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<title>12 February, 2023</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey’s Earthquake Response Is as Political as the Conditions That Increased the Devastation</strong> - The ethnic minorities and refugees leading the community response in Turkey already knew not to rely on the government. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/turkeys-earthquake-response-is-as-political-as-the-conditions-that-increased-the-devastation">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Myth of the Iowa Caucuses Got Busted</strong> - The Democratic Party charts a new path for its Presidential candidates, avoiding the cornfields. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-myth-of-the-iowa-caucuses-got-busted">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Joe Biden, Once Again, Lucks Out with His Enemies</strong> - In his State of the Union address, the President offered a strong performance—with an assist from House Republicans. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/joe-biden-once-again-lucks-out-with-his-enemies">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Forgotten History of Head Injuries in Sports</strong> - Stephen Casper, a medical historian, argues that the danger of C.T.E. used to be widely acknowledged. How did we unlearn what we once knew? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/the-forgotten-history-of-head-injuries-in-sports">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Will Football Leaks Finally Blow Up the Premier League?</strong> - Rui Pinto, a Portuguese hacker, set into motion the investigation that now threatens the future of Manchester City, English soccer’s most successful team. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/will-football-leaks-finally-blow-up-the-premier-league">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<li><strong>The House GOP’s many, many investigations, explained</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/b6E5dLwOzlP5VqJSXS8LGrphZSA=/477x0:4286x2857/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71964985/1246719063.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, strikes the gavel to start a hearing on US southern border security on Capitol Hill, February 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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House Republicans are ready to investigate everything under the sun.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LB7TUQ">
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23439492/midterm-elections-2022-results-house-majority-republicans">If there’s anything House Republicans</a> have promised to deliver on this term, it’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23523103/118-congress-2023-house-republicans-senate-democrats">investigations — lots of them</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0FmZ60">
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After retaking the House majority this year, the GOP is using its platform to do all it can to scrutinize the Biden administration. Already, lawmakers have held <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1153565559/border-house-republicans-hearing-jordan-mexico">hearings on border security,</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/08/media/republicans-hearing-twitter-bias-reliable-sources/index.html">Twitter’s handling of a story related to Hunter Biden’s laptop</a>, and alleged biases that the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/new-house-committee-weaponization-government-hold-first-hearing-rcna69789">federal government has against conservatives</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FhcYei">
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Many of these inquiries are dedicated to damaging the president, a strategy that’s tried and true. In a study of 53 years of <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1017/S0022381613001448">congressional investigations,</a> political scientists Douglas Kriner and Eric Schickler found that the more time Congress spent on hearings into potential executive branch misconduct, the lower the president’s approval rating became. Per their study, if lawmakers spent 20 days per month on investigative hearings, the president’s approval rating would see a commensurate decline of 2.5 percent in that timeframe.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SFZY0a">
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Kriner notes that this trend is historical; it may not hold as the public has gotten more polarized in recent years and media ecosystems more siloed. But if a similar dynamic emerged ahead of 2024, Republican investigations might hurt Biden’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/us/biden-approval-rating-poll.html">already-low approval ratings</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g7xFML">
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As members of the House majority, Republicans have gained key powers and a bigger platform to make their case. Now, GOP lawmakers are able to subpoena witnesses and documents, as well as hold public hearings in the hopes of generating news coverage and viral moments that cast Biden and his policies in a critical light. In the process, however, Republicans also run the risk of backlash from moderate members and voters if they go too far with their rhetoric.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8GrdjV">
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GOP leaders, for their part, have said the intention of these investigations is to bring awareness to the administration’s policies and serve out their responsibility of checking the White House. “I think accountability is the most important point, but first you’ve got to get the facts out,” <a href="https://scalise.house.gov/press-releases/Scalise%3A-Republicans-Will-Hold-Biden%2C-Mayorkas-Accountable-for-Border-Crisis">House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Fox News</a> about the need to investigate border policy.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nzzYzu">
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Democrats, obviously, see things differently. “It’s a phony operation from beginning to end designed to further their partisan political interests,” Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told Vox.
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</p>
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<h3 id="KfLUlv">
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When the White House’s party loses the House, investigations follow
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vMd4Bv">
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After a “blue wave” midterm elections in 2018, House Democrats set up multiple inquiries to look into President Donald Trump, including reviewing his family separation policy, potential ties between his campaign and Russia, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/26/20885174/trump-ukraine-transcript-whistleblower-complaint">whistleblower allegations</a> about how he sought to influence Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Democrats emphasize, however, that Trump and his <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/13/1149135759/new-york-orders-trump-companies-to-pay-1-6m-for-tax-fraud#:~:text=Transcript-,Donald%20Trump's%20family%20business%20has%20been%20fined%20%241.6%20million%20for,penalty%20allowed%20under%20state%20rules.">businesses</a> have faced multiple <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/nyregion/trump-investigation-michael-cohen-stormy-daniels.html">investigations over other possible crimes,</a> and argue that the impetus for their inquiries is not comparable to Republicans’ rationale for investigating Biden.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ynj7PH">
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During the Obama administration, House Republicans also launched multiple investigations, including one that dove into the White House’s response to the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack. That review ultimately opened up potent lines of attack on Democrats’ 2016 presidential nominee, Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Despite concluding that there was no new <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/politics/hillary-clinton-benghazi.html">evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton</a>, the panel discovered that Clinton had used a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/10/13/448182602/how-the-attack-in-benghazi-led-us-to-hillary-clintons-emails">private email server while secretary of state</a>, a finding that spurred <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/27/us/politics/what-we-know-about-hillary-clintons-private-email-server.html">another investigation by the FBI</a>, which became a central issue Republicans used against her in the 2016 election.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Us7Pw">
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“All of that was designed to bring Hillary Clinton’s approval ratings down because Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/may/22/hillary-clinton/hillary-clintons-approval-rating-secretary-state-w/">was in the high 60s</a>, and they were terrified of that knowing she was going to run for president,” says Connolly.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AKm5H1">
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In the past, presidential family members like President Jimmy Carter’s brother <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2009/07/on_this_day_in_1980_senate_vot.html">Billy Carter</a> have been the subject of congressional investigations, but the House Republicans’ focus on Hunter Biden, Biden’s son, is rarer in recent memory, according to Claire Leavitt, a Smith College government professor who previously worked as a fellow under Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Leavitt added that the approach Republicans take to the public hearings could also set the tone for how substantive they are and how the public receives them.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KSbzPw">
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“Having bomb-throwers like [Marjorie Taylor] Greene and [Lauren] Boebert on the House Oversight Committee will almost certainly make the hearings appear more overtly politicized — that is, investigations will appear more like inappropriate attacks on the president’s family than as serving a legitimate investigative purpose — than they otherwise would be,” says Leavitt.
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</p>
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<h3 id="DJFauX">
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What House Republicans are investigating
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<strong>Hunter Biden: </strong>Republicans have sought to find information suggesting that the president was involved in his son’s business enterprises and that he’s been influenced by them, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/us/politics/hunter-biden-investigations.html">neither</a> of which they <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/08/house-gop-hunter-biden-doj-00081657">have found any evidence of</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CdKJwy">
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Despite this, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) has noted that he’s committed to exploring whether Biden’s family’s business deals “occurred at the expense of American interests” and if they could pose a “national security threat.”
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Specific concerns that Republicans have raised include work that Hunter Biden has done involving a deal with a Chinese energy company and his role sitting on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. They argue that Hunter used his father’s name to secure business deals but have thus far not tied the president to these arrangements. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/22992772/hunter-biden-laptop">alleged contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop,</a> which were broadly disclosed by conservatives after he left it at a Delaware repair shop and which purportedly address some of these business ventures, are set to be examined as well.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mAm9Sf">
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Republican efforts in this investigation are just getting underway. In early February, Comer <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/09/hunter-biden-comer-congress-committee/">called on Hunter Biden</a> to submit records of communications with the president about his financial dealings as well as additional documents like bank statements. The Oversight Committee has also requested documents from the president’s brother James Biden, who has worked with Hunter Biden in the past, and Eric Schwerin, who is Hunter Biden’s business partner. Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, has questioned the “legitimate legislative purpose” that the committee has to ask for these records, and noted that he would sit down with the committee to see what relevant information they can provide, if any.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1imYJK">
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Comer said the investigation could help the committee develop federal ethics policy, in an attempt to give it a clearer legislative purpose. One of the panel’s earliest hearings examined whether Twitter mishandled a New York Post story about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop and tried to censor its distribution. Former executives at the company testified that they had made a mistake by restricting the sharing of the story, but said that they had not been told by government officials to do so.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IYYue5">
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<strong>Border security: </strong>The first hearing from the House Judiciary committee centered on border security, an issue that Republicans have long sought to go after Democrats on because they argue that the White House’s immigration policies have been ineffective.
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This panel and others intend to press the administration on the increase in migrants entering the country at the southern border and the trafficking of fentanyl, which has contributed to a high number of fatalities in the US. Republicans are eager to return to harsher Trump-era policies, including the construction of a border wall, which they describe as focused on deterrence.
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A segment of Republicans has also said they’d like to push for the impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the grounds that he has failed to effectively address the border policy, a suggestion that’s drawn pushback from Democrats.
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Given how central messaging on immigration has been to Republican campaigns in the past, these committees give them another venue to criticize Biden’s stances on the issue and try to make it a key vulnerability for the president in 2024.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B0Q204">
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<strong>“Weaponization of the federal government”: </strong>This newly created panel is aimed at reviewing long-held Republican concerns that government agencies like the Justice Department and FBI are biased against them, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/09/politics/politicization-first-public-hearing-house-republicans/index.html">claims which federal officials have rebutted</a>.
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“This special subcommittee is going to deal with issues that date back before this administration, but have been clearly recognized,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), a top Republican on the panel, told Vox.
