The Dose: World Oceans Day
Moderna's new vaccine, World Oceans Day
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The Serious Stuff
In this section, we share the most important pandemic and science updates.
🛬 Updated guidelines for US travel. In light of a recent 28% jump in new COVID-19 cases in the US, the CDC now recommends US passengers traveling domestically (regardless of vaccination status) to take a COVID test as close to their departure as possible and no greater than three days before. A test is also recommended after a trip if the traveler has been exposed to a greater risk of infection. This includes being in crowded places or if traveling without a well-fitting mask. As for international travel to the US, travelers 2 years and older must either present a negative test result no more than a day before departure or evidence of recovery from an infection in the past 90 days. Read more
💉 Moderna’s new vaccine candidate. Moderna has recently announced promising results for their new bivalent COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Bivalent vaccines are able to target two different antigens, which can confer protection against multiple strains of one or more pathogens within a single vaccine. Moderna’s latest vaccine candidate contains the mRNA sequences of the spike proteins of two variants: the original SARS-CoV-2 and the Omicron variant. Preliminary results show that a booster shot with this vaccine elicited higher levels of antibodies against Omicron and other variants compared to its existing vaccine. We only have 1 month of data, but the results hint at a possible modified annual vaccine that can address emerging variants, much like the annual flu shot. Read more
☀️ We scream for sunscreen. The sun emits ultraviolet (UV) radiation that can lead to burning of the skin, premature aging, and even cancer. We hear people talking about sunscreen all the time because it helps protect our skin from the sun’s harmful rays. It does so by reflecting, scattering and absorbing potentially harmful UV rays. The SPF, or Sun Protection Factor, is found on every sunscreen and tells us the time it takes for the UV rays to redden the skin when used. Everyone should use sunscreen regardless of race, age, or gender. Choose a sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher, but note that no sunscreen can provide 100% protection. Read more
The Beautiful Stuff
In this section, we share pieces at the intersection of science and art that have us obsessed.
🌊 World Oceans Day was held on June 8. Here are three of our favorite pieces from the web celebrating the absolute wonder and gift that are our seas.
😕 Overcome pandemic numbness. Ever felt ‘numb’ from seeing COVID-19 deaths climb? When one death matters more than a hundred. Introducing ‘psychic numbing’, a phenomenon that occurs when we feel more upset at one death compared to 100,000. We loved this comic’s easy and thought-provoking illustrations on the phenomenon, and how to reverse it with two simple steps. First, realize when psychic numbing is happening. Second, find out more about individuals who are affected- that is how we build emotional connections. Read more
🕊 Why do starlings murmurate? While current theories span from murmurations offering protection from predators, to keeping the birds snug and warm, we are sure that these performances are breathtaking. Check out this bewitching read on starling murmurations, filled with clips, paintings and photographs that took our breath away. Read more
💙 Cyan blends of art and science. The first person to illustrate a book with photographs, Anna Atkins was a botanical artist and photographer. Combining light exposure and a chemical process, she utilized an entirely novel innovation that would grant her the absolute luxury: afinely-detailed photographs of her treasured botanical specimens. Her specimens are placed directly on dry paper coated with a solution containing iron compounds and exposed to light. Washing the paper in water fixes the image as a white negative on a beautiful cyan-colored background. Read more
The Personal Stuff
❤️ This week, we get up close and personal with our fans.
We asked members of our Substack Facebook group, The Herd, their favorite health and science reads, fiction or non-fiction. Take a look at their recommendations; you might find a new book to love!
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson (Ashley T.)
Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood (Caitlin L.)
Exhalation by Ted Chiang or Blake Crouch novels (Katherine B.)
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (Michael D.)
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, Radium Girls, and The Beak of the Finch (Lisa M.)
That’s it for this issue!
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Look forward to checking out the other recommendations!
Some of my favorite passages from The Demon-Haunted World:
"My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought they are central to the scientific method"
________
"Pseudoscience differs from erroneous science. Science thrives on errors, cutting them away one by one. False conclusions are drawn all the time, but they are drawn tentatively. Hypotheses are framed so they are capable of being disproved. A succession of alternative hypotheses is confronted by experiment and observation. Science gropes and staggers toward improved understanding. Proprietary feelings are of course offended when a scientific hypothesis is disproved, but such disproofs are recognized as central to the scientific enterprise.
Pseudoscience is just the opposite. Hypotheses are often framed precisely so they are invulnerable to any experiment that offers a prospect of disproof, so even in principle they cannot be invalidated. Practitioners are defensive and wary. Skeptical scrutiny is opposed. "
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"I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hand of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscope’s, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness"