I thought this was cool.
Physicists have been suggesting for over a decade that gravity — and even space-time itself — may emerge from a strange quantum connection called entanglement.
By engineering highly entangled quantum systems in a tabletop experiment, Schleier-Smith hopes to produce something that looks and acts like the warped space-time predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
One Lab’s Quest to Build Space-Time Out of Quantum Particles
By Adam Becker
In physiology, you learn that cells work with electricity. Action potentials were studied in every physiology class. A while ago, I read that scientists connected a neuron to a computer chip. Today, I wondered: what is the state of that research now? Well, a quick visit to Pub Med (I swear I use Google just a little bit more than I use Pub Med) showed that things were going along.
Lab-On-A-Chip for the Development of Pro-/Anti-Angiogenic Nanomedicines to Treat Brain Diseases
By the way, there are tons of articles about the blood-brain-barrier on a chip (lab-on-a-chip) to study how we can treat diseases of the brain more effectively (because it’s hard to get drugs to go through the BBB as it is neuroprotective). I remember that the first question on the first homework I ever did for neuroscience class was about the BBB. So, very important stuff. For me personally, and if I’m still alive, this research can help find more efficient ways for less medication to work in my brain.
Then there is brain computer interface, which is also highly fascinating but now I’ve run out of time to write and will have to look at the topic later.
Microscopic polyangiitis – This disease, now known as microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), is a primary systemic vasculitis characterized by inflammation of the small-caliber blood vessels and the presence of circulating antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). Typically, microscopic polyangiitis presents with glomerulonephritis and pulmonary capillaritis, although involvement of the skin, nerves, and gastrointestinal tract is not uncommon.
Thygeson’s Superficial Punctate Keratopathy – Thygeson’s superficial punctate keratitis (TSPK) is reportedly a rare disease with an insidious onset, numerous remissions and exacerbations, and a long duration. The corneal lesions are elevated, whitish–grey in colour, and granular in the intraepithelium.
Acute Eosinophilic Pneumonia – this wasn’t for work. Actually, I was diagnosed with this once a long time ago. I have no idea if this is related, but I found out recently (within the past 10 years) that I have eosinophilic asthma.
Note: these are only a handful of studies compared to the multitudes of results I found on each topic. Please read widely to form a balanced perspective.
Effect of whey protein on blood pressure in pre‐ and mildly hypertensive adults: A randomized controlled study.
Moderate red wine consumption and cardiovascular disease risk: beyond the “French paradox”.
Effects of Whey and Pea Protein Supplementation on Post-Eccentric Exercise Muscle Damage: A Randomized Trial.
Effects of Whey Protein Supplementation Pre- or Post-Resistance Training on Muscle Mass, Muscular Strength, and Functional Capacity in Pre-Conditioned Older Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Protein Intake and Exercise-Induced Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy: An Update.
The history, science, and art of wine and the case for health benefits: perspectives of an oenophilic cardiovascular pathologist. (There is a lot about wine itself in parts 1 – 10, and the parts about wine’s effects on health starts at part 11).
The James Webb Space Telescope came out with images lately. One image of, mind-blowingly, the past – 13 billion years ago.
Light from these galaxies took billions of years to reach us. We are looking back in time to within a billion years after the big bang when viewing the youngest galaxies in this field. The light was stretched by the expansion of the universe to infrared wavelengths that Webb was designed to observe. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions.
–NASA
I got into a conversation about time, then about the start of the universe, and the Big Bang. Some people have a more conspiracy oriented view on the Big Bang and how life began, but neither could imagine what was around before the Big Bang. So I looked it up. It was an interesting trip.
The fading of that last star will only be the beginning of an infinitely long, dark epoch. All matter will eventually be consumed by monstrous black holes, which in their turn will evaporate away into the dimmest glimmers of light. Space will expand ever outwards until even that dim light becomes too spread out to interact. Activity will cease.
Or will it? Strangely enough, some cosmologists believe a previous, cold dark empty universe like the one which lies in our far future could have been the source of our very own Big Bang.
-BBC
Currently, our experiments can simulate conditions that happened when the universe was roughly one trillionth of a second old. That seems like a ridiculously small number for us, but for a photon — a particle of light — it’s a long time, allowing it to travel the diameter of a proton a trillion times. When talking about the early universe, we must let go of our human standards and intuitions of time.
What happened before the Big Bang?
Even if we’re not going to be alive, why does the death of the universe and how it dies disturb people?
The expression of the pluripotency factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and MYC (OSKM) can convert somatic differentiated cells into pluripotent stem cells in a process known as reprogramming. Notably, partial and reversible reprogramming does not change cell identity but can reverse markers of aging in cells, improve the capacity of aged mice to repair tissue injuries, and extend longevity in progeroid mice. However, little is known about the mechanisms involved. Here, we have studied changes in the DNA methylome, transcriptome, and metabolome in naturally aged mice subject to a single period of transient OSKM expression. We found that this is sufficient to reverse DNA methylation changes that occur upon aging in the pancreas, liver, spleen, and blood. Similarly, we observed reversion of transcriptional changes, especially regarding biological processes known to change during aging. Finally, some serum metabolites and biomarkers altered with aging were also restored to young levels upon transient reprogramming. These observations indicate that a single period of OSKM expression can drive epigenetic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic changes toward a younger configuration in multiple tissues and in the serum.
