04.17.08 5:00 AM CDT
• Modern Wizardry
• Scott Alexander
When retiree John Kanzius was undergoing chemotherapy for terminal leukemia, he couldn't sleep. His insomnia may end up saving a lot of lives. Obsessed with finding a cancer treatment that had no side effects, he started puttering away in the middle of the night in his kitchen and garage with his wife's pie pans, a crude radio transmitter and some hot dogs. What he discovered may change the face of cancer treatment. When radio waves are passed through metal, it heats the metal up. Using this jumping off point, Kanzius injected hot dogs with copper sulfate solution to see if he could heat only specific areas of them. He could. And now millions of dollars in research is being thrown behind research into treating cancer with radio waves and gold nanoparticles. Did we mention Kanzius has no background in science or medicine, nor does he have a college degree? Equal parts kitchen science, cutting edge sci-fi and heartbreaking human triumph, 60 Minutes did an incredible job covering it the other night. As Kansas himself says, "sometimes maybe you get lucky."
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Normal dogs dissipate heat from their skin. In addition, panting allows evaporation of water from the respiratory tract and is an effective method of heat dissipation. When these mechanisms are overwhelmed, hypothermia and heat stroke usually develop. The elevation in body temperature stimulates the body to release substances that activate inflammation.