Sunday, May 31, 2020
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Anesthesia's mechanism of action discovered
The cell membrane lipid complex GM1 is disrupted, leaks PLD2 which associates with PIP2 which allows TREK1 ion channels to spill potassium out of neurons, shutting down neural transmission.
Friday, May 29, 2020
Trading by playing the psychology of round numbers
Astronauts experienced reversed jugular venous blood flow.
""Reverse flow is really interesting, and we're uncertain if it harmful," Stenger said. "Reverse flow in the jugular vein could be completely harmless as the blood is simply leaving the head via one of the other venous pathways. However, reverse flow implies altered venous pressure dynamics, which could impact the ability of the brain to drain cerebral spinal fluid and possibly increase pressure in the brain."
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/15/health/astronaut-blood-flow-clot-scn-trnd/index.html
Here's the original paper:
Here's the original paper:
Assessment of Jugular Venous Blood Flow Stasis and Thrombosis During Spaceflight
"stagnant or reverse flow in the internal jugular vein was observed in 6 crew members (55%) on approximate flight day 50. Notably, 1 crew member was found to have an occlusive internal jugular vein thrombus, and a potential partial thrombus was identified in another crew member retrospectively."
YouTube algorithm
This podcast goes to a dark place. But along the way, it includes a discussion at about 18 minutes about the algorithm for selecting YouTube videos, and efforts (discouraged by Google) to prevent someone from getting an unbalanced view of hearing only one side of an issue.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Flocking Birds
(Just the first 8 minutes)
A beautifully elegant description, and demonstration by modeling, of how birds fly in a flock.
1) fly towards the center of all the birds
2) avoid nearby birds
3) match the speed and direction of nearby birds
His "smarter every day" videos are consistently good.
How many nearby birds does each bird align itself with and follow?
How many nearby birds does each bird align itself with and follow?
How many neighboring birds does one bird align itself with in a huge flock?
"Turns out the magic number is seven: Each bird keeps tabs on its seven closest neighbors and ignores all else."
Beautiful murmuration:
https://youtu.be/V4f_1_r80RY
Monday, May 25, 2020
Dating and Relationships in the Digital Age | Pew Research Center
Sunday, May 24, 2020
It’s Time to Rethink America’s Corn System - Scientific American
"Although U.S. corn is a highly productive crop, with typical yields between 140 and 160 bushels per acre, the resulting delivery of food by the corn system is far lower. Today's corn crop is mainly used for biofuels (~40%...) and as animal feed (~36 %, plus distillers grains left over from ethanol production, is fed to cattle, pigs and chickens). Much of the rest is exported. Only a tiny fraction of the national corn crop is directly used for food for Americans, much of that for high-fructose corn syrup."
The rapid pace of computer animation improvements.
I like this fellow's enthusiasm - he always says "what a great time to be alive!" in each video.
Here's another mesmerizing video of simulating viscous fluids and jellies:
And his remorse at missing a paper from 8 years ago that was revolutionarily simple in adding bubbles, foam, and spray to water simulation by searching for acutely angled constrictions in the water-air interface.
@5:50 "One simple, brilliant idea changes everything" in computing depth maps of video footage without the crutch of having to use human input.
What the Tesla autopilot computer "sees"
Thought you'd like this video which shows what the onboard computer sees and interprets from its cameras. There's a lot of object recognition going on.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
How many solar panels to charge your electric car?
"...To consider this question, we'll use the standard Tesla Model S as a baseline for estimates. This Tesla has a battery with a 75-kWh capacity... "The average 250 W solar panel can generate around 30-40 kWh of AC power each month... "since the average driver will travel approximately 37 miles a day – this translates to roughly 12 kWh of electricity. With that in mind, a much more realistic set would require approximately 12 solar panels..."
"for an average American driver, a typical EV will require about 4,000 kWh of electricity per year. According to the most recent EnergySage Solar Marketplace Intel report, the most frequently offered solar panels on EnergySage are in the 320 to 330 Watt range. Finally, the production from your solar panels will vary from region to region...Depending upon where you live, charging an electric vehicle typically requires 7 or 9 solar panels." https://news.energysage.com/how-many-panels-do-you-need-for-your-ev/
Monday, May 18, 2020
IBD improves even when the patient knows they're taking placebo
Placebos have been accepted in science as a means of comparing the effect of doing "nothing" compared to some medication under study. But the effect of the placebo is known to be beneficial - so what happens if you tell the patient that they are getting a placebo? You also empathetically listen and encourage them that they will improve - is that positive interaction able to produce results? The surprising answer is yes.
Here's the actual formal study of placebo effect from knowingly taking placebos.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2832199/
And here's a podcast including an intriguing interview with one of the patients doubting herself but willing to try placebo, and desperately wanting it continued after the trial ended!
https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDMwOC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbA&ep=14&episode=ZWZlZmMxZWEtOGQxMy00MzM3LTg4N2ItMzhiYmFmMTI3MmU3
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/11/853753307/all-the-worlds-a-stage-including-the-doctor-s-office
Here's the actual formal study of placebo effect from knowingly taking placebos.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2832199/
And here's a podcast including an intriguing interview with one of the patients doubting herself but willing to try placebo, and desperately wanting it continued after the trial ended!
https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDMwOC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbA&ep=14&episode=ZWZlZmMxZWEtOGQxMy00MzM3LTg4N2ItMzhiYmFmMTI3MmU3
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/11/853753307/all-the-worlds-a-stage-including-the-doctor-s-office
Also, here's a freakonomics episode about placebos
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-the-placebo-effect-for-real/
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Two young African inventor's stories
https://youtu.be/XOLOLrUBRBY
Where is he now? - Avoidin the medi circus.
"The plan is to complete my current diploma program in Toronto, Canada, apply and hopefully be accepted in the Management Engineering program at the University of Waterloo to learn about data analytics, analysis, evidence-based thinking – things needed in the future if I am to plan, think things through, present cases for funding, support claims, and have successful projects in Sierra Leone.
Unfortunately, the cost of an education for an international student is roughly 60k CDN a year...I now have a mentoring team here in Canada that is focused on turning off the circus, helping me find myself, managing my finances, turning me into a ‘normal’, professional student, and guiding me through this next part of my life. The mentoring team is providing advice, helping me recover…, and some are helping with my schooling costs." https://ktvsl.com/2018/08/13/kelvin-doe-revealed-his-true-story/
https://youtu.be/nPkr9HmglG0
Where is he now?
Right now what I’m working on is to put up an innovation center in Malawi. The innovation center is going to allow people to come and work with me to develop their ideas. Because I know there are so many talented young people all over the world but sometimes lack of space to help them build their ideas, it’s lacking sometimes so I want to enable that, making sure that anyone who has an idea they can have a space where they can think and build and be connected to professionals in the field that they are working on.
https://www.redbull.com/za-en/William-Kamkwamba-on-life-after-harnessing-the-wind
Where is he now?
Right now what I’m working on is to put up an innovation center in Malawi. The innovation center is going to allow people to come and work with me to develop their ideas. Because I know there are so many talented young people all over the world but sometimes lack of space to help them build their ideas, it’s lacking sometimes so I want to enable that, making sure that anyone who has an idea they can have a space where they can think and build and be connected to professionals in the field that they are working on.
https://www.redbull.com/za-en/William-Kamkwamba-on-life-after-harnessing-the-wind
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