# life: Hollywood movies revisited, you'll have to be very careful, a cycle of panic and neglect (e.g. about an 'Entity X') is beginning to repeat.

<< Your Highnesses, Your Excellencies,

Dear colleagues and friends, (..).

I thank Your Highnesses for your hospitality, for your steadfast support for the World Health Organization and global health, and for the opportunity to address you today.  >>️

<< On the 12th of February 2018 – exactly six years ago – I stood on this stage and said the world was not prepared for a pandemic, and expressed my concern at that time that a pandemic could happen anytime. >>️

<< As you remember, less than two years later, in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and indeed, the world was not prepared. >>️

<< Today I stand before you, in the aftermath of COVID-19,

With millions of people dead,

With social, economic and political shocks that reverberate to this day, >>️

<< The cycle of panic and neglect is beginning to repeat. >>️

<< It may be caused by an influenza virus, or a new coronavirus, or it may be caused by a new pathogen we don’t even know about yet – what we call Disease X. >>️

WHO Director-General's speech at the World Governments Summit – 12 Feb 2024.️ WHO. 

https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-speech-at-the-world-governments-summit---12-february-2024   

Also: sars, covid, 1or2achoos, virus, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: sars, covid, 1or2achoos, virus, disease X

# behav: ADHD may have been a feature of nomadic exploration among hunter-gatherer societies

<< All mobile organisms forage for resources, choosing how and when to search for new opportunities by comparing current returns with the average for the environment. In humans, nomadic lifestyles favouring exploration have been associated with genetic mutations implicated in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), inviting the hypothesis that this condition may impact foraging decisions in the general population. >>️

David L. Barack, Vera U. Ludwig, et al. 

Attention deficits linked with proclivity to explore while foraging. Proc Royal Society B.  doi: 10.1098/ rspb.2022.2584. Feb 21, 2024. 

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2584     

<< Is it a legacy of the hunter-gatherer world? >> Arjun Ramakrishnan

Chen Ly. ADHD may have evolved to help foragers know when to cut their losses. newscientist.com Feb 21,2024.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2418114-adhd-may-have-evolved-to-help-foragers-know-when-to-cut-their-losses

Also: nomads, bushmen, behav, uncertainty, curiosity, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: adhd, nomads, hunter-gatherers, behavior, behaviour

# gst: an analogy between geometrical frustrations and nonreciprocal systems

<< A system is geometrically frustrated when its members cannot find a configuration that simultaneously minimizes all their interaction energies, (..). A nonreciprocal system is one whose members have conflicting, asymmetric goals, as exemplified by an ecosystem of predators and prey. >>️

<< Ryo Hanai (..) has identified a powerful mathematical analogy between those two types of dynamical systems. >>️

Peter Littlewood. Nonreciprocal Frustration Meets Geometrical Frustration. Physics 17, 32. Feb 26, 2024. 

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/32

Ryo Hanai. Nonreciprocal Frustration: Time Crystalline Order-by-Disorder Phenomenon and a Spin-Glass-like State. Phys. Rev. X 14, 011029. Feb 26, 2024. 

https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.011029

Also: order, disorder, disorder & fluctuations, noise, analogy, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: gst, analogy, order, disorder, noise

# gst: soft and stiff modes in colloidal particle networks

<< Floppy microscale spring networks are widely studied in theory and simulations, but no well-controlled experimental system currently exists. >> 

AA << show that square lattices consisting of colloid-supported lipid bilayers functionalized with DNA linkers act as microscale floppy spring networks. (AA) extract their normal modes by inverting the particle displacement correlation matrix, showing the emergence of a spectrum of soft modes with low effective stiffness in addition to stiff modes that derive from linker interactions. >>

<< Evaluation of the softest mode, a uniform shear mode, reveals that shear stiffness decreases with lattice size. >>

 AA << results reveal the importance of entropic steric effects. >>

️

Julio Melio, Silke E. Henkes, Daniela J. Kraft. Soft and Stiff Normal Modes in Floppy Colloidal Square Lattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 078202. Feb 14, 2024. 

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.078202

Also: particle, nano, colloids, network, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: gst, particle, nano, colloids, network, colloidal network

# gst: when volatile droplets dance across a surface erratically (along random trajectories)

<< When a drop of a volatile liquid is deposited on a uniformly heated wettable, thermally conducting substrate, one expects to see it spread into a thin film and evaporate. >>️

<< Contrary to this intuition, due to thermal Marangoni contraction, the deposited drop contracts into a spherical-cap-shaped puddle, with a finite apparent contact angle. Strikingly, this contracted droplet, above a threshold temperature, well below the boiling point of the liquid, starts to spontaneously move on the substrate in an apparently erratic way. >>️

Pallav Kant, Mathieu Souzy, et al. Autothermotaxis of volatile drops. Phys. Rev. Fluids 9, L012001. Jan 31, 2024. 

https://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.9.L012001

Rachel Berkowitz. Hot Surfaces Make Droplets Move Erratically. Physics 17, s14. Jan 31, 2024. 

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s14 

Also: drop, bubble, erratic

in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: gst, drop, bubble, erratic, thermotaxis, autothermotaxis

# life: hypothetical 'subtle variations' about three ancient neuro-cognitive models, the nomadic explorer, the nomadic owner, the farmer.

<< Prehistoric humans underwent three major migration events across Eurasia, influencing the genetic diversity of present-day Europe. These include the arrival of hunter-gatherers approximately 45,000 years ago, the expansion of Neolithic farmers from the Middle East around 11,000 years ago, and the rise of animal husbandry when steppe pastoralists migrated from the Pontic Steppe approximately 5,000 years ago. Each of these events represents a crucial period in human history that has shaped the genetic diversity observed in present-day Europe, although specific genetic and demographic details remain poorly characterized. >>️

Michael Attwaters. Ancient migration and the modern genome. Nat Rev Genet 25, 162. Feb 5, 2024. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-024-00702-4

Also: nomad, ctz entity, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: life, hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, farmers

# life: it’s time to admit that ...

<< For too long, scientists have been content in espousing the lazy metaphor of living systems operating simply like machines, (..) Yet, it’s important to be open about the complexity of biology — including what we don’t know — because public understanding affects policy, health care and trust in science.  “So long as we insist that cells are computers and genes are their code,” writes Ball, life might as well be “sprinkled with invisible magic”. But, reality “is far more interesting and wonderful”, as he explains in this must-read user’s guide for biologists and non-biologists alike. >>️

Denis Noble. It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life. Nature. 626, 254-255 (2024). Feb 5,  2024. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00327-x

Philip Ball. How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology. Pan Macmillan (2024). 

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/philip-ball/42387

Also: disorder, disorder & fluctuation, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html  

Keywords: life, disorder, fluctuations

FonT: this point of view, published in the 70s-80s, would have made a damned impression.