Health: The weighty costs of non-caloric sweeteners A new study shows that metabolic changes induced by non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) (e.g. elevated fasting glucose) are induced by (and can be directly induced by) changes to gut bacteria. Include human demonstration. Further hypotheses: (1) Increase in bacteria that break down dietary components, esp. energy extraction including fats...
Three headlines selected from this week's Science/Nature journals: (1) Memory in the innate immune system, (2) water in extrasolar atmospheres, and (3) enhancing photosynthesis in crops. Herein I summarize these, highlighting what makes them interesting to this person.
This is Nature October 10 2013, Vol. 502, Iss. 7470, Pp. 141-264. Big weapons have little downside. Secrets of trial data revealed. Earth science: The timing of climate change. Quantum physics: Watching the wavefunction collapse – – I’m not reviewing this article (but bookmarked) because I simply do not have a strong enough foundation in QM. Cell biology: Molecular clearance at...
Concept: Cancer immunoscore. Also: TNM staging. Background: Cancers are traditionally scored using TNM (tumor, lymph node, metastasis) staging. Evidence that proximity of immune cells to tumor is correlative to therapy success. Technology: Cancers can be beneficially scored by using description of local immune cells. Source: Based on a News piece published in Nature (3 April 2013). Concept:...
Technology: Electroceuticals are made conceivable by recent advances, including optogenetics, microsurgery, nanotechnology-based energy production. Future research needed in Finer neural circuits, including their anatomy and signalling patterns vs response.
Source: A Comment piece in Nature (April 11, 2013).
Meta: Idea: Have a list of contents at the top of each date. Each listing to be the text of a heading, or if not then at least some form of anchoring as repeated in the body. I follow now with an exemplar instance of this idea: NOTES on my reading of KANT’s Prolegomena. Dear DIARY. SCIENCE or JOURNAL CLUB on studying NEURONAL COMPLEXITY. Meta: The (mere) fact that I have more to write about...
This is a continuation of an effort to review Science 9 August 2013 Vol. 341 no. 6416. V. PubPeer is a nice, interesting, and new website, designed to allow readers to critique papers they’ve read. VI. P647, I read the full research paper, entitled Social Influence Bias: A Randomized Experiment – basically about how knowing about aggregated opinions affects our own, albeit in...
Journal: Reading science literature: I did a once-over browse of the TRENDS journals that have been published so far in this month, and have selected a few that I thought could be interesting. In TRENDS IMMUNOL I found an article that claims to review what’s known about the genetic implications for mechanisms of IBS. This is not something I’ll read now, but appears to be a reference...
Editorial notes: To understand the Meta paragraph below you need to read Shai’s Priorities post where he discusses his own methodology for researching and acquiring knowledge. The Meta description below is an instance where Shai follows his own – previously documented – methodology. Meta: This is a pseudo-diary of my impressions readings Science 09/08. This was initiated by a...
Source: [TREND_G] The desired outcome after having ‘known‘ this concept is a novel perception. The seed for this perception is the concept of bioproxies, that I can define as ‘xyz’, and in the literature includes the following distinctions ‘a,b,c’. Example: Madagascar which was settled in the mid-first millennium: The local language is Malagasy which is...
