Louise Thorp

Researchers Reveal Giant Glacier Melt Rate

As scientists try to establish a realistic prediction for how much sea levels can be expected to rise globally, a new set of results yielded from a new study in Antarctica have revealed how the continent’s longest glacier is being melted by the warm ocean flowing beneath it, at a rapid rate.

The Pine Island Glacier – measuring an impressive 31 miles long – has always been of great interest and eager scientists are finally able to monitor its behaviour more closely after the first successful research trip to the treacherous ice sheet.

Although it has been known since the end of the 1980s that the ice shelf is melting from beneath, its remote and tricky location had made it an impenetrable site. “In my 35 years doing fairly large oceanographic projects, the Pine Island Glacier one tops it in terms of its complexity and challenge,” said Professor Tim Stanton, the leader of the research team.

“But it’s clear that it’s very important to understand how these massive ice shelves are influenced by changes in the ocean. These observations will provide the basis for improving global climate models.”

An expedition in 2007 saw the first successful attempt to land on the Antarctic’s fastest flowing glacier, after determined efforts by the team to navigate the wind-whipped area. However, the trip ended in disappointment when logistical problems forced them to abandon their efforts for the much-needed research.

This was followed by a further attempt in 2011, which was thwarted by bad weather conditions. The team reached their location too late in the season and were left unable to carry out their investigations.

Finally in the December of 2012, the team of international scientists – including NASA and the British Antarctic Survey- finally embarked upon a fully-successful trip, installing the necessary instruments to generate the much longed-for results.

This trip was again repeated in January of 2013 and these long-anticipated expeditions created three new research camps which were set up in the centre of the glacier. Now finally, scientists have been able to establish specific measurements relating to its deterioration.

Drilling down into at least 450m of ice, using hot-water drills, the team installed a set of instruments below the shell. They were able to generate readings relating to both the speed and temperature of the water flowing beneath – measurements which previous satellite readings and airborne data had been unable to offer accurate results for.

The full paper, published in Science, describes the team’s studies and reveals just how severe the melting is. At some places, the rate is as high as 6 centimetres (2.36 inches) per day- equating to approximately 22 metres (72 feet) per year.

“What we have brought to the table are detailed measurements of melt rates that will allow simple physical models of the melting processes to be plugged into computer models of the coupled ocean/glacier system,” Stanton explained.

“These improved models are critical to our ability to predict future changes in the ice shelf, and glacier melt rates of the potentially unstable Western Antarctic Ice Sheet in response to changing ocean forces.”

Organ Donation: Are You In?

You shouldn’t worry. It’s never going to happen to you, is it? It’s always that thing that you read about in the papers; the statistic on the news; a story that comes up over a coffee about a friend of a friend.

When it comes to organ donation, you could presume that your only connection to it will be in deciding whether or not you might make the noble decision to donate your organs in the event of your unfortunate demise.

But what if your heart starts to fail? It has been beating every minute of every day of every month of every year of your life…what if all along you had a silent fault waiting to strike? Or, what if you ended up developing end-stage lung failure or your diabetes became so bad that you needed a new kidney…

And then you realise that only 31% of the UK population is registered to become organ donors.

Then you are told that, as an adult, the average wait for a kidney is over three years; the median for a lung transplant over one year and the wait for a heart, an average of 253 days.

And what if you aren’t well enough to survive that wait?

An estimated 1,000 people die each year waiting for a life-saving organ, according to the NHS. The very unfortunate truth is that there are always more people needing organs than there are healthy ones available from donation. At present in the UK there are over 10,000 people needing a transplant. Whilst the wait for organs can obviously be different for all patients, the delay is always going to be inevitable while there is such a severe shortage of organs available for transplantation.

And sadly, for many the wait is just far too long.

Waiting time can also be negatively influenced by the disparity in the number of organ donors from certain ethnic backgrounds including those from south-Asian, African and African-Caribbean communities. This is particularly so because, for example, black people have an increased chance of developing kidney failure – three times more so – than the rest of the UK population. Ethnicity is so important because tissue and blood type compatibility are much more likely to prove a match; crucial in the success of transplantation.