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</p>
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These anxieties have been spurred by issues like the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents that Trump had declined to turn over to the National Archives and what Republicans have described as the FBI’s targeting of January 6 rioters. The panel is an opportunity to discuss how conservatives have been unfairly treated, Republicans argue, though Democrats have argued that it’s simply another chance for them to use their perch to elevate conspiracy theories and unfounded allegations.
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<strong>Biden documents: </strong>The recent discovery of classified documents at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home and the Penn Biden Center, a think tank where he worked after the vice presidency, are another avenue that Republicans hope to explore. Notably, Biden’s approach to the classified documents <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/politics/biden-classified-documents-trump-garland/index.html">has been very different from Trump’s</a> in that he has fully cooperated and turned documents over to the National Archives and DOJ that have been found.
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Since the discovery of the documents, the DOJ has also appointed special counsel Robert Hur to look into the matter. The Oversight Committee has requested the records of visitors at Biden’s home in Wilmington, something which the White House has said it’s unable to provide<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/politics/visitor-logs-biden-wilmington-house/index.html"> because such logs weren’t kept</a>.
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The discovery of the classified documents in Biden’s possession offers a way for Republicans to try to deflect the focus on Trump’s decision to hang onto classified documents while also painting the current president as careless with his own files.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RQyeda">
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<strong>Afghanistan: </strong>The House Foreign Affairs Committee is working on a review of the administration’s exit from Afghanistan in 2021, a move that garnered major criticism for the rushed and messy evacuation of US allies and refugees.
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The panel has begun by requesting documents from the State Department about the lead-up to the withdrawal, how the administration addressed it, and what the outcome has been in Afghanistan since. “America’s adversaries have been emboldened and the country has once again become a safe haven for terrorists,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the Foreign Affairs Committee chair, <a href="https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/mccaul-publishes-interim-report-on-afghanistan-withdrawal-and-evacuation/">has argued</a>, regarding the White House’s approach to the withdrawal.
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The Afghanistan withdrawal received bipartisan criticism when it took place, although it’s not yet apparent that Republican oversight is dedicated to fully reviewing these concerns or simply seeding doubts about Biden’s approach to foreign policy and national security.<strong> </strong>
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<strong>Covid-19: </strong>The origins of Covid-19, and how the Biden administration responded during the pandemic, are another subject that Republicans intend to scrutinize with testimony from health policy officials and scientists in the coming weeks. A select committee on the “coronavirus crisis” will be dedicated to this effort.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ITNSbX">
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“The panel is … expected to focus on claims, unsupported by evidence, that a laboratory in Wuhan, China, either bioengineered or accidentally released SARS-CoV-2 obtained from bats,” <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/now-charge-house-republicans-launch-flurry-investigations">Science reports</a>. In a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/us/politics/house-covid-lab-leak.html">recent hearing</a>, acting NIH director Lawrence Tabak stressed that US-funded research at a Wuhan lab did not cause the pandemic.<strong> </strong>
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uxLPLZ">
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Republicans have frequently attacked the Biden administration’s response to the pandemic and actively opposed policies it supported, including masking and vaccines. This committee is set to be another opportunity for the GOP to advance such rhetoric and to paint Democrats as opposed to “personal liberty.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wAaM5s">
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|
<strong>US-China policy: </strong>A new Select Committee on China is aimed at evaluating “strategic competition” between the two countries as lawmakers examine how the US can invest in its supply chain and research, and be less reliant on manufacturing and other services done abroad.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MsmB6B">
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Lawmakers have cautioned that panels like this shouldn’t be used to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22558949/china-violence-asian-americans">advance xenophobia and racial profiling in the US</a>, issues that have been byproducts of the Justice Department’s “China Initiative,” which has accused <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/09/21/scholars-targeted-china-initiative-seek-accountability">Chinese American scientists of espionage</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1kxDDq">
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|
“This committee should not be used as an open invitation to engage in blatantly xenophobic anti-China rhetoric … and to promote policies that result in the racial profiling of our communities,” said Rep. Judy Chu (D–CA), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vVsHX0">
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The discovery and shooting down of a <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2023/2/3/23584947/china-spy-surveillance-balloon-blinken-xi">Chinese balloon</a> hovering high over the United States has also renewed tensions between the two countries, which is likely to be a focus of the panel as well. Already, Republicans have used the balloon incident to allege that Biden is too “soft on China,” allowing the country to gain manufacturing, technological, diplomatic, and economic advantages over the US, a critique they could well use this panel to levy again this term.
