00:03A delightful Monday evening to all of you, this is Floyd Brantz and I am happy to bring you PTV
00:08News Now.
00:09We kick off with tonight's top stories.
00:11Rear Admiral Jay Tariela flagged what he called another misleading attempt by China regarding Scarborough Shoal, also known as Bajo
00:19de Masinloc.
00:20The official who served as Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for West Philippine Sea Concerns was responding to a 1990 letter
00:29released by the Chinese Embassy, wherein then-Philippine Ambassador Bienvenido Tan made a statement regarding the boundaries set by the
00:371898 Treaty of Paris.
00:39Tariela noted that the said letter is not proof of any Philippine concession over Scarborough Shoal, adding that Tan actually
00:48affirmed the country's 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
00:53Dogs have a sense of smell, tens of thousands of times more powerful than humans.
00:58Of late, even the animal kingdom's most hard-working insect is proving to detect or sniff out cancer better than
01:05machines.
01:05Just among the findings, researchers at Michigan State University have found out, as VOA's Dora Mekowar reports.
01:14Earlier this year, researchers at Michigan State University discovered that honeybees could detect lung cancer due to their keen sense
01:23of smell.
01:23Our world is visual. Insects' world is all based on smell. So their sense of smell is very, very good.
01:32Saha's team found the bees could sniff out lung cancer on a patient's breath.
01:37So our research does show that honeybees can detect lung cancer and possibly other diseases based on the smell of
01:47those cells.
01:48The bees were harnessed and then exposed to synthetic compounds that mimicked the breath of a lung cancer patient.
01:54Ninety-three percent of the time, the bees could tell the difference between the cancer breath and the artificial breath
02:00of a healthy person.
02:02The bees could also distinguish between the different types of lung cancer.
02:06We do think breath-based diagnostics of cancer can be a game-changer.
02:12The reason is many times we detect the cancer late when the tumor has already grown pretty big that you
02:19can identify in your imaging system.
02:23Elsewhere, researchers are working with dogs for early cancer detection. The animals are trained to recognize specific cancer odors.
02:31A lot of other animals also have quite intense and capable senses of smell, but part of what makes dogs
02:39so good is that they cooperate with humans, and so they communicate that information.
02:44They need to love it to be engaged, and so it's a really fun game for them. It's like using
02:50their brain, using their nose. It's pretty hard.
02:52Dogs might see it as a game, but researchers are finding they detect cancer better than machines do.
02:58So why are we finding that these dogs are outperforming the computers? Well, part of their success is because of
03:04this superior sensitivity to detect odor molecules as compared to anything we currently have on the market.
03:10As dogs help with the work of isolating the characteristics of cancer odors, the hope is e-noses can eventually
03:17be created that will replicate these canines' cancer-sniffing abilities.
03:22Dora McQuarr, VOA News, Washington.
03:29So that's our wrap for tonight's show. Join us a new tomorrow night for another round of stories here and
03:35abroad, breaking at the hour.
03:37And remember to always stay connected by catching the news right here.
03:40I am Floyd Brantz, wishing you all a restful night ahead, and thank you for watching PTV News Now.
Comments