This week's dispatches from the Ministry of Intrigue
Hello, faithful reader.
We published the following fresh dispatches this week:
'Man Flu' (May) Exist
Sept. 5, 2024, 2:18 p.m.
The immune systems of men and women are known to display key differences. Men are, broadly speaking, more vulnerable to viral infections such as COVID and influenza. Women mount a stronger response to viruses yet are more prone to autoimmune diseases, such as lupus. But the extent to which these differences arise from genetics, hormones or other factors is not well understood.
New research, published on Wednesday in Nature, offers some clues. Scientists in Sweden studied a small group of transgender men who were assigned female at birth and were taking testosterone as part of gender-affirming care. The researchers found the participants underwent changes in two distinct immune cell pathways involved in the response to viral infection and in inflammation.
“This study supports that testosterone impedes and attenuates these antiviral responses [known as] interferon responses while promoting these more inflammatory responses,” says Dawn Newcomb, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who studies the role of sex hormones in immune function but was not involved in the new paper. “These results fit very nicely with what we’ve seen previously in male and female cells from cis individuals.” (The term cisgender, or cis, means having a gender that corresponds to the sex one was assigned at birth.)
— Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, How Testosterone Changes the Immune System in Trans Men
Admittedly, this is small study and needs more thorough follow-up, but combined with prior cisgender-focused research it suggests that the anecdotal “man flu” is exactly that.
I feel vindicated!
Open Source Pledge
Sept. 4, 2024, 6:25 p.m.
This is a very cool initiative being led by the fine folks at Sentry .
Open Source Pledge is a group of companies with a shared commitment to paying the maintainers of the Open Source software we all consume. We aim to prevent maintainer burnout and reduce flare-ups of high-profile security incidents such as XZ, Log4Shell, and Heartbleed. We invite all companies to join the Pledge.
— Open Source Pledge, About the Pledge
Companies joining the initiative have to commit to providing financial support to the projects they use. The minimum annual pledge to participate is $2000 per developer at their company. You can see which companies have already signed on, and their current pledge amounts on their members page .
And that's it!
Grave dust and falling leaves.