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g2hgKX">
|
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|
<strong>Fraud in pandemic relief funds:</strong> Republicans have said they are intent on evaluating how pandemic relief funding was doled out, and how billions of dollars may not have reached the small businesses they were intended to help. Experts have estimated that $80 billion in programs like the Paycheck Protection Program were taken by fraudsters, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/biggest-fraud-generation-looting-covid-relief-program-known-ppp-n1279664">according to NBC News</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DPvMnu">
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This investigation is among those in which there is interest from both parties in addressing these problems, which affected initiatives that were set up under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XKKl4e">
|
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|
The GOP, however, has argued that Democrats haven’t done enough to root out the fraud in these programs, leading them to cast Biden and his party as being unconcerned with government spending. There is currently bipartisan support in trying to figure out how to prevent these gaps from being exploited again.
|
|||
|
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</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A key to consciousness could lie in “perceptual diversity”</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Turquoise blobs of various sizes against a dark background, with a small human figure in the bottom right. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kD3YdRjCThBl7WvMTuNdtwY6eVQ=/210x0:2786x1932/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71964887/540184875.0.jpg"/>
|
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|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images
|
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|
|
</figcaption>
|
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|
</figure>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
Every brain experiences reality differently. This census might help us understand why — and what it means.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YWZGjm">
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|||
|
|
For something as intimate to our lives as perception — how we experience ourselves and the world — we know remarkably little about all the ways it can differ from person to person. Some people, for instance, have aphantasia, which means they experience <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/well/mind/aphantasia-mental-images.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%20NEW%20Friday%202/3/23&utm_term=Future%20Perfect">no mental imagery</a>, while others have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/25/the-last-great-mystery-of-the-mind-meet-the-people-who-have-unusual-or-non-existent-inner-voices?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%20NEW%20Friday%202/3/23&utm_term=Future%20Perfect">no inner monologue</a> in their heads, just silence. Studying what scientists now call “perceptual diversity” is part of an increasingly mainstream effort to learn more about consciousness itself.
|
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|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LLZmUc">
|
|||
|
|
Among the new wave of researchers who are trying to unravel the mystery of consciousness in the lab is Anil Seth. Seth is the co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science and the author of <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Being_You/g0-4DwAAQBAJ?hl=en"><em>Being You: A New Science of Consciousness</em></a><em>. </em>His viral <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality?language=en">TED talk</a> in 2017 popularized the idea of consciousness as a “<a href="https://www.edge.org/conversation/andy_clark-perception-as-controlled-hallucination">controlled hallucination</a>,” which suggests that our perceptions are less like looking through a transparent window on the outside world and more like watching an internally constructed movie. When sensory data from the outside world contradicts our brain’s movie, it updates the film.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="de1CgW">
|
|||
|
|
Now Seth is behind another project that aims to “paint a multidimensional portrait of this hidden terrain of inner diversity,” he told me. By studying the subtle ways perception can vary, we can understand the many different ways our brains construct our realities. That’s why in 2022, Seth and his colleagues in collaboration with the creative studio <a href="https://dreamachine.world/about/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%20NEW%20Friday%202/3/23&utm_term=Future%20Perfect">Collective Act</a> launched <a href="https://perceptioncensus.dreamachine.world/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%20NEW%20Friday%202/3/23&utm_term=Future%20Perfect">the Perception Census</a>, the largest psychological study of its kind. It aims to help bridge the divide between philosophy and science by providing experimental evidence for questions, such as how our individual minds differ, that have long been out of reach.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wft6V1">
|
|||
|
|
The online survey gives participants a series of tasks, brain teasers, and interactive illusions that each probe a different aspect of perception, such as vision, sound, rhythm, how you experience the passage of time, and even how your imagination works. It’s already reached over 20,000 participants. “Just as biodiversity is important for the health of an ecosystem,” Seth told me, perceptual diversity “is something that enriches society.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JN4mq6">
|
|||
|
|
I spoke to Seth about what the perception census is, why perceptual diversity matters, and how this all relates to the growing field of consciousness studies.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oKfYRL">
|
|||
|
|
<em>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vumLVa">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>What got you interested in a project like the Perception Census?</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G1CGAn">
|
|||
|
|
My research and [that of] many others has led to this view that what we perceive is not a direct readout of what’s there. It’s an active construction in which the brain plays an essential role. Because of the way perception works, it seems to us that we see the world and hear the world as it is — it doesn’t seem like it’s a <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/30439886.43959/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGVkLmNvbS90YWxrcy9hbmlsX3NldGhfeW91cl9icmFpbl9oYWxsdWNpbmF0ZXNfeW91cl9jb25zY2lvdXNfcmVhbGl0eT9sYW5ndWFnZT1lbg/63876d7cb64bd9a8a404f635B8bea025f">brain-based construction</a>. Unless you interrogate that, it’s very hard to understand that somebody might actually be having a different experience, even if they’re in the same shared objective reality.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EXoCT9">
