Why does COVID-19 seem to have so many more variants than other pandemic-inducing pathogens? |
- Why does COVID-19 seem to have so many more variants than other pandemic-inducing pathogens?
- AskScience AMA Series: Testing Your Poop to Support Public Health: We Are Wastewater Surveillance Experts, Ask Us Anything!
- Does the sun have tides?
- Is there any evidence that psilocybin can harm the brain long term?
- Why would vaccines target the spike protein, when it's the most mutable protein in covid? If the spike protein isn't the most mutable, why don't they target multiple proteins?
- Why can the body recover from a Covid-19 infection long before a person is considered fully protected via vaccine?
- Do we name flu variants like we do for Covid or does no one bother because no one cares?
- Does Mars really have a rock-cycle based on climate change? Is it still active today?
- How Are CD4+ T Cells Activated by APCs from mRNA Vaccines?
- What happens when different variants of the same virus infect a host? Do they share the space and multiply or do they compete on a molecular level?
- Why is there a finite limit on the evaporation rate of a liquid at infinite temperature?
- Positron beam for medical purposes?
- How does the nervous system control how MUCH a muscle contracts?
- Do manual transmissions or automatic transmissions get better gas mileage? Why?
- At what point does something become a new species, where is the line?
- Where would the Heisenberg uncertainty principle apply in this case?
| Why does COVID-19 seem to have so many more variants than other pandemic-inducing pathogens? Posted: 30 Nov 2021 02:26 AM PST To clarify, the title is merely my perception of the situation, not an assertion of fact! Basically it feels like compared to other pandemics in history, such as Spanish flu, the pandemic resulting from this particular coronavirus has included many more variants and possibly is more long lasting. My guess is that compared to former pandemics, we are simply a lot better at identifying new variants, so prior similar episodes were lumped into one single pathogen? As for the longevity, it may be because we're actually a lot better at preventing death and spread than in previous pandemics, there are more uninfected people for a longer period of time leaving them open to infection for longer? These are just some of my guesses, but i'm curious if my perception is just simply incorrect or if not, what the actual reasons are behind these phenomena. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 30 Nov 2021 04:00 AM PST Let's talk wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE)! WBE uses wastewater (aka, sewage) sampling to track public health at a population level with geographic specificity. While it has been around for decades, wastewater surveillance really entered primetime as a tool for tracking the spread of COVID-19. By detecting cases before symptoms emerge, wastewater surveillance can act as an early warning system for outbreaks and even variant detection, helping local organizations and governments keep ahead of the curve. In the U.S., the CDC and HHS created the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) to monitor community spread. Similar efforts have cropped up around the world including the Sewage Analysis CORe group Europe (SCORE) and the Global Water Pathogen Project (GWPP). Many of the resulting studies can be visualized using the COVID-19 WBE Publication Map. At this point, you may be wondering: How on earth can scientists detect trace amounts of a virus in municipal wastewater? The average American uses approx. 82 gallons of water at home every day! Despite this volume, tools like Droplet Digital PCR allows scientists to detect one infected individual in 10,000, as many as six days before they would test positive via a nasal swab. There are so many more techniques, programs, and applications (incl. tracking other infectious diseases, drug use, etc.) possible with WBE. We can speak to topics such as:
Feel free to start sharing your questions below. We'll be answering them live today (11/30) starting at 5:00 p.m. EDT (2 p.m. PDT, 22 UT). A bit more background on us:
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2021 11:47 AM PST I am homeschooling my daughter and we are learning about the tides in science right now. We learned how the sun amplifies the tides caused by the moon, and after she asked if there is anything that causes tides to happen across the surface of the sun. Googling did not provide an answer, so does Jupiter or any other celestial body cause tidal like effects across the sun? [link] [comments] |
| Is there any evidence that psilocybin can harm the brain long term? Posted: 30 Nov 2021 06:06 AM PST Hi there It seems like there is so much data nowadays that psychedelics can help your brain -- increasing neuropathways, etc. Is there any data that shows long-term damage to the brain, like other drugs (ie meth) do? At what point does micro dosing become harmful.. if at alll? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Nov 2021 06:59 PM PST I was scrolling through popular and ran into this post (yeah I know, it's from conspiracy). Anyway, upon looking at the sources, it seems like future variants of covid will have more variation in the spike protein. Also, it looks like the spike protein had more mutations before vaccines were even accessible yet. As a matter of fact, the N-protein had MORE selective pressure from the presence of natural immunity at the time (because it was the only type of immunity) and STILL was less mutable than the spike protein. And now, the spike protein is mutating even MORE with the vaccine. Could I be looking at the article incorrectly? It's like the vaccine is doomed to some (un)planned obsolescence when using the spike protein. So I have two questions, why would they select the most mutating protein, and why would the selective pressures from natural immunity not be as strong? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 30 Nov 2021 10:49 AM PST If a routine Covid-19 infection takes a person's body roughly 2 weeks to suppress the virus, why does a fully-vaccinated person take over a month to achieve similar protection? [link] [comments] |
