Sparkling water was invented by an English clergyman and chemist named Joseph Priestley. For that reason alone, it is worth reading this biography of the 18th century English scientist written by Steve Johnson: The invention of air.
Priestley discovered, among other things, oxygen.
Oxygen
The Priestley biography It is only the excuse to superficially touch on the fact that ideas do not flourish in geniuses, but in ecosystems, because Priestley exemplifies, as well as other scientists who revolutionized his time, that the idea of individual, excluded and special genius is a romantic idea that has little support. in the light of the history of ideas.
The invention of air: A discovery, a genius and his time (Noema)
Great advances have occurred thanks to epistolary communication, to cafeterias where groups of interdisciplinary intellectuals met, to institutions that forced their members to communicate with each other. And all of this has been multiplied by a million thanks to the best tool for connecting people and ideas: the Internet.
Still, the excuse for Priestley's biography contains enough pages and interesting ideas to be worth reading on its own. The invention of air. How, in addition to this vital journey, We also find an outline of these revolutionary ideas about how cultural paradigm shifts work. (or mental), this work by Steven Johnson, once again, is brilliant no matter where you look at it (and it has several facets to look at, like good diamonds).
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The news
Books that inspire us: 'The Invention of Air' by Steven Johnson
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
There are 58 others still to open.
This could explain why they’re so hard to ignore.
In a new study Published in Nature Medicine, researchers have studied four species of these seasonal coronaviruses over the past 35 years and have found that reinfection occurs frequently, about a year after the first episode.
While that doesn't necessarily say anything about the current global pandemic, it is not a good sign for hopes of long-term immunity in a population.
Immunity
Analyzing 513 serum samples collected since the 1980s from 10 healthy men living in Amsterdam, the researchers noted several spikes of antibodies related to coronaviruses. Each of these spikes was interpreted as a reinfection, and for the four seasonal coronaviruses studied, including HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-HKU1, the team found 3 to 17 infections per patient.
Some rare reinfections appeared as early as six months after the initial infection, but more commonly, they returned about a year later, 'indicating that protective immunity is short-lived.' To date, there are few confirmed cases of COVID-19 reinfection, so it is still too early to say how long acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2 may last.
Looking at other coronaviruses is one of our best clues, and unfortunately, this 35-year study suggests that immunity for many coronavirus infections is not only temporary, it's short-lived. Besides, authors say reinfection may be a common feature of all human coronaviruses.
The blood samples, which were collected every 3 months before 1989 and every 6 months after (barring an unexplained six-year gap in the data), show that most coronavirus infections in Amsterdam occurred in winter. With the northern hemisphere now firmly in autumn, that is an extremely worrying result if the new findings are applied to the current global pandemic. A very dark winter may be awaiting us.
It remains to be seen whether SARS-CoV-2 follows the same trend as other coronaviruses. But it appears that acquiring a lasting immune response from a vaccine could be difficult. We may need to receive regular updates, as we do with the seasonal flu.
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The news
Long-term immunity unlikely: 35 years of infection research suggests so
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
When Jared Diamond projected this book, The world until yesterdayr, he did it with a generous dose of ambition, as is usual in his previous books, such as Guns, germs and steel either Collapse.
Here Diamond, no less, addresses all aspects of human culture, of all the peoples of the world, during the last 11,000 years.
Civilizations
But what is the ultimate reason for investigating the ways of living of people of the past? Jared Diamond maintains that, although most of them will not contribute anything to us, because they have already been overcome, some solutions or ways of operating in traditional societies could perhaps be recovered to solve problems that plague us in modern societies.
To do this, Diamond has selected nine areas spread across the eleven chapters in order to illustrate how we can take advantage of our knowledge about traditional societies in different ways: the dangers and raising children, the treatment of the elderly, languages and polyglotism, healthy lifestyles, peaceful conflict resolution, and even issues that have to do with religion and spirituality. Finally, Diamond focuses two chapters on the controversial topic of war, among other things to discover that violence rates are better managed thanks to a modern State.
The world until yesterday: What can we learn from traditional societies? Pulitzer Prize for Weapons (Essay | History)
To x-ray everything previously stated, Diamond focuses on bands and tribes of small-scale farmers and hunter-gatherers, especially associated with New Guinea and other adjacent islands in the Pacific, which are the ones the author dominates, and because New Guinea offers great cultural diversity: it is the exclusive home of 1,000 of the approximately 7,000 languages that exist in the world, and It also houses the largest number of companies that, even today, remain outside the control of state governments.
Thus, guided by Diamond's erudite prose, we will discover how the Dani, the Fayu, the Daribi, the Enga, the Fore, the Hinihon, the Kaulong live, but also Australian tribes such as the Yolngu, the Kunai or the Wiil, to Eurasian tribes such as the Agta, the Aino and the Nganasan, and African tribes such as the Hadza, the Ikung or the Turkana.
The world until yesterday, then, is monumental, both in number of pages and in topics covered, although issues such as art, cognition, cooperative behavior, gender relations, marriage or sexual practices are missed (perhaps for a second delivery?). And, in addition, a greater development of the chapter dedicated to linguistics and, above all, to the analysis of the progressive decline in the diversity of languages, which has long seemed to me to be the weakest in the volume.
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The news
Books that inspire us: 'The World Until Yesterday' by Jared Diamond
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
It shouldn't be as strong as it is.
Made from a blend of two safe components that forms a thin film that is tasteless, colorless and odorless, completely biodegradable and non-toxic, this new biodegradable antibacterial wrap further protects food, between 2.5 and 8 times that of conventional conservation plastic, and has been developed by chemists from RUDN University.
Chemists at RUDN University developed the antibacterial films based on chitosan, a polysaccharide obtained from the shells of crabs or lower fungi.
Biodegradable antibacterial wrap
To check the properties of the substance, lChemists from RUDN University covered bananas with plastic film for 10 days. The fruits that were under the plastic film lost 3 times less weight and 8 times less vitamin C than those that were without it. Furthermore, after use, the film will degrade without causing harm to the environment.
The new film is produced from natural macromolecules, that is, polysaccharides, which are the "building material" of living organisms. Two substances derived from chitosan were used: the sodium salt of succinyl chitosan (SC-Na) and a triazole, betaine and chitosan compound (TBQ), which has antibacterial properties comparable to those of modern antibiotics.
As explained Andrey Kiritchenko, assistant of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of RUDN University:
We have obtained non-toxic chitosan derivatives with exceptional antibacterial activity similar to that of commercial antibiotics, and for this reason we hypothesized that the film resistance and antibacterial activity would increase significantly. As a base, we decided to use SC-Na salt, which has a high film-forming capacity. In addition, it is non-toxic and acts as an antioxidant, which is important to prolong the shelf life of perishable foods. By changing the TBC:SC-Na ratio, we have developed multifunctional plastic films with improved antibacterial, barrier and mechanical properties.
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The news
This new packaging extends its conservation between 2.5 and 8 times compared to conventional conservation plastic.
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.