Phosphenes

When you look at something really bright and then close your eyes, you would see blobs of light scattering and dissipating. Have you ever wondered what they are? They are phosphenes (not a compound)! Why do we see colors with our eyes closed?

TEDxUPM - 10/2015

Michael Green. April Cuenca. Dr. Raquel Fortun. Jerrold Tarog. Ebe Dancel.

I attended a TEDxUPM talk. With the more diversified topics and disciplines yet presenting a unified theme, this outside-the-classroom experience is irreplaceable. The speakers (including the TED videos presented) were as follows:

1. Video: What the Social Progress Index can reveal about your country by Michael Green: It IS POSSIBLE (contrary to what pessimists say) for the world to be a better place when, according to Michael Green, all countries strive for economic growth and at the same time eliminate poverty. This can increase our Social Progress Index from a mediocre score so somewhere around 61+. However, in order to reach UN's Global Goal of 75, we have to do things differently - not through the conventional business transaction.

2. CEO and Founder of FlipTrip.PH - April Cuenca: Go from your point A (your status quo) to point B (your destination). We should be willing to find places in the Philippines to travel. Tourism is something very important to the livelihood as well as social development of the local communities.

3. First Woman Forensic Pathologist in the Philippines - Dr. Raquel Fortun: The state of Philippine Trial courts ranges from the well-decorated Makati Trial Court (with genuine wooden material) to the lackluster (with broken chairs) ones. As a forensic pathologist, she is qualified by the trial judge as an expert witness (contrast to the ordinary and professional witness), who is reliable in terms of hypothetical crime scenarios. She has taken the relatively recent Laude's case.

4. Director of Heneral Luna - Jerrold Tarog: Heneral Luna, apparently, is his ninth film. He was originally a music major who without much difficulty shifted to film making. Why is this so? "Music is film and film is music to me." (Tarog, 2015) There is color (timbre), story structure (such as three-act and sonata structures), fugue, motifs (and visual motifs) and beauty in editing. Movies have a beautiful way of amplifying emotions along with music using the beat rhythm (composed of upbeats and downbeats), such as adding new instruments into the "music scene" in every downbeat (1 in 1, 2, 3, 4).

5. Gerson Abesamis, co-founder of Habi Education Lab: The current state of the country, especially in education is having a deficit-based mindset, and this is very dangerous because it does not encourage good learning. We need to shift from deficit-based mindset to asset-based mindset - which is using whatever we can do - all of them to creatively teach students (such as gamification). Another universal lesson I learned is that "Good intentions alone can be dangerous and can cloud your judgment. You have to think critically."

6. Video: Wapnick, founder of the website Puttylike: Our society is so wrong in making us believe that we have one, ultimate destiny - something we should fulfill in our life by the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" This is a question that's casually asked to a five-year old and currently an all-night worrying thought for those who are in their career. She asserts that we people who are interested in many, many, different fields SHOULD NOT restrict, narrow ourselves into one! We are MULTIPOTENTIALITES. We have three superpowers: Idea Synthesis, Rapid Learning and Adaptability. There are many well-known, world-changing people who are such (a doctor and violinist, a doctor and programmer, etc.)

7. Lead Guitarist and Vocalist of OPM Band Sugarfree - Ebe Dancel: Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. I cannot describe how much I am touched by his singing.
Fanciful as it may sound, I got a TEDxUPM shirt, lanyard and even the autograph signatures (and photos) with Dr. Fortun and Director Tarog. I am thankful to the organizers for organizing such as awesome event. I look forward to attend more TED talks.

Cancer-driving Enzyme

Scientists finally figure out the structure of a key cancer-driving enzyme

A Immunological Cure for Cancer?

"Researchers in the US have found an antibody that turns cancerous leukaemia cells into natural killer cells - a type of white blood cell that's able to seek out and destroy tumour cells in the body. If it works in humans, it would not only reduce the number of cancer cells in a patient, but could get rid of them altogether.

So far trials in the lab have shown that the converted human leukaemia cells were able to wipe out nearly 15 percent of the cancerous leukaemia cells in just 24 hours.

But instead they stumbled across a rare human antibody that has even more potential: it can actually turn leukaemia cells into cancer killers.

The antibody in question binds to a receptor called TPO - or thrombopoietin - which is found on most acute myeloid leukaemia cells. When the researchers first exposed the leukaemia cells to the antibody, they watched as it turned many of them into harmless immune cells known as dendritic cells."

Scientists have found a way to make leukaemia cells kill each other

Classification of Carcinogenic Types

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified ...