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Understanding Cancer
Understanding Cancer
Aemilia Rice Mileto, Y11A
Understanding Cancer
Disclaimer
This article discusses topics related to death and grief, which may be sensitive or distressing for some readers, particularly younger audiences. Reader discretion is advised.
I became fascinated with cancer at the ripe age of eleven. The revelation came in the form of a particularly distressing group project. Having made the mistake of choosing lung cancer as the focus of our biology presentation, we soon found that the web sources were vague and the diagrams blurry. For once, Google was utterly unhelpful.
After researching the subject matter for the entire lesson, and being delivered several knockout blows by incomprehensible words such as ‘metastasized’ and ‘oncogenes’, I was on the brink of despair. I was saved by grace - or in other words, the patience of my biology teacher, who sat me down after class and clearly explained the mechanics of it.
Today, I would like to honor this middle school memory of mine, and thank my teacher, by explaining cancer.
Cancer is an illness that has been with us since the dawn of time, as it has for almost every multicellular organism (yes, plants can suffer from it as well.) This is because it is not transmitted from an animal vector, like malaria, or from our sewage, like cholera - it comes from within you. Cancer is essentially your body’s betrayal of itself.
Everything starts in the warm embrace of your body’s tissues - say, the epithelial lining of your lungs (perhaps in an alveoli or bronchi). If you peer closely, you may notice that one of the cells does not resemble its compatriots; the nucleus is dark and abnormally enlarged, and the cell is reproducing at an alarming rate. This colony of dark eyed cells do nothing but grow and consume, refusing to do their job and going as far as to steal resources from the rest of your cells. Soon, they will direct blood flow solely to their area, starving their alarmed companions. A miniscule fragment of you is not you anymore - and they are determined to demand their independence by any means necessary.
Metaphors aside, what is truly happening here? Cells going rogue occur when the most crucial, and yet fragile part of them is manipulated - their DNA. Your body is no stranger to cancer. It has evolved alongside it for millions of years, and its defenses are in your genes. If cancer is to overcome them, it must go through three phases - the first of which is to turn on your proto-oncogenes. These little guys allow your cells to divide at an incredibly rapid rate. They are usually only switched on during pregnancy, when the embryo is in a rush to become a big baby. Then, tumor suppressor genes, which can block cell replication if they spot a cancerous error in the DNA, are, ironically, suppressed. This is followed by blocking the genes for DNA repair and apoptosis. The former can repair DNA errors, while the latter allows the cell to self destruct, something they can do if they sense that they are about to go feral.
Of course, these choices are not made voluntarily - they are just the result of random mutations during cell division. Although it may seem unlikely for all of these conditions to be fulfilled, with the 30 trillion cells that make up your body, and their constant division.The law of probability means that it is shockingly common. In fact, as you read this, it is likely your immune system just killed a few cancerous cells. It is when they manage to evade your body’s surveillance that these cells become a problem, and grow into tumours. At a certain stage, cancer can even undergo metastasis - a fancy word for when a few cancer cells break free from the tumour and travel to other, vital organs to form new colonies. This inevitably leads to death.
While there is no cure, there are treatments for cancer. Chemotherapy was first developed into a drug from mustard gas in 1947. Radiation allows for localised destruction of the tumour, while immunotherapy trains your immune system to specifically target the tumour. Most fascinating of all, in the world of synthetic biology, scientists are using CRISPR in order to genetically modify bacteria - and turning them into tumour killers. They are made to produce harmful toxins, replicate in great numbers within the tumour, and explode after a certain time, taking the tumour with them as collateral.
We have barely covered all there is to know about cancer in this small article. I have not talked about the difference between liquid and tumour forming cancers, or the four different types of cancer: melanomas, carcinomas, sarcomas and lymphomas. I have not even begun to cover how the immune system deals with cancer on its own.
But most importantly, the one thing that my words cannot render justice to is the agony cancer brings to people. 20% of us will suffer from it in our lifetimes, and one in twelve women will die from it, as well as one in nine men. It is nearly impossible that you will live a normal life without seeing a friend or family member succumb to it. My cold dissections of its processes cannot ease the pain of losing your hair to chemotherapy, or seeing a loved one in a hospital bed. They can only hope to raise awareness.
