Long-term Aspirin use linked to lower risk for certain cancers

On 3 March 2016, a group of Harvard scientists reported that taking low dose aspirin every day may lower the overall risk of cancer by 3 percent. The study was published in Jama Oncology. The study concluded that long-term aspirin use was associated with a modest but significantly reduced risk for overall cancer, especially gastrointestinal tract tumours. Regular aspirin use may prevent a substantial proportion of colorectal cancers and complement the benefits of screening.

Highlights:

·         Taking aspirin of 81mg a day for at least six years saw the risk of cancer of any kind drop by 3 percent.

·         The middle aged people who regularly took aspirin were less likely to be diagnosed with cancer of any kind.

·         It is particularly effective at warding off cancers of the digestive system.

·         The most dramatic impact was seen for bowel cancer.

MIT builds cheap water treatment device for India

MIT scientists have developed an inexpensive, solar-powered water treatment system for rural India, which lack affordable potable water and electricity. The researchers have designed, built and tested their next step id to implement it in a village outside of Hyderabad.

                They found that thousands of people in the Mhasawad village in Maharashtra regularly drink water with a salinity level above 1,200 parts per million (ppm). The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends levels under 600 ppm. Wright and Winter believe that by designing a community system that can provide tasty, desalinated water at an affordable price, all villagers will be more likely to consistently drink water that is clean and healthy, even if they hav to pay for it.

RO systems, installed in many villages, work by utilizing a high-pressure pump to push water through a membrane; the saltier it is, the more energy that is required to move the water through. The researchers instead chose electrodialysis reversal (EDR), because at the area’s typical salinity level of 500 to 2,000 ppm, it requires 25 to 70% less energy than RO and can recover more than 90% of the feed water.

                They then replaced grid electricity with solar power, decreasing operational and capital costs at the same time

Tiny self-assembling particles developed

Scientists have created microscopic self-assembling particles that can be manipulated using light and can serve as the next generation of building blocks in the making of synthetic materials. “Our work turns the tiniest of particles from inflexible, Lego-like pieces into ones that can transform themselves into a range of shapes,” said Stefano Sacanna, an assistant professor at NYU. The research focused on engineering particles a micrometer in width – about 1/200^th the width of a strand of human hair.

SpaceX launches ISS docking port for NASA

SpaceX successfully launched a critical space station docking port for astronauts early Monday, along with a DNA decoder for high-flying genetic research. The company brought its leftover first-stage booster back to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a vertical landing – only the second such land landing for an orbital mission and the ultimate in recycling. Everything got off to a good start as the unmanned Falcon rocket streaked through the middle-of-the-night darkness, carrying 5,000 pound of food and equipment for the International Space Station. It was SpaceX’s second shot at delivering a new-style docking port for NASA

ISRO established GIRI Radar System at Tirupati

On 21 March 2016, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) established the Gadanki Ionospheric Radar Interferometer (GIRI) near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. It was set up at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) which is an autonomous research institute of the Department of Space.

Features:

Ø  It is a 30 MHz radar system that will be engaged in meteor and space weather research in a comprehensive way.

Ø  It consists of a rectangular antenna array of 160 two-element Yagi-antenna, arranged in a 20×8 matrix, 20 transmitter units, 6 digital receivers including data processing systems, a radar controller, and a host computer.

Ø  Its primary objective is to carry out unattended observations towards studying the forcing from the sun like variation in solar flux, solar flare and magnetic storm on the ionospheric irregularities.

Ø  It also seeks to study unattended observations from the underneath atmosphere (e.g., waves generated by weather phenomena) on the ionospheric irregularities.

Ø  It will provide important information on the angular location of plasma irregularities during the onset phase and its relationship to background ionospheric state parameters and sunset terminator. 

Snowflake Coral growth off Thiruvananthapuram poses threat to Marine Ecology

Scuba divers working for Friends of Marine Life (FML) in December 2015 recorded the presence of several colonies of the fast-growing alien species Snowflake Coral (Carijoa riisei) off the coast of Thiruvananthpuram and Kanyakumari. Friends of Marine Life (FML) is a local NGO. As per scientists colonies of the snowflake, an invasive species, could pose a serious threat to the marine ecology of the region. The species was found amid clusters of rocky reef off the coast of Kovalam at 10 meter depth in Thiruvananthapuram and Enayam at 18 meter depth in Kanyakumari. The species was documented as part of a research project harnessing the traditional knowledge of the fisherman community to access the marine biodiversity of the region. The project was coordinated by researcher Robert Panipilla.

Cow cartilage may help fight arthritis

Scientists have developed a new 3D-printing process that uses strands of cow cartilage as bioink, an innovation that may help create tissue patches for worn-out joints in arthritis patients. Cartilage is a good tissue to target for scale-up bioprinting because it is made up of only one cell type and has no blood vessels within the tissue. The tissue cannot repair itself.

                Previous attempts at growing cartilage began with cells embedded in a hydrogel – a substance composed of polymer chains and about 90% water – that is used as a scaffold to grow the tissue. “Hydrogels don’t allow cells to grow as normally,” said Ibrahim T Ozbolat, associate professor at Pennsylvania State University, US.

This leads to tissues that do not have sufficient mechanical integrity. The cartilage produced under the new experiment is very similar to native cow cartilage. The mechanical properties are inferior, but better than the one with hydrogel scaffolding.