A beginning of a new year and the beginning of another series of “Dumps”….today’s dump may be alittle thin for I did very little reading over the holidays….that will change….
Local–Days after the fact idiots are still setting off fireworks….irritating to say the least and how much money did these morons spend?
Monday our temp was 29 and today it will be 74….this temp swing is irritating.
Personal–Not much to report personally….but that will change come the 12th as the round of doctors, scans, tests and diagnoses will start anew.
Could a plant be an answer for cancer?
Researchers at UBC Okanagan have figured out how plants make mitraphylline, a rare natural substance that has drawn attention for its potential role in fighting cancer.
Mitraphylline is part of a small and unusual family of plant chemicals known as spirooxindole alkaloids. These molecules are defined by their distinctive twisted ring shapes, which help give them powerful biological effects, including anti tumor and anti inflammatory activity.
For years, scientists knew these compounds were valuable but had little understanding of how plants actually assembled them at the molecular level.
Solving a Long Standing Biological Mystery
Progress came in 2023, when a research team led by Dr. Thu-Thuy Dang in UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science identified the first known plant enzyme capable of creating the signature spiro shape found in these molecules.
Building on that discovery, doctoral student Tuan-Anh Nguyen led new work to pinpoint two key enzymes involved in making mitraphylline — one enzyme that arranges the molecule into the correct three dimensional structure, and another that twists it into its final form.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251227082728.htm
More news on the cancer front….
For two decades, cancer therapies known as CD40 agonist antibodies have raised hopes while repeatedly falling short. In laboratory animals, these drugs strongly stimulated immune attacks on tumors, but results in human trials were far less encouraging. Patients often saw little benefit and experienced serious side effects, including widespread inflammation, reduced platelet levels, and liver damage, even when the drugs were given at low doses.
In 2018, researchers led by Jeffrey V. Ravetch at Rockefeller University reported a potential way forward. His team showed that a redesigned CD40 agonist antibody could be made more effective while also being delivered in a way that reduced dangerous side effects. These results were based on studies in mice that were genetically engineered to reflect key human immune pathways. With those findings in hand, the researchers moved toward testing the approach in people.
Results from the phase 1 clinical trial of the experimental drug, known as 2141-V11, have now been published in Cancer Cell. Among the 12 patients enrolled, tumors shrank in six individuals, and in two cases the cancer disappeared entirely.
“Seeing these significant shrinkages and even complete remission in such a small subset of patients is quite remarkable,” says first author Juan Osorio, a visiting assistant professor in Ravetch’s Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology and a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
More cancer news…..
Within tumors in the human body, there are immune cells (macrophages) capable of fighting cancer, but they have been unable to perform their roles properly due to suppression by the tumor. A KAIST research team led by Professor Ji-Ho Park of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering have overcome this limitation by developing a new therapeutic approach that directly converts immune cells inside tumors into anticancer cell therapies.
In their approach, when a drug is injected directly into a tumor, macrophages already present in the body absorb it, produce CAR (a cancer-recognizing device) proteins on their own, and are converted into anticancer immune cells known as “CAR-macrophages.” The paper is published in the journal ACS Nano.
Solid tumors—such as gastric, lung, and liver cancers—grow as dense masses, making it difficult for immune cells to infiltrate tumors or maintain their function. As a result, the effectiveness of existing immune cell therapies has been limited.
CAR-macrophages, which have recently attracted attention as a next-generation immunotherapy, have the advantage of directly engulfing cancer cells while simultaneously activating surrounding immune cells to amplify anticancer responses.
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-nanoparticle-therapy-reprograms-tumor-immune.html
I say with all these ‘discoveries’ start putting them into action for cancer is a growing problem for all ages.
Will steel have a competitor?
When scientists at the University of Maryland modified a piece of timber using a simple process, the results didn’t just outperform conventional wood. They began to rival the properties of steel and aluminum, with added environmental benefits that could dramatically shift how the world builds.
What emerged is now called superwood, a material created by altering natural wood’s internal structure to boost its strength, reduce weight, and improve resilience. The process, developed and tested in peer-reviewed studies, has produced a wood-based material strong enough for structural use and light enough for transportation and aerospace design.
Unlike previous wood composites or carbon-intensive construction materials, this technology relies on abundant, fast-growing species. The manufacturing method is low-energy and scalable, making it a potential breakthrough in the search for sustainable building materials.
The government is interested in your butt…..
This is not a trend we can get behind.
Whether it’s due to pure curiosity, misguided ChatGPT advice or, you know, sex stuff, a shocking number of people end up in the ER every year after putting something up their butt that very much shouldn’t be there.
But their secret shame actually isn’t so secret after all: The US Consumer Product Safety Commission actually keeps a database of ER visits and what’s bringing people in — meaning the government has an extensive list of every time a patient has said, “Really, doc, I just fell on it.”
Of course, the database is entirely anonymous, so the unfortunate soul who lost a corn cob holder inside their rectum can rest easy that no one knows it’s them.
https://nypost.com/2025/12/26/health/the-worst-things-people-got-stuck-in-their-butts-last-year/
Us old farts are labeled as ‘grumpy old men’….but could that be a good thing?
Granted, venting and complaining aren’t good for you. A study published in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychologyfound the more participants vented, the worse they felt their day had gone, and the longer their negative feelings lasted. (Yep: Letting off a little steam actually increases the total volume of steam.)
Yet maintaining a bias toward grumpiness, and even sometimes letting yourself get a little angry, is good for you:
- A study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that anger improves analytic processing, and results in better decision making.
- A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that grumpy, mildly threatening negotiators are more effective negotiators.
- A 2013 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that cynical people (in this case, people who initially weren’t particularly optimistic about how long their marriage would last) were better able to cope with problems and challenges, and therefore more likely to enjoy stable marriages, than their optimistic counterparts. (I know; doesn’t make sense.)
- And then there’s this: An Institute for the Study of Labor paper determined that while optimistic employees tend to earn more, self-employed pessimists earn more, and are less likely to fail, than self-employed optimists, at least in part due to the fact optimism is often the enemy of analysis.
https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/neuroscience-says-it-literally-pays-to-be-a-little-grumpy/91283125
That does it for this first Saturday of 2026 and I apologize for this edition is not as diverse as usual….I will try to do better.
Peace out my friends and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”