'New' island emerges from melting ice in Alaska

Because the world continues to warm, and ice packs and glaciers are melting and retreating, satellites are discovering land underneath that was hidden from civilization. Along the coastal plain of southeastern Alaska, one of these growing watery expanses, a new island has emerged.

Photo:  A satellite photograph of Alsek Lake and the new island of Prow Knob as Alsek Glacier retreats. Alaska's Prow Knob (the big island on the right of the lake) used to be surrounded by ice. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.)

 'New' island emerges from melting ice in Alaska 

News By Patrick Pester< Live science, Sept. 11, 2025

 NASA's Earth Observatory has announced that Alaska has a "brand new island" after a retreating glacier lost contact with the Prow Knob mountain landmass in Alsek Lake.

A 'new' island has appeared in the middle of a lake in southeastern Alaska after the landmass lost contact with a melting glacier, NASA satellite images reveal.

The landmass, named Prow Knob, is a small mountain that was formerly surrounded by the Alsek Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. However, Alsek Glacier has been retreating for decades, slowly separating itself from Prow Knob and leaving a growing freshwater lake in its wake.

A recent satellite image, taken by Landsat 9 in August, reveals that the glacier has now lost all connection to Prow Knob, according to a statement released by NASA's Earth Observatory. Prow Knob provides a clear visual example of how glaciers are thinning and retreating in southeastern Alaska.

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  (Photo: Alsek on July 5, 1984. Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

"Along the coastal plain of southeastern Alaska, water is rapidly replacing ice," Lindsey Doermann, a science writer at the NASA Earth Observatory, wrote in the statement. "Glaciers in this area are thinning and retreating, with meltwater forming proglacial lakes off their fronts. In one of these growing watery expanses, a new island has emerged."

Alsek Glacier used to split into two channels to wind its way around Prow Knob, which has a landmass of about 2 square miles (5 square kilometers). In the early 20th century, the glacier extended across the now-exposed Alsek Lake and as far as Gateway Knob, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) west of Prow Knob.

The late glaciologist Austin Post, who captured aerial photographs of Alsek in 1960, named Prow Knob after its resemblance to the prow (pointed front end) of a ship. Post and fellow glaciologist Mauri Pelto, a professor of environmental science at Nichols College in Massachusetts, previously predicted that Alsek Glacier would release Prow Knob in 2020, based on the rate it was retreating between 1960 and 1990, according to the statement. The glacier has therefore clung on to its mountain for slightly longer than initially predicted.

 (Photo: Alaska's Prow Knob (the big island on the right of the lake) used to be surrounded by ice. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.)

Prow Knob completely separated from Alsek Glacier between July 13 and Aug. 6, according to the statement.

Many of Earth's glaciers are retreating as the planet gets warmer due to climate change. Last year was the hottest year for global average temperatures since records began, while 2025 has been marked by a string of record-breaking and near-record-breaking hot months.

Discovery! New Research Changes Francis Scott Key's Location when inspired to write Star Spangled Banner

Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner" while being held prisoner aboard a British Ship off the coast of Baltimore's Fort McHenry as the British were firing upon it in 1814. When the bombardment stopped and the fort raised the American Flag, Key wrote the words to what would become the Star Spangled Banner. But the location from which he watched that on the British ship has always been in question, until now. Thanks Scott Sheads, a reporter for the South Baltimore Peninsula Post newspaper, created by my friend Steve C. (I'm so proud of him for bringing news to South Baltimore that had been lacking for years, but that's another story. Here's the story about Francis Scott Key's location that inspired the National Anthem!!

(Photo: The Francis Scott Key Buoy (above) was placed in the Patapsco River near FSK Bridge where it was once thought Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry that inspired his "Star-Spangled Banner." But recent historical research has found that Key actually watched the “rockets’ red glare” on September 13-14, 1814, onboard a ship that was much closer to Fort McHenry than previously thought. Photo: Steve Cole   (This article originally appeared in the August 2025 issue of the South Baltimore Peninsula Post.))

New Research Changes Francis Scott Key's Location

By Scott S. Sheads, SOBO Peninsula Post, Aug 25, 2025

On June 18, the U.S. Coast Guard once again returned the red-white-and-blue Francis Scott Key Buoy to its position in the Patapsco River near the Francis Scott Key Bridge, an annual ritual started in 1914 during the National Star-Spangled Banner Centennial. Removed each winter for maintenance and repair, the buoy marks the location in the river where it was once thought that Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in September 1814, inspiring him to write the poem that would become our National Anthem.

