My Science School

Oncologists are doctors who diagnose and treat cancer. They often act as the main healthcare provider for someone with cancer—designing treatment plans, offering supportive care, and sometimes coordinating treatment with other specialists. 

A person will usually see an oncologist if their primary care physician suspects that they have cancer.

A primary care physician may use MRI and CT scans as well as blood tests to confirm their diagnosis. If these tests reveal signs of cancer, they will recommend that the person visits an oncologist.

During the first appointment, the oncologist may perform a physical exam and order additional blood work, imaging tests, or biopsies. They use these tests to determine the type and stage of the cancer, which helps them identify a person’s best treatment options.

An oncologist may introduce the person to other specialists as part of the treatment team. They may also provide a general timeframe of treatment.

The exact type of treatment a person receives depends on the type and stage of the cancer. For instance, a person who has one or more tumors may see a surgical oncologist for a biopsy.

Oncologists treat early stage cancer and noninvasive tumors with surgery or radiation therapy. Advanced cancers that have already spread to different areas of the body may require chemotherapy and other systemic treatments.

Oncologists not only diagnose cancer, they can also administer treatments and closely monitor disease progression. For example, surgical oncologists can perform biopsies and remove cancerous tissue, while radiation oncologists can administer different forms of radiation therapy to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors.

A person can expect to work with a medical oncologist throughout the course of their cancer treatment.

After a person finishes treatment, they will attend regular follow-up appointments with their medical oncologist. During these appointments, the medical oncologist may run tests to check for signs of any physical or emotional problems related to the person’s cancer treatment.

Credit : Medical News Today

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A pulmonologist is a physician who specializes in the respiratory system. From the windpipe to the lungs, if your complaint involves the lungs or any part of the respiratory system, a pulmonologist is the doc you want to solve the problem.

Pulmonology is a medical field of study within internal medicine. These doctors go through the same training as an internist. They receive their degree, complete an internal medicine residency, then several years as a fellow focused primarily on pulmonology and often includes critical care and sleep medicine. After that, they have to take and pass specialty exams, and only then are they able to take patients as a Board-Certified pulmonologist.

While the respiratory system is a specialty in itself, pulmonologists can specialize even further. Some of these doctors focus on certain diseases, like asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and COPD, while others treat unique demographics, like pediatric patients or geriatric patients.

Because many lung and heart conditions present similar symptoms, pulmonologists often work with cardiologists while diagnosing patients. You'll also see them frequently in hospital settings. Patients that need life support or manual ventilation in order to breathe will have a pulmonologist overseeing that element of their care.

Credit : American Lung Association

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A hematologist is a specialist in hematology, the science or study of blood, blood-forming organs and blood diseases.

The medical aspect of hematology is concerned with the treatment of blood disorders and malignancies, including types of hemophilia, leukemia, lymphoma and sickle-cell anemia. Hematology is a branch of internal medicine that deals with the physiology, pathology, etiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention of blood-related disorders.

Becoming a hematologist requires 7 or more years of medical school and postgraduate training, before earning a board certification in internal medicine.

In addition, at least 2 years of specialty training, studying a range of hematological disorders, are required. Hematologists can later gain further certification in a subspecialty.

Hematologists work in various settings, including blood banks, pathology laboratories and private clinics. Specialists in this branch of medicine can choose to focus on specific topics within the field of hematology, such as lymphatic organs and bone marrow and may diagnose blood count irregularities or platelet irregularities. They are able to treat organs that are fed by blood cells, including the lymph nodes, spleen, thymus and lymphoid tissue.

Those in blood banks work to keep blood supplies safe and accessible, and may supervise labs that analyze blood samples and provide advice to organizations that provide advocacy services for patients with genetic blood disorders. These hematologists may also work with government agencies on education campaigns designed to inform the public of disorders, such as anemia.

Credit : Healio

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Endocrinologists are doctors who specialize in glands and the hormones they make. They deal with metabolism, or all the biochemical processes that make your body work, including how your body changes food into energy and how it grows.

They may work with adults or kids. When they specialize in treating children, they're called pediatric endocrinologists.

