The Death Road

`The Death Road,` is located in the Yungas region in Bolivia. It is (alternatively known as Grove's Road, Coroico Road, Camino de las Yungas, Road of fate or Death Road) a 61-or-69-kilometre (38 or 43 mi) road leading from La Paz to Coroico, 56 kilometres (35 mi) northeast of La Paz in the Yungas region of Bolivia. This road is amongst the few that connect northern Bolivia to the Amazon rainforest region. The road consists of a single lane that is no more than 10 feet with no guard rails. There are extreme drop-offs that make the drive very dangerous, especially having no railings to stop you from falling. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, this is the “world’s most dangerous road.” There has been thousands of people that have died driving on this road. The weather contributes to making the drive very dangerous. Fog, dust and rain can reduce visibility. In 2006, construction was done to this road; bridges, drainage, rails, and multiple lanes with pavement have been put in to make it safer for drivers to travel.

Rabbit-sized Camel

The earliest known camel was the rabbit-sized Camel (Protylopus), 45 million years ago. This was a forest-dweller, similar in appearance and lifestyle to modern duikers and chevrotains. It had four-toed feet with hoofed, unguligrade toes that is, they walked on the very tips of their toes. The hindlimbs were longer than the front limbs for quick acceleration and brief bursts of speed through the forest undergrowth. Lower limb bones show the beginnings of elongation and weight reduction for more efficient running, with the radius and ulna of older individuals completely fusing over time.  Protylopus that fed on tender leaves, fruits, and possibly invertebrates. Lived in North America during the Eocene. It was about the size of a RABBIT and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota. By 35 million years ago, the Poebrotherium was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. 

At Present Camels originally evolved from the animal ‘protylopus’. Eventually they found their way into Asia where they now thrive in the millions. Their unique biological functions and structure makes them well adapted to dry desert areas and are often called ‘the ship of the desert’. Camels belong to the family camelidae and are closely related to other animals in this family such as llamas and alpacas. Depending on the species of the animal, camels can have either one hump or two. They are found mainly in the desert regions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. 

The biology of Camels

 The average adult camel is 7 feet tall; the humps add a foot or so to the height. A running camel can reach speeds of up to 65 kmph, which is why the camel racing sport is so popular. For the following reasons, the camel has often been termed 'the ship of the desert'.

The most striking feature of a camel is – you guessed it – its hump. These are located on the animal's back and while popularly believed to store water, the humps are actually made up of fatty tissue. This keeps the fat, and hence heat away from the rest of the body, helping the camel deal with the harsh desert temperature. This tissue (when converted by the oxygen acquired through breathing) helps provide the camel with energy. Camels can survive for very long periods without drinking water. At one go, they can consume up to 150 litres of water! This seemingly unbelievable feat is made possible through the size of the animals' red blood cells, which unlike any other mammal, are oval and not round. These strong cells allow for the storage of such a tremendous amount of water without bursting. When the animals breathe, the water that would be lost into the air is directed back into the body with the help of the camel's nostrils.

Easily Survive

Camels can withstand gruelling temperatures – up to 41 °C in the daytime and 34 °C at night. As a result, the animals rarely sweat, which means less water loss.The eyelashes of the camel are longer than found in other animals and served to protect the eyes from the blowing sand. The nostrils can also close for the same purpose. Camel legs are long so that their bodies are not close to the hot desert sand. Even the hide or skin of the animal protects it from the sand.Since camels live in deserts, their mouths have become adapted to eating cacti and thorny bushes. Camels have a single toe and wider feet than most other animals which makes walking on sand a lot easier for them. Their style of walking also keeps them from sinking into the sand with every step they take.

Camel's milk may treat Aids, cancer

The Arab Science and Technology Foundation that is working on a project to produce recombinant RNA from antibodies found in camel's milk to treat several diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's and hepatitis C, apart from Aids, plans to approach American and European pharmacological organisations.Microbial diseases including leptospirosis, glanders, epizootic ulcertaive syndrome, lymphangitis, mastitis, pasteurellosis, paratuberculosis, tetanus, botulism, gas gangrene clostridia, the plague and the rickettsias also appear to be of very minor importance to the camel in comparison to other domestic animals.The relatively low molecular weight of the camel's heavy chain antibodies and certainly the recombinant VHH derived from these heavy chain antibodies, confer a big advantage here compared to common human antibodies.The camel antibodies have the same antigen affinity as normal antibodies consisting of light and heavy chains, but are much smaller. Moreover, the comparative simplicity, high affinity and specificity and the potential to reach and interact with active sites, camel's heavy chain antibodies present advantages over common antibodies in the design, production and application of clinically valuable compounds.Two years will be needed to prove curative effectiveness of drugs generated from camel milk on human beings said Arab scientists.The experimental phase of any drugs takes between eight and 10 years,To guarantee a 100 per cent curative effectiveness and clearance from side effects.

Chronic Disease Cancer

The body part or cell where abnormal growth begins is called as Cancer. Cancer is a group of more then 100 diseases that begin when abnormal cells in the body grow out of control. Normally, cells grow and divide to create new cells as they are needed to keep the body healthy. Sometimes this does not work properly and cancer forms. Most cancers are named ... For example, cancer in the breast is called breast cancer. 

Cancer is a very common disease now a days. General risk factors for cancer include; older age, a personal family history of cancer, using tobacco, some types of viral infections (such as HPV), specific chemicals and exposure to radiation (including ultra violet radiation). Although risk-factors like using tobacco, being over weight, and getting sunburns can be avoided. Other risk-factors cannot be controlled or avoided such as getting old. A risk-factor is anything that increases a person’s likelihood of developing cancer, although risk-factors often influence the development of cancer. Some people with several risk-factors never develop cancer, while others with no non risk-factors do. Knowing your risk-factors, discussing them with your doctor and having a detailed family history taking by your doctor may help you make more informed lifestyle choices. In general terms, risk is the probabilities that an event will happen. When talking about cancer, risk is most often used to describe the chance that a person will develop cancer. Knowing this information not only helps you make more informed decisions about your health, but it also helps researchers and oncologists improve the health of large numbers of people. For example, discovering that people who smoke have a higher risk of lung cancer then people who don’t smoke jump started a world wide campaign to encourage people to quit smoking or to not begin to smoke. Absolute Risk is the chance that a person will develop a disease during a given period of time. This is helpful for determining how many people are at risk. For example, the statement one out of eight women (12.5%) will develop breast cancer describes the absolute risk for the general population of women. This number only relates to the general population. Women older then 70 have a higher risk of breast cancer then younger women because breast cancer risk increases with age. Risk-factors that a person can control are called modifiable risk-factors. Many other factors in our environment, diet, and lifestyle may cause or prevent cancer. Not smoking or quitting smoking lowers the risk of getting cancer. It is believed that cigarette smoking causes about 30% of all cancer deaths in the United States. People who are physically active have a lower risk of certain cancers than those who are not. The food that you eat on a regular basis makes up your diet. It is hard to study the effects of diet on cancer because a person’s diet includes foods that may protect against cancer and foods that may increase the risk of cancer. Physical activity, diet, and abstance from cigarette smoking are all a good way of prevention from cancer.

Stephen Haw`king`

There are many people who could be nominated for their artistic contributions, advances in technology, medical contributions and scientific advances. But one person Through his disability he proved genius. Stephen Hawking Even with being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), he has provided ground breaking work in cosmology and physics. He has written several different books to allow science more attainable to the average person.

Stephen Hawking was the oldest of four children, born to Frank and Isobel Hawking on the 8th of January, 1942 in Oxford England. He was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo. This has been a large source of pride for Hawking. He was born into a smart family his mother was one of the first female students at Oxford University. His father was also a graduate of Oxford, being a well known researcher of medicine, his specialty in tropical diseases.  Stephen was seen as a bright child but was not an exceptional student. He was more interested in things outside of school. He enjoyed board games and even constructed a computer out of recycled parts to solve rudimentary mathematical equations. At the age of 17 he enrolled into Oxford University. Stephen finally told his father he did not want to study medicine and instead expressed his desire to study mathematics. Oxford did not off a degree in mathematics so Stephen decided to study physics and more intently cosmology. Stephen did not put that much time into his school work, but this didn’t matter for he graduated with honors. Once he graduated he changed schools and started to study at Cambridge University to get a PhD in cosmology. In 1963 Stephen went to see a doctor to perform some tests after his dad was noticing symptoms. Finally after awhile he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The doctors told him that he had about two-and-half years to live. This really was devastating for him and his family to hear, but this made him focus more. He married Jane Wilde in 1965, and put more focus into his work and research.