Recent historical research, however, has found that Key actually watched the “rockets’ red glare” from a location much closer to the Fort.

When the buoy’s location four miles from Fort McHenry was selected in 1914, there was scant evidence available documenting the name of the American flag-of-truce vessel on which Key stood, much less where the ship was located on the river. (The location was the suggestion of Dr. Arthur B. Bibbins, chairman of the board of directors for the 1914 celebration.) When it was discovered in the 1950s that the leading candidate for the British vessel that Key stood on (the 74-gun HMS Minden) was serving in Southeast Asia at the time, a renewed search began to find the flag-of-truce vessel’s actual name and location during the bombardment of Fort McHenry.

It was a daunting task, as Fort McHenry superintendent George Mackenzie pointed out in 1956: “The problem of determining the location of the cartelsloop from which Francis Scott Key saw our flag on the morning of September 14, 1814, is a perplexing one.”

Since then, the improved availability of documents from archives in the United States and the United Kingdom as well as regional newspaper accounts of ship movements in the Chesapeake Bay during the battle have shed new light on this important American story. Recent research by local historians revealed that Key’s vantage point was much closer to Fort McHenry – just two miles away – near the mouth of Colgate (formerly Colegate) Creek at a spot that now lies beneath the Seagirt Marine Terminal.

An initial clue as to what ship Key was on came from knowing who he was traveling with. Key was on the Patapsco River in September 1814 as part of a diplomatic mission with Colonel John S. Skinner, the U.S. State Department commissary for Prisoners of War, that successfully negotiated the release of a prominent American prisoner. Their vessel was detained by the British so that the Americans onboard would not reveal details of the British naval forces preparing to attack Baltimore.

In a series of articles published in 1956 in Baltimore Magazine, Port of Baltimore historian Ralph J. Robinson determined that Skinner “used a single vessel for diplomatic missions throughout 1814.” Subsequent research by Lou Giles, president of the Society of the War of 1812, and this author, a retired National Park Service ranger at Fort McHenry, determined that the truce ship was probably the Stephen Decatur.

The Stephen Decatur was one of several packet boats owned by brothers John and Benjamin Ferguson operating out of Fells Point to carry passengers and mail between Baltimore and Norfolk, Virginia. In 1811, Benjamin Ferguson advertised that he “has added to his line of Norfolk Packets two copper vessels.” These vessels were the sloop Stephen Decatur and an unnamed schooner which was sold in 1812. The Decatur’s master was Captain John Ferguson, who utilized the sloop in May and June of 1814 on two missions on the bay.

A timeline of the Decatur’s location before and after the Fort McHenry bombardment can be reconstructed from U.S. and British reports and entries in the captain’s logbook of the HMS frigate Surprise, flagship of British Vice Admiral Cochrane during the Baltimore campaign, to which the Decatur was tethered.

On Sunday, September 11, 1814, the Surprise and Decatur were off North Point (8 miles from Fort McHenry) after the landing of British troops there, sailing upriver to keep in communication with the troops as they moved toward Baltimore.

On Monday, September 12, the two ships were about 4 miles from the Fort, off Bear Creek. (This is approximately where the Key Buoy is currently located.)

On Tuesday, September 13, the ships were off Colgate Creek, about 2 miles from the Fort, as the bombardment began. Early in the morning of Wednesday, September 14, the last cannons and bombs were fired, and shortly after the garrison flag was raised over the Fort’s ramparts, inspiring a nation’s anthem. The British bombardment squadron then sailed down the river with the Decatur in tow.

On September 16, after the British withdrawal, the Decatur and Francis Scott Key returned to Fells Point. Within a few days, Key’s poem was printed in a Baltimore newspaper and the “Star-Spangled Banner” was born.

NASA discovers 'a new kind of climate' on Pluto, unlike anything else in our solar system

 Here's something cool- NASA' James Webb Space Telescope (that I used to do communications about) discovered something about the atmosphere of Pluto!

(image: Pluto's mysterious blue haze is the primary driver of the dwarf planet's climate. (Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

James Webb telescope discovers 'a new kind of climate' on Pluto, unlike anything else in our solar system

LIVE SCIENCE, Sharmila Kuthunur published June 15, 2025

When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015, it shattered the notion that the dwarf planet was a dormant ball of ice, instead revealing it to be rich with icy plains and jagged mountains. But one of the biggest surprises floated above it all: a bluish, multi-layered haze blanketing the world's sky, stretching more than 185 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface — far higher and more intricate than scientists had predicted.