Multi‐omic rejuvenation of naturally aged tissues by a single cycle of transient reprogramming
An international team of scientists have identified antibodies that neutralize omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants. These antibodies target areas of the virus spike protein that remain essentially unchanged as the viruses mutate. By identifying the targets of these “broadly neutralizing” antibodies on the spike protein, it might be possible to design vaccines and antibody treatments…
Scientists identify antibodies that can neutralize omicron
Sorry for the long gaps in posting here. I’ve had a birthday, then Thanksgiving, and was preparing for the holidays (2 days left!). Also, work seems to be ramping up a little bit due to everyone doing things at the very last minute.
Here are a few things I looked up this week:
The pharmacokinetics and the pharmacodynamics of cannabinoids. (for work. seriously!)
The College Board: 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers. This list is a bit outdated in parts, and it does not include a lot of current (21st century) literature. This list is also not very diverse in terms of culture.
The 21st Century’s Greatest Books (according to the BBC). I’m so glad White Teeth made it on there; I read it when it first came out and thought it was awesome, but it seemed like no one else read it or heard of it. I read Wolf Hall when it first came out, loved it, and everyone liked it as well. Strange how these things are.
How to Make the Best Sugar Cookies. It calls for a lot of cream of tartar, and I recommend to put that whole amount started in the recipe in. I didn’t because we barely had enough of it, and upon baking, my cookies spread out too much. I probably didn’t put all that flour in as well because flour is messy and I got some of it on the counter and on myself.
How to Make Peanut Sauce (as with recipe blogs, the recipe is at the bottom of the post). I don’t like ginger so I didn’t put that in. I also didn’t have limes, so I substituted for lemon juice. Sometimes people add some sort of spice in this. I don’t like spicy, so I didn’t put any chili flakes or sriracha sauce in. (I think I might be part supertaster because I can taste every ingredient in this after I made it). The result was pretty good still. Maybe it’s one of those recipes that you only put in things that you like after the soy sauce and honey.
NYT’s Royal Icing recipe. I had to add some water to this recipe because the amount of wet materials in the recipe wasn’t enough to make the whole thing manageable.
Sometimes I work on a case with a rare disease. In one year, I probably come across 5-8 rare diseases, which of course I have to look up because, well, what the hell is this?
One kind of disease that scare me are mitochondrial diseases. These are a group of conditions that are caused by genetic mutations in the mitochondrial DNA that make the mitochondria work abnormally. And if you remember anything about high school biology, mitochondrial are the “powerhouses” of the cell — they produce energy for us to use. So one can imagine that if you have something wrong with your power source, you can’t carry out normal functioning. Also, mitochondrial DNA are only carried in the egg cells, so only mothers can pass this down to their children. Sperm cells don’t carry and therefore don’t contribute mitochondria to the next generation.
It’s crazy how such a small thing can generally f*&k up a life. The US Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health website lists common signs and symptoms such as: poor growth, loss of muscle coordination, muscle weakness, seizures, autism, problems with vision and/or hearing, developmental delay, heart/liver/kidney disease, gastrointestinal disorders, dementia, to name some. You can see what mitochondrial diseases affect in this list of free text research articles at PubMed (I don’t have any institutional access, so I look for free text articles). Then I thought about prenatal testing, and found an article that discusses this, a more recent 2021 article of a study in Japan, and recent (as of 2017) advances in mitochondrial diseases. This article from 2020 is about rare genetic diseases in general, and diagnosing them. If there’s anything I’ve learned from skimming through these articles, it’s that there’s still so much we don’t know. Yet.
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.
Wernher von Braun
For the past year and a half, if anyone wanted, they could look to see how science is being done just by looking up research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. If pandemics were a reality show… Now season 3 is upon us, cursing us with another variant. Like the beginning of finding out about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and finding out about the Delta variant, science is trying to figure this one out. I know that it’s frustrating that no one knows the answer right away, but one thing people miss about science is that it isn’t about knowing everything, but it’s about finding things out. And in order to find things out, we need time. However, in a pandemic, time is an enemy. What some people get wrong is that this is confused with “science is the enemy” or “those other people are the enemy” or “this country is the enemy”. Let’s skip the philosophical part and say that basically, we’re afraid of the unknown, especially if the unknown can maim/kill us.
Although science is more about questions than answers, it can and does generate light that we can shine on the unknown. For example, every Mars rover. Because of my science background (where I spent an extremely long time trying to figure out which science field I wanted to be in, while taking every science class there was), I can go through research articles and figure out what’s what. Here’s a controversial idea: every person should take a class on how to look up scholarly articles on any topic in high school. (While we’re here, let’s open up a school and call it “School of Hard Knocks”, in which every class is directly applicable to real life, such as How to Do Your Taxes, or 50 Cheap, Simple, and Healthy Meals). Anyway, for an average person without a science background (which I also once was, in the early 2000s), what sources are there for just plain facts and neutral ground?
