Catching a Cancer
Viral culprits may explain a host of tumors with as-yet unknown triggers
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/342223/title/Catching_a_Cancer
This is really interesting to me as it helps explain a lot of observed information. I have know that certain viruses unambiguously cause certain cancers, but up to this point those cases seemed to be the exception, now it seems there is evidence that it may be the rule. If we could develop a really cheap and fast way to sequence random DNA then we could start to accumulate high quality statistical information that could direct research efforts. Right now obtaining that sort of detailed information is so expensive and time consuming that for all practical purposes we might as well have none. You can’t do effective population studies without having detailed information on large segments of a populations, the best that can be gleaned is a shadowy image of what might be and the poor definition leaves researchers with little more than guesses.
Presuming we don’t blow ourselves back into the stone age (though the US is well on its own way to that end) I strongly believe that we are just a few decades away from some amazing breakthroughs in medicine and still hold on to the thought that my generation is just young enough to take advantage of longevity treatments such that we could be the first generation to have the chance to live forever.
Of course, I could just be full of wishful thinking (or full of something else ;-))
