Oscar Pistorius.

Just about everyone has had their say about this horrendous death of Reeva Steenkamp. Many of his previous fans have turned against him. Comments in the on-line papers have shown this. I have swung one way and another as police have leaked information. I have known little of Pistorius except of his athletic success and what I know is what I have learned in the last week.

He was born without functioning lower legs yet he has been able to achieve so much. Much more than able bodied athletes, even it appears that he played rugby and scored a try after his legs had come off in a tackle. He had become a role model for so many others with disabilities and even for those without.

My argument now is how could such a man suddenly murder a girl who was so beautiful and by all accounts a wonderful person. This beggars belief. Someone that had gone through so much and overcome his disability so courageously.

His defence is that he thought she was in intruder. At first thought this seemed implausible. In a compound with such tight security he should be safe.

South Africa is so crime ridden that it seems everyone is living on the edge and has become paranoid about it. I left South Africa in 1997 and living on a farm felt I was a sitting duck. I had alarms, several guns including a semi automatic army rifle.

One night way back in the 1970’s we had friends from Rhodesia staying with us. Our friend Alistair decided to visit the toilet in the middle of the night. On the way back he had to pass our room but mistook it for his. I was awoken by the noise and only saw this dark silhouette in front of me. I shouted to my wife to give me the gun, but fortunately in time she realised what was going on.

Pistorius awoke on hearing the noise reacted instinctively. Reeva didn’t normally stay with him but that night he woke from a deep sleep and maybe did not at that very moment recall that she was in his house. He was more paranoid than most as he was completely helpless without his legs. Of the actual shooting there seems to be some agreement.Its just not possible for it to be premeditated murder.

Schoolboy invention could revolutionise cancer detection

Schoolboy invention could revolutionise cancer detection
Will this ever see the light of day.

Andraka cultured MIA PaCa cells, from a commercial pancreatic carcinoma cell line, which overexpress mesothelin, a biomarker for pancreatic cancer. The mesothelin was isolated, concentrated and quantified with ELISA.[5] After optimization with the Western Blot assay, the human mesothelin-specific antibodies were mixed with single walled carbon nanotubes and used to coat strips of ordinary filter paper. This made the paper conductive. The optimal layering was determined using a scanning electron microscope. Cell media spiked with varying amounts of mesothelin was then tested against to the paper biosensor and any change in the electrical potential of the sensor strip (due to the changing conductivity of the nanotubes) was measured, before and after each application. Specifically, what happened was this: “ The antibodies would bind to the mesothelin and enlarge. These beefed-up molecules would spread the nanotubes farther apart, changing the electrical properties of the network: The more mesothelin present, the more antibodies would bind and grow big, and the weaker the electrical signal would become.[7] ” A dose-response curve was constructed with an R2 value of 99.92%. Tests on human blood serum obtained from both healthy people and patients with chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (a precursor to pancreatic carcinoma), or pancreatic cancer showed a similar response. The sensor’s limit of detection sensitivity was found to be 0.156 ng/mL; 10 ng/mL is considered the level of overexpression of mesothelin consistent with pancreatic cancer. Andraka's sensor costs $3.00 and 10 tests can be performed per strip, taking 5 minutes each. The method is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive than ELISA, and 25% to 50% more accurate than the CA10-9 test.[5] Officials at Intel have said that Andraka's method is more than 90 percent accurate in detecting the presence of mesothelin.[1]