Week of June 12, 2023
Between class parties, a family party, the actual ceremony, and a post-ceremony dinner, our older son's high school graduation last week was a 3-day event. The emotions are complex - celebrating academic achievement, marking a turning point in young adulthood, and anticipating future success. I am grateful for our broad network of friends and family commemorating these milestones with us. But I have unanswered questions. For instance, do holiday decoration timing rules apply to our twelve 1st-day-of-school-picture yard signs? And, what are the ramifications of mailing these signs to my son (one at a time, month after month) when he goes to college?
The (clearly peer-reviewed) websites of MarthaStewart.com and MobileHomeRepairTips.com offers guidance on appropriate timeframes for removing various holiday decorations. There is, evidently, no recognized standard for graduation yard signs.
https://www.marthastewart.com/8178133/when-take-down-christmas-tree
and
https://mobilehomerepairtips.com/independence-day-decor/
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The N.Y. Times COVID Tracker stopped updating on 5/15/23, pending updates from the CDC.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/covid-cases.html
Wastewater monitoring (with a 2-week lag) is still trending down.
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COVID articles
Without good epidemiologic data (like the CDC data feeding the COVID tracker), we will only detect a new COVID surge based on hospitalizations. Wastewater is helpful but not geographically granular (the testing is limited to large municipalities). Nevertheless, wastewater testing offers early detection of new COVID strains and mutations. Rice University computer scientists demonstrated the utility of a novel bioinformatics algorithm (using Houston wastewater data) for earlier and more precise variant detection.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38184-3
Here is the Twitter synopsis of the above article:
https://twitter.com/SapovalNicolae/status/1659595206503612416
Infectious disease specialist Dr. David Boulware (from the University of Minnesota) published updated data on metformin's antiviral properties (a common, very safe, cheap diabetes drug). The researchers conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled trial that enrolled 1300 outpatients diagnosed with COVID-19 over two years (2020-2022). The data indicated metformin resulted in a 42% reduction in E.R. visits/hospitalizations/death through 14 days, a 58% reduction in hospitalizations/death through 28 days, and a 42% reduction in Long COVID through 10 months. The article has not yet been peer-reviewed.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.06.23290989v1.full.pdf+html
Twitter commentary:
https://twitter.com/boulware_dr/status/1666515556386893825
Medical Trends and Technology
Wired offered a well-written consumer-level article on the latest regarding brain-computer interfaces. They highlight some recent early testing on three patients using Precision Neuroscience's devices at the University of West Virginia. The article highlights the technical challenges and promise of implanting data interfaces into human brains.
https://www.wired.com/story/precision-neuroscience-brain-implant
In August 2022, I highlighted some concerning data about various artificial sweeteners' impact on the microbiome. (see
https://twitter.com/SuezLab/status/1560644383527026688
and https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867422009199?dgcid=coauthor ).
Last week Medscape published an overview of more recent data on how byproducts of the sweetener sucralose cause cellular damage via DNA destruction. It is important to remember that the data cited reflect in vitro (meaning benchtop) experiments - not living organisms. Moreover, humans are typically not ingesting the very high concentrations of sucralose the researchers used. While these data are not the most compelling, the accumulating information about the gut microbiome and G.I. health is fascinating.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10937404.2023.2213903
and Medscape review (free registration required)
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/992667
and an excellent critical review of the research from epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz:
https://twitter.com/GidMK/status/1666250409542033408
Infographics
Four billion years of evolution in one infographic.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/path-of-human-evolution/
Bipedal ambulation was a hot trend four million years ago, and we were all Australopithecus.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/australopithecus-and-kin-145077614/
Things I learned this week
Fusion! Random YouTube wanderings led me to a slick and compelling video about Helion - a Microsoft-backed company in Washington State attempting to build a fusion reactor. BUT - be sure to check out the more rigorous scientific look at Helion's claims. It is a good lesson on the potential problems small-scale internet journalists/videographers experience when given "special access" to companies with a strong interest in generating publicity.
Video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bDXXWQxK38
Review of the Helion video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vUPhsFoniw
I learned about the Heart Attack Grill - a chain of restaurants that prides itself on high-calorie and high-fat burgers, fries, and shakes served to patrons wearing mandatory hospital gowns by waitresses dressed as scantily-clad nurses. Customers that weigh over 350 pounds eat free. Over the years, they have employed several spokespeople who had severe, obesity-related illnesses and death. The owner has been interviewed numerous times and has an interesting take on the ethics of his establishment. His philosophy is, 'I am selling very unhealthy food and contributing to the illness of my patrons to highlight how important it is to eat healthily.' Oddly, the owner has the cremated remains of a patron (who ate at the Las Vegas location daily) as a prop in the interview. I found it hard to wrap my mind around all the conundrums this restaurant encapsulates - capitalism, adult free will, public health, Barnum-like showmanship, and the notion that any publicity is good publicity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-DDbXh1MYc
I learned that the phrase "Melibe viridis is basically a carnivorous sea slug with a gelatinous vacuum cleaner for a head: in fact the nudibranch has an oral veil that can expand into a "fish net" to eat its prey" is a meaningful sentence. Let us be grateful that melbie virdis is only 8-12 cm long and eats crustaceans.
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1667830802762153985?s=20
and
Get to know the Nudibranchia!
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/slugs/nudibranchia/melibe.htm
Living with A.I.
The Wall Street Journal offered a detailed analysis of what happened with an A.I. chatbot featured on the National Eating Disorder Association's (NEDA) website was updated beyond the original specifications and started giving broad and incorrect advice to patients seeking guidance on eating disorders.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-chatbot-went-rogue-431ff9f9
or
Wired published an article on a college professor who has students use ChatGPT to generate class essays, grade the output, find inaccuracies, and learn the pitfalls of generative A.I.
https://www.wired.com/story/dont-want-students-to-rely-on-chatgpt-have-them-use-it/
A.I. art of the week
An amalgam of the topics in this newsletter
"oil color painting in the style of Norman Rockwell of a person wearing a graduation cap and gown in front of a house holding a very large hamburger"
P.S. - no newsletter next week. I am traveling with my son through the weekend—more content on June 26.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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