Whoa on Swoll

(Note: We've been experiencing technical difficulties at the site, thanks for staying tuned. We'll get some fresh content up for you today, but in the meantime, enjoy what you missed. This article and Cheddar's article below were written Sunday night and Friday morning, respectively.

A.F.O.M.G. would like to note his piece was written before the fan base decided the loss on Sunday was the worst thing that ever happened (WTTEH). If this post seems completely out of place in the post-WTTEH world we now live in, please accept my apologies.)

I know I'm supposed to write about the Mets, but right now, I just can't.

OK, I can. It's tempting to say Sunday's loss was extremely depressing, but actually I didn't think it was. Yes, I'm pissed we lost the game, a game we were leading 6-2.

But I'll say this: the Mets kept creating scoring opportunities, and that's a good sign; at the risk of sounding like Art Howe, they battled.

They hit in to double plays in 5 straight innings I think it was -- more often than not that's not going to happen. If they can keep channeling the intensity that put them in position to score runs in inning after inning today, they'll be fine.

Tough one to lose, but hey, Atlanta and Philly lost too, so so be it.

(Meanwhile, could someone tell Vic Ziegel to get a grip? It's getting late early at Shea? The Mets are 5-6. The Phillies are 6-7. The Braves are 5-7. All of them are staring up at, that's right, the Baby Marlins. Is it getting late early at Citizens Bank and Turner Field?)

But leave that alone for now.

Who else caught 60 Minutes on Sunday? Guys? No?

Well if you had, you'd have seen a truly amazing story about a regular man, John Kanzius, who might have found a way to 1) cure cancer, and 2) solve the world's energy crisis.

How? Radio waves. Radio waves! Ha!

So how's it work? Well, you can read the entire transcript (and I really suggest you do) by clicking here, but to summarize it involves a machine that we'll call a radio wave generator.

Radio waves are entirely harmless to humans. If you run your hand through the field created by a radio wave generator, you won't feel a thing. If you run a fluorescent light bulb through the field, however, the light bulb will turn on, which is neat to watch.

What's it got to do with cancer? Well, Katzius theorized that if you injected microscopic-sized metal particles into cancer cells (called "nanoparticles"), and then ran these metal-filled cancer cells through the field created by the radio wave generator, the heat would be so intense that the metal would burst, thereby killing the cancer cell.

Sure enough, tests done on rabbits and rats have killed cancer. "Grossly inspecting the animal, we did not see not see any damage to the surrounding tissue," Dr. Geller said.

Is it a cure for cancer? Not yet. The trouble with cancer, of course, is that it spreads. This method easily kills cancer cells in a tumor, the next step is targeting cancer cells that have escaped the tumor. That part I can't really summarize, but they're working on it. Read the transcript (search for "metastasize") .

So what's it got to do with energy?

Kanzius discovered that if you put saltwater, the most abundant, most renewable resource on the planet, in to the field, the saltwater would ignite on fire to a temperature of up to 3000 degrees. That energy has been used by researchers associated with Kanzius to run small appliances. There's no reason this technology can't be used to power a car some day.



Want to learn more about it? Dig it on YouTube above.

I don't understand a thing about science, nor do I normally find science particularly interesting. Whatever. This stuff struck a chord with me. I think everyone likes the idea of not needing to depend on the Middle East for energy. As for curing cancer, if we can avoid the Krippin Virus, I think everyone's for that too.

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Last time I write about science, I swear.

- A.F.O.M.G.