|
|||
|
|
And, of course, we all have slightly different brains. So we’re all going to inhabit different inner universes, and not a lot is known about that. With this idea of perceptual diversity, what we’re trying to do is bring back into the light this idea that, in fact, we all differ, and the differences don’t have to be very large to exist.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LHkwXL">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Is this the first time anyone has systematically studied the different ways we experience the world?</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b5WPLB">
|
|||
|
|
It’s definitely not the first time. There’s a long tradition of looking for individual differences. But what’s distinctive about what we’re doing is the scale, breadth, and reach.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mEVaMt">
|
|||
|
|
[The Perception Census] has about 100 different things that people can do, each probing different aspects. That scale hasn’t been attempted before. That allows us to look at what the patterns are, and whether there are underlying factors that explain how different aspects of perception correlate.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VBYYFY">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Beyond intrinsic interest in learning more about consciousness, what could we do with a richer understanding of perceptual diversity?</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wEoEtT">
|
|||
|
|
One goal of the census is awareness-raising because people are remarkably surprised when they realize that people can have different inner experiences. But they’re also surprised just by all the under-the-hood complexity involved in this everyday miracle of just experiencing the world.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfvH4I">
|
|||
|
|
I also think it can cultivate a bit of useful humility about our own perceptions and beliefs. If we really had this understanding that the way I see things is not the way they are, then it’s easier to understand that somebody else might see something differently. In a world of increasing polarization and fragmentation, understanding that we differ, and how we differ, can build platforms for empathy and communication.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NAsjF5">
|
|||
|
|
When it comes to mental health, <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-neurodiversity-202111232645?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%20NEW%20Friday%202/3/23&utm_term=Future%20Perfect">neurodiversity</a> is a well-established community with lots of important lobbying efforts that have done great work. But it tends to be associated with specific conditions and reinforces this normative, neurotypical view for people who aren’t neurodivergent in that way. What I’m hoping is that the census can reinforce the recognition of diversity in the normative, neurotypical range.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f0bYw5">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>How do you imagine this kind of research could evolve in the future?</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R3r1iw">
|
|||
|
|
We can start to drill down. For instance, if we find some interesting aspects of perceptual diversity that stand out, or some factor that seems to predict diversity in different dimensions, then we might bring people into the lab. We can do more fine-grained controlled experiments, using things like brain imaging. We might begin to look at the biological mechanisms that are responsible for this diversity. We can’t do that in a large-scale survey.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ezZYig">
|
|||
|
|
Then we could also zoom out. There are limitations on what we’ve been doing. We’re only looking at people who speak English. We’re not really sampling across cultures as much as we would ideally like. Also just for very boring ethics reasons, we’re only looking at people 18 and over, so another whole range is what’s going on with the development of perceptual diversity; that can be new terrain, too.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P9LQLE">
|
|||
|
|
And we’ve got 100 tasks, but that’s a small subset of the possible things we might want to ask. One of the things we were worried about was that we’re asking quite a lot of people to spend their precious attentional moments on something, so we have to make it rewarding for them. And it turns out, we have 20,000 people already, and one comment we received was that “this is what the internet is made for.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="64jRWK">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>In your book </strong><em><strong>Being You: A New Science of Consciousness</strong></em><strong>, you write that advances in the science of consciousness are “inaugurating a transformation in psychiatry from treating symptoms to addressing causes.” I’m curious how you think these kinds of advances might help support this transformation.</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WoM1y2">
|
|||
|
|
Many different things can catalyze that move. The census is, in itself, not telling us much about mechanisms. But it’s laying out the territory. By seeing what correlates with what, that will give us some indication of whether there are dials in the brain, if you like, that you can turn, and they change perception in different ways, or maybe if you turn it too far, you get something that can transmogrify into mental illness.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4WmPcC">
|
|||
|
|
So you need to know the lay of the land in order to understand the kinds of mechanisms we’re looking for that may go awry in mental health disorders. More generally, consciousness research is making advances here.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tyolcE">
|
|||
|
|
Whether it’s psychedelics or computational psychiatry, there are increasingly detailed mechanistic proposals for why people have the psychiatric symptoms they do. The key thing that consciousness research brings to that is a focus on their experiences, rather than the behavioral symptoms of psychiatric and mental health disorders.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWJi94">
|
|||
|
|
<em>If you’d like to help chart the terrain of perceptual diversity, you can </em><a href="https://perceptioncensus.dreamachine.world/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%20NEW%20Friday%202/3/23&utm_term=Future%20Perfect"><em>take the Perception Census here</em></a><em>.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TMysjV">
