Personal Fluid and Bacteria transplant in a patient with Cystic Fibrosis, the process of taking out fluid from the lung and washing it, then implanting it into the patient’s lung. A patient in a hospital in Pittsburgh, PA; the researchers, including the surgical team, had no idea about the research until they saw a video of the procedure on TV. I have no doubt that every one of these people (and probably dozens more) have had the most transformative life experiences of their lives, something which may change them profoundly. How they are able to sleep at night and how their wives or husbands sleep at night is beyond me. All of them, including myself, have not only worked so hard for this knowledge to be acquired, but then to see it given away to the world. We should all be very thankful.
2) A very interesting study about how to train mice to avoid electric shocks; as I remember from Psychology 101, it is far better to use a positive reinforcer such as treats or giving the mouse a treat for no shock, rather than using electric shock as a negative reinforcer. (I personally wouldn’t trust myself to train mice, but I believe that others have).
3) If you think you know what a virus is, you really have no clue. Researchers have discovered a newly discovered virus which has been given the name, ‘SARS-CoV.’ It lives on the skin and causes, not acne, but warts which it forms on the skin, which is where most of the human population picks it up. So in addition to the usual bacteria and viruses of the human gut which the authors also had to deal with, the virus that is spread by sexual contact caused a very large outbreak at a school.
“We must be careful not to forget the difference between the real, concrete situation in which we live, and that ideal state which we strive to realize, and yet which to the individual seems infinitely remote.”
The study in which monkeys were rewarded with an ice cream if they remembered a location; the results were astounding; when they went back to a location, even if they did not remember ever going there, their brains had rewired so that the path to the location became as if they had actually been there and knew the location well. The brain is really quite amazingly efficient and amazing.
Asking, “What have I ever done?” is the very beginning of wisdom; it is when you begin to realize that all that you need to know comes from your experience, and nothing else. (Dalai Lama XIV)
It is my opinion that the brain’s ability to store memories is similar to the computer’s memory, in that you have certain parts of your brain that store information, so that when you go back to a particular place, you know exactly what to do to get there.
I really enjoyed reading the article in The American Journal of Cardiology, “Does Stress Affect Health?”; it gave me some ideas about how stress can be beneficial and how it may not be so good, and ways to get rid of stress when it is bad.
I’m going to read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand to review for a book study for the next meeting.
This morning I took part in a panel for women who are considering becoming priests, and who have had doubts. For me, as with many women who become priests, the doubts have been brought on by pastors and ministers who did not show any signs of being able to have a relationship with Jesus Christ; it was quite hard for me to even consider becoming a priest because it felt like a second class citizenship. I know that the Catholic Church has its problems in dealing with women in leadership roles; in America at least, and in my state, but I really do not feel like I want to be part of a system that is so patriarchal.
I found it interesting that someone said that the church would work well if it would allow women priests, but it would fall apart when some women priests had children; I wonder if the same would be true for women bishops.
It is impossible to keep up with all the things that happen around the world which are related to God, how the church is going, and I really do not have a great deal to say about any of these things, but I thought that you might like to hear about some things that were reported in the Catholic news feeds from the last week or so, because it is worth talking about:
1) It would appear that a Muslim preacher that had said that a person needed to marry another woman and then kill her, was executed; the person who said it was the leader of the conservative Salafi Muslim community. The person has a huge following and there were huge protests by the Salafi Muslims when this preacher, Abu-al-Barakat, was executed, (which took place in Saudi Arabia on June 13.)
The BBC had a very interesting article about a church in America which only has female priests, which is the only church in the United States which is all female. The Church of the Good Shepherd holds Sunday morning masses for about 2,200 people in the Boston area; there is also a church in London that has the same situation, with 2,200 members. While neither of these churches have actually ever had male priests, they do have a committee that are supposed to make decisions for the church when there is a vacancy. However, apparently, it is just easier to have women priests and women deacons in many cases; not much is made of the fact that all of the church’s deacons are women, and they even help run the church. This church was also founded by an Episcopalian (they prefer to be called Christian) minister, the Reverend Robert deVries, who is actually married to a woman and has two daughters.
I have always said that if women are going to have access to priesthoods and such, then women should also have the right to exercise the sacraments.
2) In a case which was reported on in the news in England, one man, a clergyman was charged with raping a woman after having dinner with her and her daughter, where he touched her breasts and kissed her. I wonder if a lot of women might not think that any contact with a male clergyman could be risky or could be considered sexual harassment? The way that this was presented in the press, it seemed to me that the woman knew that the man was a clergyman from the fact that he was wearing a clerical collar. Why does the press portray clergymen in a sexual manner in such a demeaning way?
3) One of the church’s greatest enemies may actually be a religious sister who writes for an online publication; apparently this has created a lot of tension with the nuns. What is so funny to me is that at least a couple of these ladies were former Roman Catholics; it would seem to me that they have a lot of resentment toward Catholics, perhaps because they did not find what they were looking for, but their attitude toward religion in general is probably not all that different from my attitude. I would not be surprised to find that these ladies are part of a network which is out to destroy the church, I also think that they feel that they were “sold a bill of goods,” and that most of the time they cannot figure out how to live their faith. I feel that their problem comes down to the fact that they felt that their faith was being threatened in some way and they have, either been deceived or have fooled themselves, so that they now have an agenda to see the church fail.
1) A paper in The FASEB Journal looked at different markers that can be used to tell whether a breast tumor will metastasize, or whether it has already metastasized; the markers can be either in the blood, or in the tumor itself. This would be very valuable information, since it would be impossible to operate on breast cancer if it had already metastasized; you can’t operate on a person if you don’t know whether they have cancer.
2) Some scientists are actually able to induce, and then reverse, autism in mice, using something called a genetic switch. My husband has autism; so this is definitely something that needs to be examined in greater detail.
3) This story was so sad that it made me cry; it is clear that these are desperate times in which to live, so that people who are not on the spectrum have to help people on the spectrum. I think that parents of autistic people need to be aware of this kind of problem, because what was so heart-wrenching was how a mother was upset because the people who run a public health center where she used to take her son for medical care
