# life: Black Death way revisited, the hypothesis, by Parag.

<< Good afternoon to everyone online and in the room. (..) Since yesterday, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Nigeria have all reported their first cases. All these cases have links to Italy. 24 cases have been exported from Italy to 14 countries, and 97 cases have been exported from Iran to 11 countries. >>  

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19. WHO. Feb 28, 2020.

https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---28-february-2020

<< A striking overlap exists between the path of today's viral spread and the path of the Black Death in the 1300s. >>

<< It is, of course, far too soon to make such dire predictions about Covid-19. But a striking overlap exists between the path of today's viral spread and the path that emerged in the 1300s. >>

<< The 14th-century plague is said to have originated in northwestern China, with bacteria contracted from marmots. Hebei Province bore the brunt of China’s plague fatalities, with 5 million of its residents perishing in the 1330s. Making its way westward via Silk Road merchants and caravans, the plague took several years to reach Persia, where it killed the Khan overlord Abu Said as well as half the population. In 1347, it entered Europe via Italy’s port of Genoa. >>

<< Now compare that to what we’re seeing today with Covid-19. This time around, the source of illness may have been pangolins or bats instead of marmots. It started in Wuhan, which just happens to be Hebei's capital. The coronavirus reached Iran in a couple of weeks, and so far has infected hundreds of people, even the country’s deputy health minister. Next to Iran, the next worst outbreak is in Italy, with more than 300 cases and rising quickly- and likely spreading through Europe exactly as the plague did centuries ago. >>

<< It is, perhaps no coincidence that, in the past two decades, China has been the origin of SARS, the swine flu, and now the Covid-19 coronavirus. Nor should we be surprised that Iran and Italy have emerged, once more, as waypoints for pandemic spread. What do Iran and Italy have in common today? They are two major anchors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative- also known as the 21st century’s new Silk Roads. >>

Parag Khanna. IDEAS. Covid-19 Is Traveling Along the New Silk Road. Wired. Feb 28, 2020.

https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-is-traveling-along-the-new-silk-road/

Also

keyword 'virus' by FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=virus

keyword 'virus' by Notes

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=virus

# life: fundamental lesson (also) in Economics, don't squeeze snakes and bats, please.

<< Global shares tumbled further on Friday, on worries that the economic fallout from the global spread of the coronavirus may be more severe than previously expected. >>

Chong Koh Ping.  More Markets Head Toward Corrections as Coronavirus Spooks Investors. Indexes in Tokyo and Seoul extend losses, putting them on track to join U.S. benchmarks in correction territory. By Feb 27, 2020 11:59 pm ET.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-markets-head-toward-correction-territory-as-coronavirus-spooks-investors-11582864550

<< PERFORMANCE  5 Day   -11.82% >>

Dow Jones Industrial Average. (Last Updated: Feb 27, 2020 5:20 p.m. EST)

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia

Also

keyword "snake" in FonT & Notes

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=snake

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=snake

keyword "bat" in FonT 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=bat

# life: inside the mysterious (i.e. secret) Yunnan cave, a key to the bizarre jump of the Chinese covid-19 virus

<< In 2004, deep in the wilderness of China’s Yunnan province, a group of scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered a cave full of wild bats carrying hundreds of SARS-related viruses. Their work, published in a draft paper in 2005, ( Science. 2005 Oct 28;310(5748):676-9. Epub 2005 Sep 29.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16195424 ) unearthed the link between SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and bats for the first time. >>

<< Now the virologist who led that study, Shi Zhengli, has revealed one of the strains found in that cave - the exact location of which is a closely guarded secret - is almost identical to the 2019-nCoV coronavirus which has so far killed at least 1,115 people and infected more than 45,000 worldwide. >>

<< Professor Shi ran the genome sequence of 2019-nCoV - now officially known as COVID-19 - through the bat-related virus database she built up over ten years and found it was a 96 per cent match to a virus found in the droppings of horseshoe bats. >>

Marnie O’Neill. Mysterious bat cave in Chinese wilderness could hold key to coronavirus. news.com.au Feb 13, 2020.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/mysterious-bat-cave-in-chinese-wilderness-could-hold-key-to-coronavirus/news-story/530063aeb9de7020e626f1c4839b9777

Also

Zhou, P., Yang, X., Wang, X. et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7. Jan 29, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7

