Tag: covid

Glycans

There’s a reason why genomics and proteomics have leapt ahead of glycomics: The sheer complexity of sugars makes them more difficult to study. DNA, RNA and proteins are linear molecules built according to defined sets of rules, and scientists have the tools to sequence, analyze and manipulate them. But glycans are branching structures that assemble without a known template. The same site on 2 identical proteins might be occupied by very different glycans, for instance. Glycans also have exponentially more potential configurations than DNA or proteins: 3 different nucleotides can make 6 distinct DNA sequences; 3 amino acids can make 6 unique peptides; 3 glycan building blocks can form more than 1000 structures. Glycans are flexible, wobbly and variable; intricate, dynamic and somewhat unpredictable. Their analysis demands greater technical expertise and more sophisticated equipment.

December 2019 COVID-19

COVID-19 was already spreading in France in late December 2019, a month before the official first cases in the country. Early community spreading changes our knowledge of COVID-19 epidemic. This new case changes our understanding of the epidemic and modeling studies should adjust to this new data.

Eel video chat

Concerned that the garden eels – so named because their grass-like appearance when, en masse, they poke their heads out of the seabed – could come to see visitors as a threat, the aquarium is asking people to get in touch in the form of a calming video calls.

Social distancing hats

The hats were all designed and made by the students themselves upon their return to school this week. Made of cardboard, balloons, and other materials, they create a 1-meter buffer zone around each of the first to third graders.

Meat fake news

Tyson complains about meat shortages. Left: continuation of front page article detailing how major food manufacturers, including Tyson Foods, failed to protect plant workers. Right: full-page Tyson ad discussing its commitment to worker safety.

Relief Checks Are Terrible

the financial infrastructure in the us is complete garbage. here’s how to fix it:

Task the IRS with creating a permanent database of payment details
implement nationwide real-time retail-payments
Provide free accounts to people who need them

Quarantine Jargon

Go for the low-hanging fruit, whenever it’s available again—it’s been out of stock for weeks.

Ban parties not business

It looks like the biggest transmission danger is large droplets exchanged by people talking loudly in large gatherings, in closed quarters, and where many different people interact. Yes, it may be transmitted in other ways, but this is the fat tail, and start with the fat tail. The even greater news: practically no GDP is lost if you ban the super spreading activities on his list.

Digital WPA

Instead of paying people to dig and then fill ditches we could pay people to help train machine-learning apps, enter data, subtitle videos. take surveys, maybe even fold proteins to disrupt viruses. Another high-potential area is document digitization

NYC mask nonsense

fun fact about New York state law is that now:

It is illegal to be around people without a mask, and It is illegal to be around people with a mask on.

There’s an executive order requiring masks in public when you cannot social distance, and a state law forbidding them. So pretty much anyone who goes outside in New York is breaking the law. Presumably they won’t all be prosecuted.