Now, nearly a decade later, new data from the Webb telescope confirm that Pluto's haze isn't just a visual oddity, it also controls the dwarf planet's climate.

"This is unique in the solar system," Tanguy Bertrand, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in France who led the analysis, told Live Science. "It's a new kind of climate, let's say."

The findings, described in a study published June 2 in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest similar dynamics may be at play on other haze-shrouded worlds in our solar system, and even offer clues about our own planet's early climate.

Lifting the haze 

Pluto's high-altitude haze is made of complex organic molecules from sunlight-driven reactions of methane and nitrogen. The idea that this haze could control Pluto's climate was first proposed in 2017. Computer models suggested these particles absorb sunlight during the day and release it back into space as infrared energy at night, cooling the atmosphere much more efficiently than gases alone. This could also explain why Pluto's upper atmosphere is roughly -333 degrees Fahrenheit (-203 degrees Celsius) — 30 degrees cooler than expected.

These findings also open up the possibility that similar haze-driven climates might exist on other hazy worlds, such as Neptune's moon Triton or Saturn's moon Titan, Bertrand said.

Even Earth's distant past might bear a resemblance, the researchers said. Before oxygen transformed our planet's skies, it's possible that Earth was veiled in a haze of organic particles — a blanket that may have helped stabilize temperatures and foster early life.

"By studying Pluto's haze and chemistry, we might get new insights into the conditions that made early Earth habitable," Zhang said in the statement.

A Mom-in-law Birthday Celebration!

 In mid-September I flew down to South Carolina to visit my mom-in-law for her birthday. One of us always stays home with our senior dogs, so Tom will be visiting around his birthday next month, so we're covered. I'm a BIG believer in celebrating a birthday, so I tried to ensure we had all the birthday stuff!

(Photo above: Mom and I on her birthday, complete with sign and party hat!) 

(Photo below: Greg. Rob, Lisa, Mom playing board games!)

GAME TIME- Mom loves playing board games. She lives with her daughter, Lisa and her hubby, Greg so they broke out "Rummikub," which I learned on my previous visit. Everyone won a game before we called it quits, so that made for a good afternoon. :) 

DINNER OUT - Mom has mobility challenges so she uses a walker, and there's also a fold up wheelchair that goes in Lisa and Greg's SUV. Mom wanted to go for Chinese food so we went to one of her favorite places. It seems like Mom got the royal treatment being wheeled into the restaurant, and she loved it. 

  It was nice to get mom out of the house and to the restaurant. Changes of scenery are important! 

(Photos: Getting wheeled in, and enjoying the atmosphere of the restaraunt)

THE BIRTHDAY STUFF!!  

As I said earlier, I love birthday celebrations, so I put together all the ingredients. 

  I found a small birthday cake, got some birthday candles, a birthday hat, birthday napkins and paper plates. 

  Of course a birthday isn't complete without a big batch of flowers and at least 3 birthday balloons!

Lisa and Greg had a really cool light up birthday sign and we played "Happy Birthday" on the phone (I can't hold a tune for anything).  The cake was amazing- of course, to me, most cakes are amazing. :) 

     FIRE PROTECTION STATEMENT - We did not put 87 candles on the cake to avoid a fire hazard. LOL   :) 

BINGO NIGHT OUT!! -  One of Mom's favorite things is playing BINGO!  Lisa found a great Bingo hall last time I visited, and we returned there on Mom's birthday night. It was fun!  One of the women that worked the Bingo hall in June when I last visited, remembered all of us. 

A GROUP WIN! - Although Mom, Lisa and Greg were close on several games they didn't win one. Fortunately, I did win a game and there were no other winners in the room, so I was awarded $75, which I split with everyone. So, each of us won $19.00! It was a great way to conclude Mom's birthday!! 

(Photo: Mom and Rob at the Bingo hall!) 

Idiot of the Week: Ice Cream Worker pleads guilty to lacing ice cream with pot

This week's idiot worked in an ice cream shop, made a batch of pot-laced ice cream for himself and stored it in their freezer, which was unfortunately sold. If he just put a NOTE on it, it wouldn't have been served to and sickened customers. 