All I can do is promise that there is a tomorrow. And that medicine, which was invented to ease suffering, will someday find a way to cure it.
Purpose of Life
Purpose of Life
Walter OH, Y11A
Purpose of Life
From time to time, I wonder what I live for. Not much would change if I did not exist. I mean, sure, if some people like Einstein or even Hitler hadn’t been born, then big changes to history would occur. Still, not much would happen if one person disappeared from our current 8.2 billion people, right? So why do we live?
From a biological perspective, one thing is clear. Other organisms live to keep their species alive. They live to reproduce. Some organisms die right after reproducing, showing that life is not worth it after reproduction. Take the Praying Mantis as an example. The female will generally eat the male’s head after mating, as the male’s head has a lot of nutrients. This shows how males are willing to risk their lives to mate, showing that they are living to maintain their “family” or, in humans, “last name”. But, recently, more people are choosing to stay unmarried. So then, what is the reason for humans to live?
Let’s go back to humans and organisms. The main difference between the two is the fact that humans are “smarter”. So maybe this difference causes us to have a different motive for living. Since humans can “think”, maybe humans are more passionate about something other than reproduction. Maybe they want to earn a lot of money and be happy. But, what is the point? Even if you are happy while you are alive, all of that will disappear when you are gone from the world. And I don’t mean that happiness is not important, but I am stating that the reason you live is not just to be happy. After all, most students hate tests but take them regardless. Are they really “happy”? Some may argue that they are doing it for their future to be joyful, but how do you know if you will enjoy your future? If a person is living for their future, shouldn’t they try to avoid all potential risks to their future? I am sure most people in the world have ridden in a car. But if you are living for your future, then shouldn’t you avoid that, as there is a chance that there will be a car accident?
For me, this leads to one final thought. People don’t think about life carefully. Some take life as granted. Some live for someone else. What if it were someone other than you being born instead of you? Would life be any different? I suppose that is what life is. Full of complex questions that can not be answered.
Here, I will leave you with a final question for you to consider. What makes your life worth living?
Sources:
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/apple-news/animals-that-die-during-sex
Life in a Mathematical Sense
Life in a Mathematical Sense
Walter OH, Y11A
Life in a Mathematical Sense
It is so fascinating to see how many connections math has with life and nature. Nearly everything could be modelled into an equation or described as a constant. After all, nearly all fields except languages are math or science-related. In fact, some languages are also slightly science-based. In this article, I will be looking at one of the world’s most applicable constants: the golden ratio, and its applications.
In a mathematical sense, the golden ratio is when two values cause (a+b)/a=a/b(where a is greater than b). If we call (a+b)/a = a/b =t(where t is a constant), then t is also known as the golden number. Let’s say b = 1. Then a/1= a = t and (a+1)/a = (t+1)/t = t. After multiplying by t on both sides and reorganizing the equation, we get t^2-t-1 = 0. The solution of this equation is (1+√5)/2 or (1-√5)/2. For simplicity, let’s assume that t is positive and t = (1+√5)/2. Expressed as a decimal, this nearly equals 1.618. The golden number is closely related to a sequence called the Fibonacci sequence. This sequence starts with two terms with both being one, and the next term is the sum of the previous two terms. The sequence therefore goes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, and so on. Let’s try dividing each number in the sequence by the number before it. Then: 1/1 = 1, 2/1 = 2, 3/2 = 1.5, 5/3 = 1.666…, 8/5 = 1.6, 13/8 = 1.625, 21/13 = 1.615…, 34/21 = 1.619…, 55/34 = 1.618… We can see the ratio is going towards the golden ratio! As a matter of fact, this also works with any first two integers instead of 1 as long as the same rule is applied!
Okay, so you are probably wondering why this value is so important. After all, the only two constants we generally use for math exams are pi and e. This number is very common in life, from seashells to some famous drawings! But before we look into these areas, we must understand how this ratio is applied. Take the golden rectangle as an example. This is a rectangle that has the golden ratio to its sides. This rectangle may seem normal, but it actually has a few unique properties. Firstly, if a square is added to the long side or removed from the short side, the result is a golden rectangle as well. If the red rectangle is a golden rectangle, then the entire rectangle will also be a golden rectangle, and vice versa. Secondly, a golden rectangle can always be drawn with a square cut in half, and then using the diagonal of the other half to draw a quarter-circle. The length is the radius of the quarter-circle added to the half-length of the square, and the height is the length of the square. This creates a golden rectangle.
