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| 4.03
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| Apr 02, 2019
| May 21, 2019
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really liked it
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The book is dealing with the history and future of antibiotics and developing cures against multiresistant monsters, especially the experiences of McC
The book is dealing with the history and future of antibiotics and developing cures against multiresistant monsters, especially the experiences of McCarthy himself, his patients, the ethics and functioning of clinical trials, Big Pharma, and how bureaucracy makes it difficult to develop new cures. It´s one of the very few works dealing with this topic and reaching a larger audience, as antibiotic resistance and superbugs are, for understandable reasons, topics no politician wants the public to worry about too much because of the very negative interconnection and correlations to the economy and subsidy models that helped to breed the problem over the last decades. I´ve been searching for books dealing with this topic for a while now and it says a lot that there is a cloak of silence surrounding the problem, except of books that use a more personal and autobiographical writing style such as https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3.... Maybe I´ll read it, but it seems to be a bit too less specific to correspond to my reading habits, with its main focus on the persons and anecdotes and lesser on the science behind the cure. Because many different social and societal problems are fused in this coming mega crisis of infested health care systems and hospitals, dust infecting people just talking a walk, small cuts that can kill again, etc., publishers and newspapers dreaded to publish and talk about the real scope of the problem, but finally, the time seems to have come to openly share the facts. Feeding vast amounts of antibiotics and many other drugs and chemicals to livestock to push growth and not let them die in the horrible conditions they are forced to suffer through a short life until they are butchered and their flesh spreads contamination and is so filled with antibiotics that it has influences on the human body, prescribing far too many antibiotics to humans who have viral infections or don´t need them, people not taking all of their antibiotics, and no interest in research for new antibiotics are the reasons for why humankind will enter the postantibiotic era, when each little infection or injury could be deadly, again. The logical consequence of hyperinflationary floating the whole planet with one of the previously mightiest and best weapons against germs for profit maximization. It´s not the only field with a similar, coming, and completely unnecessary and avoidable catastrophe, it´s the same with the climate, the second category of multiresistant bugs, fungi, and microorganisms humankind is breeding by using more and more potent pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides in agriculture, ecocide and pollution, etc. It´s not pessimistic to say that we are traveling towards a multi disaster era, because we are fighting an unwinnable arms race against evolution and nature itself by trying to be smarter and cleverer, tinkering around with tools flora and fauna had hundreds of millions of years and microorganisms billions of years to optimize. I am a techno optimist, but I deem it impossible to find enough cures and new drugs, not to speak of a sustainable economic and political system that doesn´t include self- destruction buttons made out of pure greed and worshipping the almighty mister mammon. As a doctor, McCarthy has to have an optimistic outlook to stay motivated and have a positive effect on his patients and although bacteriophages, nano-, and biotechnology promise breakthroughs that could heal, only the richer people in the wealthy nations will be able to pay for the treatments while the rest of the world's population stays a breeding ground for the unnecessarily unleashed demons. A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimic... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibio... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibio... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibio... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidr... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor... ...more |
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| 0143036491
| 9780143036494
| 0143036491
| 3.98
| 40,688
| Feb 09, 2004
| Oct 04, 2005
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really liked it
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Pandemics recur, just as history repeats itself, and it´s all simply a question of how much can be learned from it and how far technology has marched
Pandemics recur, just as history repeats itself, and it´s all simply a question of how much can be learned from it and how far technology has marched on. They were at war, so they couldn´t tell that there were outbreaks, only the neutral Spain could say it without the danger of demotivating the population. Today there are mostly just trade wars anymore, but the rules have stayed the same and looking at the potential immense economical damage, the intuition of those trying to hide outbreaks was right. The influence of such pandemics on human, primate, mammal, and rodent evolution must have been immense, as wiping out huge parts of the population or even the whole population until extinction, and might have happened many times. Without samples and more advanced technology to detect virus DNA and RNA in archeology, or to find the right fossils, it will long stay unclear how massive the impact on the development of higher life forms on the planet might have been. The differences between 1920 and 2020 are so immense that it takes time to realize how real and ever more realistic this danger is, because we tend to believe that it can´t get so bad: Medicine was very primitive, but we didn´t really come so much closer to a solution in preventing outbreaks and finding cures. They didn´t have cars, planes, anything to spread it worldwide or just in a nation with such a speed as today. No freeways, just trains and some roads with horses on them. As long as the horses didn't get it, the spread was very slow. Fewer people having not so much contact with another. Just telephones to communicate, nothing to coordinate the efforts of a state or even a whole continent. A large question is what population group is most affected and if, when the virus has found its prime target, it won´t mutate again and switch the victim again. The book is not just about the Spanish flu, but also about the doctors and researches that tried to deal with it with methods that seem medieval compared to nowadays standards and by mixing the historical facts with these protagonists, it becomes very vivid for a nonfiction title. It has a bit much redundancy and it would be a five star if the author had put more focus on not repeating himself and telling very similar stories, wildly jumping between geography, personal stories, and the medicine of those days, making it all a bit blurry and unnecessary complicated to follow. Even if nowadays governments wouldn´t be incompetent, the human factor alone is highly disturbing. Just some people who are immune to rudimentary hygiene rules and logical arguments are enough, and guess what one little piglet that refuses to wash hands, sneeze in the crook of the arm, etc. could do for spreading diseases. Not to speak of antisocial psychos who do it on purpose, try to get it, and spread it. We didn´t write our own history, nature in the form of plagues did a lot of it and it would be arrogant and dangerous to believe that we are now so highly advanced and have so much fancy technology (and it´s a techno optimist who is saying that) that we are invulnerable, as if we already had nanobots patrolling each body and sending signals to produce individualized vaccines as soon as any invader is detected. But we aren´t there and the incompetence, arrogance, and idiocy of the Western governments will cost many lives now and in the future, until technology will eradicate the last plagues, what is just a question of time, not of if. There might even be already the potential for producing and developing new vaccines, testing methods, and preventive measures. But the pharma companies make no money with developing cures for plagues that might never occur and the state has no interest in investing in protecting its citizens, although this could even be seen as military research where a bit of money is invested in general. Why it´s even not possible to produce enough test kits or establish a global network of testing stations that monitor the world or to have intelligent plans for pandemics or to listen to experts or to not worsen the situation with polemics and fake news or to quarantine early enough or… but, as said, the politicians are like: „Lalalala…..ignoring experts…..yada yada yada…. Stupid decision stupid decision stupid decision“, while unnecessary piles of corpses are exponentially growing. Some links dealing with the current pandemic: CNN live updates https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-new... John Hopkins CSSE world map https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/ap... Youtube statistics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgylp... A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic ...more |
