Titanas

New York Times reports

It was not a coincidence. Common viruses sometimes attack tumor cells, researchers discovered. For decades, they tried to harness this phenomenon, to transform it into a cancer treatment. Now, after a long string of failures, they are nearing success with viruses engineered to kill cancer.

“It’s a very exciting time,” said Dr. Robert Martuza, chief neurosurgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. “I think it will work out in some tumor, with some virus.” Candidates are already in advanced trials, he noted.

According to the researchers, the side effects of treatment with these viruses are minimal, and include nausea, fatigue and aches. “In comparison to what happens with standard chemotherapy, flulike symptoms are very manageable,” said Dr. Reid, who has treated hundreds of patients with oncolytic viruses.

[Thanks M]

Kevin Rose was almost right when said: “My Foursquare data will tell my life story”. The truth is, Foursquare will save Kevin’s life not just tell a story about it. Location based social networking websites are on the rage right now. Twitter is doing it, Gowalla is doing it, Google Buzz is doing it, Facebook is about to it.

Geo tagged photos are cool, geo enabled status updates and tweets are helpful but geo information streams are links to the past, the present and the future of everyone’s life. Foursquare does a pretty god job connecting people, sharing information and stuff but it’s about to save a life and you’re going to pay for that.

Foursquare data will tell a story and save a life when each and every doctor and diagnostician has access to this date. Foursquare will add a stack of substantially critical and precise amount of information to each patient’s history. It will be easier than ever to suspect toxin exposure or overrule food poisoning just by looking at Foursquare’s check ins. Let’s examine a few examples of well know valley personalities. Continue reading »