Word: blood
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...brain is nothing if not a biological machine - one that works like any other machine, at least when it comes to temperature. Parts that are working harder than others become hotter than others, thanks to the additional flow of blood shunted their way. Engineer Tom Chau of the University of Toronto suspected he could take advantage of that fact...
...activated areas of the brain receive more blood and more oxygen, the optical properties [of the brain tissue] change," says Luu. "This allows us to infer the pattern of activity beneath." As it turned out, they inferred very well. Blood flow was not a perfect predictor, but fully 80% of the time, the pattern on the brain monitor did suggest the preferences the subjects had indicated earlier...
Still, there are bugs to overcome. Since strong dislike may excite blood flow as easily as strong like, it is important to first run a few preliminary infrared scans to determine the particular blood-flow signature of a person's brain, and then to calibrate the computer accordingly. That, however, is a relatively easy tweak, no more complicated than customizing voice-recognition software to individual users. "It's really just a matter of refining the algorithms," says Chau. "We envision this at the very least as a preference detector that allows people to direct their own care...
Using new scanning-and-detection technology, scientists looked at more than 1,000 metabolites - naturally occurring products of cell metabolism - and found that about 10 were often present in high levels in samples of blood, tissue and urine taken from patients with aggressive prostate cancer...
...receive the diagnosis each year, only skin cancer is more common. But despite its prevalence, the lack of a fail-safe test is a frustration to physicians. Currently, older men at risk of prostate cancer undergo a PSA test, which detects a protein called prostate-specific antigen in the blood. Men who have elevated PSA levels, which may indicate cancer, undergo invasive biopsies but often end up not having the disease at all. Even when the biopsy finds cancer, physicians are usually unable to accurately tell how quickly the cancer will spread...