Week of June 3, 2024
Our younger son is graduating high school this week. Finding the right way to celebrate a snarky, somewhat cynical 17-year-old's achievements feels like a Chinese finger trap. Balancing the tension between sentiment and teenage indifference is challenging. Once again, I am finding retrospective empathy for my parents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_finger_trap
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Based on wastewater data, U.S. COVID rates should be stable in the coming four weeks.
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) website uses wastewater levels to forecast 4-week predictions of COVID rates.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
Wastewater Scan is another multi-organism wastewater dashboard I found this week. The organization offers national-level summarization and provides an excellent visual display of individual treatment plant-level data.
https://data.wastewaterscan.org/
The CDC monitors Influenza A (of which H5N1 is one subtype) wastewater concentrations at
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/wastewater-surveillance/Flu-A-data.html
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Infectious Disease articles
The LA Times published a thoughtful roundup article about the risks of the latest coronavirus variants and the possibilities of a larger-than-expected wave of summer cases.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-06-01/covids-flirt-subvariants-are-rising-how-bad-will-it-get
The CDC detects H5N1 mutations, conferring some advantages in infecting mammals (as opposed to the original host organism, birds).
https://x.com/CoronaHeadsUp/status/1795184274754203686
and
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/h5n1-technical-update-may-24-2024.html
The CDC has also ordered millions of flu vaccine doses explicitly targeting the H5N1 variant.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-vaccine-doses-this-summer-cases/
Medical Trends and Technology
British researchers are exploring how the brain changes in people augmented with extra or atypical body parts. In this instance, the Plasticity Lab offered volunteers a biomechanical additional thumb (strapped to the hand near the pinky and controlled by electrical signals from toe movements). Like me, I suspect you will be ready to sign up for a 6th finger after watching the videos. Moreover, the fMRI research on how the brain rewires finger motion after using the extra digit for a few days is remarkable.
https://x.com/NerdyChristie/status/1796245874353340763
https://www.daniclodedesign.com/howdoourbrainsadapttocontrolanextrabodypart
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adk5183
And, if you are holding two glasses of wine with a six-fingered hand, you may also choose to drink a new nano-polymer gel that helps metabolize alcohol, thereby diminishing the toxic and inebriating effects. Scientists are currently testing the medication only used in animals, for now.
https://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/269338/hepatology/new-gel-makes-alcohol-50-less-toxic-curbs-organ-damage/page/0/1
and
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01657-7
And, you may need extra (or replacement teeth) when you use your six-fingered hand to hold a drink and eat hors d'oeuvres while gesticulating (with your 5-fingered hand). A Japanese dental scientist is about to start the first human trials of a drug that will allow humans to regrow teeth. The drug blocks a suppressor protein, removing the signal that keeps teeth from growing. Clinical trials in humans start this fall in Japan. As always, the Twitter commentary offers many delightful and insightful thoughts.
https://www.perplexity.ai/page/Worlds-first-toothgrowing-NIMSIYlHTKCwe5wUdRbSkw
and
https://x.com/marionawfal/status/1796732443497472123?s=42&t=cHtDhpWgAdi0UhIayqsoag
Lolamicin is a new type of antibiotic currently being tested in mice. The novel antibiotic targets some of the most pathogenic gram-negative bacteria (klebsiella, E. coli, and Enterobacter) without impacting the typical and helpful bacteria living in the mammalian intestinal tract (the microbiome). This story is an excellent example of next-generation targeted pharmaceuticals.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240529/New-antibiotic-lolamicin-shows-promise-in-fighting-drug-resistant-infections.aspx
And
https://x.com/erictopol/status/1795884636104700317?s=42&t=cHtDhpWgAdi0UhIayqsoag
Infographics
I found this infographic from The Visual Capitalist, which visualizes Earth's biomass distribution. Arthropods outnumber humans. We should be nice to crabs and shrimp (in addition to our soon-to-be A.I. overlords). Perhaps telling our A.I. overlords how wonderful arthropods are is the politically savvy way to go.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/all-the-biomass-of-earth-in-one-graphic/
Things I learned this week
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Scientists have bioengineered tobacco plants to produce cocaine. As always, the details are far less amusing than the headline. Nevertheless, one can envision all sorts of ramifications (from unemployment in cocaine-producing countries to super-addictive cigarettes)
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/scientists-have-made-cocaine-from-a-tobacco-plant
For the last 200 years (or more), Brockworth, England, has hosted the Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake annually. This event involves people chasing a rolling wheel of double Gloucester cheese down a steep hill (perhaps slightly safer than running from bulls in Spain). This event is world-famous, and I suspect I should be somewhat embarrassed by my (until recent) ignorance. Nevertheless, the videos are very entertaining. And, had the event NOT predated modern orthopedic surgery, I would have suspected such surgeons as staging it to drive business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper%27s_Hill_Cheese-Rolling_and_Wake
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjSUk9o-D6E
Compared to the 2023 statistics from Pamplona, chasing cheese seems like a children's game. (I doubt there are any bull-horn-induced scrotal injuries from the Cheese wheels - see the link below.)
https://www.brusselstimes.com/602945/casualty-toll-for-this-years-bull-runs-in-pamplona-spain-reaches-35
Living with A.I.
A.I. agents will be our coworkers soon enough. Don't forget to tell them how amazing arthropods are.
https://www.wired.com/story/chatbots-are-entering-the-stone-age/
The French AI company Mistral recently held a hackathon where participants used LLMs (like ChatGPT and Gemeni) to develop new tools. The functionality created by the winning teams gives a window into the state of the art.
https://x.com/AlexReibman/status/1796349663710511114
and
https://x.com/cerebral_valley/status/1795462092654534764?s=61&t=qjwdpjspQGX7XGY5jdBzKw
A.I. art of the week
Unintentional generative A.I. nightmares.
"Please generate a photo of a group of crabs chasing a wheel of cheese down a beach. The crabs have robotic 6-fingered robotic hands strapped to them, reaching for the rolling cheese wheel. There are teeth in varying states of growth along the beach" should not generate this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VArnLojIH2YpAAKOoRH2x58xlPRD1NPq/view?usp=sharing
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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