The vital element within the UK system has always been consent; people have to actively ‘opt-in’ and give their consent to organ donation by actively adding themselves to the register, having a donor card or by otherwise discussing their wishes with their loved ones. Wales, however, has recently broken away from the system in favour of the ‘opt-out’ system – where consent is presumed for all unless the person has chosen to opt-out. A system which inevitably provokes much debate with the religious and ethical issues that arise. In both systems though, the final decision falls to the next-of-kin.

So let’s face it, ‘opt-in’ or ‘opt-out’, the bottom line is this: In the utterly devastating and tragic event of a loved-one’s death, there could still be the potential of passing on the incredible gift of life – even to several people.

And when that question of organ donation is broached, will you know what they would want the answer to be? Would you have the knowledge, and indeed the strength, to recognise the wishes of the person you love? Will you be certain enough to follow through their request – whether it be in favour of donation or not?

The bottom line is that we need to talk about it. We need to know. And we need to act on it.

For more information and to find instructions on how to join the organ donor register go to: NHS Choices Organ Donation

‘Scarless’ surgery? Check out NOTES

Surgery is a daunting prospect. The thought of another human-being rummaging around in your insides is enough to turn anybody a bit pale with worry. Oh- and as an added bonus- the chances are, you are going to be left with a lovely scar to commemorate the event.

Well actually, that may not necessarily be true…

Pushing the boundaries of existing minimally-invasive technologies, surgeons are currently attempting the amazing feat of being able to complete certain procedures without the need for incisions. Via, shall we say, naturally existing access routes within the body.

Yes: it is what you are thinking.

The rectum, vagina, urethra and also the mouth are all channels utilized in NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery) in order for doctors to gain access to internal areas needing to be operated on.

The basic principle of NOTES has been an established means for diagnostic tests and simple therapies for a while- for example, inserting a camera into the throat to better view of internal structures (known as endoscopy). Now however, this technology is being explored in an exciting new capacity.

The potential to be able to complete full surgical procedures through already-present orifices in the body, means that new openings do not have to be created and therefore surgeons can try to avoid putting patients through the physical trauma of being cut open. Instruments, including a camera, can be inserted into these sites, allowing for surgeries to be performed in an incredibly minimally invasive way.

When compared with conventional laparotomy (standard open surgery, requiring a substantial incision into the abdomen) and laparoscopy (minimally invasive surgery, which uses small incisions into the abdomen, followed by the insertion of instruments into the body via ports), NOTES comes with a range of potential benefits.

The major advantages can mostly be attributed to the lack of an external wound site. This key achievement of NOTES means that the patient does not have to suffer the additional pain of wound-healing; does not have the risk of developing an incisional hernia and crucially; has reduced risk of surgical site infection.

Post-operative infection is one of the most common complications of surgery and can be deadly; by taking away an external healing site it severely reduces the chances of germs getting to the surgical site and creating a nasty infection.

Added to this, there could also be a reduced requirement for anaesthesia and shorter hospital stays too. But inherently unique to this surgery, is that it is ‘scarless’. This is even to the extent that on occasions when another camera is needed to be inserted from the outside, a very small incision is made into the belly button, in such a location whereby the cut will be hidden within folds of the skin.

Research and training are currently in progress to help propel NOTES to its full potential. With this technology already proving its feasibility in human trials, mainly in the field of general surgery- from removal of the appendix to biopsies to the treatment of intestinal cancers- it may not be too long before this technique establishes itself as a significant evolutionary step in modern surgical methods.

Photo credit: TopNews.in

Cutting Edge Technology to Cut Out Needle Vaccinations?

Revolutionary nanotechnology set to provide solutions to inoculation issues in developing countries.