Endocrinologists are licensed internal medicine doctors who have passed an additional certification exam.

They go to college for 4 years, then medical school for 4 more years. Afterward, they work in hospitals and clinics as residents for 3 years to get experience treating people. They'll spend another 2 or 3 years training specifically in endocrinology.

The whole process usually takes at least 10 years.

Credit : WebMD

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Have you heard of crop circles? They are strange patterns that crop up mysteriously overnight in farmers' fields. More than 10,000 crop circles have been reported around the world. But who creates them? It has been a puzzle and there has been little scientific study on crop circles.

There are many theories about what creates crop circles, including mysterious vortices, time travellers and wind patterns. The two most popular explanations are that they are the landing impression of a UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) and that they are created by aliens, trying to send a message to the Earth dwellers. But all of these theories lack evidence.

The UFO theory has its origin in the story of a farmer in Tully, Australia. In 1966, he claimed he saw a flying saucer rise up from a swampy area and fly away. When he went to investigate he saw a crop circle, which, he assumed, was made by the alien spacecraft.

This came to be referred to as flying saucer nest by the media. Police investigation rubbished the farmer's claim, saying that the crop circle was created by natural phenomena such as a dust devil or waterspout.

Scientists who studied the crop circles in the 21st century believe that they are created by humans. In 2002, Jeremy Northcote, researcher who studied the crop circles in the U.K., said that the circles tended to appear near roads and cultural heritage monuments such as Stonehenge or Avebury - areas that are easy to access. He suggested that the circles were more likely to be caused by intentional human action than by paranormal activity.

The general scientific consensus on crop circles is that they are constructed by human beings as hoaxes or for advertising. There are also artists today who create crop circles as part of their art practice and for commercial clients.

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The word microorganism or microbe may make many of us think of bacteria and virus. But did you know that technically a virus is not even a living organism? So that makes it very different from bacteria. Come, let's find out what the differences between the two are.

Bacteria are tiny one-celled organisms. These microorganisms come in a variety of shapes from spheres and rods to spirals. They are found in almost all the places on our planet-from soil and rocks to oceans and snow. Some species thrive even under extreme conditions. They are very important for keeping ecosystems going. Why, even our bodies have bacteria both inside and outside! They are found on our skin and in our gut. Most bacteria in the body are harmless, and some are even helpful. For instance, the bacteria in our gut help break down food and keep us healthy. But a relatively small number of bacteria can also cause diseases, some of which can lead to death. Among such diseases are the plague, tuberculosis, and cholera. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infection.

Unlike bacteria, a virus is not made up of any living cell. It is just a genetic code - either RNA or DNA-encased in a coat of protein. For a virus to multiply, it requires a host cell-for instance, cells in a human body. Once they find host cells, the viruses multiply, in the process infecting (sometimes killing) host cells. Just like bacteria, viruses too are found almost everywhere. But studies have shown that there are more viruses than bacteria. Since they are also different from bacteria, they cannot be killed using antibiotics. Vaccines and anti-viral medications help eliminate or decrease the severity of viral infections. Many of the diseases that have affected humans globally have been caused by viruses-from small pox and AIDS to measles and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

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The megatsunami in Spirit Lake, Washington, USA that was caused by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens reached 260 metres (853 ft), while the tallest megatsunami ever recorded (Lituya Bay in 1958) reached a run-up height of 520 metres (1,720 ft).

Lituya Bay is an ice-scoured tidal inlet on the northeast shore of the Gulf of Alaska. It is about seven miles long (11.3 kilometers) and up to two miles wide (3.2 kilometers). It has a maximum depth of about 720 feet (219 meters), but a sill of only 32 feet (9.7 meters) in depth separates it from the Gulf of Alaska between La Chaussee Spit and Harbor Point.

The Fairweather Fault trends across the northeast end of the Bay and is responsible for the T-shape of the bay. Glacial scour has exploited the weak zone along the fault to produce a long linear trough known as the Fairweather Trench. The Lituya Glacier and North Crillon Glacier have scoured portions of the Fairweather Trench in the area of Lituya Bay. Gilbert Inlet and Crillon Inlet occupy the Fairweather Trench on the northeast end of Lituya Bay.

