Anti-Angiogenesis

Is there a new way to help fight and possibly defeat cancer? Recent studies say yes. In my Biology class we recently watched a TED talk on angiogenesis, and how eating certain foods can stop it. This was a very interesting talk as I have been interested in learning about cancer.
Angiogenesis is when an excessive amount of blood vessels form from a pre-existing vessel. These excessive blood vessels begin feeding tumors which allows them to grow and become very harmful. The TED talk proposed that there are certain foods that can stop angiogenesis. They have successfully proven by injecting the amount of the food that you would receive from eating it into and around cancer cells that this method shrinks tumors, and could potentially rid you entirely of them.
Personally, I believe there is quite a bit of potential for this method. I think there is always a way to cure things naturally and this may be just that. Even if you do not have cancer anti-agiogenic foods are still very healthy, and will help with muscle growth, and losing weight.

http://www.eattodefeatcancer.org/

Lucy

Lucy, the humanized chimpanzee. In Biology class we listened to a podcast about Lucy, the chimp that was raised like a human child. It was very interesting and i enjoyed listening to it.
It started out about raising Lucy. They potty trained her, taught her sign language, and raised her just like you would a human child. She acted like a human child would too. She lied to her parents about having a potty accident, when she got older she was sexually attracted to human men. She was smart enough to be able to make tea and food and do most things that we as humans can do. but eventually she became to large and strong to be handled, eventually she was moved to an island with another group of chimps where they all had a terrible time adjusting to the wild. eventually the other chimps adapted but she still considered herself human. Finally she was able to live by herself in the wild. two years after her independence her trainer came back to the island and found her bones, she had been killed most likely by poachers.
Overall i really liked listening to the Lucy podcast although it was really sad. It showed me that there really is no hope for turning apes into people. Lucy taught us that being a chimpanzee should stay being a chimpanzee, it is a bad idea to try to turn chimps into humans. I have an incredibly different perspective of chimps after this, i never knew they could be so intelligent and i also don't want to own a chimp anymore. I think that the experiment was worthwhile as it showed us a ton about chimpanzee and human relations and also the intelligence of chimps. Lucy's end makes me feel really sad, poaching is awful, and she was such a friendly chimp that she never would have seen it coming.

Thinking Like a Mountain

The wolves running free in the mountains seem like they are harming the system. The system of the environment, killing off so many of the deer. The mountains are full of them, only a fool could not tell if there are or aren't wolves in a mountain range.
In this essay Aldo Leopold is writing about the wolves importance in the ecosystem. He used to think that killing them off would make it a hunters paradise. But the first time he watched a wolf die he realized that it wasn't true. He then watched other hunters kill off tons of wolves which made the deer start dying out because there wasn't enough food in the mountains to support all the deer.
I thought that overall it was a great essay and i enjoyed reading it. I would recommend it to those of you who have not read it "Thinking Like a Mountain" by Aldo Leopold. My personal opinion about the wolf situation right now is that we cannot let them get out of hand like they used to be but killing them off again would cause terrible problems.

Biohacking, you can do it too? The TED talk that i recently watched says yes. It could be feasible to have bio labs all over the world where you can experiment with anything within safety guidelines. You don't even have to be sure that it will work. Biohacking is the latest form of science allowing us to do all kinds of things. They are creating genetically modified creatures, cures for diseases... Within a day they can map out your entire genetic code.
  The speaker Ellen Jorgensen was speaking about biohacking. She says that within the next couple years there should be labs all over the world. In the near future biohacking will be fixing genetic problems all over the world, such as diseases and disabilities physical and mental. it will be possible to travel somewhere and conduct your own bio experiments without having to know that they will work, you don't have to have some plan to save the world. You just need to explore and experiment.
I personally think that it will be awesome if this plan comes true. As long as the safety codes are followed then practically nothing can go wrong. Being able to experiment with stuff without a deadline or a promise to make money or for it to even work and having help in my experiments would be great. This sounds like something from the future only it is happening now.