Matilda's Lab Newsletter #83
This week there is a pox upon our house, again. We have an audible cure for motion sickness, a benefit of daydreaming, fake news busting and what buying bread says about how you vote.
What we’ve been up to
Sometimes my interest in science and family life become more closely intertwined as usual. This has been one of those weeks because Nathaniel has got chickenpox, again! This isn’t supposed to happen. You get chickenpox, you get immunity, then you’re sorted for life. The craziest thing about this is that this isn’t the first time that we’ve run into this. Matilda got chickenpox twice as well! So what in sweet immunology is going on?
In short, immunology is not rocket science. If only it were that easy! I keep saying what a messy science biology is. The key to evolutionary success, and therefore the success of all life, is diversity. Biological things vary in almost every way that they can, and this is a feature, not a fault. When dealing with immune systems, you are looking at one messy biological system interacting with another messy biological system. The result is maximum mess.
Either both of our kids failed to build a sufficient immune memory to the virus when they were first exposed, or they have initially contracted a version of chickenpox virus that doesn’t fully represent all the different strains of chickenpox that are out there. This is one reason why it is preferable to get vaccinated against illnesses rather than to catch them naturally. When you get vaccinated, you receive exposure to a measured dose of a pathogen that has been specifically chosen to give you the best level of protection. When you get infected naturally, there is no control of exactly what you’ve got or how much of it you got.
So our week has been dominated by trying to soothe itchy skin. We’re trying everything, pain relief, antihistamine, creams. I’ve also adopted some non-pharmacist recommended treatment: Daddy’s special medicine. I’m currently reading the fascinating Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant. Whilst medical science spends so much time trying to eliminate the effect of placebos from its studies, it’s overlooking the fact that the placebo effect is a very real thing and that, when combined with clinically proven medicines, can have a greater effect than either one of those things used in isolation. So Daddy’s special medicine is milk, with a tiny amount of flavoured syrup added, in a fancy glass and slightly warmed in the microwave. How effective has it been? I don’t know, I have no control group. But I do know that it has caused no harm and can only have helped. I’ve used it as a medicine of last resort and the first 2 times he had it, he went straight to sleep afterwards.
New Blog content
I’ve had to make changes to my work days due to chickenpox, and I’ve had some farm audits this week, so the only new content this week is an update to the map of life. I’ve added the impressively common, but often overlooked, grass.
From the Archive
From the archive, we revisited a Game of Thrones reference
And a gorgeous ray
Science News
Fear of rejection is what keeps children in line. Naughty kids are the ones who already expect it.
2 white dwarfs 150 light years away have been found that are orbiting and falling into each other. They will cause a supernova, but don’t hold your breath, unless you can do it for 23 billion years!
There’s a new cure for motion sickness. It’s a sound!
Daydreaming helps learning, at least for tasks that don’t require too much attention.
I’m a fan of music in the workplace. I listen to music myself when working, but get worker’s music wrong and there will be consequences.
I wasn’t expecting this one. Brain scans from people doing their grocery shopping reveal their political affiliation.
For all of the legitimate concerns about the relentless thrusting of AI into everything, this is one application that I’m all for. AI that sniffs out fake news.
Kicking back
In space, you don’t have car crashes; you get galaxy crashes!
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Until next time, treat every day like a school day and find those lessons to learn.
Hooray for Daddy’s special medicine!