Now, the golden rectangle can be stacked together using these properties to form another design, which is called the golden whirl. I won’t go into all the details here, but the basic idea is that you continuously add a square to a golden rectangle, and then you draw a curve that meets the corners of the rectangle, it looks like a seashell.
In humans, the golden ratio is generally shown on one’s face. While not applicable to all humans, the height of the face divided by the width can approximate the golden ratio. Furthermore, the width of the mouth compared to the width of the nose, the width of the nose compared to the distance between the eyes, and the distance between the top of the nose and the center of the lips is approximated to be around 1.618, the golden number.
Due to this, in any art that draws humans, or life in general, the golden ratio is applied. Just look at the picture above comparing a golden spiral and Mona Lisa. How are you going to tell me this is not similar?
Sources: https://www.vincit.com/blog/things-you-didnt-know-about-fibonacci
Biology Behind Sports
Biology Behind Sports
Walter Oh, Y11A
Biology Behind Sports
Ever wondered why humans are able to play sports? Today, I will be looking at most things that happen in a person’s body when they are playing sports.
First things first, you will find yourself getting sore legs and sore arms after some time. This is due to a buildup of lactic acid. Acids (especially concentrated ones) generally leave a burning sensation on your skin when touched. So then, why does our body create it in the first place? This links to respiration, a mechanism that your body uses to generate energy. This generates water and carbon dioxide, and energy. However, some may point out that this doesn’t generate lactic acid, and they are correct. Lactic acid is only produced when there is not enough oxygen to break down glucose. Breaking glucose into lactic acid does generate energy, but not as much as using oxygen to break it down. Hence, this method is only used when not enough oxygen is available to your body. This is why your muscles don't hurt every day! This acid is still harmful to your body, so it is later broken down back into carbon dioxide and water using oxygen. This causes the pain to last longer even after you finish your sport.
Secondly, you may notice that you start breathing faster and your heart also beats faster. Due to the respiration process talked about in the previous paragraph, a lot of carbon dioxide is produced. This carbon dioxide can also form an acid when combined with your blood or water, to produce carbonic acid. Luckily enough, our brain can detect the change in the amount of carbonic acid there is in our blood, and this is removed through breathing out carbon dioxide through the lungs. When your body respires more due to an increase in the need for energy, more carbon dioxide is produced, so the rate of breathing increases, and you breathe out more deeply, letting out more carbon dioxide. Your heart pumps blood faster so that the carbon dioxide can be carried to the lungs more rapidly. This also provides another benefit, which is that your body can get more oxygen faster, which allows more energy to be generated using the extra oxygen provided. A crucial thing to note is that the increase in heart rate and breathing rate is not caused by the lack of oxygen, but by the excess of carbon dioxide. This was rather a surprise to me when I first heard about it, because I thought you would want more oxygen first, and exhaling carbon dioxide would be a by-benefit.
Thirdly, we can look at the actions of your body, including your muscles. It is crucial to realize that your muscles are controlled by your brain. Let’s take basketball as an example, where you are the attacker in a one-on-one scenario (one attacker versus one defender). You would want to try to get past the defender and score in the basket. Your eyes would send a signal to your brain as to where the defender and the rim are, and your brain decides what method to use to get past the defender. Your brain then sends a signal to your muscles to do what it wants to. Then, your muscle carries out the actions you want.
Finally, most people will notice that you sweat while you exercise. Most people know that sweating is due to the body trying to cool itself down. This is because the sweat takes away the body heat when it evaporates as respiration generates heat, alongside energy. Too high a body temperature would cause your bodily functions to fail, as your body needs a specific temperature to function optimally, and it is designed for such temperatures.
In conclusion, your body has adapted to do sports more efficiently, such as: generating as much energy as possible, faster removal of carbon dioxide, control from your brain, and maintaining a perfect temperature for your body to perform the best that it can. So, the next time you do exercise, you should thank your body for allowing you to do so!
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