Abraham Lincoln - the Saviour
Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of America’s greatest heroes due to both his incredible impact on the nation and his unique appeal. At six feet four inches tall, Lincoln was rawboned and lanky, but muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his skill in wielding the ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing. Young Lincoln eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois, where over a period of years, he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was here that Lincoln acquired social skills and honed story-telling talent that made him popular with the locals. After the Black Hawk War, he began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature in 1834 as a member of the Whig Party. Lincoln, a self-taught Illinois lawyer and legislator with a reputation as an eloquent opponent of slavery, shocked many when he overcame several prominent contenders to win the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 1860. His election that November pushed several Southern states to secede by the time of his inauguration in March 1861 and the Civil War began barely a month later. Lincoln proved to be a shrewd military strategist and a savvy leader during what became the costliest conflict ever to be fought on American soil. His Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, freed all slaves in the rebellious states and paved the way for slavery’s eventual abolition, while his Gettysburg Address later that year stands as one of the most famous and influential pieces of oratory in American history. In April 1865, with the Union on the brink of victory, he was shot and killed by the Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
A revolutionary cancer-detecting blood test is on its way
Catching cancer early is an incredible challenge, but a new way to detect it in the blood would have the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment in just a few years.
Illumina, the $25 billion maker of gene sequencing technology, has created a new company ‘Grail’ that’s trying to invent a blood test to identify all cancers in their early stages, something that would be a tremendous help in diagnosing the illness before it is too difficult to treat effectively. Grail claims that the tests will cost $1,000 or less and will be available by 2019.
Its new test uses a technique called ‘liquid biopsy’. It scans patients’ blood streams for signs of cancer DNA, which can indicate that a tumour is forming – even if a doctor can’t see it on a scan and the patient hasn’t experienced any symptoms.
Many cancers don’t show up on CT scans or blood tests until they’re more developed and spreading. Some patients don’t feel any pain or are unaware that they have cancer until it’s too late. Grail hopes that earlier diagnoses will help doctors remove tumours before they spread, and potentially save patients the trauma of chemotherapy.
Compiled by Usama Rasheed
