Great research and could maybe be used to help destroy cancer cells without destroying normal cells during radiotheraphy etc. (although so long as the cancer cells don't suddenly get immune to radiation etc. as well).
On another note, is there any reason why they had to exlicitly state that the scientists were of Jewish descent? The only possibility that comes to mind for making this explicit is that this is the reason they got Israeli investment?
I don't know, but the link with Israel seems to be a very tenuous one, the 'investment' isn't detailed (it could be a very small portion of the total project) and the 'israeli scientists' appear to be only one lady on the whole team.
It reminds me of a quip by Albert Einstein: "If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say I am a German and Germany will declare I am a Jew."
I'm sure that if 'a cure for cancer' is found (and I'm not going to hold my breath on that one, cancer seems to be 'systemic') that every country in the world will want their part (or more) of the credits.
Israel is engaged in Nuclear Blackmail. That is why this is significant, and many Israelis are aware of this fact.
It holds its nuclear arsenal in conditions guaranteed to instill fear in governments around the world, and if indeed the Israeli state holds the key to diminishing the threat of radiation sickness as a result of the use of these weapons, then the threat level just increased.
It's probably a megadosage of vitamin E or a related compound. Studies from Nagasaki and Hiroshima showed that survival was highly correlated with vitamin E levels.
If you take large amounts (>2000 IU or more) of vitamin E your skin won't sunburn as badly and possibly not at all depending on how much you take. The more vitamin E, the less the sunburn. There's no practical maximum dosage.
Instead your skin will feel warm but won't hurt. It won't turn so red and in particular it won't blister and peel. You _will_ tan. Rather than die off quickly with massive inflammation, the skin loses cells slowly so that in about a week there will be a slight graininess to the skin.
It does help, although not as much, to take large doses of vitamin E _after_ a sunburn. I'd recommend at least 10,000 IU for an adult sunburn.
like vitamin A, Vitamin E is fat-soluble. But an overdose of vitamin A can kill you.
In contrast there is no LD50 level defined for vitamin E IIRC. There are anecdotal descriptions of unpleasant side-effects (e.g., diarrhea) but these are vague and may be the result of consuming a large amount of oil at one time (vitamin E is usually taken in oil solution), without ramping up the daily dosage slowly. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever died or suffered permanent ill effects from taking vitamin E.
Vitamin D is also fat-soluble but much less toxic than vitamin A. You may have had your doctor recently test your blood for vitamin D levels. If you test low (and most do) you may be given a prescription of vitamin D of 50,000 units twice a week for 10 weeks or so. As recently as two years ago many doctors would have become alarmed should you tell them you took a vitamin D dose higher than 400 units/day. Obviously something has changed: vitamin D has proven to be much less toxic and far more efficacious than rumour and folklore medicine has said it was:
The revised recommendations for vitamin D were slow in coming. I had for years seen rickets in otherwise well-nourished children resulting from parents slathering sunscreen on their offspring before every outing. Nieces and nephews were affected by the overzealous recommendations of the American Academy of Dermatology. After all this time vitamin D proves to be a keystone ingredient to preventing cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, indeed most diseases.
My point is that, just because a vitamin is "fat-soluble" doesn't mean that megadoses will hurt you. Most of the lore associated with the term is from vitamin A's history.
If you get a serious sunburn or burn take a big dose of vitamin E. It will help and, unlike CBLC102, it is cheap and readily available _today_.
If you fear nuclear terrorism then my recommendation is to buy a bottle of vitamin E and put it on your kitchen shelf. Next time a nuclear bomb goes off in your neighborhood take a mouthful and run like hell.
This is awesome. It alleviates one of the greatest fears of nuclear strikes, aside from the destruction.
I know there have been several discussions floating around about dirty bombs and nukes that could be used in terrorist attacks, and it has seemed to me that what most people are afraid of is not the bomb itself, but the fallout. This could be a huge relief for those fears.
It takes (usually) four to six oncogene activations to take a cell (or its progeny) into serious, lifethreatening, mofo cancer mode. Things need to be turned off - programmed cell death (apoptosis), DNA repair, sensitivity to growth-suppressing signals from neighbours, etc - and turned on - ability to 'eat' through neighbouring tissues so it can metastasize via your bloodstream, ability to send out vascularisation signals so that the growing tumour can co-opt the body to send some capillaries and minor veins its way before it starves and chokes from being too big - and so on.
Apoptosis (suicide) of a cell before it gets more/all of these (assuming they're irreperable, which is the first resort, of course) is a fantastic safety mechanism. Override it at your peril.
I don' think I've seen medical termanology and the term "mofo" used in the same sentence before.
Your point about overriding apoptosis is a good one, however in cases when the patient will die of radiation poisoning, cancer becomes of secondary importance.
It doesn't stop cancer, it stops cell death from radiation, which incidentally may allow higher doses of radiation therapy.
Of course, given that the purpose of radiation therapy is to cause cell death from radiation, it might be self-defeating. (Then again, if it protects normal cells better than cancer cells, it might be useful).
On another note, is there any reason why they had to exlicitly state that the scientists were of Jewish descent? The only possibility that comes to mind for making this explicit is that this is the reason they got Israeli investment?