Nanotechnology? I wondered the same thing when I first heard. It’s pretty incredible really; it’s basically the study of structures at magnifications beyond what the eye can see. And using this cutting-edge science, bioengineer Mark Kendall has come up with an innovation, smaller than a human fingernail, that could replace needle delivery of vaccinations and provide the answers to some of the major problems associated with mass immunisation. Most crucially, those in developing nations.

Many of us living in the developed world now take for granted the importance of vaccines; we are lucky enough to be in a position whereby the use of inoculations on a sustained mass scale has enabled us to reach a point whereby many contagious diseases have become wiped out.

Unfortunately, these devastating and potentially fatal illnesses still ravage populations in developing countries, where there is insufficient means to vaccinate communities.

This is where the Nanopatch claims its stake in potentially becoming one of the biggest innovations in modern immunology.

The 1cm² patch takes advantage of the skin as the body’s “immune sweet spot”, according to the Australian professor responsible for this advancement. The largest organ of the human body, not only does your skin defend against pathogenic microorganisms (the little nasties that cause disease), it also homes a hotbed of immune cells beneath the surface, which the patch delivers the vaccine directly into.

The tiny silicon square is covered with around 20,000 micro-projections – imagine little spikes, so minute that they cannot be felt, nor are they visible to the human eye – which are coated with dry vaccine. When applied directly to the skin using an applicator, the spikes penetrate the outer layer and administer the antigen to the eager immune-cells waiting beneath, sparking an impressive response.

The potential of this patch is ground-breaking. Though currently in the pre-human-trial stage of development, the technology has proven extremely effectual in the mouse model. Initial results have shown the product to be 100 times as effective as its needle counter-part and can be produced at a fraction of the price. “When the device is made in sufficiently large numbers, our cost estimates are significantly less than US$1 per dose,” Kendall assures.

For 160 years now, the needle and syringe method has fronted technology of contemporary vaccination programmes and whilst it is efficient, it inevitably maintains a range of shortcomings for which this tiny innovation holds the promise of overcoming.

Of the design’s broadest achievements: no needle equals no phobias – hooray! Plus, no chance of needle injuries; no potential for disease transmission associated with needle reuse; and, no pain on vaccine delivery either. Of its most integral successes, it doesn’t require specialised staff to administer it, nor does it depend on the cold-chain to maintain it in transportation or storage – both astounding achievements in the efforts towards making vaccinations more readily available, especially in developing countries.

“Because the Nanopatch requires neither a trained practitioner to administer it nor refrigeration, it has enormous potential to cheaply deliver vaccines in developing nations,” Kendall has said. For the remoter areas of some geographic areas, the logistics of supplying a temperature-controlled product has big implications on whether communities can be provided with life-saving vaccines. In places, the presence of adequate refrigeration is limited, or non-existent and the availability of appropriately skilled staff to administer the vaccines is also restricted. Problems which the Nanopatch solve.

Not only this, but for developed countries, these epic advancements hold future possibilities of seeing vaccines becoming available from local chemists or even being mailed out to home addresses, to self-dispense.

So what’s the catch? Well, as mentioned previously, it is yet to be tested on humans. However, since initial usability tests carried out by Kendall’s team at the University of Queensland have had such remarkable results, the promise of success in human trials (set to begin later this year) is very encouraging. And even though some other patches of comparable concepts have failed to reach their potential, new company Vaxxas has claimed that it is “the applicator design (which) overcomes the inconsistency that plagues other transdermal vaccine delivery approaches.”

Professor Kendall has big aspirations for his Nanopatch. With the World Health Organization this week estimating that “around 22 million children in developing countries are still not protected from dangerous diseases with basic vaccines” the need for the success of this technology is more crucial than ever. Having won a Rolex award for his research, he has said “I have an absolute passion to deliver better vaccination to the low-resource regions of the world, without them having to wait years for it to trickle down from the developed world”.

Though it is going to take a concerted effort – pooling resources of education, funding and technology – to eradicate major vaccination issues, this tiny patch has the potential to take massive steps towards helping drastically cut the number of preventable deaths each year- all without a needle in sight.

Photo credit: University of Queensland