So far, here is the general answer:
I’m happy to see that BBC is in the center, because a long time ago, someone told me that if I wanted to find something neutral, a good point of view to consider would be from people outside of the country. I mean, how good are we at being objective about the aquariums we’re swimming in? And I’m also happy to see Reuters next to BBC. What was interesting was that I had thought The Economist was more right leaning than it was. Finally, it’s nice to know others I haven’t thought of, like Associated Press, to add to my bookmarks.
So what about Omicron? Do we need a booster shot for that? How bad is it, compared to what’s happened already? The answer is, We don’t know… yet.
Now, once again, the world is watching as researchers work nights and weekends to learn what a new variant has in store for humanity. Is Omicron more infectious? More deadly? Is it better at reinfecting recovered people? How well does it evade vaccine-induced immunity? And where did it come from? Finding out will take time, warns Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust: “I’m afraid patience is crucial.”
‘Patience is crucial’: Why we won’t know for weeks how dangerous Omicron is
Talking about sources wasn’t random. I liked this article for its readability, its short length, its international tidbits, and that it shares knowledge (PCR, GISAID database, structural biology mapping) without sensationalizing or politicizing anything. In this day and age, it’s like gold.
I’ve been thinking about the issue of “Individual Freedom” and “Public Health” lately, in light of dozens of news articles, Facebook rants, face-palm anti-vaxxer deaths, vaccine mandates, and me being a nurse who believes in individual freedom but have a huge science background. Are there any law-based article discussing the intersection of individual freedom and public health?
Well, Google scrounged up this article called “Individual Freedom or Public Health? A False Choice in the Covid Era.” It makes a good point: every argument, decision, rant, etc. has been falsedly based on one (individual freedom) or the other (public health). Our communities, politicians, and talking heads have set up this dichotomy and most of us have fallen head first into it and taken sides. They have set up this dichotomy in that we lose whether we choose one or the other. Instead, they could have set it up so that it’s a win-win situation.
For the real sacrifice involved in social distancing and stay-at-home orders is not individual freedom. It is the reality that these measures can cause more hardship for some people than others. For some, that hardship may be lost income; for others it may be the inability to visit their parents in a long-term care facility; for still others, it may be domestic violence…
…we should be providing people with the economic and social supports they need to maintain physical distancing. The problem is that these supports are the very things that many politicians are loathe to provide…
It is not authoritarian to demand that people maintain physical distance to save lives. It is authoritarian to demand it without giving diverse people the means to do it.
-Jonathan Cohen, “Individual Freedom or Public Health? A False Choice in the Covid Era“
“The most characteristic symptom of patients with COVID-19 is respiratory distress, and most of the patients admitted to the intensive care could not breathe spontaneously. Additionally, some patients with COVID-19 also showed neurologic signs, such as headache, nausea, and vomiting. Increasing evidence shows that coronaviruses are not always confined to the respiratory tract and that they may also invade the central nervous system inducing neurological diseases. The infection of SARS-CoV has been reported in the brains from both patients and experimental animals, where the brainstem was heavily infected. Furthermore, some coronaviruses have been demonstrated able to spread via a synapse-connected route to the medullary cardiorespiratory center from the mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors in the lung and lower respiratory airways.”
— Li YC, Bai WZ, Hashikawa T. The neuroinvasive potential of SARS-CoV2 may play a role in the respiratory failure of COVID-19 patients. J Med Virol. 2020;92(6):552-555. doi:10.1002/jmv.25728.
“A 93-year-old woman was admitted with a 10-day history of cough and prostration. Thoracic computed tomography revealed extensive ground-glass opacities in both the lungs. The polymerase chain reaction test of sputum for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was positive. She was treated with antiviral agents and steroid pulse therapy. However, her oxygen saturation gradually declined, and she died 10 days after hospitalization. The most important autopsy finding was fuzzily segmented diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) that expanded from the subpleural to the medial area. No remarkable changes were observed in organs other than the lungs. Therefore, pneumocytes were suggested as the primary target for SARS-CoV-2, which might explain why coronavirus infectious disease-19 is a serious condition. Thus, early treatment is essential to prevent viral replication from reaching a level that triggers DAD.”
— Okudela K, Hayashi H, Yoshimura Y, et al. A Japanese case of COVID-19: An autopsy report [published online ahead of print, 2020 Aug 13]. Pathol Int. 2020;10.1111/pin.13002. doi:10.1111/pin.13002.
“A relatively high mortality of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is worrying, and the application of heparin in COVID-19 has been recommended by some expert consensus because of the risk of disseminated intravascular coagulation and venous thromboembolism. However, its efficacy remains to be validated.
“Anticoagulant therapy mainly with low molecular weight heparin appears to be associated with better prognosis in severe COVID-19 patients meeting SIC criteria or with markedly elevated D-dimer.”
— Tang N, Bai H, Chen X, Gong J, Li D, Sun Z. Anticoagulant treatment is associated with decreased mortality in severe coronavirus disease 2019 patients with coagulopathy. J Thromb Haemost. 2020;18(5):1094-1099. doi:10.1111/jth.14817.
Awkward Turtle 