The Ed's Up #127

The Most Promising Cancer Therapy in Decades Is About to Get Better

"The rise of immunotherapy has been one of the most startling and promising developments in cancer research for some time. After decades of false starts and dead ends, scientists have finally found effective ways of marshaling the immune system to destroy cancers. Some use drugs called “checkpoint inhibitors” to lift the natural brakes that restrain immune cells, allowing them to go to town on tumors. Others are extracting, engineering, and re-injecting the immune cells themselves. The results have been staggering. Advanced cancers have gone into complete remission. People who were given months to live are still here years later." (Image: Stefan Wermuth) 

How Viruses Infiltrated Our DNA and Supercharged Our Immune System

"Hundreds of millions of years ago, prehistoric viruses inserted their genes into the genomes of our ancestors. They found their way into eggs or sperm, and then into embryos. As they passed down from one generation to the next, they picked up mutations that disabled their ability to infect new cells. Eventually, they became permanent fixtures of our genomes, as much a part of our DNA as our own genes. Some of them have shaped the evolution of our immune system, are now controlling the activity of critical immunity genes. Which means that we defend ourselves from some viral infections with the repurposed remains of ancient viruses." (Image: NIAID)
 

Psychology’s Replication Crisis Can’t Be Wished Away

"It can be very easy to see this as an academic spat about turgid statistical matters like p-values, and degrees of freedom, and publication bias. It’s not. It’s about people’s lives. Their careers. Their passions. Their futures. Of all the things I’ve read (or written) about the (alleged) replicability crisis, few have driven this point home better than a post from the Michael Inzlicht at the University of Toronto, published Monday. It is unguarded, humane, and heartbreaking." (Image: William Hong) 
 

Viruses Have Their Own Version of CRISPR

"Some giant viruses have a CRISPR-esque immune system, which they use to defend themselves from other smaller viruses. It seems that the defenders steal the genes of the attackers, and use those ‘memorized’ sequences to tailor their own countermeasures.This is the latest in a string of discoveries that show how unexpectedly crazy the viral world really is. In the last 13 years, scientists have found giant viruses that outsize bacteria, viruses that parasitize other viruses, and now viruses with immune systems that defend themselves against more viruses. Arms races, it seems, have truly gone viral." (Image: Patrick Quinn-Graham) 
 

Where the Whale Things Are

"Whales, the biggest animals on the planet, are also among the hardest to find. They spend most of their time submerged and unseen. But not unheard: Whales are noisy animals that flood the oceans with songs, clicks, moans, and calls. And Purnima Ratilal from Northeastern University has developed a way of listening in on these calls to instantly detect, find, and classify whales, over 100,000 square kilometers of ocean—an area the size of Virginia or Iceland." (Image: Robbie Shade) 

 

This Caterpillar Builds a Protective Hat From Old Heads

"And then there’s Uraba lugens, an Australian moth colloquially known as the gum-leaf skeletoniser, and even more colloquially known as the Mad Hatterpillar. Like all caterpillars, it grows by shedding its hard outer shell before expanding the soft body beneath. But every time it does, it keeps the part of the shell that once enclosed its head. With every moult, the stack of head capsules grows, eventually becoming a tall, tapering tower. Yes, this caterpillar wears a hat built from its old heads." (Image: Donald Hobern) 

 

More good reads

• In this week’s episode of Flash Forward, Rose Eveleth’s amazing podcast, I talk about microbiomes, and in no way do I suggest or condone kidnapping Beyonce. 
• This lady can hear her eyeballs moving. An amazing story about a weird and debilitating condition. By Todd Bookman
• A year ago, The Dress showed us how complicated colour and colour vision really are. Adam Rogers dives into the rabbit hole again.
• How ancient coral fossils revealed the changing length of a year on Earth. By Kate Golembiewski
• Why we often make the same mistakes repeatedly. By Olga Khazan.  
• Why stress makes your hair fall out--after three months. A really interesting piece on the life cycle of hair, by Julie Beck

More good links will be released in tomorrow's linkfest on Not Exactly Rocket Science.

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And that's it! Thanks for reading.

-Ed