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| 075531218X
| 9780755312184
| 075531218X
| 4.15
| 16,776
| Jan 01, 2002
| 2002
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it was amazing
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Smallpox and anthrax are just the 2 main protagonists of this novel, but there are many others out there, some unknown or still to evolve. One has to Smallpox and anthrax are just the 2 main protagonists of this novel, but there are many others out there, some unknown or still to evolve. One has to look at the potential quantity (not quality lol, they nearly killed themselves because of incompetence) of the Soviet biowarfare program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioprep... and extrapolate the potential to now and the future to understand the sheer dimension of it. Much of the research has the potential to cure all illnesses, as especially viruses are so mighty tools that they could be genetically engineered brainwashed and used to be good instead of evil, and pharmaceutical companies are at this end of the spectrum, doing the opposite of what secret biological warfare research is trying to achieve. I do think that it´s more possible that the military will find cures earlier, as the budget, especially in a country like China, is circumstantial and the results don´t have to be economic so that all approaches can be tried. As long as it kills better, of course, but a side effect and collateral benefit could be cures we aren´t able to imagine. Of course, it would fall under military secrecy, but there is not much difference to the commercial studies that are as secret as possible too due to industrial espionage. It also sounds better and is easier to explain that a company found a cure than to admit that a cure for cancer was accidentally found while trying to breed an influenza rabies hybrid. General: „Didn´t I tell you to develop killers, not cures? Bad scientist, bad, shame on you wasting our governments´ money for this!“ It´s the huge variety of possible options in producing biological agents that make them even scarier. The intuitively most logical form, an active virus that can be directly released, seems horrible, but is less dangerous as the alternatives that could be used as timebombs. Microbes are pretty tough and they can wait, sleep, get active again, and with biological engineering, in the mix this means that one could produce something that is completely harmless when it´s cold, dry, and dark, but activates when hot, wet, and bright. The possibilities to use this are endless, as it wouldn´t even have to be exactly coordinated, it would be enough to just wait for spring and summer, for the day to come and the sun to shine or for the weather to change and, let´s say, pluvial period to set in. Anthrax was just the beginning. If the agent is unknown and thereby undetectable or a mighty state spreads such agents with the help of foreign intelligence services, special forces and secret agents, there could be thousands and more clusters distributed in neuralgic points of the enemies´ infrastructure until the conditions are perfect and the trade war or real war can begin. It could, of course, be fully automated too, using living agents or by generating the right breeding conditions in small or tiny, miniaturized machines that activate at the same time, breed until trillions of active killers are waiting to be released and open the gates at the same time. Nobody knows how much of this is still fiction and how much real military mind and plan games and simulations, but I do believe in the human creativity to kill as many others as possible and would subjectively say that anything possible in this regard will be done. How large such facilities might be is another question I keep asking myself, are it just normal labs with secrecy and soldiers around or is it going in the resident evil and horror direction with huge underground hives or prohibited areas where everyone breathing in the wrong direction or taking a picture from miles away gets shot. And, of course, human testing to see how it works and in what dimension it´s done, if it´s right next to the labs or if they take the risk to transport the new creations to the torture chambers of a black site. It could look like this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... One just has to look at what has been revealed about disturbing human subject research and I didn´t even mention combining it with breeding Übersoldiers that are resistant to the biological warfare agent that kills everyone and are quicker, smarter, stronger, and much sexier than the average G.I. Joe. I am no biologist or physician and can´t say how useful it is to keep probes of smallpox and other monsters we might be able to exterminate except of probes, and if we would have the ethical obligation to destroy everything. On the one hand, there is the possibility of a terrorist attack or a lab accident (or a scientist going bonkers) killing million, on the other hand, it could be positively used in the future in medicine and life sciences in ways we can´t even imagine. As genetic engineering accelerates, the vicious elements could become angels of longer life and cures instead of death, as they are so mighty that annihilating this potential forever seems questionable. I guess biological warfare programs will definitively be continued in space, be it in habitats, space stations, or on planets with or without atmosphere, as those destinations are just too perfect for such endeavors to not create solarpox. Also a great first contact scenario if it´s as far away from the earth as possible and the first place aliens come to visit, in the style of: Alien: „Is this a secret and highly illegal bioweapon program to exterminate all or just certain parts of your own species with ethnic bioweapons? Are you all space nazis praising eugenics?“ We: „No, no, this is a misunderstanding. We do important medical research here to cure…let´s see…damn.“ Alien: „Well, keep trying exterminating yourselves, if you aren´t successful, we´ll visit again in a few hundred years if you are mature enough for the galactic community and all the technologies we wanted to bring to help with your evolution.“ We: „No, let us explain..“ Alien: „Are those probes of extraterrestrial microorganisms you are adding to the deadly mix back there?“ We: „We didn´t know it were your probes that…“ Alien: „Bye.“ Some links dealing with the current pandemic: Animated world map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2... CNN live updates https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-new... John Hopkins CSSE world map https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/ap... Youtube statistics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgylp... A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafe... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_p... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History... ...more |
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| 1627797467
| 9781627797467
| 1627797467
| 4.24
| 12,721
| Feb 07, 2017
| Feb 07, 2017
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it was amazing
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I know that it´s totally wrong to be amused or even laugh while reading books with such topics, but the author does such a great, entertaining, scienc
I know that it´s totally wrong to be amused or even laugh while reading books with such topics, but the author does such a great, entertaining, science-education job by combining the worst nightmares of plague history with wit and satire that it´s difficult to stay serious. The key element here is Big History and that makes it an eyeopener because the medical books are just talking about the strange cures, the history books about the consequences on politics and warfare, the biology books about how the critters scuttle from victim to victim, but nobody puzzled the elements together until know. It was a combination of ignorance, stupidity, prudery, faith,... that made the illnesses even worse, because by combining stupid or no healing options with ostracizing, stigmatizing and persecuting the suffering humans, it got spread wider than necessary. The narrative arc of each described illness shows all of those aspects, the ideologies that fostered the wrong ideas and the brave doctors and scientists who tried to find real cures instead while facing scorn and occupational problems. One thing must be said about the inventors of freaking crazy theories about how and why who suffers from what, they were pretty creative. Just as right out of a maniac group brainstorming session, those academic trained, teaching, elite professors saw the damage they caused as science and cure and although some of them might certainly have been frauds, many might have believed that they are doing something Hippocratic instead of sadistic and worsening everything. Pandemics and infectious diseases had a huge impact on human history, art, and probably even genetic development, because eliminating large parts of the gene pool and just leaving the fittest or luckiest with random mutations or even build-in resistance survive, changes the composition of a population forever. If the black death hadn´t wiped out large parts of Europe's population, we might still live in a theocracy; if the peoples of the Americas would have been immune to smallpox and other European diseases, colonialization would have been impossible and there would be no US today. Instead, the tribes could have built huge ships to sail to Europe to bring us their plagues on purpose or accidentally and helped our ancestors to find the path close to extinction and we would live in reservations now. There are plenty of possible uchronia settings. The worst case of mismanagement in the 20th century was the reaction to the coming AIDS epidemic that could have been prevented, but instead, Reagan and, in general, many conservative politicians did everything to make it worse and let it escalate. If it would have been a rich, straight, white man´s disease, it would have been cured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesti... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesti... He was such a loveable person. The only difference to today may be that it were just restricted minds and sheer stupidity and not financial interests (or disinterests in finding cures for diseases nobody in the industrialized, rich countries gets or new antibiotics or cheap generics or...) that torpedoed and deferred progress in medical research. And doctors and scientists don´t get witch-hunted and burned any more if they have the nasty habit of getting pesky and just have to fear the loss of funding, license, job, reputation, and respect. It´s a coincidence that I am writing this review at a moment when the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2... is omnipresent. (and after the 2019 Ebola crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kivu_Eb...) It´s just a question of the competence of government and international institutions (sadly no joke); the severity of the new mutation of the virus; herd immunity and vaccination rates and how quickly new vaccines can be developed, mass-produced, and distributed; if it may become a too close, not just platonic friend of the yearly flu epidemic and similar, seasonal epidemics or multidrug-resistant germs or biological warfare agents someone let lying around anywhere (looking at you, certain country with terrible military security measures), or...; how quickly it´s discovered and how far it has already spread, if it´s a zoonosis, where it breaks out, how contagious and deadly it is,... and sheer luck or bad luck how bad that future, coming pandemics will get. A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieva... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_h... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_His... ...more |
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| 0812998839
| 9780812998832
| 0812998839
| 4.42
| 6,601
| Jul 23, 2019
| Jul 23, 2019
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it was amazing
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A biomedical, microbiological and terrifying trip to tiny superpredators and some thoughts about how they may evolve and be (mis)used. The suffering o A biomedical, microbiological and terrifying trip to tiny superpredators and some thoughts about how they may evolve and be (mis)used. The suffering of the populations of these countries is as unbelievable and the courage of the help workers who had to fight against fake news denying the existence of ebola, people stealing infected family members from hospitals and the tradition of rinsing the bodies of the deceased to bathe in the same water. Tragic cases of misleading cultural norms that made the epidemic longer, larger and more dangerous. The mistrust in western doctors is whereas something based on colonial crimes. This outbreak was just the biggest one in human history until now and the question of what the future will bring is one of the most disturbing aspects the reading of this book implements in the mind of the reader. One know´s those overachievers who to do much too well in a too short period while all others are still procrastinating. Well, Ebola is such a case. In monkeys, it is still not too hardcore to self-destruct by killing the whole population, but as soon as the pandemic spillover scenario takes place, it gets nasty really quick. The cytokine storm, the liquefication of inner organs and the unbelievable amount of produced viruses make it a killer with the same potential as smallpox as a biological agent for warfare. Even without further, natural evolution of the virus, it is already incredibly dangerous. To say that highly developed countries may be immune to problems with outbreaks like that is seld-deceit and denial of reality. Take one of the fast-growing megacities, a neuralgic point like an airport, rail station or city center and think of the average apocalypse movie. There is no argument against that and just because it still didn´t happen doesn´t mean that it won´t happen. Just a normal outbreak could kill hundreds of thousands until it´s under control, but let´s say it is in combination with a natural disaster like a hurricane or a large terrorist attack on infrastructure that is combined with an attack with biological weapons like Lassa fever, Ebola, a super Flu, a pandemic, smallpox, etc. in New York, Mumbai, London, Berlin, Beijing, Paris,... In such a setting millions will die and reverse quarantine won´t help anything. Another option for biological warfare is to simply infect refugees and sent them to the country one wants to harm. Or, more subtle, use highly skilled, brainwashed agents that work in important companies and government agencies, infect themselves all at the same time with an ethnic bioweapon like ebolapox, spread the virus before the first symptoms could give the hint and hide so that nobody is alarmed by their death. A smaller country could even be invaded after such a first strike because the soldiers wouldn't have to fear contagion if they are already vaccinated against the used agent or the ethnic bioweapon is so sophisticated that just humans living in the enemy country get infected. Genetic engineering will be the best solution and the worst problem at the same time. For medicine, vaccines are just the first step. Viruses, bacteria and especially phages have the potential for individualized medicine, self-healing applications, drug transport inside the body and as allies of the human body against other invaders. They are so highly developed that science can learn endless things and probably find cures for many diseases that are still seen as incurable. On the other, darker side terrorists could add resistance to heat and cold, even acid or disinfectants and, the worst thing, the ability to survive outside human bodies long enough, to fly trough air over vast distances to new hosts. To make viruses more potent, contagious and more difficult to detect, especially if the amount needed to provoke an outbreak gets smaller and smaller and completely new viruses are created whose genetic fingerprint is still unknown and undetectable. And there is nature that has already produced too great working killer like the Spanish flu. Nothing is more attractive to dangerous microorganisms than to adapt better and better to the most attractive prey and well, that seems to be the human species. We are an especially great place for experiments because we tend to fly from climate zone to climate zone and that´s a great acclimation exercise and a nice, free world cruise at the same time for those nasty little monsters. It will be an endless chess game between nature and different fractions of human society who try to cure or kill all other people. A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real-life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioprep... ...more |
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| 0140250913
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| 0140250913
| 4.21
| 10,599
| 1994
| Oct 01, 1995
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it was amazing
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A 25 year old, unheard, ignored Cassandra call full of detailed descriptions, this book deals with the question of how the evolution of killer viruses
A 25 year old, unheard, ignored Cassandra call full of detailed descriptions, this book deals with the question of how the evolution of killer viruses, potential pandemics, plagues, sexually transmitted epidemics,... may continue in the future. Garrett describes the connection of third world poverty and the spread of diseases, something completely ignored by mainstream media because of the political and economic implications, except an epidemic gets too extreme and gets NIMBY. This, chapter 14, named "Thirdworldization" is a reason for shame for the rich, industrialized countries, but what is not? The general question is, as so often, not if, but more when, how, where and hopefully not me. When: There are many ticking time bombs, be it manmade problems with superbugs due to overuse of antibiotics, urbanization with more and more people living close together, the possibility of spillovers in companion with natural destruction, as unexplored areas with new species of primates are exploited, other manmade problems like side effects of genetical engineering, the option for use as biological weapons, climate change and global warming that help germs immigrate to new territories and possibly frozen ones come back to live, terrible public health and prevention politics, no further development of new and preventive vaccines and antibiotics because there is no money to make with this stuff, except if it is the flu,... How: As an element of warfare or one lumberjack, being bitten by a monkey or getting in contact with body fluids spreading it in his hometown and