Human uses of bats (also in chinese traditional medicine). Wikipedia. Last edited 11 days ago by Enwebb.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_uses_of_bats

Bat as food. Wikipedia. Last edited 7 days ago by Enwebb.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food

# gst: NS3, how viruses self-cripple their genome replication machinery

<< An interdisciplinary team of researchers (..) has used computational chemistry, biochemistry and virology to uncover new information on how viruses such as West Nile, dengue and Zika replicate. Based on their research, the team said these viruses appear to cripple their own genome replication machinery.  >>

<< Nonstructural Protein 3 - or NS3 - in flaviviruses, (..) cause a number of diseases in humans. NS3 is a key enzyme that these viruses use to copy their genomes. >>

<< Most vaccines are developed by finding random mutations that slow down virus growth, (..) By understanding how viral enzymes like NS3 work in great detail, we can use that information to rationally design new mutant viruses that replicate less well and act better as a vaccine, without having to rely on chance to make the vaccine. This can help develop vaccines more rapidly and precisely. >> Brian Geiss.

New details on how a viral protein puts the brakes on virus replication. Colorado State University.  Feb 7, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-viral-protein-virus-replication.html

Kelly E. Du Pont, Russell B. Davidson,  et al. Motif V regulates energy transduction between the flavivirus NS3 ATPase and RNA-binding cleft. The Journal of Biological Chemistry 295, 1551-1564. Feb 7, 2020.

http://m.jbc.org/content/295/6/1551

Also

keyword 'NS3 enzyme' in ncbi

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/?term=NS3+enzyme

# drugs: the inhibitor MCC950 of NLRP3, a small molecule tested against many large diseases

<< It seems too good to be true: a single drug that could treat humanity's worst afflictions, including atherosclerosis, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and arthritis. All of these diseases have one thing in common-they involve an inflammatory protein called NLRP3. >>

The molecule << MCC950 blocks NLRP3 with high specificity in the lab. However, a small clinical trial of the compound by Pfizer showed weaker potency than expected, as well as liver damage at high doses. Some companies are now using MCC950 as a starting point to design safer and more effective molecules, while others are trying to find inhibitors unrelated to the compound. Currently, several NLRP3 inhibitors with a range of mechanisms are in preclinical, Phase I and Phase II trials >>

One drug, many diseases. American Chemical Society. Feb 19, 2020. 

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-drug-diseases.html

Ryan Cross. Could an NLRP3 inhibitor be the one drug to conquer common diseases? Chemical & Engineering News. Vol 98, Issue 7. Feb 17, 2020

https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/drug-discovery/Could-an-NLRP3-inhibitor-be-the-one-drug-to-conquer-common-diseases/98/i7

Also 

keyword 'NLRP3' in ncbi.nih.gov

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/?term=NLRP3

keyword 'MCC950' in ncbi.nih.gov

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/?term=MCC950

# life: the fate of humans and insects intertwine

<< The fate of humans and insects intertwine, especially through the medium of plants. >>

Michael J.Samways, Philip S.Barton, et al. Solutions for humanity on how to conserve insects. Biological Conservation. Volume 242, 108427,  Review. Feb 9, 2020.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719317793

Damian Carrington. Fates of humans and insects intertwined, warn scientists. Experts call for solutions to be enforced immediately to halt global population collapses. Feb 20, 2020.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/20/fates-humans-insects-intertwined-scientists-population-collapse

Also

the beetle Carabaeus lamarcki, dancer and sky analyzer.  May 14, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/05/s-behav-beetle-carabaeus-lamarcki.html

# brain: lizard, an ancient dreamer (2)

<< Reptiles have a brain area previously suspected to play a role in mammalian higher cognitive processes, and establish its role in controlling brain dynamics in sleep. >>

<< The fact that we find a claustrum homolog in reptiles suggests that the claustrum is an ancient structure, likely present in the brains of the common vertebrate ancestor of reptiles and mammals, (..) While our results have not answered the question as to whether the claustrum plays a role in consciousness or higher cognitive functions, they indicate that it may play an important role in the control of brain states (such as in sleep), due to ascending input from the mid- and hindbrain, to its widespread projections to the forebrain and to its role in sharp-wave generation during slow-wave sleep, >> Gilles Laurent

Hidden away: An enigmatic mammalian brain area revealed in reptiles. Max Planck Society.  Feb 13, 2020

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-hidden-enigmatic-mammalian-brain-area.html

