Swampy Science Social Club

03/17/2020

For obvious reasons, we won't be meeting for a while. Stay safe and we'll see each other on the other side!!

12/29/2019

" “Regulations come and go, but the thinning out of scientific capacity in the government will take a long time to get back,” said Joel Clement, a former top climate-policy expert at the Interior Department who quit in 2017 after being reassigned to a job collecting oil and gas royalties. He is now at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group."

This article lists ways that science is being destroyed despite congress's pushback: 1." eliminate individual research projects not explicitly protected by Congress." 2. Move entire departments: "Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced in June he would relocate two key research agencies to Kansas City from Washington:" 'The exodus has led to upheaval." 3."the administration has challenged established scientific research." 4. A"n Exodus of Expertise:...After her project was killed, Dr. Smith resigned. "

In three years, the administration has diminished the role of science in policymaking while disrupting research projects nationwide. Experts say the effects could be felt for years.

12/13/2019

Older climate models pass temperature test
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6470/1174.full
Older climate models, even those created half a century ago, faithfully predict recorded increases in temperature, a study has found—suggesting scientists can trust model predictions of future warming

SCI COMMUN # # # Climate science ![][1] Record high temperatures across Europe this summer sent people wading in fountains in Paris. PHOTO: SAMUEL BOIVIN/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES Older climate models, even those created half a century ago, faithfully predict recorded increases in temperatur...

11/29/2019

No Swampy Science in November/December 2019. Hope to resume in January, 2020

10/29/2019

"The initiative has collected over 140,000 biological samples from animals and found over 1,000 new viruses, including a new strain of Ebola. Predict also trained about 5,000 people in 30 African and Asian countries, and has built or strengthened 60 medical research laboratories, mostly in poor countries."

Predict, a government research program, sought to identify animal viruses that might infect humans and to head off new pandemics.

07/04/2019

here is the primary reference:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10366-y

This is great progress. Obviously, still a mouse model. Also, it doesn't address cryptic infection sites in the primary host.

05/28/2019

A Billion-Year-Old Fungus May Hold Clues to Life’s Arrival on Land

A cache of microscopic fossils from the Arctic hints that fungi evolved long before plants.

05/20/2019

Benefits of sequencing all mosquito and axolotl genomes:

“new details about genes that let some mosquitoes resist certain insecticides.”

“previously unknown targets for a major class of insecticides.”

“genetic variants that prevent some Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from infecting people with dengue,”

“overproduce males”

“Axolotls can replace “almost anything you can cut off of them,”

“salamander can also heal large wounds without scarring.’

NEW YORK (AP) — Just about every week, it seems, scientists publish the unique DNA code of some creature or plant. Just in February, they published the genome for the strawberry, the paper mulberry tree, the great white shark and...

05/01/2019

No May Meeting of Swampy Science Social Club. We will resume in June.

04/12/2019

Better living through genomic research.
Uses a Monoclonal Antibody to block "sclerostin" which is a naturally occuring human protein that normally functions to stop bone regeneration.

In clinical trials, Evenity substantially increased bone density and prevented fractures more effectively than available treatments, according to the drug makers’ findings.

04/03/2019