from there to a larger city to the capital to….. Or a multiresistant superbug out of a secret biowarfare lab or an industrial farming facility, whatever the difference is, the farming might get much more subsidies. There are so many great film plots around this. Where: The only positive thing. If one doesn´t live in a larger city, but a rural area, by simply shooting everyone nearing the village after the breakout, bad things can be prevented and outposts have a long tradition of hating anything foreign, so that should work well. Except when there is a longer state of emergency, break down of infrastructure and food supply, leather rockers cannibalizing around, virus apocalypse, yada yada yada. The author is a biologist with specializations in bacteriology and immunology who switched to journalism and the chapters read like great storylines for hard biopunk Sci-Fi stories. The underrepresented biopunk genre deserves more authors who are biologists, geneticists, bioengineers,... So please, take a creative writing course and create the next big thing, because the Sci-Fi hall of fame is filled with just mostly astrophysicists, chemists, physicists and similar, mainly not bio-focused, authors. All of the points the author mentioned a long time ago, the suggestions she made on how to be able to deal with the problems have been commendably solved by a wise and united world government and public-private partnerships with international institutions that... Just joking, we are doomed (when living in large cities)! Doooomed. (I love to say that.) Now, it´s really enough. Ok, once again: „Move along people, nothing to see here. The government is competent and capable to deal with the situation.“ One more: They build bioweapons by combining elements of something extremely deadly like smallpox or ebola with the flu and anything that can spread by air and is extremely contagious. Something like a droplet infection that spread genetically enhanced HIV, multiresistant tuberculosis, hepatitis C,… this way might be no effective immediate use bioweapon, but something for the long-term destruction of a country, especially if the own population is immune and vaccinated against it. A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_h... I read it inspired, or let´s say terrified, yes, that sounds much better, by the current coronavirus outbreak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2... CNN live updates https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-new... John Hopkins CSSE world map https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/ap... Youtube statistics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgylp... ...more |
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it was amazing
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I guess I won´t ever take a duck, bat, or cute little monkey as a pet after reading this book. Ok, the ape would be pretty illegal too. A similar ques I guess I won´t ever take a duck, bat, or cute little monkey as a pet after reading this book. Ok, the ape would be pretty illegal too. A similar question I kept continually asking myself while reading this: Could it once spread to pets like dogs and cats and back to humans again who infect a bird that infects a bat that is eaten by a wild dog who bites a human etc. Isn´t that an endless circle with possible catastrophes around each corner, even without human intervention such as antibiotic resistance, genetic engineering, and biological warfare? And what if the mutation rate of the viruses reaches a level that it gets impossible to develop vaccines, because their genetic code changes so quickly over a few months that there is no cure anymore or the get immune within weeks. It can´t be overemphasized enough that we know close to nothing, that no serious predictions are possible because: There are not just the already mutating RNA viruses around, but many we don´t know enough about and still have to do basic research. There are species we still haven´t discovered. Microorganisms interact, swap, infiltrate another and the ones successful are the winners of a hundreds of millions year long arms race and were able to adapt to ever more complex lifeforms, possibly enabling higher life. There are more and more interactions between primates, rodents, and other species and humans due to natural destruction and population growth. We don´t know how quickly viruses can evolve, jump from species to species, become less harmful or a killer for everyone, as each one infected could become the patient zero for a much deadlier version of the original virus. What if the person has HIV, tuberculosis, or hepatitis C and the virus combines its abilities with the ones of the chronic illness, let´s say the flu with AIDS? It´s Russian roulette to eat, and live next to, primates who share up to 97 to 98 percent of the same genome. We will (or already have been) be breeding hybrids and human ape chimeras. Many of the worst diseases such as Ebola, BSE, Bubonic plague, anthrax, AIDS, influenza, Hantavirus, leprosy, rabies, zika, and many others are zoonosis, such as SARS Cov-2, and as soon as they have spread widely enough in populations or even around the world, they will last forever. As each human is unique and RNA Viruses are really bad, there will always be reservoirs of hosts until the next winter is coming. It´s already enough to touch anything invisibly contaminated with any body fluid of a bat, monkey, or whatever. Human, of course, too. There are different stages with different hosts, be it animals or humans, getting sick or not getting sick, transmitting the disease. We are isolating ourselves more and more from nature, have more allergies, get sicker with all the civilization diseases and make ourselves much more vulnerable to new viruses, as our immune systems aren´t used to get in contact with dirt and germs anymore and the bacterias and viruses that survive are more hardcore. What happens if flying syringes, escaped lab animals, and all the genetically engineered crops and animals we have already left out into the world interact with the microflora, and the invisible monsters take interesting power ups we integrated to grow more meat and resistant plants for themselves? The incompetence of politicians and governments, especially in this really very important field, is shocking and would be as ridiculous as all they do to simulate doing anything, if it wouldn´t be so dangerous. They even aren´t able to follow plans that have been finetuned over decades for the case of a pandemic. It´s as if they were even too stupid to read simple instructions or hand them to one of their hundreds of assistants. The basic reproduction rate, virulence, case fatality rate, pathogenicity, and other factors are black swans, coincidences, nobody knows what will and can happen, it´s a question of good or bad luck if it gets deadlier or harmless, any person infected could be the starting point for a mutation to kill hundreds of millions. I didn´t realize how many terrible diseases came out of the animal kingdom, but now it makes perfect sense that a new land without police knowing the enemy is a dreamland for each new virus and a human has pretty many functions to mess with. That tropical countries are so overstuffed with potentially deadly dangers is one more of the reasons why I am a stay at home guy, I mean, if it doesn´t directly kill one, one could bring undetectable, new death home from the jungle without even recognizing it. Quammen didn´t directly predict the 2013 Ebola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western... and 2020 Coronavirus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2... epidemic, but he explained in detail that more and more people in an interconnected, globalized world in much contact with wild animals may lead to unforeseeable chain reactions. These scientists researching and studying outside in the field, taking the probes, working in biosafety level 4 labs, are so badass and courageous to provide the knowledge needed to find cures for these plagues that it´s hard to imagine how one normal person should do that. I would get so paranoid and nervous that it wouldn´t end well. The too specific biological aspects of the book can be skimmed and scanned if one isn´t into this kind of stuff, but the great and vivid style of telling the stories surrounding the facts will be terrifying for every reader. We are ourselves permanently breeding the next angel of death by adding genetic engineering, poisoning nature, developing more and more drugs and chemicals that are used in vast amounts without knowing the short, not even to speak of the long, time effects, antibiotic resistance, and biological warfare. They really tried to make ebolapox, as if diseases like AIDS or SARS weren´t horrible enough and it´s a question of a coincidence if the next big plague will be all natural, made by ignorance and involuntary bad luck coincidences, or by an oopsie in a secret military biohazard level 4 umbrella corporation lab with this song in the background. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L7mZ... Could be used for a black comedy scene too… Would also be quite an irony if the majority of the human population is wiped out in an attempt to find a cure for cancer or the path to immortality. Since the outbreak of SARS Cov-2, I am repeatedly thinking of the game Plague Inc. I wasted pretty much lifetime with. And yes, before you ask, I was very successful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSat_... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMxuZ... A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virulence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_r.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_fa... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathoge... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafe... Some links dealing with the current pandemic: CNN live updates https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-new... John Hopkins CSSE world map https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/ap... Youtube statistics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgylp... ...more |
