Mind Soup

Researchers have discovered an antibody which, when injected into mice, will bond with prostate cancer tissue and "initiate direct cell death" in it. If results carry over to humans, this discovery would almost be a cure to prostate cancer. I say that it would almost be a cure for that particular type of cancer, because in initial trials with mice "F77 bonded with tissue where prostate cancer was the primary cancer in almost all cases (97 percent) and in tissue cores where the cancer had metastasized around 85 percent of the time." This means that while the antibody even attacked advanced stage cancer cells, it did not attack them all. Still, this is fantastic news and I hope that further research lives up to the initial optimism. [ PhysOrg ]

A giant rat with one-inch-long teeth has been caught in the southern Chinese province of Fujian. The rat, which weighed six pounds and had a 12-inch tail, was caught at the weekend in a residential area of Fuzhou, a city of six million people on China's south coast. The ratcatcher, who was only named as Mr Xian, said he swooped for the rodent after seeing a big crowd of people surrounding it on the street. He told local Chinese newspapers that he thought the rat might be a valuable specimen, or a rare species, and had to muster up his courage before grabbing its tail and picking it up by the scruff of its neck. "I did it, I caught a rat the size of a cat!" he shouted out afterwards, according to the reports. Mr Xian is believed to still be in possession of the animal, after stuffing into a bag and departing the scene. The local forestry unit in the city identified the nightmarish creature as a bamboo rat from initial photographs, but said that it would nee...