Posts
I have been silent for a while because frankly, I have been avoiding the media. My brain could handle no more political saturation…the embolism was looming. I only have one more thing to say regarding the election and its cast. If Palin thought that she was going to avoid Greyhound tread marks on her ill-gotten couture, she is dumber than I thought.
Anyhow, moving well away from politics to cancer…well…o.k….not that far away.
I was watching World News tonight and I was fascinated by a report that scientists were able to decode cancer cell DNA. As I was listening to the report, I was struck by the parallels between the cancer virus and computers. Huh? Hang on…I’ll get there.
Scientists were able to compare the DNA structure of a cancerous cell vs. a non-cancerous cell in a woman who died from leukemia. Scientists have been plagued by the question of why cancer cells run amok and rapidly defect healthy cells in a human body. A very good question (I love those). What they found in the DNA structure of the cancerous cell may begin to answer said good question.
There were two findings that I found fascinating. Firstly, scientists found that some of the genes that would normally protect healthy cells from invaders were shut down by the cancer. Secondly, some of the genes prevented chemotherapy treatment from affecting the cell. This article at the IHT explains the process much better than I can.
As an ex-network engineer I said “holy cow, these scientist need to talk to some hackers”. I relate computers to these new cancer findings thusly (love that word). When your PC is invaded by a virus, the first order the virus has is to knock out any anti-viral program. The second order the virus has is to prevent any antivirus program from running that would affect its demise. See the parallels? Fascinating stuff right?
So perhaps Microsoft has manufactured more than PC’s. Maybe that is why many of us find ourselves crashing toward the latter part of the day and we have security breaches allowing cancer cells to run amok.
Anyhow, moving well away from politics to cancer…well…o.k….not that far away.
I was watching World News tonight and I was fascinated by a report that scientists were able to decode cancer cell DNA. As I was listening to the report, I was struck by the parallels between the cancer virus and computers. Huh? Hang on…I’ll get there.
Scientists were able to compare the DNA structure of a cancerous cell vs. a non-cancerous cell in a woman who died from leukemia. Scientists have been plagued by the question of why cancer cells run amok and rapidly defect healthy cells in a human body. A very good question (I love those). What they found in the DNA structure of the cancerous cell may begin to answer said good question.
There were two findings that I found fascinating. Firstly, scientists found that some of the genes that would normally protect healthy cells from invaders were shut down by the cancer. Secondly, some of the genes prevented chemotherapy treatment from affecting the cell. This article at the IHT explains the process much better than I can.
As an ex-network engineer I said “holy cow, these scientist need to talk to some hackers”. I relate computers to these new cancer findings thusly (love that word). When your PC is invaded by a virus, the first order the virus has is to knock out any anti-viral program. The second order the virus has is to prevent any antivirus program from running that would affect its demise. See the parallels? Fascinating stuff right?
So perhaps Microsoft has manufactured more than PC’s. Maybe that is why many of us find ourselves crashing toward the latter part of the day and we have security breaches allowing cancer cells to run amok.
