COVID-preventing superantibodies, people with superpowers, a drinkable cholera vaccine from rice, protecting paintings with graphene
Hello! How have you been?
Depending on the part of the world you are in you are likely facing hot or hotter weather right now. Climate change is here and it is a sobering thought that we will have to learn to live in the midst of unprecedented heat-waves.
Where I live the periodical cicadas that emerge for a few weeks after growing slowly for 17 years are gone and I find that I am saddened by their absence. I find solace in words written over 100 years ago—
Although the incessant concerts of the periodical cicadas persisting from morning until night became almost disquieting at times, I felt a positive sadness when I realized that the great visitation was over, and there was silence in the world again, and all were dead that had so recently lived and filled the world with noise and movement. It was almost a painful silence, and I could not but feel that I had lived to witness one of the great events of existence, comparable to the occurrence of a notable eclipse or the visitation of a great comet. Then again the event marked a definite period in my life, and I could not but wonder how changed would be my surroundings, my experiences, my attitude toward life, should I live to see them occur again seventeen years later.
H.A. Allard, The American Naturalist, 1920 (Vol 54. N.635)
COVID-19: super-antibodies and human genes
In COVID-related news this week, scientists have published a study in Nature on antibodies that are broadly specific against many different coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV-2). These antibodies also seem to be variant-resistant. As we continue to face more variants (and potentially new waves of infection), news of these antibodies is good, and a stepping stone to enhanced broad-spectrum treatments.
Studies of the genomes of many people has also led to the first high-resolution study of the genes that predispose people to more severe COVID-19. This study has identified around a dozen genes in people that are associated with worse outcomes of COVID-19.
Genetic superpowers in humans
For my column in Hindustan Times this week, I’ve picked up on a completely different trend in genome research- identifying people with genetic superpowers. The piece is available here for (click ‘skip’ if you’re not registered), and here’s an excerpt—
In Manoj Night Shyamalan’s film, Unbreakable, the protagonist David Dunn (played by Bruce Willis) survives a train crash, and soon learns that he is gifted with unique superpowers. Dunn has super-strength and can read the minds of others.
While the movie is fictional, I often wonder about people who have more mundane genetic superpowers. We all know people who can get by on a few hours of sleep, seemingly eat whatever they want to without gaining weight, learn a new language rapidly, run fast without breaking a sweat, and avoid taking sick days from work.
It’s quite difficult to pin down what proportion of genes, environment, and stochastic processes (in plain speak, dumb luck) play a part in our own lives. It’s also very difficult to move from a correlation between factors to actually finding a cause and effect for an observation.
But one of the things we can do in the age of big data is to start with an observation and then see what is associated with it. With the availability of massive amounts of genetic data, scientists are now able to scour through sequenced genomes for links between genes in bodies and outcomes in people. Often, the process yields no results, because there isn’t a clear association between one or few genes and an outcome. But this brute force approach is beginning to bear fruit.
Sea otters: skinny and hot.
Image via: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0
Sea otters are skinny, warm-blooded animals that swim in cold oceans. They’re small animals compared to say walruses. How do they do it without layers of fat? They eat a lot and are extremely energy inefficient. That's right they're inefficient.
Whether it is conducting electricity or building a house, inefficient energy conversion is usually the enemy. And if you recall some of the basics of thermodynamics, heat is the most easily dissipated form of energy.
A good way to think of this is to think of how hot traditional light bulbs (which require a lot of energy) get compared to cool LEDs.
Well, it turns out that sea otters have muscles that are the light bulbs of the sea. Sea otters have leaky mitochondria in their muscles that give off heat, which in turn keeps them warm. This work was just published in Science, but there’s a great summary at Science News you can read here.
Crazy but true—
While Captain Scott Kelly was at the International Space Station for nearly a year he faced hypercapnia (excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream).
That's because in zero-gravity there's a carbon dioxide minicloud that stays close to your face as you exhale. The solution is to move around more or to use a fan!
How to build a brain—
Here’s a great video on how neural networks are trying to mimic the function of the human brain. We are not at the stage where we can build brains yet, because that takes time and energy.
Here’s a parable from The Self-Assembling Brain by Peter Robin Hiesinger that explains it even better—
Once there was an alien who found an apple seed from earth. “This looks funny,” it said, “I wonder what it does?” The alien was very smart. In fact, it was the smartest alien there ever was, and it scanned the apple seed with the most sophisticated scanning machine that ever existed or that would ever exist. The scan worked well, and the alien got all the information there was in the seed. The alien immediately saw and understood the way the molecules were arranged, every single one of them, the genetic code, the entire information content of the DNA sequence. It was all there, and it was beautiful. There were patterns in the sequence, for which the computer provided a complete analysis. The computer calculated the most advanced mathematics and showed that the code was profound, it had meaning. But what did it do? And so the alien thought: “Now that I have all the information that could ever be extracted from the seed, I want to find out what information it can unfold in time.” And the alien took the seed and let it grow. The alien watched the tree’s growth with surprise and curiosity, saw the branches, the leaves and finally the apples. And the alien took an apple and said “I would never have guessed it would look like that.” And then it took a bite.
Moral of the story: You cannot build a brain. You have to grow it algorithmically. And that takes time and energy.
A drinkable cholera vaccine from rice—
Japanese scientists have created a promising cheap, room-temperature-stable cholera vaccine in rice. The engineered rice seeds are ground into powder and later suspended in salt solution. You drink the vaccine.
They key with any study of this nature is testing in people with diverse gut microbiota and matching with strains and clinical signs. This proof-of-concept study was published in Lancet Microbe.
Atomic-level painting protection—
A single-layer of an invisible “veil” made out of graphene covering paintings is enough to protect them from being discolored by oxygen, humidity, and ultraviolet light. Researchers tested out the material in new work published in Nature Nanotechnology. They subjected half of the painting to conditions resembling 200 years of museum display and found that it held up well compared to the other half.
And if you need to remove the ultrathin graphene layer, all you need to do is to rub it off with an eraser!
What else I’ve read—
A diet rich in fermented foods seems to boost immune responses via beneficial gut bacteria. What can the microbiome not do? (Research just published in "Cell")
NASA predicts a "wobble" in the moon's orbit may lead to record flooding on Earth. As if we needed more bad news!
Genome sequencing has identified a rare genetic variant in men that confers a 30% risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Very interesting and informative !! Making science interesting and fascinating .