Trees are Plants, So Are Carrots!

 The Guardian has a rather strange article. They note:

Hoarding during the Covid-19 pandemic underlined just how important loo roll is to the British public. But working from home had another unexpected effect: less waste paper from offices, which means less recycled material to make toilet roll. New research by Ethical Consumer magazine shows that the three main toilet brands have cut the amount of recycled paper in their tissues. It said the use of virgin wood pulp was fuelling deforestation, although paper-industry advocates dispute this. The consumer organisation recommended that people avoid buying Andrex, Velvet, Cushelle, Regina and Nicky because more material used to make them is taken from felled trees. It found that Kimberly-Clark, which makes Andrex, cut the amount of recycled fibre it uses for tissue and personalcare products to 19.3% in 2021, down from 29.7% in 2011.

 Trees are plants and are grown the same way as carrots, strawberries, apples etc. One plants trees, grows them, harvest them and start all over again. Deforestation is a totally different construct. It is the removal of all vegetation and never to return. 

I grow trees. Dozens at a time. They are in pots and then removed. Is that a deforestation? Hardly.

Also, this makes me look more closely at toilet paper! Interesting thought.

Medical Advancement?

 In the NY Times there is a discussing the major advancements in medicine. Frankly it is in my opinion a rather shallow piece. The reality of medical advancement is that "tools" have evolved so that we can see deeper into such things as cancer. 

For example, take prostate cancer. The dominant male, yes there are such things as males, cancer. Unlike breast cancer where dramatic advances have been made in overall survival, PCa is problematic. Most cases are relatively indolent. Yet others are highly aggressive. Why? No good answer.

I believe there are several issues that must be addressed before we get there. Unlike bench researchers whose knowledge of a specific area is deep, we need an integrating set of paradigms that allows for understanding extensive cellular disparity. Thus:

1. A Systems View: This means that for a true understanding we must know what is happening inside the cancer cell amongst all elements as well as the cancer cell environment. As an analog, some 100+ years ago we understood resistors, capacitor, inductors and vacuum tubes. Yet we had the barest understanding of radio no less TV and no less computers and even less software. 

2. A Cell by Cell View: No cancer cells is necessarily the same as the others. They mutate continuously. Thus in examining cancers we must examine cell by cell. Not a mass of cells and not some histological view. We have some tools to do that. If we can find tumor cell surface proteins then we can develop such things as CAR NK cells and polyclonal antibodies to attack those cells, one at a time, leaving the healthy cells alone.

The list can go on. The problem is that funding and culture gets to focus on the bench people delving deeper into a specific issue. We need a parallel path to dig deep and equally to dig wide.

Facts Matter

 In a recent study in Nature, the authors note the importance of the Y chromosome in cancer prognosis. They state:

The Y chromosome could explain why men are less likely than women to survive some cancers, according to studies that combine data from mice and humans. Two studies, both published on 21 June in Nature^1,2, address cancers that are particularly aggressive in men: colorectal cancer and bladder cancer. One study finds that the loss of the entire Y chromosome in some cells — which occurs naturally as men age — raises the risk of aggressive bladder cancer and could allow bladder tumours to evade detection by the immune system². The other finds that a particular Y-chromosome gene in mice raises the risk of some colorectal cancers spreading to other parts of the body¹. Taken together, the two studies are a step towards understanding why so many cancers have a bias towards men, says Sue Haupt, a cancer researcher at the George Institute of Global Health in Sydney, Australia who was not involved with the work. “It’s becoming clear that it’s beyond lifestyle,” she says. “There is a genetic component.”

 Basically sex as defined in genetic makeup is both a valid and impactful fact.

A Passing

 Marty Samuels was one of the best physicians I have ever met. Marty was head Neurology at The Brigham and Professor at Harvard. His classic tale of diagnosing dizziness has stuck with me for decades. His tale of the use of a CAT scan in I recall in 1972, the second one in the US and I was very aware of having been at MIT doing similar imaging work.

As The Brigham noted, Marty passed away two weeks ago. Marty brought humor to medical diagnosis and treatment par excellence. I was expecting to see him again at the annual HMS neurology course, fortunately his lecture was recorded and I look forward to his usual brilliant presentation.

A 1,000 Years of Gas Stoves: In a Week

 Thanks to the attack from Canada, we now have more harmful chemical reactions in the NY area ever! The smoke combined with UV rays from the summer sun result in a panoply of organic reactions including the explosion of reactive oxygen species, major causes of multiple cancers!

It seems the Canadians cannot even put out a candle no less the massive fires pumping poisonous reactants to our area. Yet we have Albany banning gas stoves while we are sitting in a massive chemical reaction.

Anything good? Yes the earth's albedo just exploded and we are sending UV down and IR up, keep this up and global warming comes to an end and so does all life on the planet. Thanks to that guy with the weird socks in Canada,

Guantanamo, New Jersey

 

The common practice for some here in New Jersey is the installation of white plastic fences, around their property. They are inexpensive, I dare say cheap, have the tendency to get stained over time, reflect sunlight into otherwise shaded areas, and frankly are rather low class.

The installation of these from house to house appears like a prison camp, a Guantanamo in our location. Upon further study it appears that they have a strong ethnic factor, perhaps re-establishing possible family ties to establishments of like nature.

So house after house, and these are hardly low budget abodes, up go the vinyl. They appear on multi million dollar homes, and the result is one fence after another. Down go the trees and up goes the plastic. In fact they remove all trees and fence themselves in with protective shields!

This would be an interesting sociological study.

BTW, this is my fence, trees and an open deer fence.