Cancer cells are one of the main targets for expanded mRNA-LNP use. Credit: Iliescu Catalin / Alamy Topics: Biology, Biotechnology, Cancer, COVID-19, Nanotechnology Note: This is an advertisement on Nature Portfolio discussing that there may be a silver lining in the pandemic we’ve all experienced. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) transport small molecules into the body. TheContinue reading “LNPs…”
Category Archives: COVID-19
Apocalypse Now…
Judge Royce Lambert said Jacob Chansley’s role as a leader among those who went into the Senate chamber and disrupted the electoral vote tally compelled a serious prison sentence. | Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images | Politico Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, COVID-19, Environment, Existentialism, Fascism Note: The title of this post is from theContinue reading “Apocalypse Now…”
Four Days…
Credit: Jose Luis Pelaez/Getty Images Topics: Civilization, COVID-19, Democracy, Economics, Education, Existentialism Working four days instead of five—with the same pay—leads to improved well-being among employees without damaging the company’s productivity. That’s the recently reported result of a four-day workweek test that ran for six months, from June to December 2022 and involved a total of 61 U.K.Continue reading “Four Days…”
Wonderful…
Image Source: MedPage Today Topics: Biology, Biotechnology, Civilization, COVID-19, DNA, Epidemiology Currently authorized bivalent COVID-19 boosters demonstrated similar protection against symptomatic illness from the XBB/XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariants as from BA.5-related subvariants, according to a CDC study. From December 2022 to January 2023, the bivalent boosters’ vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic infection was a similar 48%Continue reading “Wonderful…”
The Apogee of Evil…
Credit: Erik English. Topics: Biology, Biosecurity, Civilization, COVID-19, Democracy, Existentialism Weaponizing a pathogen sounds like something out of an archetype Bond villain, minus the wrapped-up plot twists by the time the credits roll, and the obligatory fawning of a stereotypical bikinied woman over the intrepid MI-6 spy. Real life doesn’t conclude so cleanly. Before everyContinue reading “The Apogee of Evil…”
Perils of Privilege…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, COVID-19, Dark Humor, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights Steven Bannon’s “medieval,” take-no-prisoners defense rested yesterday. The three-shirt Troglodyte didn’t take the stand in his defense on advice from counsel. He said more outside the courtroom than he did inside. Today is closing arguments. The January 6th Committee ended “season 1” yesterday asContinue reading “Perils of Privilege…”
Zombie Apocalypse…
Topics: Biology, COVID-19, DNA, Economics, Environment, Evolution, Existentialism Ed Rybicki, a virologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, concentrated his article in Scientific American on the viruses dominating the news cycle in the early 2000s: Ebola, Marburg, and HIV. Not comforting, but he said, “HIV, which is thought to have first emergedContinue reading “Zombie Apocalypse…”
Factions, Fascism, Dystopia…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, COVID-19, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanentContinue reading “Factions, Fascism, Dystopia…”
Dystopian and Unthinkable…
Topics: Civics, COVID-19, Epidemiology, Existentialism, Politics With all due respect to the recently departed former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, she started using the phrase “indispensable nation” after political reporter Sydney Blumenthal coined it. From Foreign Policy Magazine: In his memoir of the Clinton presidency, The Clinton Wars, Blumenthal elaborated on what the phrase was intended to represent: “OnlyContinue reading “Dystopian and Unthinkable…”
Things We’ve Lost…
Topics: COVID-19, Existentialism, Physics, Research An excerpt. The longer article piece is at the link following. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only killed a large number of people—approximately 5.5 million worldwide at the time Physics Today went to press in mid-January—it has also disrupted life in a fundamental, nonperturbative manner, forcing large-scale changes in human behavior fromContinue reading “Things We’ve Lost…”
Physics and Nano 