Week of April 10, 2023
My kids help me stay connected to evolving cultural trends. In the last few weeks, they have (in that way that teenagers "teach") ensured I understood the contemporary uses of (amongst other words) "flex," "rizz," and "ratioed." Unlike my parents (who did not have the internet), I can avoid some awkwardness by teaching myself - for instance rizz is a verb when used as "rizz up." But using Gen Z slang feels weird. No matter how much I know, I cannot comfortably congratulate my patients flexing when they proudly report their newfound adherence to medication or losing weight.
Aside from the Urban Dictionary, Websters has a blog that lets me mask my cultural aging (a bit). It is the intellectual equivalent of dying your hair, I suppose.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-were-watching/see-all
Also, I recently learned you can A.I.-generate slang. I suggest using ChatGPT to make up words for you. Click below and learn the word "lamestream" to describe "making up slang words to hide the fact that you are old and out of touch."
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The N.Y. Times updated COVID Tracker reflects the reality of inconsistent infection data. The Times will publish CDC-gathered hospital data as a surrogate (lagging) indicator.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/covid-cases.html
About the change
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/us/covid-data-cdc.html
Wastewater monitoring is a better LEADING indicator.
Rates of hospitalization and viral concentrations in wastewater are stable.
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Most of the articles this week focused on long-term COVID physiology.
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani discussed a Taiwanese paired retrospective cohort study that included 28,000,000 individuals in a national registry. The data demonstrated an association between COVID infections and an increased risk of being diagnosed with a myriad of autoimmune diseases 6 to 12 months after having COVID.
Article
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9830133/
Commentary
https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1644837933638369282
A group of German scientists reported on imaging techniques that found viral spike protein in the central nervous system of lab mice and deceased humans with previous COVID infections. Dr. Ertuk's paper is pre-release (non-peer-reviewed) but points toward persistent viral protein may be a driver of inflammation and long-COVID symptoms. He also has a very well-done video summary of his findings.
https://twitter.com/erturklab/status/1643902019088908289
My take - I wonder if the presence of sustained viral proteins is true for other viruses. However, only because of COVID's prevalence is there collective energy to aggressively study the impact and mechanism of post-viral illnesses.
Medical Trends and Technology
I find articles on novel, non-invasive monitoring tools almost every week.
I found this proof-of-concept article demonstrating the efficacy of a non-invasive in-ear glucose monitor - like a hearing aid that measures blood sugar using the light from a pulse oximeter plus a machine learning algorithm. The article highlights how software + hardware can are correlated with "gold standard" methods (in this case, finger-stick blood glucometers) to demonstrate the potential of new technology.
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/6/3319
Similarly, Eric Topol reviewed a Swiss non-invasive continuous blood pressure monitoring bracelet employing light and signal analysis to collect data. He offers a thoughtful analysis of the studies and discusses the limits of using this device (which is commercially available).
https://erictopol.substack.com/p/a-continuous-blood-pressure-monitoring
Infographics
Compound Interest offered a combo pack of Easter-related chemistry infographics on eggs, egg dying, and chocolate:
https://compoundchem.substack.com/p/periodycal-10-easter-chemistry-special
Things I learned this week
A brinicle is a hollow ice-stalactite that forms downward in seawater from surface ice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brinicle
Under certain environmental conditions, a brinicle will extend down to the ocean floor, freeze creatures, and cover any other materials in ice. Dramatic video and snarky comments here:
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1643086237782224897
Living with A.I.
I found a great blog covering a variety of A.I. topics. Please note a company selling A.I. services hosts this blog. However, they offer links to academic papers and multi-part deep dives on the opportunities and capabilities of A.I./LLMs/ML and related technology.
I recommend the "What's the Big Deal with Generative A.I.?" post.
https://txt.cohere.ai/generative-ai-future-or-present/
A.I. art of the week
"Digital art of a doctor wearing steampunk goggles, headphones, and holding a retro microphone while making words out of scrabble letters."
https://labs.openai.com/s/elkKEoX4eGug3Ijf4nlwZIWc
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
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