Hiroaki Norimoto, Lorenz A. Fenk, et al. A claustrum in reptiles and its role in slow-wave sleep. Nature volume 578, pages 413–418. Feb 12, 2020

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-1993-6

Also

keyword 'lizard' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=lizard

# lang: information management (encoding reliability) in bird communications (among wild redbreasted nuthatches, Sitta canadensis)

<< Every social network has its fake news. And in animal communication networks, even birds discern the trustworthiness of their neighbors, >>

<< This is the first time people have shown that nuthatches are paying attention to the source of information, and that influences the signal they produce and send along, (..) Everybody is listening to everybody else in the woods, >> Erick Greene.

Courtney Brockman. Researchers study how birds retweet news. University of Montana. Feb 14, 2020. 

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-birds-retweet-news.html

<< nuthatches discriminate between direct and indirect, or public information, and this is reflected in the acoustic structure of their alarm calls. >>

Nora V Carlson, Erick Greene,  Christopher N Templeton. Nuthatches vary their alarm calls based upon the source of the eavesdropped signals. 

Nat Commun 11, 526. Jan 27, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14414-w

Also

the question is: Humans vs Woodstock, who is the smarter? Jun 26, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/06/s-brain-question-is-humans-vs-parrots.html

keyword 'bird' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=bird

# gst: apropos of 'wobbly' entities

<< As Earth rotates along its axis, it wobbles a little bit. This wobbling comes, in part, from how mass is distributed across the planet. Nuclear physics researchers have now observed this same type of wobbling in Au187-a gold isotope that lives for just eight minutes.  >>

Gold's wobbly nucleus: What the short-lived Au187 isotope teaches us about fundamental science research. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Feb 12, 2020.

https://phys.org/news/2020-02-gold-nucleus-short-lived-au187-isotope.html

<< This is the first experimental evidence for longitudinal wobbling bands where the expected signature partner band has also been identified, and establishes this exotic collective mode as a general phenomenon over the nuclear chart. >>

N. Sensharma, U. Garg, et al.  Longitudinal Wobbling Motion in 

187Au. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 052501 Feb 5, 2020

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.052501

# behav: how (and when) multiple bird species fly and feed together, like a K-pop band

<< Birds of a feather don't always flock together: Peer into a forest canopy, and you will likely spot multiple bird species flying and feeding together, a phenomenon most spectacular in the Amazon where 50 species may travel as a unit. But are birds in these mixed flocks cooperating with one another or competing?  A new study suggests both. >>

<< Species kept competition within the flock low, however, by differentiating their foraging technique, their choice of hunting spot or the general distance they kept from a tree trunk. >>

Natalie Van Hoose. How bird flocks with multiple species behave like K-pop groups. Florida Museum of Natural History.  Feb 12, 2020

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-bird-flocks-multiple-species-k-pop.html

Harrison H Jones, Mitchell J Walters, Scott K Robinson. Do similar foragers flock together? Nonbreeding foraging behavior and its impact on mixed-species flocking associations in a subtropical region.  The Auk, ukz079.  doi: 10.1093/auk/ukz079. Feb 12, 2020.

https://academic.oup.com/auk/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/auk/ukz079/5731484

k-pop band  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-pop

# life: Potus race, a convergence between manual and electronic voting: 'to explain precisely' ...

<< The mistakes do not appear intentional, but they raise questions about whether there will ever be a completely precise accounting. >>

<< Results from the Iowa Democratic caucuses were delayed by "quality control checks" on Monday night. Days later, quality control issues have not been resolved. >>

Nate Cohn, Josh Katz, et al.  Iowa Caucus Results Riddled With Errors and Inconsistencies.  NYT. Feb. 6, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/upshot/iowa-caucuses-errors-results.html

<< It's been handled incompetently from our perspective, and we'll be asking them to take a look at some of these obvious discrepancies that have affected our count and I think after it is all said and done, it should be the case that we have the same number of national delegates as Pete Buttigieg, >> Faiz Shakir. 

Jennifer Agiesta, Dan Merica, Ryan Nobles and Paul LeBlanc. Buttigieg gets the most delegates and Sanders comes in second, Iowa Democratic Party says. CNN. 0053 GMT (0853 HKT). Feb 10, 2020.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/09/politics/iowa-democratic-party-precincts-review/index.html

Also ('to explain precisely')

2151 - a voting machine (to explain precisely). Notes. Jan 15, 2008.

