Hello again science fans,
Lumelang hape barati ba mahlale,
[Sesotho is the language of Basotho who live in Lesotho, “which nobody has ever heard of” and whose imports now have a 50% tariff, the highest of any country.]
SCIENCE
More than a million people participated in over 1400 “Hands Off” protests Saturday. I joined the protesters at the intersection of San Pablo Dam Road and Appian Way in El Sobrante. We numbered over 800, not counting the streams of honking cars with their waving occupants. The MAGA folk passing by were obvious by their grim expressions, rolled-up windows, and refusal to glance at the hundreds of people and signs.
I recommend reading this one-page letter “To The American People” signed by 1,900 scientists and published last week. It describes the harm the present Trump Administration is inflicting on science in the United States. It is hurting scientific research, medical research, science institutes, universities, scientists and their families, science students, public health departments and programs, medical care and, as a consequence, our entire population.
BIOLOGY
This is mind-blowing. Organisms have been found living in sediment recovered from 500 meters below the ocean floor, and from 4.3 kilometers below surface land. ¿From where do they get energy and raw materials for life? Certainly not from oxygen and sunlight. “With no sunlight, energy is sparse and must be harvested from the surrounding materials and their chemical reactions: hydrogen, methane, sulfur, serpentinization, the dead (or living) bodies of neighboring microbes, and even radioactivity.”
The North Dakota Senate narrowly defeated a proposal to force public schools to teach that an intelligent creator accounts for evolution and for all of reality. The vote was 25 – 22 against the proposal.
The biggest terrestrial organisms 420 MYA were the Prototaxites. Big. Like 8 meters tall big. They were eukaryotes – meaning their cells had their DNA in a nucleus – but researchers now believe they did not fit into any of the other four kingdoms of eukaryotes; plants, animals, fungi, and protists. They might have belonged to a now-extinct kingdom that thrived for at least 50 million years, but is now extinct.
RAFFLE
Because so many SciSchmooze readers liked this coffee mug, we are offering it again. It is disguised as a 450ml laboratory beaker displaying the chemical structure of caffeine. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, Anne Marie guessed closest to the randomly generated 891 to win a Tensegrity Stand.
ENVIRONMENT
Very few of us can get along without a car. ¿But what if a community was built expressly to allow and encourage its residents to live without an automobile? This describes the Culdesac Tempe development in Tempe, Arizona. It is adjacent to a station of the Phoenix area Valley Metro light-rail system, and residents get free transit tickets. They also are given free e-bikes. The buildings are designed and laid out to “mitigate heat, promote wind flow and cross-ventilation, and encourage social interaction.” The growing development already includes retail shops, a restaurant, a fitness center, and courtyards with public art. What it does not have are parking spaces for residents. Instead it has $5 per hour rental cars. The development continues to grow on its large parcel of land.
Bad news: Water from sewage treatment plants have elevated levels of organofluorines, especially PFAS – a ‘forever chemical’ with negative health effects. The treated water is released back into lakes, streams, and oceans, but in some places it is added to the drinking water system.
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK – My Picks
- High Energy Neutrino Astronomy Tues 3:30, Stanford University
- Dismantling of Science & Medicine in America Wed 6:30pm, Lafayette, $
- Apes, Men, & Morons: Eugenics, Evolution, & … Livestream Thurs 630pm
- Live Theatre: Diving into Math with Emmy Noether Friday 6:15, Stanford Univ.
- Tri-Valley Innovation Fair Saturday 10am – 5pm, Pleasanton, $ for parking
- Birding at Bair Island Sunday 10 – 12:20, Redwood City
MEDICINE / HEALTH
The Shingrix vaccine reduces the probability you will suffer from dementia, but allow me to parse this.
- If you are older than 35, or if you did not receive the childhood vaccine to protect you from chickenpox, then the varicella-zoster virus may be lying dormant in your nerve cells.
- Alzheimer’s dementia has been associated with the brain’s immune system working to ward off infections.
- The Shingrix vaccine assists the immune system in fighting the varicella zoster virus.
- Therefore the vaccine appears to provide some protection against the onset of Alzheimer’s.
However, Shingrix does not protect against infections caused by other agents which could similarly lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
The Department of Health & Human Services under RFK Jr., has hired David Geier – a vaccine skeptic – to study whether vaccines cause autism – an accusation that has been repeatedly and soundly debunked numerous times. Not only is Geier unqualified for such research, he has been fined for practicing medicine without a license. There is little doubt that the “study” will conclude that vaccines are indeed at fault.
If you have a common disease or medical problem, there’s probably a remedy to help you recover. But if you have one or more unusual health problems, there may be no simple treatment or a golden pill to prescribe. ¿Or is there? Doctors are beginning to turn to A.I. for help in rare diseases and unusual symptoms. Joseph Coates was losing his battle with POEMS syndrome and was asked whether he preferred dying in the hospital or at home in Renton, Washington. Instead, Dr. Fajgenbaum in Texas queried the A.I. he is developing. The A.I. suggested a type of immunotherapy, a specific chemotherapy, and a steroid never tested with this disease. Joseph is much better, thank you, and Dr. Fajgenbaum’s A.I. continues to help patients where standard treatments fail.
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
Suriname Toad – National Geographic – 1 min
Free Radicals – The Right Chemistry – Joe Schwarcz – 4.5 mins
Nuclear Propulsion Systems – Sabine Hossenfelder – 5 mins
Fram2 Space Mission – Chun, Janneki, Robea, & Eric – 5.4 mins
Don’t Touch Armadillos – Bizarre Beasts – Hank Green – 6 mins
Disappearance of 10 Billion Snow Crabs – SciShow – Savannah Geary – 11 mins
The Next Supernova Mass Extinction – PBS SpaceTime – Matt O’Dowd – 15 mins
Responding to Science Deniers – Edge of Knowledge – Paul Sutter – 18 mins
Geothermal Energy & Gyroton Drilling – Real Engineering – Brian McManus – 20 mins
Homo Erectus – History with Kayleigh – Kayleigh A.N. – 34 mins
Einstein’s Field Equations & Black Holes – Veritasium – Derek Muller – 37 mins
Thorium: Tales from the Periodic Table – Ron Hipschman – 50 mins
Continuous videos. (Move your cursor along the red line to explore earlier views.)
ISS Earth Cam
Namib Desert Cam
Okaukuejo Waterhole, Namibia
Have a great week,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“Meanwhile, in Washington, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced that billions of dollars could be saved by eliminating empathy.”
—Andy Borowitz (1958 – ) American writer and satirist