The rockfall of July 9, 1958 occurred on steep cliffs above the northeast shore of Gilbert Inlet. It is marked on the map above in red. The rocks fell from an elevation of about 3000 feet (914 meters). The impact of 40 million cubic yards (30.6 million cubic meters) of rock hitting the water produced a local tsunami that swept the entire length of the Lituya Bay and over the La Chaussee Spit. This wave stripped all vegetation and soil from along the edges of the bay. This damaged area is shown in yellow on the map above. The numbers are elevations (in feet) of the upper edge of the wave damage area and represent the approximate elevation of the wave as it traveled through the bay.

Credit : Geology.com

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The phenomenon we call tsunami is a series of large waves of extremely long wavelength and period usually generated by a violent, impulsive undersea disturbance or activity near the coast or in the ocean. When a sudden displacement of a large volume of water occurs, or if the sea floor is suddenly raised or dropped by an earthquake, big tsunami waves can be formed.  The waves travel out of the area of origin and can be extremely dangerous and damaging when they reach the shore.  

The word tsunami (pronounced tsoo-nah'-mee) is composed of the Japanese words "tsu" (which means harbor) and "nami" (which means "wave"). Often the term, "seismic or tidal sea wave" is used to describe the same phenomenon, however the terms are misleading, because tsunami waves can be generated by other, non seismic disturbances such as volcanic eruptions or underwater landslides, and have physical characteristics different of tidal waves. The tsunami waves are completely unrelated to the astronomical tides - which are caused by the extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and the planets. Thus, the Japanese word "tsunami", meaning "harbor wave" is the correct, official and all-inclusive term. It has been internationally adopted because it covers all forms of impulsive wave generation.

Tsunami waves often look like walls of water and can attack the shoreline and be dangerous for hours, with waves coming every 5 to 60 minutes. The first wave may not be the largest, and often it is the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even later waves that are the biggest. After one wave inundates, or floods inland, it recedes seaward often as far as a person can see so the seafloor is exposed. The next wave then rushes ashore within minutes and carries with it many floating debris that were destroyed by previous waves. When waves enter harbors, very strong and dangerous water currents are generated that can easily break ship moorings, and bores that travel far inland can be formed when tsunamis enter rivers or other waterway channels.

Credit : UNESCO

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Have you ever been told by your elders that it is better to be quick off the blocks when doing something? An oft-used idiom, someone is quick or slow off the blocks or out of the blocks when they are quick or slow to do something. Similarly, one is first or last off the blocks, when they are the first or last to start doing something. We'll be discussing starting blocks today, where it is almost always important that an athlete gets quickly off the blocks.

You've probably never seen a running race at the highest level where the athletes haven't used starting blocks. But when you race at school during your sports day, you and your friends wouldn't have used starting blocks in all likeliness. Even until the 1920s, it wasn't much different with elite athletes.

Holes for a foothold

A scene from a running race during that era would be way different from how it is these days. In the place of a master of ceremonies announcing the athletes lining up at the starting grid, athletes were provided with trowels at the start of the race. Using these, the athletes then dug holes in the track in order to get a firm foothold. The race would then begin.

While this method did allow for a quicker start than what was normal then, it had its fair share of problems. For one, it wasn't consistent for all athletes as they dug their own holes. These holes weren't always stable either and there was also the issue of filling it up for subsequent races. Not to mention, this method was destructive to the track surface. It was these things that led George Thomas Bresnahan to invent what he called a "foot support in his patent. A coach of University of Iowa track teams for more than 27 years before his retirement in 1948, Bresnahan was interested in the science behind sports, apart from the sport itself.

Brenahan invents "foot support"

As a result, he came up with his invention, describing it as "what might be termed a starting block" for a running track. He applied for his patent in 1927 and was awarded the patent on February 5, 1929.

It is obvious that Bresnahan, like so many others involved in track events, realised the importance of the getaway when sprinting. But unlike others, he worked towards improving it, giving an early form of the starting blocks in the process.

Good getaway

Bresnahan, who was an assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic team in 1932 and in charge of the 4x400m relay team that broke the world record, included features in his invention that have remained with starting blocks till this day. He not only made it adjustable to fit the individual's foot needs, but also provided the ability to change the tilt angle to suit the runners preference. The result was a firmer foothold and a stronger start for any athlete.

It wasn't adopted immediately though as it was only in 1937 that the International Amateur Athletics Federation (now) International Association of Athletics Federation or IAAF) accepted their use. Ten years after IAAF's acceptance came the 1948 London Olympics, which saw starting blocks used for the first time at the Olympics in sprint events.

Ever since, there have been frequent iterations on these starting blocks, making them most suitable for the athletes needs. While estimates suggest that athletes save about one-tenth of a second by using starting blocks, they are also used these days to determine false starts. Used in most races of 400m or shorter, these starting blocks allow elite athletes to reach the maximum velocity in the minimum possible time, thereby putting on a spectacle for us spectators.

• Starting blocks these days are not only essential for sprint events, but are also technological aids.
• Based on pressure exerted on these, they can detect athletes' reaction time to 1,000th of a second. If the reaction time is less than one-tenth of a second, it is considered a false start.
• These blocks also include electronic speakers these days, so that the sound of the gun reaches the ears of the athletes at exactly the same moment.

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In the case of the Hubble Space Telescope, arguably the most successful and celebrated scientific instrument ever built, it took fifty years from conception to full realization. The most important champion of the project was Lyman Spitzer.

Spitzer (1914–1997) studied astronomy at Yale, Cambridge, and Princeton University. During World War II, he worked on the development of sonar. In 1947 he succeeded Henry Norris Russell as Chair of Princeton’s Astrophysical Sciences Department. During a long and productive career, Lyman Spitzer shaped three major fields of astrophysics—interstellar matter, plasmas, and the dynamics of star clusters. His work on interstellar matter began when he noticed that elliptical galaxies have only old stars and no nebulas of gas and dust, while spiral galaxies include young stars and nebulas. He realized that stars must now be forming in spirals from the gas and dust of the nebulas. Spitzer went on to establish the field of interstellar matter as a major branch of astrophysics.

But his greatest legacy is the Space Telescope. The idea of putting a telescope in orbit, above the obscuring veil of the Earth’s atmosphere, had been suggested as far back as 1923 by the German rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth. But rockets in those days were feeble and uncontrollable devices. Then, during World War II, the Germans developed the V-2 weapon, a powerful ballistic rocket which left the atmosphere in order to come down on a distant target. It opened the way for the rocket-powered transport of payloads into space (including instruments and telescopes instead of bombs). Spitzer recalled in a discussion about the Space Telescope that the V-2 rockets “made it all seem possible.”

In 1946, Spitzer wrote a report for the RAND Corporation on “Astronomical Advantages of an Extra-Terrestrial Observatory,” in which he explored the advantages of a space-based telescope of five to fifteen meters in diameter. At the time of this astonishing proposal, the Palomar 5-meter telescope, then the largest in the world, was still under construction. And it was on an accessible mountaintop, not in orbital space. In his report, Spitzer said that the best reason to build a space-based telescope would be to “uncover new phenomena not yet imagined, and perhaps to modify profoundly our basic concepts of space and time.”

The Space Telescope was finally launched in April 1990, after a long delay following the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. But when the first images were transmitted to the ground, there was a terrible disappointment. The images were blurred and showed the telltale signs of a failure in optical design. The 2.4–meter primary mirror had been crafted with exquisite accuracy but to the wrong shape! Fortunately the telescope had been designed for service visits by astronauts, and Spitzer contributed a level of optimism after this apparent disaster. He said calmly, “These things take time. We’ll just have to fix it.” The next Shuttle trip to visit the telescope carried a set of corrective optics which, when installed, allowed the Space Telescope to fully realize its goals.

