Two wrongs don’t make a right. Two wrongs make a small, fist-sized fissure in the fabric of space-time, and when you gaze into it you hear Mozart’s Lacrimosa and see all the things you’re keeping from your significant other. If you lean in close—not too close—and squint your eyes, you can make out a faint outline of words in the void that read, “welcome to the Daily Dose”.
Well, the not-quite-daily Dose, actually. Still working on that name. Speaking of, if you missed it, definitely check out the update posted yesterday for some exciting news on the future of The Uptake. A lot of you have already sent in topics for this month’s ask a science journalist segment and I love your brains. Your weird, weird little brains. God you’re great. Love you weirdos.
In today’s news: a COVID-19 update and big news on teeny tiny neutrinos.
COVID-19 Update
Preliminary data from Gilead’s clinical trial into the effects of remdesivir in treating COVID-19 suggests that patients are responding to the treatment. Out of the 125 patients recruited into the University of Chicago Medicine arm of the trial that has been receiving infusions of remdesivir as treatment, many have shown rapid recovery with regard to both fever and respiratory symptoms, and almost all hospitalized patients treated with the drug have been discharged within a week. You can read more over at Stat.
Only two weeks after the figure passed 1 million, the total number of COVID-19 cases globally has now passed 2.1 million as of today, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Total deaths from COVID-19 infections have now reached over 140,000.
The Chinese government has started to impose stronger oversight of COVID-19 research findings and publications. The oversight has come in the form of government directives to several Chinese universities requiring researchers to get approval from their university’s academic committee, the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE), the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism, and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) before publishing or “publicly announcing results on the origin of the SARS-COV-2 virus, its transmission routes or treatments or vaccines”, according to a report from Nature. The news has been met with mixed response from researchers in China, some who praise the directives efforts towards mitigating the spread of poor-quality studies and sensationalized results into treatment efficacy, while some are concerned that the policies are an attempt to control the spread of information about the source of the outbreak. Scientific results on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, as well as results pointing to the origins of the outbreak coming out of China are both subject to oversight according to the directives. You can read more in the full story in Nature.
Big News On Little Particles
The T2K Experiment based in Japan has amassed compelling evidence pointing to significant behavioral differences between neutrinos—elementary particles that are abundant in the universe, so abundant that trillions are passing through your body as we speak—and their antimatter counterparts antineutrinos.
Neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate between three states or “flavors”, called muon, electron, and tau. However, as the T2K Experiment is finding, neutrinos and antineutrinos likely switch between these three flavors at different rates. This is significant, because any major asymmetry between how often neutrinos and antineutrinos switch flavors (btw I LOVE that the states are called flavors) could point to why we see so much more observable matter than antimatter in the universe, a question that remains a central challenge in physics.
The key to why this asymmetry could be an indicator lies not in the neutrinos/antineutrinos only, however. It also lies in its implications for their theoretical, super-heavy counterparts “sterile neutrinos” and their respective antimatter twins. In prevailing models regarding sterile neutrinos, the particles would likely oscillate (and by their theoretical properties, decay into smaller particles) in similar ways that neutrinos and antineutrinos do. So, if it is the case that neutrinos oscillate at dramatically higher rates than antineutrinos, the super-heavy sterile neutrinos would oscillate and decay at a faster rate than sterile antineutrinos, contributing to the significant asymmetry in the amount of matter vs antimatter we see in the universe today.
Does your brain hurt yet? Mine does. If you’re still curious about these tiny little guys and there tiny little ways and their not-so-tiny ramifications, check out Quanta Magazine for the full story and a look at one of the T2K Experiment’s badass neutrino detectors.
BONUS: The Distressing Saga of Me Realizing This Caterpillar Has A Parasitic Worm
In personal news, since I’ve been working out at home and don’t have sh*t else to do in the evenings, I’ve been working out 5 days a week lately and it’s been kicking my *ss (I don’t know why I’m censoring these cuss words like I care).
I do feel great though. So much more energy. Also my butt looks fantastic lately. Top tier butt, if I do say so myself. Not that I’m going outside for anyone to SEE IT. Maybe I’ll just start going on long runs in tight-fitting workout clothes.
Do you know what I miss? Being ogled. Can I just have a passerby briefly objectify me for a second please. Never thought I’d say that. This is, of course, not a statement on objectification in general. I personally would just like to be objectified a little right now. Preferably by a stranger. A hot stranger. Like, just a little bit. My friends objectify me all the time, with consent, and I love it. But there’s something about a random, hot stranger saying “nice ass” that sounds really nice right now.
Do you know what else I miss? Boba. God I want some fucking boba. Technically I have boba at home and could easily make it, but that’s not important and we’re not talking about that right now. I want to buy boba from a store that is not my home. Ugh.
Anyways, that’s it y’all. Be safe, stay well, kiss your pets, stay nerdy xoxo