Scientists Find Genes to Save Ash Trees From Deadly Beetle
Unusual Symptoms of Coronavirus ; Get Ready for Pharmaceutical-Grade Magic Mushroom Pills ; and More Picks
Unusual Symptoms of Coronavirus (Russ)
The author writes, “While most people are familiar with the hallmark symptoms of COVID-19 by now — cough, fever, muscle aches, headaches and difficulty breathing — a new crop of medical conditions are emerging from the more than 4 million confirmed cases of the disease around the world. These include skin rashes, diarrhea, kidney abnormalities and potentially life-threatening blood clots.”
Shaun King Keeps Raising Money, and Questions About Where It Goes (Chris)
From the Daily Beast: “‘Shaun and the word “accountability” should never appear in the same sentence,’ the North Star’s former editor in chief, Keisha N. Blain — who one former employee told me was King’s staunchest ally at the company — wrote in a tweet thread. ‘So many people warned me about him and I didn’t listen.’”
Protecting Independence Is Initial Focus of America’s First Nonprofit Daily Newspaper (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Last month, [Salt Lake Tribune] publisher Paul Huntsman finished the legal handoff of his newspaper to a nonprofit organization. The investor says he aims to build a $60 million endowment in the next five years.”
Get Ready for Pharmaceutical-Grade Magic Mushroom Pills (Lisa P.)
The author writes, “As psilocybin moves closer to becoming a legal medicine meeting all the regulatory requirements, doctors won’t be writing prescriptions for mushroom caps or stems — and this will come at a certain cost. Johns Hopkins researchers have claimed they’ve paid labs $7,000 to $10,000 per gram of psilocybin, whereas the street price of magic mushrooms is around $10 per gram. Besides the cost of chemical materials, the steep sticker price comes from the labor required to adhere to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s strict drug-making standards, known as Current Good Manufacturing Practice.”
Young Mathematician Solves Old, Famous Knot Problem in Barely a Week (Mili)
From Popular Mechanics: “University of Texas at Austin mathematician Lisa Piccirillo learned about the Conway knot — a knot with 11 crossings, so named for the late mathematician John Horton Conway — from a colleague’s talk during a conference. Within a week, she’d solved the longstanding problem of whether or not the special knot was slice. (It’s not.) What’s slice? It’s the umbrella term for two properties that this kind of mathematical knot can have. And a mathematical knot is a whole major field of study unto itself, inspired by regular knots that can exist in real life.”
