Writing about science
Articles
The Hindu, July 3, 2016.
Beena Pillai writes for TheIndianEXPRESS, February 22, 2023. (click here)
Beena Pillai writes for TheIndianEXPRESS, October 6, 2020. (click here)
Poorti Kathpalia writes a variety of science articles, stories, poems and more for her refreshing blog, Science Bagels.
Is there no treatment?
A lone cell that broke the rule,
Turned into a mass of no use.
Threatens its own living space,
As it forgets that it is not a race.
Unchecked by the internal defenses,
who will bring it back into its senses?
Maybe a little help from outside,
to open those internal eyes wide.
Catch hold the ones gone astray,
Immunotherapy saves the day.
The first recorded observation of tumours come from ancient Egyptian texts dating back to the 3000 BC that mention, “There is no treatment.”
In the 21st century, we do have treatment for cancer. Do we really? Yes, if the tumour is detected in time, i.e. the cancer cells have not metastasized throughout the body and are still confined to a tissue that can be surgically removed after chemotherapy (treating with chemical drugs to destroy the cancerous cells). No, we do not have a treatment if the cancer has metastasized. Then there are other cancer types like glioblastoma that do not metastasize (because of the presence of blood brain barrier) but are difficult to treat because of the same blood brain barrier. Surgically removing the cancer from the brain gets difficult as the cancer advances. These are some of the examples where conventional chemotherapy and surgery fail. This is when cancer recurs after our 21st century treatments. And we can hear the same words being said by doctors to cancer patients and their families - there is no treatment.
Here is a teaser...
Poems
Quiescence on track
The diurnal rhythm of mammalian life
Governs far more than our sleep and our strife,
Proliferating cells wherein this process is scarce,
Daylight brings hope for essential repairs.
Darkness releases sweet melatonin
(Do not confuse it for your skin melanin)
Thwarting division of stems in the brain
What happens next has ions to ‘blame’?
The dancing of calcium ions within
Governs much more than cell signaling,
Moving from the ER to the cytosol and back
The waves that ensue keep quiescence on track.
Just like the leaves fall with the seasons,
And the tides shift to low as the pull weakens,
So too do the motions of this neural tale
Albeit across a far shorter time scale.
Poorti Kathpalia writes for www.consilience-journal.com
Read the complete version at Quiescence on track — Consilience .