| Do we name flu variants like we do for Covid or does no one bother because no one cares? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 10:52 PM PST Does the flu get a new non technical name every year or does no one bother because no one cares? [link] [comments] |
| Does Mars really have a rock-cycle based on climate change? Is it still active today? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 09:30 PM PST I recently attended a lecture about the findings of the Curiosity Rover, and one thing mentioned was that the rock cycle found on the planet's surface was based upon wind, aquifers, and atmospheric changes in the past. I'm curious to know if that's really true, and how it works (as it was only mentioned), and if it could still be active today. [link] [comments] |
| How Are CD4+ T Cells Activated by APCs from mRNA Vaccines? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 11:04 PM PST Edit: answered here I've been reading a book on immunology (Molecular and Cellular Immunology 10th ed. by Abbas) to try and get a better understanding of the immune system. I've been using the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (and other vaccines) to get a better clinical understanding of what I'm learning from the book. One thing I'm having trouble with is how the CD4+ T cells are activated by APCs like dendritic cells. I understand that the mRNA enters the dendritic cell where it is transcribed into the spike protein, which then gets broken down by proteasomes into peptide fragments that are shuffled into the endoplasmic reticulum for complexation with type I MHC. This activates CD8+ which is great, it makes a lot of sense for a viral infection, but if the spike protein sits in the cytosol of the APC then how is it endocytosed for Type II MHC proteins that activate CD4+ T cells?? As I understand it, the two pathways for type I & type II MHC antigen presentation depend on the location of the antigen for processing, with type I MHC stemming from cytosolic antigens and type II MHC stemming from endosomes (e.g., bacterial cells that were gobbled up by macrophages).Does the protein antigen transcribed by mRNA leave the dendritic cell so that it can be captured and endocytosed by other antigen-presenting cells? Or is there another way for cytosolic antigen to enter the MHC-II pathway? I hope that question makes sense, thank you. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Nov 2021 05:25 PM PST This is obviously in reference to the new variant discovered recently. But I think it applies to other viruses as well. [link] [comments] |
| Why is there a finite limit on the evaporation rate of a liquid at infinite temperature? Posted: 30 Nov 2021 02:51 AM PST I am curious why there is a finite evaporation rate for any liquid at infinite temperature? The evaporation rate relates to the vapor pressure of a liquid as a function of the liquids temperature. This follows a exponential dependence at saturates to 1 at infinite temperature, implying that the vapor pressure also saturates at infinite temperature. This is based off the dependence observed from the Clausius Clapeyron Equation What is the physical interpretation of this finite limit to the vapor pressure of a liquid and thus its evaporation rate? Does the CC Equation not hold when approaching finite temperature? Is there something else that I am missing to explain this finite limit? Note: this seems to still hold in a vacuum system (which is what I am working with). So I am unsure about the idea that this saturation comes from condensation [link] [comments] |
| Positron beam for medical purposes? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 08:17 PM PST I understand that the engineering and physics of making such a device are in question, but hypothetically if one had access to a positron beam, as opposed to a classical electron beam, could you theoretically target cancer cells and essentially disintegrate the constituent molecules via annihilation of their bonded electrons? Or would a beam like this be too destructive, damaging too much non cancerous tissue? OR is the probability of a beam of this type intersecting a bonded electron too low for any meaningful amounts of annihilation occur? I know it's a little silly but I'd love to hear what you guys think [link] [comments] |
| How does the nervous system control how MUCH a muscle contracts? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 02:58 PM PST I understand that a signal travels from the brain, through the nerve, to the muscle through a neuromuscular junction, but how does it differentiate between, say, a gentle pinch of two fingers, and as much strength as the muscle can give? [link] [comments] |
| Do manual transmissions or automatic transmissions get better gas mileage? Why? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 09:31 AM PST I hear manual transmissions used to be more efficient, but that modern automatic transmissions have improved to the point that they're equal or better. Is this true? Why is one or the other more efficient? [link] [comments] |
| At what point does something become a new species, where is the line? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 02:48 PM PST |
| Where would the Heisenberg uncertainty principle apply in this case? Posted: 29 Nov 2021 01:50 PM PST Imaging shooting an electron at a detector. After the electron hits the detector, we know its exact location the exact moment it hits the detector. But we can also determine its velocity since we can measure the time it takes for the electron to travel the distance between the electron gun and detector. Thus, we would be able to calculate the electron's position and velocity the exact moment the electron hits the detector. Of course, I'm assuming that the electron doesn't change speed or direction as it is shot. But if there is no interference and the experiment were to occur in a vacuum, why would it differ from its course? [link] [comments] |
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