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COVID-19 Has Been A Gold Rush For Journals - But Media Coverage Of The 'Infodemic' May Confuse The Public

COVID-19 Has Been A Gold Rush For Journals - But Media Coverage Of The 'Infodemic' May Confuse The Public

Sep 14 2020 | comment(s)

Are you excited about dozens of COVID-19 vaccine candidates? Do you get confused about whether or not it's as harmful to have been exposed to the 2019 SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as it is to have COVID-19? Do you think the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine will either save you from COVID-19 or give you a heart attack?

If any of the above are true, you have been reading too much corporate media and witnessed coverage that they can claim is resulting from peer-reviewed journals. 
Rapamycin May Prevent Sarcopenia And Keep Muscles Stronger For Longer

Rapamycin May Prevent Sarcopenia And Keep Muscles Stronger For Longer

Sep 10 2020 | comment(s)

We're living longer than ever, but that means we now have to think about new issues that were uncommon when life expectancy was low. 

Muscles shrink and their strength dwindles as we age. When that is excessive, the condition is called sarcopenia, and it affects every third person over the age of 80, reducing mobility, autonomy and quality of life.

There may be hope in the form of a well-known drug, Rapamycin, that can delay the progression of age-related muscle weakness.
No Matter Who Wins The U.S. Election, COVID-19 Social Unrest Could Be Rampant

No Matter Who Wins The U.S. Election, COVID-19 Social Unrest Could Be Rampant

Sep 10 2020 | comment(s)

Are Proud Boys and Antifa fighting each other 'to oppose fascism' a product of the COVID-19 pandemic? No, militant groups have always attracted people with pathologies who just need a reason to be violent, but pandemics do cause social unrest, at least historically.

There is a lot more isolation than in past pandemics but also a lot more community around SARS-CoV-2, the 2019 form of the coronavirus that has locked up most developed countries. Unlike the past, where nature was just trying to kill us, and the randomness of it all caused panic, people know where it originated and how. We know how to mitigate it. We are equipped to try and help those with co-morbidities. A lot of people have died, no one downplays that, but a lot fewer than in any pandemic ever.
Fitness Overtraining And How To Avoid It

Fitness Overtraining And How To Avoid It

Sep 09 2020 | comment(s)

There’s a thin line between working hard enough and working too hard. Pushing your body to reach new levels of fitness requires commitment, effort and a willingness to put yourself through intense, challenging workouts on a regular basis.

But more isn’t always better. Without the right balance of rest and recovery you could end up spiralling into a long-term fatigue condition called overtraining syndrome. The condition results in long-term reduced physical performance, and may be accompanied by other physiological and psychological symptoms (such as low mood or poor sleep) – though this isn’t always the case. It can take weeks, months and even years to recover from this condition.

Climate Change: Engineering Models Hope For Best Outcomes - And Any Chess Player Knows That's Terrible Strategy

Climate Change: Engineering Models Hope For Best Outcomes - And Any Chess Player Knows That's Terrible Strategy

Sep 09 2020 | comment(s)

Did you read a paper saying we can prevent ocean damage under climate change scenarios by dumping iron into water to spur phytoplankton growth? Germans did, and were so convinced they began doing illegal live experiments. 

The model used a best-case scenario, which any entry-level chess player knows is a bad idea - they forgot to falsify their own hypothesis in their zeal to do something. A new paper notes that many ambitious climate action plans rely on climate engineering technologies where the risks are unknown. They are more like TED talks than real plans.
'Plug And Play' Brain Prosthesis Debuts In Paralyzed Person

'Plug And Play' Brain Prosthesis Debuts In Paralyzed Person

Sep 08 2020 | comment(s)

A brain-controlled prosthetic limb have shown that machine learning techniques helped an individual with paralysis learn to control motion using their brain activity without requiring extensive daily retraining. 

It is proof-of-concept for how future models can overcome limitations of prior brain-computer interface efforts, which existing had to be reset and recalibrated each day, almost like asking someone to learn to ride a bike over and over again each day.
Children Use Both Brain Hemispheres To Understand Language, But Adults Don't

Children Use Both Brain Hemispheres To Understand Language, But Adults Don't

Sep 08 2020 | comment(s)

Children learn languages much easier than adults, and also seem to recover from neural injuries better. The reason may be that adults process most discrete neural tasks in specific areas in one or the other of their brain's two hemispheres, while kids use both the right and left hemispheres to do the same task.
Independent Frontier Mentality Still Exists In Modern Mountain Regions - And With It Less Neuroticism

Independent Frontier Mentality Still Exists In Modern Mountain Regions - And With It Less Neuroticism

Sep 08 2020 | comment(s)

If you are a tourist and visit California in the United States or Bavaria in Germany, you will quickly notice it is not like a lot of other places in those countries. A cultural mentality exists and people who identify with the stereotype are more likely to stay or even move there.

A new paper finds that people who live in mountain regions of the U.S. maintain more of that sensibility even in the modern era. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner, a Harvard academic, presented his thesis on the US frontier in 1893, describing the "coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and acquisitiveness" it had forged in the American character.
Tennessee Whiskey: The Science Of The Lincoln County Process

Tennessee Whiskey: The Science Of The Lincoln County Process

Sep 07 2020 | comment(s)

You can't market a "Tennessee whiskey" unless it goes through charcoal filtration called the Lincoln County Process, named such after the locale of the original Jack Daniel's distillery. 

Charcoal is not exclusive to American blended whiskey, this type of filtration is a common step in the production of distilled beverages, including vodka and rum, but while "charcoal mellowing" in Tennesse Whiskey varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, they all involve passing the fresh whiskey distillate through a bed of charcoal, usually derived from burnt sugar maple, prior to barrel-aging the product.
COVID-19 Pandemic And Declines In Coffee Consumption Have Left Millions Struggling To Make A Living

COVID-19 Pandemic And Declines In Coffee Consumption Have Left Millions Struggling To Make A Living

Sep 06 2020 | comment(s)

The reopening of cafes has been one of the highlights of relaxed COVID-19 restrictions for many Australians. During lockdowns, long queues for takeaway coffee were testimony to caffeine’s relevance to our lives.

Anonymous Sources and Anti Trump Confirmation Bias. OPINION

Anonymous Sources and Anti Trump Confirmation Bias. OPINION

Sep 06 2020 | comment(s)

Mainstream “news” has a problem. Reporters for more traditional big name organizations no longer need to present actual proof of anything they report.  The reason mainstream reporters do this is to feed the beast of the 24-72 hour news cycle.  The most recent “revelations” by “anonymous sources” regarding alleged statements by President Trump exemplify this issue. It is a story which fits the preconception that he does not respect veterans, but there is a huge difference between going after a political opponent who happens to be a vet and insulting dead WWI or WWII soldiers.

A Science Communication Proposal For Pandemic Times

A Science Communication Proposal For Pandemic Times

Sep 05 2020 | comment(s)

As every other aspect of human life, science communication has suffered a significant setback due to the ongoing Covid-19-induced pandemic. While regular meetings of scientific teams can be effectively held online, through zoom or skype, it is the big conferences that are suffering the biggest blow. And this is not good, for several reasons.
New Species In The Same Group As Lobsters Found Living In The Hottest Place On Earth

New Species In The Same Group As Lobsters Found Living In The Hottest Place On Earth

Sep 04 2020 | comment(s)

When you think of shrimp, lobster, or crabs, you don't think of the hottest place on Earth, but a new freshwater Crustacea has been discovered during an expedition of the desert Lut, which is the record-holder for temperature on land. The Lut desert, Dasht-e Lut in Farsi, is the second largest desert in Iran.

Almost deprived of vegetation, the Lut desert harbors a diverse animal life, but no permanent aquatic biotops, such as ponds. Instead, after rain falls, non-permanent astatic water bodies are filled including the Rud-e-Shur river from north-western Lut. And that is when these new creatures can be more readily found.
Melittin: Honeybee Venom Compound Kills Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells

Melittin: Honeybee Venom Compound Kills Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells

Sep 04 2020 | comment(s)

The compound melittin, found in honeybee venom, rapidly destroyed triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells in a recent study. In the 1950s, bee venom was found to reduce the growth of tumors in plants and in the last two decades interest grew into the effects of honeybee venom on different cancers.

