August 28 2020, 17:56

I read about an interesting fact – there are single-celled plasmodiums that have learned to reproduce in a quite interesting way. They transfer from the host to a specific type of mosquito (Anopheles), which carries them to a new host, because the previous one is very likely to die soon. It is important that not just any mosquito will do, and not every bite carries the plasmodium. If there are too few bites, these plasmodiums as a species will die out. Therefore, while developing in the body of the infected host, they provoke the biosynthesis of volatile substances, the smell of which is attractive to females of a certain type of mosquito. As a result, the host becomes more appetizing, and the “right” mosquitoes bite it more often http://www.pnas.org/content/111/30/11079). In 2018, malaria infected 228 million people and killed 405,000, of which 67% were children under 5 years old. But here I am not talking about malaria, but about the intriguing transmission mechanism that has emerged as a result of millions of years of evolution.

August 28 2020, 09:39

As is known, in standard neighborhoods in the USA, it’s not customary to put up fences. Mainly because they spoil the appearance of the town, thereby reducing the price of the individual home and diminishing the overall “premiumness” of the location. Also, in many places, it is not allowed to grow vegetables and fruits in the backyard. However, when it is allowed, the backyard is often fenced off from animals, because they eat and trample everything before it can ripen for the owners.

We recently visited some acquaintances, and they have a garden in their backyard.

And I learned that from deer—which are quite plentiful everywhere around here—the minimum fence height is 2 meters 10 cm. Otherwise, they easily jump over it simply out of curiosity to see what’s behind it.

August 27 2020, 12:47

Musk has announced the presentation of a working device—a brain-computer interface called Neuralink. It will be shown on Friday at 15:00 Pacific Time (01:00 on Saturday Moscow Time). Should be interesting.

For those who do not know what this is (very long read) https://hi-news.ru/technology/neuralink-ilona-maska-chast-pervaya-koloss-chelovecheskij.html

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1298494373278220290?s=19

August 26 2020, 11:45

Recommend good nonfiction/popular science books: biology, physics, mathematics, linguistics, design, maybe history. Since the goal is to compile an order for purchasing in Russian bookstores, the main focus is on must-reads that cannot be bought in electronic form and/or in English. The last time I stocked up, I got three books by Asya Kazantseva (read them), “From Atoms to the Tree” by Sergey Yastrebov – cool book, Nora Gal “The Living and the Dead Word” (still reading), “Mysteries of Sleep” by Poluektov (almost finished), “The Origin of Language” by Burlak (reading, it’s hefty), “Entertaining Theory of Probability” (reading). Lately, I’ve been into English-language books (finishing Deadliest Enemy by Michael T. Osterholm, really cool), which is why these are lagging, but in a couple of weeks, there will be an opportunity to buy books in Russia and I don’t want to miss the chance. Already looking at nonfiction from the “Corpus” publishing house, the “Enlightener” award library, “Alpina Non-fiction”. I’d appreciate recommendations.