 Man pleads guilty to lacing ice cream with THC in New Hampshire

Ariana St Pierre,WGMETue, July 22nd 2025 at 6:29 AM

CONCORD, New Hampshire (WGME) -- A Maine man pleaded guilty to lacing ice cream with THC, which made four people sick in New Hampshire two years ago. [It has taken two years for this case to go forward].

The Department of Justice says 45-year-old Marc Flore of Portland pleaded guilty on Monday to tampering with consumer products. He laced a batch of coffee-Oreo flavored ice cream with THC, short for tetrahydrocannabinol, and putting it with other batches of ice cream in a freezer at Roots Café in Newmarket. THC is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis (marijuana) that produces the feeling of being "high." 

According to court documents, Flore said he added THC to the ice cream when he made a batch in September 2022. 

Six months later, four people in Newmarket got sick after eating coffee Oreo ice cream from Angelo’s Amore in March 2023. All four experienced dizziness, elevated heart rate, vomiting, and three had to be briefly hospitalized.

While the ice cream was intended for Flore’s personal use, officials say he stored it in the ice cream café’s freezer with other commercial ice cream, without properly labeling that it contained THC.

Officials say staff then unknowingly served the THC-laced ice cream batch to the four customers who got sick in March 2023.Flore will be sentenced on November 4. He is facing up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Hero of the Week: Sanitation Worker in PA Thwarts Arsonist

Heroes are those who unselfishly care about others. This week's hero is a nameless sanitation worker in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania who reported a man he noticed setting fire to a business. His quick actions allowed for firefighters to arrive quickly enough to save the store.

Harrisburg sanitation worker thwarts arsonist at Family Dollar store

Sep. 10, 2025 , By Jenna Wise | pennlive.com

A sanitation worker was picking up garbage early Monday morning at a Family Dollar in Harrisburg when he saw a man setting fire to the back of the store.

The worker’s quick call to 911 around 3:45 a.m. saved the building on the 900 block of South 13th Street from extensive fire damage and helped police arrest Abdiel Angueira-Vazquez, 30, who was charged with arson.

Harrisburg Bureau of Fire Chief Brian Enterline said if the worker’s call had come even minutes later, the fire would have made it to the roof of the building, “which was a rubber roof and probably would have burned a significant portion of the roof off.”

Enterline said the fire department is still investigating what accelerant or material was used to start the fire. He said the fire destroyed an HVAC unit and burned part of the building’s exterior, as well as a small part of the roof. There was no damage inside the store.

In court documents, Harrisburg police said a 911 caller reported the fire and said the suspect was wearing black and red shirts with black pants.

The store was on fire when Harrisburg police arrived. An affidavit of probable cause said police soon found Angueira-Vazquez at South 16th and Sycamore streets, wearing clothing matching the 911 caller’s description.

Police forced Angueria-Vazquez to the ground on his abdomen and put him in handcuffs. According to the affidavit, he had a “distinct odor” that police believe came from a drug that could have altered his mental state.

The witness identified Angueria-Vaquez as the man he’d seen behind the Family Dollar at the time of the fire, according to the affidavit.

Enterline said replacing the HVAC unit will cost Family Dollar at least $50,000 to $60,000. The store remains closed.

“From a fire standpoint, small fire, but from a business disruption and loss standpoint, significant,” Enterline said.

In addition to arson, Angueria-Vazquez was charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor, and a summary count of public drunkenness. Angueria-Vazquez is homeless, according to court records. He was unable to post $25,000 bail and is being held at Dauphin County Prison. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 23 before Magisterial District Judge Paul Zozos.

Book of the Week: (Witch City Mysteries) Death Scene by Carol J Perry

 I had the pleasure of reading another book in the wonderful "Witch City Mystery" series called "Death Scene" by Carol J. Perry. This is the 14th in the series and it does not disappoint! 

The story is about a film company that comes to "Witch City" and how a murder gets the lead character, Lee Mondello, wife of Salem, Mass. police detective, involved in trying to figure out who did what. I love all the supporting characters, and the "psychic" cat named O'Ryan, and Lee's Aunt Ibby and her group of older women who try to figure out mysteries. This is another 5 of 5 star cozy mysteries. 

ABOUT THE BOOK:  

It takes a lot for Salem locals to get excited about their historic Massachusetts town being known as “the witch city.” But when a major studio arrives to shoot a witchcraft-themed movie, folks go Hollywood. For WICH-TV’S program director and chief documentary-maker, Lee Barrett, however, the project may come complete with a real-life death scene . . .