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Why don’t we have vaccines for fungal infections?</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="An image from the HBO show, The Last Of Us, showing a person with a fungal rot emerging from their head." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6756wm1PAewPRDq-2gfBf30AvSs=/0x0:1707x1280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71964821/samuel_hoeksema_brighter_v2.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
An image from the HBO show, The Last Of Us. | Liane Hentscher/HBO
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Last of Us’ Cordyceps<em> </em>aren’t exactly real<em> — </em>but the lack of a vaccine to prevent them is.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="feMNTM">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UAVmxQ">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b8zQRM">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3dHlbY">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hBqFTR">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vynzZ2">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E4KRoY">
|
|||
|
|
The second episode of the HBO hit <em>The Last Of Us</em> opens with a scene in Jakarta, Indonesia. It’s set in 2003, at the beginning of a (fictional) fungal pandemic that goes on to destroy the world as we know it. After an expert in fungal biology evaluates the body of an infected factory worker, she speaks quietly to a military official who has asked for her help controlling the pathogen’s spread.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JbiYKo">
|
|||
|
|
“There is no vaccine,” she says to his stricken face.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BafMxQ">
|
|||
|
|
It was true in real-world 2003, and it’s true now: Although vaccines against bacterial and viral diseases abound, no vaccines against any fungal pathogens are licensed for human use.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wWjFoZ">
|
|||
|
|
It’s not for lack of trying: Dennis Dixon, who leads bacterial and fungal research at the National Institutes of Health, said there’s been “continuous activity” aimed at developing fungal vaccines for decades. But a variety of challenges both scientific and economic have conscripted even more promising fungal vaccine candidates to the pharmacologic dustbin — to the detriment of human health.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MzUrQl">
|
|||
|
|
The zombie-causing fungus in the show is <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/21/23561106/last-of-us-fungus-cordyceps-zombie-infect-humans"><em>mostly</em> fictitious</a> — at least, as a human pathogen. In reality, most severe fungal infections in humans affect immunocompromised people, including people with untreated HIV infection and those receiving cancer treatment, organ transplants, or medications for autoimmune diseases. (These usually manifest as lung and bloodstream infections or meningitis, and not zombification.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cltlGN">
|
|||
|
|
However, some affect people with normal immune systems — ever had a yeast infection, or heard of valley fever? — and the global burden of fungal infections is expected to increase as the number of people receiving immunosuppressive drugs continues its <a href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/organ-transplant-immunosuppressant-drugs-market">upward</a> <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2780270">climb</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8084208/">climate change accelerates</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CzFlc6">
|
|||
|
|
The urgency of finding a vaccine to prevent any fungal infection — or ideally, preventing multiple types of fungal infections with one vaccine — is not new, but it’s growing.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O7wAaU">
|
|||
|
|
Which raises the question: Why, in the year of our lord 2023, do we still not have any fungal vaccines? The answers highlight challenges in both the science and economics of vaccine development — and some idiosyncrasies about a kingdom of life already known for its very specific (and highly telegenic) weirdness.
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A woman in a hazmat suit holds a specimen of something that looks like a pale plant." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nAeMD3bCWFCmWAe2mAsbLfEcyDs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24421868/image.png"/>
|
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|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
In a scene from HBO’s <em>The Last of Us, </em>fictional mycologist<strong> </strong>Ratna Pertiwi (portrayed by Christine Hakim) wears a hazmat suit to examine <em>Cordyceps </em>filaments.
|
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|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
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<h3 id="NimNtn">
|
|||
|
|
A fungal vaccine would help prevent a lot of infections
|
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|
</h3>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TE9kqs">
|
|||
|
|
Fungi are all around us: in the air we breathe, on the surfaces we touch, and all over the insides and the outsides of our bodies. Still, most of us are at low risk for fungal infections, as long as our immune systems are functioning normally.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZlkyV6">
|
|||
|
|
The worst fungal infection likely to affect a person with a healthy immune system is probably one caused by a member of the <em>Candida </em>genus, which are technically yeasts (yes, yeasts are a type of fungus, as are mushrooms and molds). Vaginal yeast infections are an especially common form of candidal infection that often affects healthy people, leading to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/candidiasis/genital/index.html">1.4 million clinic visits a year</a> in the US alone. Worldwide, an estimated <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(18)30103-8/fulltext">138 million women</a> get four or more yeast infections a year. Other fungal infections <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/index.html">common to healthy people</a> include ringworm — which, surprise! isn’t caused by a worm at all — and infections of the nails on fingers or toes.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BSNI7H">
|
|||
|
|
But fungal infections (including and beyond yeast infections) are a much bigger threat to people with compromised immune systems. Worldwide, fungi cause 13 million infections and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8754384/">1.5 million deaths</a> every year. And in 2018, treating these infections cost Americans nearly $7 billion.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="87aCg2">
|
|||
|
|
Fungal infections are most common in immunosuppressed people. That complicates developing and deploying fungal vaccines.