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2008/01/2151-voting-machine-to-explain.html

Also

keyword  'explain precisely' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=explain+precisely

# gst: sand dunes 'communication' via turbulent swirls

<< Even though they are inanimate objects, sand dunes can 'communicate' with each other. A team (..) has found that as they move, sand dunes interact with and repel their downstream neighbours. Using an experimental dune 'racetrack', (they) observed that two identical dunes start out close together, but over time they get further and further apart. This interaction is controlled by turbulent swirls from the upstream dune, which push the downstream dune away.  >>

Sand dunes can 'communicate' with each other. University of Cambridge. 

 Feb 4, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-sand-dunes.html

Karol A. Bacik, Sean Lovett, et al. Wake Induced Long Range Repulsion of Aqueous Dunes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 054501. Feb 4, 2020.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.054501

Also

keyword 'sand' in Notes

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=sand

# chem: more on the weirdness of water, "T" and "non-T" Tetrahedral arrangements

<< the unusual properties of liquid water, if compared with other liquids, has puzzled us for centuries because the basic structure of liquid water has remained unclear and has continued to be a matter of serious debate. >>

AA << show that there are two overlapped peaks hidden in the apparent “first diffraction peak” of the structure factor. One of them (ordinary peak) corresponds to the neighboring O–O [Oxygen-Oxygen bond] distance as in ordinary liquids, and the other (anomalous peak) corresponds to a longer distance. >>

the << anomalous peak arises from the most extended period of density wave associated with a tetrahedral water structure and is to be identified as the so-called first sharp diffraction peak >>

<< In contrast, the ordinary peak arises from the density wave characteristic of local structures lacking tetrahedral symmetry. This finding unambiguously proves the coexistence of two types of local structures in liquid water. >>

Rui Shi, Hajime Tanaka. Direct Evidence in the Scattering Function for the Coexistence of Two Types of Local Structures in Liquid Water. J. Am. Chem. Soc. doi: 10.1021/ jacs.9b11211. Jan 21, 2020. 

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.9b11211#

Water, water everywhere—and it's weirder than you think. University of Tokyo. Feb 4, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-everywhereand-weirder.html

# gst: tiny deviations (inside a phase transition) to avoid a near-complete annihilation.

<< Recently discovered ripples of spacetime called gravitational waves could contain evidence to prove the theory that life survived the Big Bang because of a phase transition that allowed neutrino particles to reshuffle matter and anti-matter, >>

<< According to the Big Bang theory of modern cosmology, matter was created with an equal amount of anti-matter. If it had stayed that way, matter and anti-matter should have eventually met and annihilated one to one, leading up to a complete annihilation.

But our existence contradicts this theory. To overcome a complete annihilation, the Universe must have turned a small amount of anti-matter into matter creating an imbalance between them. >>  

<< the Universe went through a phase transition so that neutrinos could reshuffle matter and anti-matter. >>

Showing how the tiniest particles in our Universe saved us from complete annihilation. Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe. Feb 3, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-tiniest-particles-universe-annihilation.html

Jeff A. Dror, Takashi Hiramatsu, et al.  Testing the Seesaw Mechanism and Leptogenesis with Gravitational Waves.  Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 041804. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.041804. Jan 28, 2020. 

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.041804

# life: ancient Siberian hunters used hot pots to survive the ice age

<< A new study shows that ancient Siberian hunters created heat resistant pots so that they could cook hot meals - surviving the harshest seasons of the ice age by extracting nutritious bone grease and marrow from meat. >>

Hot pots helped ancient Siberian hunters survive the Ice Age. University of York. Feb 1, 2020.

 

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-hot-pots-ancient-siberian-hunters.html

<< regional differences in pottery use also map onto contrasting manufacturing techniques, with vessels from the Middle and from the Lower Amur forming distinct pottery-making traditions. These combined insights appear to indicate a greater degree of variability in the development and use of early pottery in East Asia than has hitherto been indicated. >>

Shinya Shoda, Alexandre Lucquin, et al. Late Glacial hunter-gatherer pottery in the Russian Far East: Indications of diversity in origins and use. Quaternary Science Reviews. Volume 229, 1 February 2020, 106124. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106124.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379119305013

Also (in FonT)

keyword 'nomads'

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=nomads

keyword 'hunter-gatherer'

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=hunter-gatherer