Between documenting the progress of the movie, corralling starstruck autograph seekers and fans, and managing unmanageable traffic on Salem’s narrow streets, Lee and her police detective husband, Pete Mondello, are beyond busy. Even Lee’s best friend, River North, tarot card reader and practicing witch, gets in on the action, landing a job as a stand-in and body double. But it only takes one interview for Lee to realize that the male and female leads—whose roles include torrid love scenes—despise each other. Yet the problem is short-lived, literally . . .

When the gorgeous lead actress is found dead on a set staged to replicate the room where suspected witches were tried in 1692—and her on-screen lover, in full costume, is discovered sound asleep in her trailer—the hunt is on for a killer on the loose. Nevertheless, the producer decrees “the show must go on!” Now, even with help from River, Lee’s Aunt Ibby, and O’Ryan, a remarkably clairvoyant gentleman cat, sorting out a witch’s brew of secrets, sorcery, and special effects might turn Lee’s documentary into her own final act . . .

DISCOVERY! 70 million-year-old hypercarnivore named after Egyptian god

 This week's Dinosaur news is about a dinosaur named after an Egyptian God. Kostensuchus atrox, was a giant crocodile relative in Argentina 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.

(Kostensuchus atrox was part of an extinct group of reptiles related to living crocodiles and alligators. (Image credit: Gabriel Diaz Yanten, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))

A gigantic crocodile-like hypercarnivore likely hunted dinosaurs 70 million years ago in what is now Argentina, a new study reveals.

LIVE SCIENCE, August 28, 2025 By Patrick Pester

Researchers discovered the fossilized skeleton from the extinct apex predator in southern Patagonia in 2020. It grew up to around 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) long and weighed about 550 pounds (250 kilograms).

The creature is named Kostensuchus atrox after the Patagonian wind called "the Kosten" and the Egyptian crocodile-headed god Sobek, also known as Suchus. K. atrox was hypercarnivorous, meaning more than 70% of its diet was meat. Equipped with a broad snout, big teeth and robust forelimbs, K. atrox's anatomy suggests it was capable of taking down large prey in South America's Cretaceous (145 million to 66 million years ago) ecosystem, according to a new study published Wednesday (Aug. 27) in the journal PLOS One.

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(Image: Egyptian God, Sobek. Credit: hurghadalovers.com)

WHO IS SOBEK? - Sobek was an ancient Egyptian god of crocodiles, strength, fertility, and protection, particularly associated with the Nile River. He was depicted as a crocodile or a man with a crocodile's head, symbolizing his control over the dangerous reptiles of the river, which brought life and prosperity to Egypt.

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The discovery highlights the fact that dinosaurs lived in the company of a wide diversity of organisms, said study lead author Fernando Novas, a paleontologist at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation in Argentina.

"In particular, terrestrial crocodylians were notably diverse and abundant during Cretaceous times in South America and Africa, including small and large, meat-eating and plant-eating forms, revealing that these continents were 'land of crocs,'" Novas told Live Science in an email. "These extinct crocodyles competed and preyed upon dinosaurs, and played an important role in the structure of vanished ecosystems."

K. atrox was part of a group of reptiles called peirosaurid crocodyliforms, which are extinct relatives of living crocodiles. The newly discovered fossils were so well preserved that K. atrox is one of the best peirosaurid crocodyliform examples ever found, and is the most complete large and broad-snouted member on record, according to the study.

SCIENCE: Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees unseen for 80 years

Today's blog is about how the re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone have resulted in growth of Aspen trees, which helps the ecosystem and many other animals. It's all because elk that boomed in the National Park had no predators, and they were the ones eating and killing all the Aspen trees. Here's the story.

(Photo: The researchers found tall aspen saplings in many of the sites studied. Image credit: Photo provided by Luke Painter, OSU College of Agricultural Sciences.) 

Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees unseen for 80 years

Live Science, By Chris Simms July 22, 2025

Gray wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 to help control the numbers of elk that were eating young trees, and it is finally paying off for quaking aspen.

Yellowstone's wolves are helping a new generation of young aspen trees to grow tall and join the forest canopy — the first new generation of such trees in Yellowstone's northern range in 80 years.

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) had disappeared from Yellowstone National Park by 1930 following extensive habitat loss, human hunting and government eradication programs. Without these top predators, populations of elk (Cervus canadensis) grew unfettered. At their peak population, an estimated 18,000 elk ranged across the park, chomping on grasses and shrubs as well as the leaves, twigs and bark of trees like quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). This stopped saplings from establishing themselves, and surveys in the 1990s found no aspen saplings.

"You had older trees, and then nothing underneath," Luke Painter, an ecologist at Oregon State University and lead author of the new study, told Live Science.

But when wolves were reintroduced in 1995, the picture began to change. As wolf numbers rose, the elk population in the park dropped sharply, and it is now down to about 2,000.

In the new study, published Tuesday (July 22) in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, Painter and his colleagues surveyed aspen stands — specific areas of the forest where these trees grow.

The team returned to three areas surveyed in 2012 to examine changes to aspen sapling numbers. Of the 87 aspen stands studied, a third had a large number of tall aspen saplings throughout, indicating the trees are healthy and growing. Another third of the stands had patches of tall saplings.

"We're seeing significant new growth of young aspen and this is the first time that we've found it in our plots," Painter said. These are young aspen with a trunk greater than 2 inches (5 centimetres) in diameter at chest height — which haven't been seen there since the 1940s, he added.

"It doesn't mean that they're not going to get killed or die from something, but it's a pretty good indication that we're getting some new trees," Painter noted. "As they get bigger, they get more resilient."

Such trees are old enough to spread themselves, either by sending up new shoots from their roots a fair distance from the main tree, or via seed production, he said.

However, while Yellowstone's quaking aspen are recovering, they aren't out of the woods just yet. The elk population has declined, but bison numbers have increased in some areas in recent years.

Bison are a lot harder for wolves to take down, said Painter, so increasing numbers of bison may be emerging as a new constraint on aspen in some areas.

Painter said that the variation in aspen recovery shows the effects of reintroducing a big predator to the top of the food chain, rather than to changes in the overall climate, for example.

The re-emergence of aspen has widespread effects, he told Live Science. "Aspen are a key species for biodiversity. The canopy is more open than it is with conifers and you get filtering light that creates a habitat that supports a lot of diversity of plants."

This means a boost to berry-producing shrubs, insects and birds and also species like beavers, because the trees are a preferred food and building material for the semi- aquatic rodents, along with the willows and cottonwoods that grow near to water in the region.

SCIENCE: 'Universal' cancer vaccine heading to human trials could be useful for 'all forms of cancer

 This looks like an incredibly promising step forward in the battle against cancer- and all forms of cancer. If only it was farther along, perhaps it could have helped our Tyler who passed from cancer  on July 29th, 2025. It's also Research like THIS that is critical. Yet, the current Administration is Cutting all kinds of cancer research. In today's blog you'll learn about this hopeful vaccine.

(Image: Immune cells shown attacking cancer cells. A new mRNA-based cancer vaccine could someday be used "off-the-shelf" to treat cancer, scientists hope. (Image credit: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)

Universal' cancer vaccine heading to human trials could be useful for 'all forms of cancer' 

 

By Nicoletta Lanese, LIVE SCIENCE   July 30, 2025

 A new mRNA-based vaccine triggers a response from the innate immune system to help arm the body against cancer, a mouse study finds. It's now in early human trials. 

A universal cancer vaccine in development could help rev up the immune system against tumors and supercharge the effects of existing cancer therapies, an animal study suggests.

Similar to vaccines for viral infections like the flu, many cancer vaccines are designed to help the immune system recognize specific proteins. However, while conventional vaccines aim to prevent disease, cancer vaccines are currently being developed to clear away cancers already growing in the body and to help prevent treated cancers from coming back.

Nonetheless, conventional vaccines and cancer vaccines often work similarly. The flu shot trains the immune system to look for unique proteins found on the surface of influenza viruses, while cancer vaccines typically teach immune cells to spot unique features of cancer cells.

But there's a challenge: These cancer proteins of interest can often be unique to individual patients, meaning each cancer vaccine may need to be specially formulated for each patient. Although it's possible to craft such personalized vaccines, they take time to make — and, in the interim, the patient's cancer mutates, potentially causing the vaccine to be less effective.

"It can be months from the time you get a patient's specimen to when they actually have a personalized therapy," said study senior author Dr. Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist at University of Florida Health. Sayour and colleagues wondered if they could design a cancer vaccine that would not require this personalization and instead ignite a general immune response to keep cancer at bay.

"The idea that something could be available immediately, albeit in a nonspecific way … could be revolutionary for how we bridge therapy and how we manage patients," Sayour told Live Science.

Touring Around with Friends in NH and Maine

 Over the weekend of Sept 5-7, our friends visited from Maryland and we toured them around. Today's blog will give you an idea of fun things to do in New Hampshire and southern Maine that include a famous lighthouse, an outdoor festival, an historic mill area, lunch at an old train station and more! 

VISITING NUBBLE LIGHTHOUSE - One of the "Must-see" places if you visit northern New England is Nubble Light in York, Maine. When we arrived there, there was a line of gusty thunderstorms headed our way, so the winds picked up and the temperature dropped from 80 F to about 62 degrees F!

ABOUT NUBBLE LIGHT - Nubble Lighthouse is famous for its picturesque setting on a small, inaccessible island, making it an iconic and heavily photographed symbol of New England's maritime heritage and coastal beauty. Its classic red-and-white tower, timeless charm, historical significance, and accessibility from a nearby park also contribute to its popularity among tourists, photographers, and lighthouse enthusiasts. It is located in SOHIER PARK, Sohier Park Rd, York, ME 03909

A FUN FESTIVAL - In downtown Dover, New Hampshire we attended the "Mystics, Makers & Magick Market" on Saturday, Sept. 6, in Dover. This was a New Age kind of festival. there were yoga classes outside, jewlery makers, tarot readers, relaxation massage, reiki, candles, soaps, tee shirts, authors and many other things. The event was large and vendors were in tents. 

INTERESTING ART EXHIBIT - Local artists put together a display that took a while to figure out. One part had amazon boxes, with the logo upside down and things bursting out of them, like wires. It was a statement against Amazon for being part of the billionaire problem of rich people trying to run the country.  Another part was a wheel barrel full of orange cheetos, and I could guess who that's referencing.  

   After the festival we walked through downtown old Dover, NH and took in the former Mills and the Cocheco River. 

COCHECO MILLS, DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - The Cocheco Mills comprise a historic mill complex in the heart of Dover, New Hampshire. The mills occupy a bend in the Cochecho River that has been site of cotton textile manufacturing since at least 1823, when the Dover Manufacturing Company supplanted earlier sawmills and gristmills. The present mill buildings were built between the 1880s and the early 20th century, and were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

MILL OPERATIONS - By 1898, the Cocheco Manufacturing Company covered over 30-acres of floor pace, operated 130,000 spindles in 2,800 looms, and employed 2000 workers earning an average wage of 53 cents a day, six days a week. Housed in 15 buildings, the Cocheco Print Works produced over 65,000,000 yards of finished cloth a year.

MILL CLOSES, CHANGES - Competition from textile processors in the American South, unburdened by the North's heating costs, combined with the effects of the Great Depression, led Pacific to shutter the complex in 1937. The city purchased the complex at auction in 1941. The buildings have since been home to a succession of smaller enterprises, primarily engaged in manufacturing.  The buildings also house offices, restaurants, breweries and bars.

BEST BREAKFAST AND LUNCH - Breakfast Station #319 at  Main Street, Somersworth, NH has the best breakfast and lunch in the entire southern NH area. Everything is wonderful. It's housed in an old passenger train station ticket office. Behind the restaurant are the railroad tracks that now only serve freight trains, and run along the Salmon Falls River that acts as a border between Maine and New Hampshire.

Across the river from Somersworth, New Hampshire lies the small town of Berwick, Maine. It's very quaint. So we stopped for a picture in front of town hall. 

Of course, when you walk over the bridge that spans the river, one side says "New Hampshire" and the other "Maine" so there had to be pictures taken there, too!  

Did you know my last Six Books have all hit #1?

 Did you know my last Six Books have all hit #1?

Here's the list- Please give them a read!

* Ghosts of Linville Manor #1 in General Maryland Travel

* Haunting of Emery Estate #1 in Ghosts & Hauntings and #1 in Parapsychology

* Ghosts of the Bird Cage Theatre on a Medium’s Vacation: #1 in General Western US Travel

* Ghosts of Ireland on a Medium’s Vacation: #1 in Haunted & Unexplained Travel and #1 in Irish Travel

* Pets and the Afterlife 3: Messages from Spirit Dogs: #1 in Pet Loss Grief

* Pets and the Afterlife 4: Messages from Spirit Cats: #1 in Pet Loss Grief

GET THEM HERE: https://www.amazon.com/author/robgutro

Available on Amazon in Paperback, Ebook, and Audiobook