Words about science and hiking
The short answer is no. Although nearly all plants contain antimicrobial compounds, these compounds are present only at low concentrations. Diet certainly influences microbiome composition. But this influence works through the availability of foods that different bacteria prefer. “Food antibiotics” are not a thing. Sloppy health journalists are responsible for the confusion. They often call Read More …
As a lifelong devotee of fermented malt beverages it pains me to say that this is not a great idea. Why? Because: All drugs are poisons Alcohol is also a poison Mixing two poisons is never going to lead to a good outcome. More specifically, the same enzymes that break down alcohol in the liver often either Read More …
Until the end of the 19th century, nearly all science was done by amateurs. The first modern research university was Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876. Up until that time, universities were vehicles for transmitting established knowledge – divinely revealed wisdom at first, the humanistic classics later. They were not seen as engines for creating and Read More …
From Quora: Viruses have not evolved to become “resistant” to vaccines the way that bacteria have evolved to become resistant to antibiotics. Vaccines don’t attack viruses directly, they just prime our immune systems to do so. Our immune systems and viruses have been battling it out for hundreds of millions of years, and the likelihood Read More …
From Quora: “Excessive” is loaded term. Worse, it’s subjective and difficult to define. Let’s see if we can put it into some kind of context or framework that permits a useful discussion. Congress, always sensitive to public resentment over drug prices, had the GAO do a study on drug company profitability. The 1-page summary, which you should definitely Read More …
Innovations created in developed economies do not deprive less-developed economies of anything. More to the point, less-developed economies eventually get access to these innovations, and get them at prices that are cheaper than the prevailing prices in developed economies. Drugs are a good example of this dynamic. Many of us consider new drug prices to Read More …
A truism among early-stage investors is that “you don’t invest in technologies, you invest in people”. The idea is that a smart, resourceful team will find a way to succeed, even if their technology crashes hard on the rocks of reality. Great leaders, the thinking goes, will always find a way forward. That’s not a Read More …
None of the above. It’s Goldman Sachs. Or the Supreme Court. Take your pick. These parents weren’t buying their kids the best possible education, nor were they denying one to anyone else. The Ivies are great schools, but we have a lot of great universities in this country. The education you might get at Harvard Read More …
To anyone trained in medicine or biology, this question seems laughably naive. One’s impulse is to brush it off with a quick and curt answer. But it is a very good and important question because it distinguishes modern from ancient disease concepts. The notion that specific agents cause specific diseases—something that now seems blindingly obvious— Read More …
No one questions that antibiotic resistance has risen in the last 20 years and has contributed to a substantial number of deaths. But this is a high-level question, and it deserves a high-level answer. Antibiotics prevent death and suffering from bacterial infections. That’s the criterion by which the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy should be judged. Read More …