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The mechanisms in animals and humans are known so far. Only who says that we know all of them? There are cases of parasitism that are apparent like whe The mechanisms in animals and humans are known so far. Only who says that we know all of them? There are cases of parasitism that are apparent like when prions capture the brain of cattle in the form of BSE and no one trusts the steak anymore, especially when it is cooked blue rare to medium-rare. Or when the notorious mushroom Ophiocordyceps unilateralis captures ants and lets cute, fashionable but deadly hats sprout out of their heads. Not to forget the apparent, unappetizing parasites such as various worms. But even these, through changes in the digestive tract, can indirectly manipulate the behavior of the host as a side effect of the altered microfauna. The ultimate goal of a parasite is to live unrecognized as long as possible in the host and multiply. If the host dies too soon, the parasite, like a very deadly virus, has been too greedy and poorly adapted. It would be ideal for it to be able to live for the entire lifespan of a host unrecognized in it without causing any suspicious symptoms and to infect as many as possible during this time. The most cuddly would be a place around which the victim's immune system is vigilant and no other competitor has access, perhaps in the central nervous system, such as herpes and other viruses. Or a monopoly in the brain as the ultra jackpot. Science knows a few of the processes that parasites are taking advantage of to turn their victims into hosts. In the most astonishing ways, they can take direct control of their minds. This fatal relationship concept seems to be reserved for insects and fungi. Still. It's not subtle, either, because ants recognize the warning signs and haul sufferers to the ant equivalent of plague and leper colonies. In less extreme cases, just the meat and body of the host serves as a transport medium to be carried back to the optimal breeding areas. A complex interaction between the breeding site, the intermediate hosts and the end hosts is necessary. The tormentors manage to orchestrate every step of the logistics chain perfectly with their different development stages and all their dolls dance in perfect synchrony. Looking at human evolution from a microbiological point of view and traveling back a few million years, one question arises. Have the small rodents, monkeys and high civilizations acted and developed only on own their initiative? As a hypothesis, one could assume that the climatic favored parasites significantly influenced the evolution of higher life forms. Not the god-king formed the face of the earth, but the dwarfs in his holy body. A philosophical consideration: if the earth is a life form, man is an incredibly clumsy, destructive and stupid parasite. It has not internalized to let one's host live as long as possible. One could also target the analogy to a virus, as in the movie Matrix. It's a little bit of both. A better and longer evolved fungus or prion could have specialized since the first small mammals to become a lifelong unnoticed companion. In order not to be recognized by the white blood cells and the memory cells, he had to camouflage or mislead better and better. To overcome the blood-brain barrier, he had to miniaturize himself. Since the brain does not feel pain, a brain parasite mutated with a focus on destructiveness and resulting madness could begin to cause damage and infection. Only at elevated infection levels or because of signs of brain damage, one would notice his presence. But before that, it could switch and act and play. For example, the always top-rated and far too serious game called human ego, personality and consciousness. Or if it needs the hosts' death for reproduction, it lets them become depressed, so they commit suicide. Or it makes them aggressive and careless, so they would rather die in an accident or fight. If a person infected with an influenza virus feels the increased need for social contacts and AIDS patients develop some strong sexual instincts shortly before they die, the small manipulators can certainly do even more in the long term. This is much more subtle than when the forehead begins to bulge and the fruiting bodies of a mushroom burst out between the eyes in the subway or at a family party and crush both the skull and the celebration. A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real-life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... ...more |
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What lies beyond the molecular level? Where we can not see. Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you mig What lies beyond the molecular level? Where we can not see. Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested. The motor of life seems to be more complicated than expected. It turns out more and more than the previous research has observed rather only individual components of the complex machinery. One or the other connection was made, and a few processes were followed. Only nobody knows what underlies these processes on deeper levels. For example, breathing, heredity, photosynthesis, the electrical quantum activity of neurons, magnetoreception, consciousness, sense of smell and the origin of life. Moreover, these are just the processes that this very young science discipline has been able to investigate so far. Many observed phenomena imply more levels than postulated by established research. Quantum field theory opens a few doors concerning this. Which of the thought experiments fits the inexplicable, observed anomalies will become apparent. The fact that the ghostly long-distance effect cannot be forced well to manifest, complicates the research. When nervous particles are nowhere and at two places at the same time at the same time. This alone contradicts both our fundamental ideas of physics and our worldview. Because it fits into the realm of myths, legends, and fantasy rather than serious science. Also, if that limit falls, what is impossible? What is eccentricity close to madness and what is the reality? A few hypotheses can be set up. There are overlooked factors in the known three dimensions that are so tiny or so small in effect that they have not been considered before. More dimensions than expected. From the 4th and other dimensions come interactions that allow metabolic processes, photosynthesis, and life in our dimension. Without this connection, life would not be possible. Suppose that life would disappear in our dimension or another dimension. Would that also destroy life in the connected dimension because the two are dependent on each other? Parallel universes. A parallel universe interacts with the other. An unknown kind of entropy shapes the laws of nature. Different variants of the principles of thermodynamics and gravitation interact between the worlds. Or several parallel universes with several types of natural laws are in complex interaction. For a multiverse, the possibilities of variation would be infinite. Simulation Hypothesis. If the quanta are some programming language, the world would be made up of code. Alternatively, the quanta are just the coarsest, fundamental building blocks under which the actual code is hidden. Mistakes in programming would explain anomalies in our world. No matter which model you prefer. It could be that the emergence of life without interaction with invisible and undetectable forces is not possible. That there may be universes or worlds that will forever be dead because they are not interacting with others. That symbiosis and cooperation between the layers of realities were so essential that without them, evolution was impossible. We consist of unknown many such hypothetical processes that we do not understand. The photosynthesis of plants is based not only on sunlight but also on quantum entanglement. If human beings accidentally interfere with this process through physical experiments or less subtly through genetic engineering, the world would perish. If the ability becomes possible only through an interaction with another dimension, disturbances could make it disappear. The processes in the tiny and colossal call the sea metaphor on the plan. A grain of sand knowledge and an ocean of unanswered questions. A small plant cell is a game that automates a process that requires the hordes of the best scientists and billions of investment in large equipment. Moreover, the flower also manages to sustain the operation for more than a few thousandths of a second. It makes a living with it. The foundations of many cellular processes, photosynthesis, and chemical processes are currently defined from the point of view of the giant, coarse constituents. Like looking at a factory from the outside. One can see the supply streams, maybe know a few of the