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For the last two decades, I’ve sat in the middle of the clarinet section of orchestras, oblivious to the possibility of microbes swirling around me amidst the melodies and harmonies that fill the air. I didn’t once think about the potential spread of pathogens from another player’s instrument. That is, not until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
There have been few anecdotal cases of infectious disease transmission in the orchestral setting and we know little about how air travels when it leaves wind instruments. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, aerosol researchers and eager orchestras teamed up to determine one thing: can orchestras, particularly the wind section, perform safely during the COVID-19 pandemic? (more…)
Vaccines in the past typically work by using a weakened virus or a purified viral protein from the virus to stimulate our immune response. But, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines we’ve been hearing about work a bit differently. Instead of containing viral protein, the vaccines contain mRNA, which instructs your cells to make the viral protein that will stimulate the immune system. Let’s dig deeper.
Understanding mRNA and the central dogma of biology
In order to understand how the COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech work, we first should get to know mRNA. mRNA stands for “messenger RNA” because that’s what it is, a messenger or an intermediate between DNA and protein. In the central dogma of biology, genetic information flows from DNA to mRNA to protein and it is these proteins that perform a variety of actions in an organism.
There are many analogies out there used to explain the central dogma of biology, but because I’m into baking, I’ll go with making the sponge for a cake. FIrst, I’ll need a recipe. The recipe (DNA) holds the instructions to make the cake and it lives in my cookbook (the genome). Since I don’t want to take the cookbook into the kitchen and get flour and batter all over it, I handwrite a copy of the recipe to bring with me. This copy is like the mRNA. Finally, I’ll use the copy of the instructions to make my cake (protein). (more…)
A dog’s nose knows, and it might just know when you’re emitting the scent of infectious disease. With its 300 million scent receptors, the dog’s most recent detective work involves COVID-19.
Dogs are identifying COVID-19 cases in airports
You might have seen the many news stories about dogs sniffing out COVID-19 at the Helsinki airport and at airports in the UAE. It takes about 10 seconds per sample. And the best part? No nasal swabs needed. (more…)
As COVID-19 spreads around the world, more and more things such as conferences, schools, and large events such as SXSW are being canceled - an effort to halt the spread of the virus and reduce the strain on our healthcare system. Meanwhile, dangerous notions circulate: the idea that nearly everyone will get COVID-19 so distancing measures are irrelevant or the idea that we might as well just get it and be done with it.
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The vineyard becomes the lab in investigations of Botrytis cinerea. It’s a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” type of fungus because it causes two very different types of infections. It produces sweet wine grapes during noble rot but causes the plant’s demise in grey mold.
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