cones are produced in thousands and are like waterproof time capsules sealed with resinous pitch. Many are able to stay undamaged on the tree for decades. Cones that fall to the ground can be viable for several years as well. But when temperatures get high enough, the cones pop open.

Once it’s gotten started, a coniferous forest fire typically spreads something like this: flames ravage the thick understory provided by species like Douglas Fir, a shade-tolerant tree that’s able to thrive under the canopy of lodgepole pines. The fire uses these smaller trees as a stepladder to reach the higher canopy of old lodgepole pines. That ignites a tremendous crown fire, reaching temperatures of up to 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. At those temperatures, the serotinous cones burst open, releasing millions of seeds which are carried by the hot air to form new forests. After the fire, carbon rich soils and an open, sunlit landscape help lodgepole seeds germinate quickly and sprout in abundance. From the death of the old forest comes the birth of the new.

So however counterintuitive it may seem, wildfires are important for the wider ecosystem as a whole. Without wildfires to rejuvenate trees, key forest species would disappear—and so would the many creatures that depend on them. And if a fire-dependent forest goes too long without burning, that raises the risk of a catastrophic blaze which could destroy a forest completely, not to mention people’s homes and lives. That’s why forest rangers sometimes intentionally start controlled burns—to reduce fuels in order to keep the more dangerous wildfires at bay.  

From the TED-Ed Lesson Why wildfires are necessary - Jim Schulz

Animation by @provinciastudio

This is the follow-up to squine and cosquine, and I find students find it really cool. Are there any other shapes someone has done this for?

Lasers could rapidly make materials hotter than the Sun

London UK (SPX) Nov 17, 2015 Lasers could heat materials to temperatures hotter than the centre of the Sun in only 20 quadrillionths of a second, according to new research. Theoretical physicists from Imperial College London have devised an extremely rapid heating mechanism that they believe could heat certain materials to ten million degrees in much less than a million millionth of a second. The method, propose Full article

REAL LIFE LIGHTSABER ALERT!

The guy that made the real life version of Mjolnir has crafted another real version of a fictional weapon: a functioning lightsaber. Allen Pan made the fabled Jedi weapon out of an igniter, butane, methanol and acetone which creates a focused pillar of flame. It even makes real sounds! Now, of course this isn’t a conventional lightsaber and you shouldn’t try this at home but it’s awesome that somebody finally accomplished something close! GIVE THIS MAN A GRANT.

Source: https://imgur.com/c4LP6eW

sorry guys I don’t really post on here anymore. I want to say an extremely late happy birthday to the Curiosity Rover and that I’ll try to post more in the future

Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater

Why science says having a younger sibling can be really good for you

Despite all the aggravation.

Anyone with a younger brother or sister knows it’s not always an easy ride (unless you happen to be very fortunate), but a new study suggests there could be real, tangible health benefits to having a younger sibling. Researchers have linked having a little brother or sister to a lower risk of obesity in a comparison of the body mass indexes (BMIs) of 697 children in the US.

The University of Michigan team found that the birth of a sibling between the ages of two and four was associated with a healthy BMI, while those without a sibling by the first grade (age six) were almost three times more likely to be obese at that age. Those are quite dramatic findings, but the researchers behind them aren’t entirely sure why such a link exists.

“This study is believed to be the first to track subsequent increases in BMI after a child becomes a big brother or sister,” said senior author Julie Lumeng. “Research suggests that having younger siblings - compared with having older or no siblings - is associated with a lower risk of being overweight. However, we have very little information about how the birth of a sibling may shape obesity risk during childhood.”