Since then, the Hubble Space Telescope, named in honor of Edwin Hubble, discoverer of the extragalactic universe, has made impressive discoveries in many branches of astronomy. It has contributed to our understanding of the large-scale structure of the universe, and of stellar evolution and the dynamics of galaxies.It has produced firm evidence for black holes, and provided images of objects and phenomena not even imagined in the 1940s. Lyman Spitzer was right when he predicted that the Space Telescope would profoundly affect our conception of the universe. A gentle and graceful man, loved by all who knew him, Spitzer lived to see the marvelous images produced by the fully operational Space Telescope that was his brainchild.

Credit : American Museum of Natural History 

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AstroSat is India’s first dedicated multi wavelength space observatory. This scientific satellite mission endeavours for a more detailed understanding of our universe. One of the unique features of AstroSat mission is that it enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.

AstroSat observes universe in the optical, Ultraviolet, low and high energy X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas most other scientific satellites are capable of observing a narrow range of wavelength band. Multi-wavelength observations of AstroSat can be further extended with co-ordinated observations using other spacecraft and ground based observations. All major astronomy Institutions and some Universities in India participates in these observations.

AstroSat has a lift-off mass of about 1513 kg. It launched into a 650 km orbit inclined at an angle of 6 deg to the equator by PSLV-C30. After injection into Orbit, the two solar panels of AstroSat are automatically deployed in quick succession. The spacecraft control centre at Mission Operations Complex (MOX) of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore will manage the satellite during its mission life.

The science data gathered by five payloads of AstroSat are telemetered to the ground station at MOX. The data is then processed, archived and distributed by Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) located at Byalalu, near Bangalore.

Credit :  ISRO 

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Named after Edwin Hubble - an American astronomer whose work formed the basis of the big bang theory - the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 to investigate everything from black holes to planets around other stars.

It does this by scanning across spectrums of electromagnetism, from visible light to infrared and ultraviolet.

Thanks to its instruments, Hubble has been able to peer inside cosmic clouds of gas and dust to reveal older parts of the universe, as well as providing us with our first glimpses of alien planets and galaxies far beyond our Milky Way.

The result has been some of the most iconic images we have of the universe, including the ‘Pillars of Creation’ shot which shows giant fingers of gas in a nursery of young stars.

An earth-based telescope cannot achieve the same results because of the level of interference from light and other signals on our planet.

Even after James Webb becomes fully operational, Hubble will be kept going due to its ultraviolet capabilities.

Indeed, NASA says Hubble is more scientifically productive today than it has been at any time in its past.

And given it sits just 340 miles above the earth, it could still be serviced and enhanced if its mission can keep receiving funding.

Credit : National World 

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Dark matter is a mysterious substance thought to compose perhaps about 27% of the makeup of the universe. What is it? It’s a bit easier to say what it isn’t.

It isn’t ordinary atoms, the building blocks of our own bodies and all we see around us. Atoms make up only somewhere around 5% of the universe, according to a cosmological model called the Lambda Cold Dark Matter Model (aka the Lambda-CDM model, or sometimes just the Standard Model).

Dark matter isn’t the same thing as dark energy. Dark energy makes up some 68% of the universe, according to the Standard Model.

Dark matter is invisible; it doesn’t emit, reflect or absorb light or any type of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays or radio waves. Thus, instruments can’t detect dark matter directly, as all of our observations of the universe, besides detecting gravitational waves, involve capturing electromagnetic radiation in our telescopes.

Thirty years later, astronomer Vera Rubin provided a huge piece of evidence for the existence of dark matter. She discovered that the centers of galaxies rotate at the same speed as their extremities. They should rotate faster. Think of a vinyl LP on a record deck: its center rotates faster than its edge. That’s what logic dictates we should see in galaxies too. But we do not. The only way to explain this is if the whole galaxy is only the center of some much larger structure. Imagine it as only the label on the LP, causing the galaxy to have a consistent rotation speed from center to edge.

Vera Rubin, following Zwicky, postulated that the missing structure in galaxies is dark matter. Her ideas met much resistance from the astronomical community, but her confirmed observations now create pivotal proof of the existence of dark matter. In honor of this crucial and historic piece of detective work toward establishing the existence of dark matter, the revolutionary Large Synoptic Survey Telescope recently received the name Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

Credit : Earth Sky 

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