Words about science and hiking
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 …
The FDA today cleared a new drug for treating influenza, the first in 20 years. Xofluza (baloxovir) appears to have about the same efficacy as oseltamivir in reducing symptoms of patients with uncomplicated influenza infections. Maybe a little better: From Baloxavir Marboxil for Uncomplicated Influenza in Adults and Adolescents Baloxavir attacks a different target (RNA replication) Read More …
I tend to be pretty dismissive of predictions of the superbug apocalypse. Yes, antibiotic resistance is a real problem and causes real deaths now and will cause even more later. But it is a pretty slow-moving sort of apocalypse and there are lots of changes and adaptations that we can make to slow it down. Read More …
No one knows for sure why only eucarya form large multicellular organisms (bacteria can form small ones), but we can make a few observations that limit the scope of plausible answers: Large multicellular organisms are a fairly recent phenomenon. The eucaryal lineage is thought to go back perhaps 2.7B years[1] , but the first large multicellular Read More …
When I was in grad school (the 80s), fungal viruses were thought to be exceedingly rare. This was a problem for aspiring yeast molecular biologists, because viral transduction [1] was still the predominant form of genetic engineering of bacteria, and the yeast folks wanted to get in the game. But it turns out that fungal viruses – mycoviruses – Read More …
There is some evidence that it does. A meta-analysis of three high-dose zinc trials found the following: Zinc acetate lozenges shortened the duration of • nasal discharge by 34% • nasal congestion by 37% • sneezing by 22% • scratchy throat by 33% • sore throat by 18% • cough by 46% • Zinc lozenges Read More …
As with any other viral infection, the principal methods are direct detection of the virus or detection of antibodies generated in response to viral infection. Direct detection is done by detecting viral proteins or nucleic acids (DNA or RNA). Because nucleic acids can be amplified by PCR and similar technologies, these tests are usually the Read More …
There is a lot that we don’t know about the microbial world, but we do know that it is rich and diverse and full of surprises. Nobody imagined that viruses could be as large as bacteria until somebody did and started looking for them. Before long, they found giant viruses. But although there are indeed bacteria Read More …