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4JMcgj">
|
|||
|
|
The fact that the most severe fungal infections primarily affect immunosuppressed people creates some <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-021-00294-8#ref-CR39">big challenges</a> when it comes to developing vaccines to protect against them.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="epsSaT">
|
|||
|
|
First of all, this makes it complicated to find participants for clinical trials testing fungal vaccines.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A4p5h7">
|
|||
|
|
To determine whether a vaccine works, scientists need to test promising vaccine candidates — usually, prototypes that have successfully prevented the disease in experimentally infected animals —in large groups of humans. Because we live in a world with medical ethics, scientists can’t experimentally infect humans. Instead, they need to wait for people in the trial to naturally encounter the disease they’re trying to prevent.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ba5QC4">
|
|||
|
|
The more rare that disease, the more people scientists need to follow (and for a longer time) to look for the disease. And while severe fungal infections are a growing problem, they’re still relatively uncommon.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dnFIK3">
|
|||
|
|
Karen Norris, an immunologist at the University of Georgia’s veterinary school who leads a team developing a fungal vaccine candidate, said her team had “done the math” on the time it would take to study a hypothetical vaccine targeting a single fungal infection. “It’s doable, but it would take a couple of years to enroll that many patients,” she said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lrEjRd">
|
|||
|
|
It’s also hard to design vaccines that work for the immunocompromised people who need them the most. An effective vaccine works by training a person’s immune system to respond quickly to a certain germ — and suppressed immune systems are hard to safely train.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4h7Yyg">
|
|||
|
|
In some cases, it’s possible to predict immunosuppression — for example, when a person is preparing to receive chemotherapy or another immunosuppressive treatment. But not always: People with HIV and those who are born with immune system disorders can’t plan or predict the state of their immune systems.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SJOJP5">
|
|||
|
|
That creates big challenges for scientists, who ideally want to develop vaccines that protect both people with healthy immune systems who go on to have immunosuppression, and those whose first diagnosis involves immunosuppression.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WJtG39">
|
|||
|
|
Another problem: Fungal cells have more similarities to human cells than do viruses or bacteria. That makes it more complicated to design a vaccine that trains the immune system to attack fungal cells without attacking our own cells.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="DskUJV">
|
|||
|
|
The biggest barrier to fungal vaccines might be economic
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AQcWvv">
|
|||
|
|
Even if a vaccine is shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials, that doesn’t mean it will get to mass production and market: For that, it also needs to have the potential to make a profit. “The testing of a vaccine in this space is, to be honest, not that attractive to big pharma, etc., because they are not infections that occur at a high frequency in a lot of patients,” said Norris.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hnRAA1">
|
|||
|
|
Even if a vaccine prevents a lot of illness and death in a group of people — and reduces the costs of their medical care — those benefits accrue to individuals and health care systems, not to the pharmaceutical companies who incur the costs of developing and producing the vaccine.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C5s5hb">
|
|||
|
|
“It’s going to take someone to develop that tough market for this to go forward,” said Dixon. A viable vaccine will need to not only be effective at preventing disease, but effective at doing so in enough people to make producing the vaccine at scale a worthwhile investment for pharmaceutical companies.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="YVLAAs">
|
|||
|
|
Still, people are working on fungal vaccines, and there are a few promising candidates
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dTnJsa">
|
|||
|
|
Regardless of the obstacles, people are working to develop fungal vaccines — and have been for decades.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M5pRHo">
|
|||
|
|
To overcome the economic inviability of developing vaccines that prevent only a small number of infections, several scientists are developing vaccines that prevent multiple fungal infections — or better yet, all of them.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MCeLRT">
|
|||
|
|
Norris’s group has developed a prototype targeting three fungi responsible for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8754384/">80 percent</a> of all infections in immunocompromised people: <em>Candida, Aspergillus, </em>and<em> Pneumocystis. </em>The prototype <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/5/pgac248/6798391">significantly reduced illness and deaths</a> due to these infections in experimental mice and primates. A wide variety of other candidates are also <a href="https://reporter.nih.gov/search/Al6wjd0JVUaT1VGcABJXOw/projects">being studied</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DOPikG">
|
|||
|
|
Three fungal vaccines have made it into the human clinical trial stage to date. In the early 1980s, a trial of a vaccine to prevent infections with <em>Coccidioides</em> — the fungus that causes <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/coccidioidomycosis/index.html">valley fever</a> — <a href="https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/ajrccm/148.3.656">didn’t reduce infections</a>, and produced lots of side effects. More recently, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mmy/article/56/suppl_1/S26/4925975">two</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X12014843">vaccines</a> aimed at preventing <em>Candida</em> (i.e., yeast) infections had good results in human safety trials, one of which went on to show promise at preventing recurrent vaginal infections in a small, placebo-controlled trial. But without an investor to take testing to the next level — a clinical trial comparing the vaccine to standard preventive therapy — development stalled out, said Dixon.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jnG5bl">
|
|||
|
|
Norris said additional animal safety studies of her team’s prototype could take another year. If those go well, the next step — a safety trial in humans — would also take about a year. After that, at least several more years of work await before her team has a licensed vaccine produced at scale.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jk2hdU">
|
|||
|
|
So while any progress on fungal vaccines feels momentous, it’s wise to stay grounded about the timeline of progress in this space, said Dixon. “It’s certainly going to be a while to figure out how to get the science right, to get the protection right,” he said, “and get to the goal line.”
