Dogs Process Words Like Humans

                Scientists have found evidence to support what many dog owners have long believed: man’s best friend really does understand some of what we’re saying. Researchers scanned the brains of dogs as they were listening to their trainer speak to determine which parts of the brain they use. They found that dogs processed words with the left hemisphere, while intonation was processed with the right hemisphere – just like humans. What’s more the dogs only registered that they were being praised if the words and intonation were positive; meaningless words spoken in an encouraging voice, or meaningful words in a neutral tone, didn’t have the same effect. Gog brains care about both what we say and how we say it. Praise can work as a reward only if both word meaning and intonation match. The findings suggest that the mental ability to process language evolved earlier than previously believed and that what sets humans apart from other species is the invention of words. The neural capacities to process words that were thought by many to be uniquely human are actually shared with other species. While other species probably are also capable of understand language like dogs do, their lack of interest in human speech makes it difficult to test. Dogs have socialized with humans for thousands of years, meaning they are more attentive to what people say to them and how.

Mobile Games Could Help Detect Autism

                Scientists have found that autism could be diagnosed by allowing children to play games on smartphones and tablets. Researchers used fun iPad games to track players’ hand movements – gathering information that can help identify autism. The research team found that the technology could offer an accessible and less intrusive way to diagnose the developmental disorder. They have shown that children with autism can identified by their game-play patterns on an iPad. This is potentially a major breakthrough for early identification of autism, because no stressful and expensive tests b clinicians are needed. Early detection is important as this can allow parents and children to gain access to a range of services support. This new ‘serious game’ assessment offers a cheaper, faster, fun way of testing for autism. But more work is needed to confirm this finding, and to test for its limitations. It is not social, emotional or cognitive aspects of game-play that identify autism. Rather, the key difference is in the way children with autism move their hands as they touch, swipe and gesture with the iPad during the game. Autism spectrum disorder is a childhood neuro-developmental disorder, and its global prevalence is estimated at one in 160 children.

Earth Has Entered a New Man-Made Epoch, says Experts

                Planet Earth has entered a new epoch dubbed the Anthropocene because of the extent of humanity’s impact on the planet. An international working group set up to consider the question voted by 34 to zero, with one abstention, that the Anthropocene was real in a geological sense. The warming temperature, higher sea levels, as from fossil fuels, plastic waste, a dramatic increase in erosion, the spread of animal species around the world and radioactive particles left around the world from nuclear bomb tests would all contribute to permanent changes in the Earth’s rocks.

                The Anthropocene concept is geologically real. The idea that the world had entered an epoch defined by humans was first suggested in 2000 by scientists. Human impact has left discernible traces on the strati-graphic record for thousands of years – indeed, since before the beginning of the Holocene. However, substantial and approximately globally synchronous changes to the Earth system most clearly intensified in the ‘Great Acceleration’ of the mid 20^th century. The mid 20^th century also coincides with clearest and most distinctive array of signals imprinted upon recently deposited strata.

                Changes to the Earth System that characterize the potential Anthropocene Epoch include marked acceleration to rates of erosion and sedimentation, large-scale chemical perturbations to the cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements, the inception of significant change to global climate and sea level, and biotic changes such as unprecedented levels of species invasion across the Earth. Many of these changes are geologically long lasting and some are effectively irreversible.

16 Years Old Claims Breast Cancer Cure

                A 16 year old Indian origin boy from UK’s Surrey has claimed to have found a treatment for the most deadly form of breast cancer. He thinks he has devised a way to turn the triple negative breast cancer into a kind which responds to drugs. Around 7,500 women each year diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a type of disease which does not respond to today’s most effective drugs. Many breast cancers are driven by oestrogen, progesterone or growth chemicals, so drugs that can block those fuels, such as tamoxifen, make effective treatments. Most cancers have receptors on their surface which bind to drugs, but triple negative don’t have receptors so the drugs don’t work. Thus, it can be only treated with a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy which lowers chances of survival.

                Researchers have found that some women with triple negative cancer respond very well to treatment while others quickly decline. The problem lies in whether the cancer cells are “differentiated” or not. Differentiated means they look more like healthy cells and tend to grow and multiply quite slowly, and are less aggressive. However, when cancer cells are “undifferentiated” they get stuck in a dangerous primitive form, never turning into recognizable breast tissue, and spreading quickly, leading to high-grade tumours. The teenager said, “The goal is to turn the cancer back to a state where it can be treated. The ID4 protein stops undifferentiated stem cell cancers from differentiating, so you have to block ID4 to allow the cancer to differentiate.”

                According to him, the solution lies in upping the activity of tumour suppressor gene called PTEN, which allows chemotherapy to work more effectively, soothe dual treatment could prove far more effective than traditional drugs. He plans to deliver the therapy in a nanoparticles containing RNA – the messenger molecule which carries instructions from the DNA. The RNA nanoparticles would be encoded to silence or boost gene activity.