Okay, wedding’s over. Can we get back to reality now?

I’m a pragmatist, but not a hopeless pragmatist. Three times, I have visited London, and of course I did the Buckingham Palace, watched the changing of the guard, and day-dreamed about the kings and queens of yore. I have read and watched movies with my grandchildren about the adventures of princes and princesses that led to their falling in love and getting married. Although I didn’t rise at 4:00 a.m. this morning to watch William and Kate tie the knot, I felt a wisp of the fairytale atmosphere that enshrouded the entire globe when I did awake. I just find it hard to get really into the pomp and fanfare when, relative to things that really matter, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are rather insignificant.

I recently highlighted the remarkable progress being made in nanotechnology, particularly as it relates to cancer treatment. Future treatment therapies will likely involve super-heating microscopic material infused into the tumor to kill the cancer cells without harming surrounding normal cells. Scientists are also hopeful about treating cancer at the other end of the temperature spectrum. A new technique being pioneered at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) involves engulfing tumors with tiny ice balls until they wither and die. The process sends argon gas through long thin hollow needles into tumors plunging the cancer cells to temperatures of -100 Centigrade (-148 Fahrenheit), then thawing the cells with helium gas. “The tumor cells are killed by the combination of freezing and thawing. The freeze, thaw, freeze cycle results in complete tumor cell disruption,” said Dr. Peter Munk, an interventional musculoskeletal radiologist at VGH.