For the study, 312 honeybees and bumblebees in Perth Western Australia, Ireland and England, were used to test the effect of the venom on the clinical subtypes of breast cancer, including triple-negative breast cancer, which has limited treatment options.
COVID-19: Did New York And California Achieve Herd Immunity?

COVID-19: Did New York And California Achieve Herd Immunity?

Sep 03 2020 | comment(s)

Findings based on a SIR (Susceptible, Infectious or Recovered) Model of Infection Dynamics, commonly used to determine infection scenarios, including COVID-19, and presented at the Artificial Intelligence and the Coronavirus workshop at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, say that New York and California may have reached herd immunity.
Your Boss May Be A Jerk, But That's Not Why They Got Ahead

Your Boss May Be A Jerk, But That's Not Why They Got Ahead

Sep 03 2020 | comment(s)

Two studies of people who had completed personality assessments as undergraduates or MBA students at three universities, and were surveyed again over a decade later and ranked by co-workers about their workplace behavior, found that those with selfish, deceitful, and aggressive personality traits were not more likely to have attained power than those who were generous, trustworthy, and generally nice.

Plenty of jerks were in positions of power, but it wasn't because they manipulated their way into it. 
Bill Gates Will NOT And CANNOT Inject Us With A Microchip In A Vaccine - Fails Basic Fact Check

Bill Gates Will NOT And CANNOT Inject Us With A Microchip In A Vaccine - Fails Basic Fact Check

Sep 02 2020 | comment(s)

Bill Gates doesn't make vaccines. There are now 176 vaccines from many different countries, thirty four of those already in clinical trials and eight in phase 3. Some may be approved soon, and none are made by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation does provide funding for some vaccines. In particular they are amongst the funders for the vaccine alliances GAVI and COVAX, the vaccine pillar of the “Access to COVID19 Tools” ACT accelerator.

FDA Bureaucracy Was Unprepared For A COVID-19 Vaccine - Here Is How To Fix It

FDA Bureaucracy Was Unprepared For A COVID-19 Vaccine - Here Is How To Fix It

Sep 01 2020 | comment(s)

In late March of 2020, the Food and Drug Administration gave Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. The drug is already used off-label for diseases like arthritis and given how it behaves with human biology, it is plausible it might work on some with COVID-19. A peer-reviewed study found just that - but it was only epidemiology, and that is not how drug approval ever happens, any more than epidemiology alone should be how regulations happen at EPA or any policy-making group. 
Collision Course: The Andromeda Galaxy Halo Is Already Running Into Our Own

Collision Course: The Andromeda Galaxy Halo Is Already Running Into Our Own

Aug 31 2020 | comment(s)

The Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large galactic neighbor, has been found to have a nearly invisible halo of diffuse plasma that extends about halfway to our Milky Way.

That's 1.3 million light-years, and it may go 2 million light-years in some parts, which means Andromeda's halo is already touching our own. The halo has a layered structure, with two main nested and distinct shells of gas. These reservoirs of gas contain fuel for future star formation within the galaxy, as well as outflows from events such as supernovae. 
Are Preschoolers Racist? Only If Learned, But They Notice Skin Color Differences Even Earlier

Are Preschoolers Racist? Only If Learned, But They Notice Skin Color Differences Even Earlier

Aug 31 2020 | comment(s)

With racial tension erupting again, parents may be wondering the appropriate age to discuss what kids see in news accounts or in protests at sporting events. 

Psychologists believe that some infants are aware of race and children are capable of thinking about all sorts of complex topics at a very young age. They must, because they see older, bigger people doing things that may seem almost magical, and it becomes important to make sense of their world and so they will come up with their own ideas about how things work. But if they only see news on television, with two sides rioting and committing violence in the name of opposing the others' fascism, the ideas kids come up with may be inaccurate or even detrimental.