primary materials and see the finished end products coming out of the factory. From an analysis of the smoke from the factory chimneys and the waste that arises, one can make small attempts with reverse engineering. However, what happens in the factory aka all living things can only be guessed. For human consciousness, this raises the question of where and what the self is. In the un-understood brain, the factor is added that unknown smallest parts or mechanisms of action from other dimensions could be significantly involved. So this ego is theoretically exposed to interactions or, probably, manipulations and whisperings from other, inaccessible realities. When you make a decision, talk, work or think about things like that. Whether it is a one-way street and the opposite direction will remain inaccessible to people like a black hole is one of the critical issues. Not only concerning whether we unconsciously work in other dimensions, when we think or have emotions. However, also regarding the relativity of death. If consciousness does not exist bound to 3 dimensions, then why a body with some wetware in it? Was liegt alles jenseits der molekularen Ebene? Dort, wohin wir nicht sehen können. Der Motor des Lebens scheint diffiziler aufgebaut zu sein, als angenommen. Es stellt sich immer mehr heraus, dass die bisherigen Forschungen eher nur einzelne Komponenten der komplexen Maschinerie beobachtet haben. Der eine oder andere Zusammenhang wurde hergestellt und ein paar Prozesse beobachtet. Nur was diesen Vorgängen auf tieferen Ebenen zugrunde liegt, weiß niemand. Etwa der Atmung, Vererbung, Fotosynthese, elektrischer Quantenaktivität von Neuronen, Magnetorezeption, Bewusstsein, Geruchssinn und dem Ursprung des Lebens. Und das sind nur die Prozesse, die diese sehr junge Wissenschaftsdisziplin bisher untersuchen konnte. Viele beobachtete Phänomene implizieren mehr Ebenen als von der etablierten Forschung postuliert. Die Quantenfeldtheorie öffnet hinsichtlich dessen einige Türen. Welches der Gedankenexperimente zu den unerklärlichen, beobachteten Anomalien passt, wird sich zeigen. Dass sich die spukhafte Fernwirkung nicht gut zur Manifestation zwingen lässt, erschwert die Forschung. Wenn die nervösen Teilchen gleichzeitig nirgends und an 2 Stellen zur selben Zeit sind. Alleine das widerspricht sowohl unseren fundamentalen Vorstellungen von Physik als auch unserem Weltbild. Weil es viel eher in das Reich der Mythen, Legenden und Fantasy als zu seriöser Wissenschaft passt. Und wenn diese Grenze fällt, was ist dann noch unmöglich? Was ist dann Spinnerei oder Wahnsinn und was Realität? Ein paar Hypothesen lassen sich aufstellen. Es gibt übersehene Faktoren in den bekannten 3 Dimensionen, die so klein oder in ihrer Wirkung so gering sind, dass man sie bisher nicht in Betracht gezogen hat. Mehr Dimensionen als angenommen. Aus der 4ten und weiteren Dimensionen kommen Wechselwirkungen, die Stoffwechselprozesse, Fotosynthese und das Leben in unserer Dimension ermöglichen. Ohne diese Verbindung wäre Leben nicht möglich. Angenommen, das Leben würde in unserer Dimension oder in einer anderen Dimension verschwinden. Würde das auch das Leben in der angekoppelten Dimension zerstören? Paralleluniversen. Ein Paralleluniversum wechselwirkt mit dem anderen. Die Naturgesetze sind durch eine unbekannte Art von Entropie geformt. Verschiedene Varianten der Grundsätze der Thermodynamik und Gravitation stehen zwischen den Universen in Wechselwirkung. Oder mehrere Paralleluniversen mit mehreren Arten von Naturgesetzen stehen in komplexem Zusammenspiel. Bei einem Multiversum wären die Variationsmöglichkeiten entsprechend unendlich. Simulationshypothese. Wenn die Quanten eine Art von Programmiersprache sind, wäre die Welt aus Code zusammen gesetzt. Oder die Quanten sind nur die gröbsten, primitiven Bausteine unter denen der eigentliche Code verborgen liegt. Anomalien in unserer Welt würden sicht mit Fehlern in der Programmierung erklären lassen. Egal, welchem Modell man den Vorzug gibt. Es könnte sein, dass die Entstehung von Leben ohne eine Wechselwirkung mit unsichtbaren und noch undetektierbaren Kräften nicht möglich ist. Dass es Universen oder Welten geben mag, die für immer tot bleiben werden, weil sie nicht in Wechselwirkung mit anderen stehen. Dass sie Symbiose und Kooperation zwischen den Schichten der Wirklichkeiten so essentiell sind, dass ohne sie keine Evolution möglich ist. Wir bestehen aus unbekannt vielen solcher hypothetischer Vorgänge, die wir nicht verstehen. Die Fotosynthese von Pflanzen basiert nicht allein auf Sonnenlicht, sondern auch auf Quantenverschränkung. Wenn der Mensch aus Versehen durch physikalische Experimente oder weniger subtil durch Gentechnik diesen Prozess stört, würde die Welt untergehen. Wenn die Fähigkeit nur durch eine Wechselwirkung mit einer anderen Dimension möglich wird, könnten Störungen diese verschwinden lassen. Die Prozesse im ganz kleinen und ganz großen rufen die Meermetapher auf den Plan. Ein Sandkorn Wissen und ein Ozean von offenen Fragen. Eine winzige Pflanzenzelle automatisiert spielend einen Prozess, für den es Heerscharen der besten Wissenschaftler und Milliarden an Investitionen für Großgeräte braucht. Und die Blume schafft es auch länger als ein paar Tausendstel Sekunden, den Prozess aufrecht zu erhalten. Sie lebt davon. Die Grundlagen vieler zellulärer Prozesse, der Fotosynthese und chemischer Vorgänge sind momentan unter dem Gesichtspunkt definiert, dass man die riesigen, groben Bestandteile beobachtet. Wie wenn man von außen auf eine Fabrik blickt. Man sieht die Zulieferströme, kennt vielleicht ein paar der Grundmaterialien und sieht die fertigen Endprodukte aus der Fabrik heraus kommen. Anhand einer Analyse des Rauchs aus den Fabrikschloten und der Abfälle die anfallen, kann man kleine Versuche mit Reverse Engineering anstellen. Aber was in der Fabrik und in allen Lebewesen wirklich geschieht, kann man nur raten. Für das menschliche Bewusstsein wirft das die Frage auf, wo und was das Ich eigentlich ist. Im nicht verstandenen Gehirn kommt der Faktor hinzu, dass unbekannte kleinste Teile oder Wirkmechanismen aus anderen Dimensionen maßgeblich beteiligt sein könnten. Also ist dieses Ego theoretisch Wechselwirkungen oder, theoretisch, Manipulationen und Einflüsterungen aus anderen, unzugänglichen Realitäten ausgesetzt. Wenn man eine Entscheidung trifft, redet, arbeitet oder über solche Dinge nachdenkt. Ob es eine Einbahnstraße ist und die Gegenrichtung für Menschen wie ein schwarzes Loch unzugänglich bleiben wird, ist eine der Kernfragen. Nicht nur hinsichtlich dessen, ob wir unbewusst in anderen Dimensionen wirken, wenn wir denken oder Emotionen haben. Sondern auch bezüglich der Relativität des Todes. Wenn das Bewusstsein nicht an 3 Dimensionen gebunden existiert, warum dann an einen Körper? ...more |
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Inner values get, in this context, wholly new, trillion of dimensions. Like so many prejudices, those against microorganisms are stupid and shortsighte Inner values get, in this context, wholly new, trillion of dimensions. Like so many prejudices, those against microorganisms are stupid and shortsighted. The first associations are not symbiosis and better health but infection and disease because the negative image is over-represented. Hygiene and health are essential, but the benefits of invisible companions are far too rarely highlighted and the beneficial minis outweigh the pests by far. Moreover, understanding the mechanisms is necessary for good health, built on a microorganism friendly diet. Without a symbiosis with a few pounds of microorganisms that are spread over and through the whole body, human life would not be possible, metabolic processes would stop death would be inevitable. A co-evolution has made all higher living beings dependent on the colonizers because they defend humans against enemy invaders which could harm their host. Of course, they also assist with bodily functions because they bring benefits to them so that the motivation for the defense help is not purely altruistic. They form a second front against attackers and it are often the human eaters themselves who are to blame when they wreck their microflora and lose the second shield because of permanently unhealthy nom nom. The coevolution of higher life with invisible helpers is long and has usually developed into a symbiosis. Much has happened since the first bacterium settled in a higher being while it was itself being altered by a virus etc. The ever more severe human intervention in this cycle has led to problems within less than 75 years. Since the advent of antibiotics and serial mass production of drugs, allergies, food sensitivities, autoimmune diseases, multidrug-resistant germs, lifestyle diseases, etc. are on the rise. How much of this is related to the destruction of the natural balance in the body, can be difficult to estimate due to a lack of studies. A one-sided diet with an excessive intake of antibiotics in addition to various other drugs is an essential factor that turns the symbiosis into a dysbiosis. Many drugs include, as a side effect, a mass extinction combined with a collapse of the miniaturized social order, civil wars and a lengthy reconstruction of it. With medicine and hygiene, much money can be made and as a result, super-pathogens grow in hospitals, while chemical gangs in the body of the patients decimate the defense forces of the body. Therapies with alternative and gentler drugs would be a new competitive and biological disinfectant and more expensive