Tagged “biology”

weird little anaerobic guys

one of the best MR comments sections I have seen

In 80 to 100 days, 30 trillion will have replenished — the equivalent of a new you"

Emphasis added to where I think confusion comes from. This is just raw number of cells. We have the largest number of blood cells, but by mass are mostly fat and muscle cells (which last for decades).

Essay about slime molds

four out of five animals on land are roundworms

ummmm

Grim that the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 gets a section on this page..

Some craaazy facts about microbes in there. And I actually came away convinced! Have previously taken the same argument NASA made for space exploration originally - all the incidental inventions and discoveries made make it worthwhile. But the extreme cost (and risk of contamination) make sending humans to Mars seem like a not great idea. Just let robots do it.

Humans in space is more of a biology problem than an engineering problem. Or at least the engineering of life support systems is the bigger challenge than building rockets.

The feeling of being able to control something, to offset the lack of control in the activity or outcome.

The subject selection baffled me. The 1890 group was all people from military, I don't think that was the case for more recent cohort.

Still unsure on the particular zone/diet hype. The "Power 9" from the NIH publication was interesting though:

1. Move naturally. Live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it.
2. Purpose. Ikigai/plan de vida/"why I wake up in the morning."
3. Routines to shed stress
4. 80% Rule. Hara hachi bu — stop eating when stomach is 80% full. People in the Blue Zones eat their smallest meal by early evening then no more for the rest of the day
5. Plant slant. Beans, including fava, black, soy, and lentils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Meat — mostly pork—is eaten on average only 5 times per month. Serving sizes are 3 to 4 oz, about the size of a deck of cards.
6. Moderate drinkers outlive nondrinkers. The trick is to drink 1 to 2 glasses per day, with friends and/or with food.
7. Belong. 258 of 263 centenarians interviewed belonged to some faith-based community. Denomination does not seem to matter. Research shows 4 to 14 years of life expectancy increase from weekly faith attendance!
8. Loved ones first
9. Right tribe. Okinawans created moais — groups of 5 friends that committed to each other for life. Smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious. Social networks of long-lived people have favorably shaped their health behaviors.

Still curious about it

bit clickbaity

Quite a few microbes have abandoned the human gut, as humans have lost 57 of the 100 or so branches, or clades, of microbes currently found in chimps or bonobos and at least one other nonhuman primate, Moeller reported on 11 June at Microbe 2022, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. Moeller was also able to estimate when some of the human gut microbes disappeared. A few were lost thousands of years ago, and some have disappeared more recently, with city dwellers having lost the most, Moeller reported.

ongoing scary stuff. Read the same day as "the gut makes your serotonin"

Maybe this is what Flavortown is all about.

Why, I wondered, does flavor have such a hold over us? And why do so many scientists carry on as though nutrition starts from the neck down, that what truly matters in food is carbs, protein and fat, and flavor is just some meaningless and frivolous indulgence?

Our flavor sensing equipment—the nose and mouth—takes up more DNA than any other bodily system. Why is there so much DNA devoted to a sense we tend to think of as superfluous?

horrifying

Original title was "Why Captcha Pictures Are So Unbearably Depressing", which felt a bit complainy compared to the updated one. I agreed less with that take on the article, but a lot with the sentiment from the HN comments

A website with captchas is like a retail store with metal detectors; it's not somewhere I feel welcome.

From 2019!

Some terrifying terms in there. Universe 25 seemed ominous enough, but the 'Beautiful Ones' - the mice that just dedicated their lives entirely to grooming - is like something from a movie.

Pending peer review, but apparently large benefit in waiting 12 weeks rather than three.

In donors without evidence of previous infection the peak antibody response was 3.5-fold higher in donors who had undergone delayed interval vaccination. Cellular immune responses were 3.6-fold lower.