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pakistan boys and Malaysia girls defend title</strong> - Sports Bureau</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vasavada’s double ton puts Saurashtra in strong position to make another final</strong> - The skipper’s knock takes the game beyond Karnataka’s reach, as he stitches a useful stand with Jani to take time out of the equation</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Formula 1 | AlphaTauri reveals new livery for 2023 season</strong> - “Last year, Yuki struggled with the car,” AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost said in a press release to accompany the digital reveal of the AT04 car</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Managing two relentless master craftsmen was the greatest pressure on me, says Rohit</strong> - With personal milestones in sight, neither Ashwin nor Jadeja wanted to let go of the ball, says India skipper; with a combined tally of 700-plus Test wickets, the duo has been literally unplayable, especially at home</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fit-again Shaheen Shah Afridi to lead defending champions Lahore in PSL</strong> - The Pakistan Super League begins on February 13</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here are the big stories from Tamil Nadu today</strong> - Welcome to the Tamil Nadu Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Lalitha Ranjani.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister welcomes new Governor S. Abdul Nazeer</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>U.K. to invest in defence, aerospace and medical sectors in U.P.: British MoS at Global Investors Summit</strong> - Assuring the U.K. delegation, CM Adityanath said that every investment made in the state will not only be safe, but the state government will also provide full help under its policy to make it fruitful for the investor.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Welcome move, but too late,’ Opposition MVA says on replacement of Maharashtra Governor Koshyari</strong> - ‘In the history of the State, there has not been such an inept Governor,” said NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who had earlier hit out at Koshyari for having ‘crossed all limits’</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Advocates laud former SC judge Abdul Nazeer’s nobility and simplicity</strong> - The former SC Judge has been appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Quake-hit Turkey issues 113 building arrest warrants</strong> - Before the quake, there were amnesties for contractors who swerved regulations.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russian soldier death rate highest since first week of war - Ukraine</strong> - Unverified Ukrainian data shows 824 dying per day - the UK says the trends are “likely accurate”.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey earthquake: The community lost under a destroyed apartment block</strong> - A window with a butterfly print curtain is the first clue in a story about loss in a devastating quake.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey earthquake failures leave Erdogan looking vulnerable</strong> - The biggest earthquake since 1939 raises questions over whether such a tragedy could have been avoided.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Laura Kuenssberg: Jets to Ukraine decision ‘not easy’ says Poland</strong> - Poland’s president tells Laura Kuenssberg sending F-16 aircraft would be a “very serious decision”.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Another Russian spacecraft docked to the space station is leaking</strong> - None of this will comfort NASA as it partners with Russia on the space station. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1917096">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The weekend’s best deals: OnePlus 11 gift card, Amazon tablets, and much more.</strong> - Dealmaster also has Anker chargers, Apple Watches, 4K TVs, and Echo devices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1916981">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Light pollution cut humanity’s connection with the stars—but we can restore it</strong> - The world’s night sky more than doubled in artificial brightness from 2011 to 2022. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1917040">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What medieval attitudes tell us about our evolving views of sex</strong> - New book details how some attitudes changed less than their justifications. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1916296">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Last of Us episode 5 asks: What if prestige TV shows had boss monsters?</strong> - Kyle and Andrew face some emotional gut punches in an action-packed episode. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1916769">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A precious little girl walks into a pet shop and asks in the sweetest little lisp, “Excuthe me, mithter, do you keep widdle wabbits?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The shopkeeper’s heart melts, he gets down on his knees, so that he’s on her level, and asks, “Do you want a widdle white wabbit…or a thoft and fuwwy bwack wabbit…or maybe one like that cute widdle bwown wabbit over there?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She, in turn blushes, rocks on her heels, puts her hands on her knees, leans forward and says in a quiet voice, “I don’t fink my pet pyfon weally gives a thit.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/LtCmdrData"> /u/LtCmdrData </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1100q9u/a_precious_little_girl_walks_into_a_pet_shop_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1100q9u/a_precious_little_girl_walks_into_a_pet_shop_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why doesn’t America parade its new military hardware and tanks down main street like other countries?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Because they prefer to parade it down main street IN other countries.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ThisisJacksburntsoul"> /u/ThisisJacksburntsoul </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10zrpl9/why_doesnt_america_parade_its_new_military/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10zrpl9/why_doesnt_america_parade_its_new_military/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>All groups of animals have unique names: a gaggle of geese, a pod of whales, a colony of ants… so what do you call a group of Karens?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
An HOA
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Watermelon_and_boba"> /u/Watermelon_and_boba </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1108ghp/all_groups_of_animals_have_unique_names_a_gaggle/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1108ghp/all_groups_of_animals_have_unique_names_a_gaggle/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man is buying a banana, an apple and two eggs. The cashier says, “You must be single.” The man answered, “Wow, how did you know that?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The cashier replied, “Because you’re ugly.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/douglerner"> /u/douglerner </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10zgq3m/a_man_is_buying_a_banana_an_apple_and_two_eggs/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10zgq3m/a_man_is_buying_a_banana_an_apple_and_two_eggs/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How do you think the unthinkable?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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With an Itheberg
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Mike Tyson
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</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/General_Freed"> /u/General_Freed </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10zxfgh/how_do_you_think_the_unthinkable/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10zxfgh/how_do_you_think_the_unthinkable/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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