than artificial chemicals in the short term without including long-time costs. The patients pay for this with their health and sometimes life. The potential market with tailor-made probiotics and the manipulation and improvement of microfauna with genetically modified organisms is a future-oriented industry. As soon as enough bucks are made with conventional medicine, the Big Players will enter it. Until then it will be vilified and kept down. Actually the effort, according to the standards of medical economics, would not be responsible. Individualized medicine would have to first check the patients for potential vulnerabilities in their microbiome and then create a tailored therapy for them. A great alternative for rich people, but all others continue to receive the standard procedure of conventional treatment that kills friend and foe alike. If one eats microbe-hostile, one gets problems because a healthy, natural and balanced diet ensures a stable and robust micro-environment. Industrially highly processed and unhealthy food kills many of the little helpers and in their places settle less species-rich constellations, sometimes almost monocultures of dodgy creaturs. These not only damage health in addition to the unhealthy diet but also ensure that the desire for excessive and destructive gluttony with junk food never breaks off in the brain. Their interest in a steady supply is justified. A dietary change to fresh, low-fat, salt-reduced and sugar-free diets could significantly reduce their intake. Everyone has to make a choice themselves. Fit and peaceful armies that have lived and protected us for eons or, alternatively, mercenary junkie armies with dubious loyalty, prone to excesses and arson. One willingly lets them move around in the heartland until one loses control over them or they desert and begin dismantling oneself from within. Many times, a supposed protective power has in retrospect proved to be the worst enemy. The brain partakes at every meal and accordingly, the performance can be expanded or reduced. Not only the body feels sluggish after too much food, but the gray cells are overwhelmed too. It is not so much the energy used in digestion or the inertia that sets in with permanent overeating. Much more the fuel of the brain is of poor quality. In the car or an expensive machine, one would not pour substandard gasoline or cheap oil. This mentality does not apply to one's own body. From one-sided nutrition with inferior food of low quality less valuable substances can be extracted, which would be necessary for optimal brain function. One eats oneself dumb. A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real-life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbiota ...more |
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Were the microorganisms only longer than the people on earth or would they stay longer? Please note that I put the original German text at the end of t Were the microorganisms only longer than the people on earth or would they stay longer? Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested. I would like to focus on the theoretical part of the book. Paul Farmer is a shining example of with his commitment to the poorest and the weakest. His approaches and ideas for better medical care, more distributive justice and a restructuring of inefficient and corrupt systems are visionary. He describes the mistakes in the order, specifically the AIDS and tuberculosis epidemic in developing countries. However, back to the plagues. Since the book is quite old, I include some of the newer developments. One should not lose sight of the historical role models along with new scientific findings, despite all criticism of the events surrounding pork and avian flu hysteria. Above all, the pharmaceutical companies used the hyped crisis to sell more drugs and exaggeration was used to increase circulation of media. Because the Spanish flu killed not only millions of people but, what is even more terrifying, infected more than half of the then world population. It was a lucky coincidence that it just killed young and healthy people. Bird and swine flu, which may also have other intermediate owners as zoonoses, have the potential to be both incredibly deadly and contagious. So far it has not been, but the potential combinations of characteristics of Ebola and smallpox, AIDS and influenza or tuberculosis and hepatitis C give a foretaste of dystopian scenarios. These are in no way fictitious or unlikely. As quickly and inaccurately mutating viruses such as HIV and Ebola are changing constantly and thus escape any vaccine and cure. They come in contact with new hosts and other viruses and bacteria and develop resistance. In tuberculosis, hepatitis C, hospital germs and other pathogens, this has now led to the formation of multidrug-resistant bacteria. The practice of evaluating the costs and financial potential of outbreaking diseases and disabilities after illnesses seems sick itself. Whether in hard currency or a lost, healthy life-year counted, these monsters are poor reports of bureaucratic withdrawal. One does not need to shun the comparison with the profit calculation of corporations. They have no scruples about sitting on the patents, formulas and production sites of drugs and active ingredients. However, they keep them under wraps and thus prevent research and its healing by states or other companies. Not only are there no ambitions to produce drugs against diseases that are rampant in developing countries and therefore unprofitable. It is also systematically prevented that those affected resorts to self-help. If they do, they will be sued for infringement of patent and copyright rights. However, these class action lawsuits by pharmaceutical companies against developing countries are not entirely in harmony with the code of conduct. They cause annoying cries of the press and usually have to be pulled back. Provided the world public learns about it. Good that there are still the lucrative civilization diseases in the first world. The combination of unscrupulousness, greed and the postponement of action could, above all, make the industrialized countries regret their actions. Not only that they ensure a better exciter distribution through the developed infrastructure and many more people can be infected in a shorter time than in developing countries. What is also not considered are the extended consequences of a plague that is only rampant in developing countries due to the successful isolation of the West. The resulting lack of raw materials and food would also cause considerable damage in the North American and European economies. Since research on drugs and vaccines is increasingly focusing on genetically modified organisms, consideration is required. We know nothing at all about the short-term, long-term or consequential effects of interfering with the genetic material of life forms. Except perhaps that the modification changes specific characteristics and results in desired directions. Often by accident or random. How this affects the further development, reproduction and the rest of the ecosystem is also under running and thus vanishes into insignificance. Governments, corporations, and scientists now fully control their mental powers by combating some of the most adaptable, only partially explored and understood, mutant and hazardous forms of life using genetic engineering. It will be exciting to see what the viruses and bacteria can do with these extra, unnatural building blocks. Also, what a multidrug-resistant, genetically engineered pathogen knows how to start with the evolutionarily most successful properties of various diseases when it unites them. In a slum in the third world, in a Chinese internment camp or an over-occupied prison of the industrialized countries. Waren die Kleinstlebewesen nur länger als die Menschen auf der Erde oder werden sie es auch länger bleiben? Ich möchte mich auf den theoretischen Teil des Buches konzentrieren. Paul Farmer ist mit seinem Engagement und Einsatz für Ärmsten und Schwächsten ein leuchtendes Vorbild. Seine Ansätze und Ideen für bessere medizinische Betreuung, mehr Verteilungsgerechtigkeit und eine Umstrukturierung der ineffizienten und korrupten Systeme sind visionär. Er beschreibt die Fehler im System, speziell anhand der AIDS und Tuberkulose Epidemie in Entwicklungsländern. Doch zurück zu den Seuchen. Da das Buch recht alt ist, binde ich ein paar der neueren Entwicklungen mit ein. Man sollte die historischen Vorbilder samt neuen, wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen, bei aller Kritik an den Vorgängen rund um die Schweine- und Vogelgrippehysterie, nicht aus den Augen verlieren. Vor allem die Geschäftemacherei von Pharmakonzernen und Übertreibung zwecks Auflagensteigerung von Medien. Denn die spanische Grippe tötete nicht nur Millionen Menschen, sondern, was noch erschreckender ist, infizierte auch mehr als die halbe damalige Weltbevölkerung. Dass sie nur die jungen und gesunden Menschen dahinraffte, war ein glücklicher Zufall. Vogel- sowie Schweinegrippe, die als Zoonosen auch weitere Zwischenwirte haben können, bergen das Potential in sich sowohl überaus tödlich als auch ansteckend zu sein. Bisher war es noch nicht der Fall, aber die potentiellen Kombinationen aus Eigenschaften von Ebola und Pocken, Aids und Grippe oder Tuberkulose und Hepatitis C geben einen Vorgeschmack auf dystopische Szenarien. Diese sind in keiner Weise fiktiv oder unwahrscheinlich. Gerade so schnell und ungenau mutierende Viren wie HIV und