Awards-Honour

Stephen Hawking is known widely for the way he helped the world understand black holes and the universe. With all his research, in 1974 he was turned into a celebrity inside the scientific world when he revealed that black holes are not an information vacuum that they were once thought to be. Instead Hawking showed how that matter, in the form of radiation may escape the force of gravity from a collapsed star. With this explanation, Hawking Radiation was created. This announcement sent major excitement through the world of science and put Stephen on the path where he has received notoriety, honors, and distinguished titles. The following year after making this announcement he was given the Albert Einstein Award, and was honored with the Pius XI Gold Medal for Science, given to him by Pope Paul VI. After this he began to do some teaching as well. He was a visiting professor for a year at Caltech in Pasadena CA. From there he moved on to teach at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge England. 

Severe Illness

While Hawking first began to notice problems with his physical health while he was at Oxford—on occasion he would trip and fall, or slur his speech—he didn't look into the problem until 1963, during his first year at Cambridge. Eventually, however, doctors did inform the Hawkings about what was ailing their son: He was in the early stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). In a very simple sense, the nerves that controled his muscles were shutting down. While physical control over his body diminished (he'd be forced to use a wheelchair by 1969), the effects of his disease started to slow down. In mid the mid 1970s, his physical state was becoming more and more severe. He could do little things like eat, or get out of bed, but almost everything else required help from others. In 1985 Hawking lost his voice after a tracheotomy operation. This greatly hampered Hawking to do his work. So a computer programmer who created a speaking program that could be directed by head or eye movement sent his invention to Hawking to help him out. When he first was using the device, Hawking would select words with a hand-held clicker. But now with very little control of his body, the program works off of a cheek muscle that is attached to a sensor. Even with this Hawking has been able to continue his writing at a good rate with the help of his assistants. Since 1988 Hawking has written numerous books. On book, “A Brief History of Time” spent more than four years on top of the London Sunday Times’ bestseller list.

Steven Hawking has been trying to one day make it into outer space. In 2007 he became the first paraplegic to experience weightlessness at the age of 65. Hawking is at some point scheduled to fly to the edge of space as one of Sir Richard Branson’s pioneer tourists. He believes that the human race will not continue if we do not go into space. Hawking has spoken out against God, saying that the Big Bang was inevitable due to the laws of physics. In his most recent work Hawking has set out to challenge Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe had to of been designed by God.

Personal Life

The most significant change in his life was the fact that he was in love. At a New Year's party in 1963, shortly before he had been diagnosed with ALS, Hawking met a young languages undergraduate named Jane Wilde. They were married in 1965.

In a sense, Hawking's disease helped him become the noted scientist he is today. Before the diagnosis, Hawking hadn't always focused on his studies. "I was bored with life before my illness," he said. "There had not seemed to be anything worth doing." With the sudden realization that he might not even live long enough to earn his Ph.D., Hawking poured himself into his work and research.

Research on Black Holes

Groundbreaking findings from another young cosmologist, Roger Penrose, about the fate of stars and the creation of black holes tapped into Hawking's own fascination with how the universe began. This set him on a career course that reshaped the way the world thinks about black holes and the universe.

While physical control over his body diminished (he'd be forced to use a wheelchair by 1969), the effects of his disease started to slow down. In 1968, a year after the birth of his son Robert, Hawking became a member of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge.

The next few years were a fruitful time for Hawking. A daughter, Lucy, was born to Stephen and Jane in 1969, while Hawking continued with his research (a third child, Timothy, arrived 10 years later). He then published his first book, the highly technical The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time (1975). He also teamed up with Penrose to expand upon his friend's earlier work.

“My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”
—Stephen Hawking