The Ed's Up #209
Turning Piglets Into Personalized Avatars for Sick Kids
"When Charles Konsitzke and Dhanu Shanmuganayagam first met, they were both just trying to get some peace and quiet. It was early 2014, and they were representing the University of Wisconsin-Madison at a fancy event to promote the university’s research to local politicians. After hours of talking to senators, Shanmuganayagam was fried, and went for a walk to clear his head. That’s when he bumped into Konsitzke, an administrator at the University of Wisconsin’s Biotechnology Center. They introduced themselves, and discussed their work. Shanmuganayagam said that he ran a facility that rears miniature pigs, which are genetically engineered to carry mutations found in human genetic disorders. Scientists can study the mini-pigs to better understand those diseases. “And I said: I have a project for you,” Konsitzke recalls." (Image: Jeff Miller)
A New Kind of Soft Battery, Inspired by the Electric Eel
"In 1799, the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta fashioned an arm-long stack of zinc and copper discs, separated by salt-soaked cardboard. This “voltaic pile” was the world’s first synthetic battery, but Volta based its design on something far older—the body of the electric eel. Two centuries on, and batteries are everyday objects. But even now, the electric eel isn’t done inspiring scientists. A team of researchers led by Michael Mayer at the University of Fribourg have now created a new kind of power source that ingeniously mimics the eel’s electric organ. It consists of blobs of multicolored gels, arranged in long rows much like the eel’s electrocytes. To turn this battery on, all you need to do is to press the gels together." (Image: Thomas Schroeder)
40 Years Later, Some Survivors of the First Ebola Outbreak Are Still Immune
"Ebola is famously deadly, but not inevitably so. Around 12 percent of those who were infected in the Yambuku outbreak survived their brush with the disease, and many of them are still around today. They’ve lived through seven more documented Ebola outbreaks in the DRC, the latest of which took place this May, less than 350 kilometers away from Yambuku. They’ve watched from afar as the biggest Ebola outbreak in history ravaged West Africa. Compared to that epidemic, “the DRC’s outbreaks have been smaller and more isolated,” says Anne Rimoin at the University of California, Los Angeles, “and so too have these survivors. They’ve had no contact or follow-up.” They still bear the scars and social stigma of their experience with the virus. But they also carry defenses against it." (Image: Luc Gnago)
Stopping the Rise of Superbugs by Making Them Fight For Food
"Resistance, like any superpower, comes at a cost,” says Nina Wale, from the University of Michigan. For example, microbes could create pumps that flush out any killer drugs, but those pumps cost energy to build and maintain. These costs mean that, under normal conditions, resistant microbes grow more slowly than their susceptible peers, and are almost always outcompeted. But antibiotics tip the balance of this competition by finally giving the resistant microbes a huge advantage; their susceptible rivals die off, and they can finally take over.“That’s our in,” says Wale. “Competition is the force that keeps resistance down in nature. Maybe we can harness that competition to keep them down before they even get going.” She and her colleagues, led by Andrew Read at Pennsylvania State University, have devised a way of preventing the evolution of drug-resistant microbes, by putting them at a competitive disadvantage even when antibiotics are around.(Image: Francisco Bonilla)
Friends of the Ed's Up
This is a new section where I'm going to promote the work of people I care about--people who make incredible art that I think is worthy of your attention and support, but whose fierce intelligence is also match by a genuine warmth of spirit.
Story Collider features true personal stories about science. In the latest episode of the podcast, Andrew Oberle barely survives a chimpanzee attack while cosmologist Renee Hlozek turns to science after her father dies suddenly. Directors Liz Neeley and Erin Barker also run workshops teaching storytelling skills to scientists. And there are live shows coming up in New York (Jan 9), San Diego (Jan 11), Toronto (Jan 17), and Los Angeles (Jan 25).
Flash Forward is a podcast about the future run by Rose Eveleth. It's part radio drama, part science journalism, and a lot of fun. The latest episode features a world without plastic.
Gastropod is a food, science, and history podcast run by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley. The latest episode is on our long love affair with olive oil.
The Brain Scoop is a video show about natural history, museums, and occasionally taxidermy, hosted by Emily Graslie. The latest episode features highlights from the recent beaver dissection.
Climate Stories is a newsletter by Alice Bell, in which she writes wonderful weekly histories about the people of climate science. It's lively and fascinating. The latest one is about Augustin Mouchot, a man with an amazingly vertical moustache, and a vision for sunshine-power way ahead of his time.
Terrestrial is an environmental podcast by Ashley Ahearn about how people are coping in a world that is changing. It's top-notch journalism that brings fresh perspectives to a vital topic, The latest episode is about what happens when climate change makes it hard to breathe.
More good reads
- “There is nothing wrong—and indeed there is so much right—with making things weird.” Megan Garber on how sexual harassers have weaponized awkwardness, and how the rest of us need to reclaim it.
- “Burping in microgravity is probably not something you want to do a lot of." Marina Koren on food in space.
- Almost every strategy for keeping global warming below 2°C relies on a technology that’s almost imaginary. By Abby Rabinowitz and Amanda Simson.
- An important piece on the horrifying culture of sexual assault in science, and what people are trying to do about it. By Kayla Adley Webler
- “Chimps in zoos take human birth control pills and get human pregnancy tests.” Sarah Zhang on the tricky art of telling if a captive animal is pregnant.
- “I thought, you should not call an animal weird,” he says. “Let the animals tell you who is weird.” On the evolution of animal nervous systems.
- "Even as white voters by and large stuck with Moore, Democrats were saved by a community already fighting against the grain to be heard in the din of democracy." How black voters helped Doug Jones to victory in the Alabama special election.
- “Statements like “Black women will save us” leave a bitter aftertaste because these expressions forget Black women’s social vulnerability. There is little consideration for the obstacles Black women face to survive and save ourselves in an oppressive society. In the end, the projection of superhumanity onto a marginalized person becomes another form of dehumanization.” Jordan McDonald on a common refrain after the Alabama election.
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And that's it. Thanks for reading.
- Ed