Ebola verändern sich stetig und entschlüpfen damit jeder Impf- und Heilungsmöglichkeit. Sie kommen mit immer neuen Wirten und anderen Viren und Bakterien in Kontakt und entwickeln Resistenzen. Bei Tuberkulose, Hepatitis C, Krankenhauskeimen und anderen Erregern hat dies mittlerweile zur Bildung von multiresistenten Keimen geführt. Pietätslos mutet die Praxis der Kostenermittlung von Krankheiten, Seuchenausbrüchen und durch Invalidität nach Erkrankung verkürzter Erwerbstätigkeit an. Egal ob in harter Währung oder verlorener, gesunder Lebenszeit gerechnet, sind diese Ausgeburten bürokratischer Abgehobenzeit Armutszeugnisse. Sie brauchen nicht den Vergleich mit der Gewinnkalkulation von Konzernen zu scheuen. Diese haben keine Skrupel, auf den Patenten, Formeln und Produktionsstätten von Medikamenten und Wirkstoffen zu sitzen. Sie halten diese aber unter Verschluss und verhindern damit eine Forschung samt Heilung durch Staaten oder andere Firmen. Nicht nur, dass keine Ambitionen bestehen, Medikamente gegen nur in Entwicklungsländern grassierende und deshalb unrentable Krankheiten zu produzieren. Es wird auch noch systematisch verhindert, dass die Betroffenen zur Selbsthilfe greifen. Tun sie das doch, werden sie auf die Verletzung von Patent- und Urheberrechten verklagt. Diese Sammelklagen von Pharmakonzernen gegen Entwicklungsländer sind aber nicht ganz mit dem code of conduct in Harmonie zu bringen. Sie verursachen lästige Aufschreie der Presse und müssen meist wieder zurück gezogen werden. Vorausgesetzt, die Weltöffentlichkeit erfährt davon. Gut, dass es da noch die einträglichen Zivilisationskrankheiten in der ersten Welt gibt. Die Kombination aus Skrupellosigkeit, Gier und Handlungsaufschub könnte vor allem die Industrieländer noch teuer zu stehen kommen. Nicht nur, dass sie durch die ausgebaute Infrastruktur eine bessere Erregerverteilung gewährleisten und viel mehr Menschen in kürzerer Zeit angesteckt werden können als in Entwicklungsländern. Was zusätzlich nicht bedacht wird, sind die erweiterten Konsequenzen einer durch erfolgreiche Abschottung des Westens nur in Entwicklungsländern grassierenden Seuche. Denn das damit einhergehende Ausbleiben von Rohstoffen und Lebensmitteln würde auch in den nordamerikanischen und europäischen Volkswirtschaften beträchtlichen Schaden anrichten. Da bei der Erforschung von Medikamenten und Impfungen vermehrt auf gentechnisch veränderte Organismen gesetzt wird, drängt sich eine Überlegung auf. Wir wissen nicht das Geringste über die Kurz-, Langzeit- oder Folgewirkungen von Eingriffen in das Erbgut von Lebensformen. Außer vielleicht, dass die Modifikation gewisse Eigenschaften verändert und daraus erwünschte Resultate erwachsen. Und das oftmals zufällig oder aus Versehen. Wie sich das auf die weitere Entwicklung, Fortpflanzung und das restliche Ökosystem auswirkt, läuft unter ferner liefen und entschwindet somit in die Bedeutungslosigkeit. Nun bekämpfen Regierungen, Firmen und Wissenschaftler im Vollbesitz ihrer geistigen Kräfte einige der anpassungsfähigsten, nur teilweise erforschten und verstandenen, mutationswilligen und extrem gefährlichen Lebensformen mit Mitteln der Gentechnik. Es wird spannend sein zu beobachten, was die Viren und Bakterien mit diesen zusätzlichen, unnatürlichen Bausteinen anzufangen wissen. Und was so ein multiresistenter, gentechnisch verfeinerter Erreger mit den evolutionär erfolgreichsten Eigenschaften verschiedener Krankheiten anzufangen weiß, wenn er sie in sich vereinigt. In einem Slum in der dritten Welt, in einem chinesischen Internierungslager oder in einem überbesetzten Gefängnis der Industriestaaten. ...more |
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| Dec 1994
| Jun 15, 1999
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really liked it
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Imagine what else may lurk in monkeys, bats, and rodents, just waiting to unleash the next zoonosis, possibly in a country with an already severe heal
Imagine what else may lurk in monkeys, bats, and rodents, just waiting to unleash the next zoonosis, possibly in a country with an already severe health crisis in the Southern hemisphere, AIDS and multiresistant tuberculosis, and hepatitis epidemics. It wouldn´t even matter that Ebola can´t be transmitted by air. Still, looking at you, secret black biological warfare program project. It´s the way of dying that makes it even more horrible than other illnesses, being liquified with blood coming out of all your body and knowing what the virus does, that the chances of a normal life, if having the more or less luck of surviving, are minimal, as the long term damage and health problems are immense after having been literally goo(ed). Next to the black vomit and the more and more severe inner bleedings, there are the frightening final stages, being a zombie who turns in a living corpse with the skin changing color, before dying after series of epileptic shocks. What a convenient coincidence for the virus that dying persons covered in their own blood have epilepsy and spread the death by splattering the blood with their last moves, possibly infecting anyone who gets in direct contact with the blood. There are different sceneries described, each one with the potential to get zero patient started. „The Shadow of Mount Elgon“ lets one ask how easy a tourist, field scientist, biologist, or, most possible, a poor worker, may be infected by direct contact in nature without recognizing it. In the case of the privileged group, the malady will possibly soon be found and detected, but the rightless worker might carry it into slums where it can spread until it reaches the richer areas and travels all over the world from there. „The monkey house“ shows the problem of everything legal and illegal around trading animals, zoos, research, and conservation. It´s not as if any zoo or pet store might be the potential initiation point for the next armageddon, but with people having pets and millions visiting zoos, with all those different animals, especially birds, primates, and cats, not even mentioning the factor of pigs in agriculture, there are so endlessly many possible combinations for zoonosis that it blows one's mind. „Smashdown“ comes closer to my favorite optimistic ending for such books, the ultimate bioweapon, as it describes the real life example of a virus spreading by air. I am not sure about this one, as Ebola is known to not be able to spread via air and there seems to be a misunderstanding in the descriptions in the book (or I misunderstood it), but just because it isn´t, that doesn´t mean that nature doesn´t find a way. Or the umbrella corporation. Fiction and reality are coming closer together, as both the good and bad technological options and the contact with the rest of the wildlife humankind still hasn´t exterminated are increasing and these 4 stories are just a tiny part of the possible ways it could happen, such as lab accidents, biological warfare secretly used in real life (harming the population of an enemy state without being detected), and the human factor of someone, let´s say a diplomat, billionaire, or a leading scientist, in a biohazard level 4 lab, becoming insane or extremist without others recognizing it and going on her/his last world cruise while seeding the pandemic. Heck, it would already be enough if she/he just infects himself and walks around in the neuralgic points of a megacity such as airports, shopping centers, train stations, metro, and the one or other huge event, having used a genetically modified strain of a smallpox measles flu plague Eastern equine encephalitis SARS rabies ebola HIV hybrid with an extra long incubation period while already being infected, giving himself doses of a cure or too small shots of a vaccine (I absolutely don´t know if this is possible) that don´t kill the virus, but keep him contagious without showing symptoms for weeks or even month. Because nobody knows the DNA of the virus, it´s undetectable and because it´s flu season, nobody is alarmed about more and more cases that are engineered to have exactly the common cold and flu symptoms before killing everyone infected. If tech is far enough advanced in 10, 100, or 1000 years, I would deem nothing impossible anymore. We don´t have exact knowledge about the microbiological abilities of smallpox as there is no official research possible outside the Russian and US military, euphemistically called research, labs, except infection and replication rates extrapolated from old data, and measles is the closest real life example of immense destructive strength and potential. The best real life example are elevators, toilets, any small closed room with relatively less air circulation ( or air circulation, without filters because they would cost money, spreading it everywhere) where a person with measles could still passively and indirectly infect persons who enter the rooms up to half an hour after leaving thanks to the extremely high developed ability of measles to stay alive in the air. The only advantage is that ebola can´t spread like measles or influenza, but has the same extreme fatality as smallpox and biological warfare could do nothing more effective than creating an ebola smallpox measles, etc. hybrid that mutates so quickly that finding a vaccination is impossible. A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergen... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafe... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... ...more |
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