Most people's idea of a week is from Monday - Sunday, so I decided to change the name, given that I don't post at the end of the week, but more the beginning of the next. So here we go, New and Improved; What I Learnt Last Week:

Monday: Wise Plebs

_{Though luxury brakes installed, BMWs have a tendency to come with a jerk...lolz}

In a society where we prize intelligence and success and spit on those that don't contribute to society, it's no wonder we have Hollywood buffoons leading social movements after reading a twitter post; everybody looks up to them and respects them for little more reason than the fact that they are famous.

It's also no wonder that the wealthier we get, the more self-centered we become. Recent research shows that lower class individuals have greater interpersonal awareness with more wisdom when it comes to reasoning and considering others in their environment.

By working hard on ourselves, to better ourselves, we sacrifice decency to others, empathy to those suffering around us. This is a very big subject somebody like @alexander.alexis should cover, but let it be known that a growing amount of research is confirming this idea, such as a study on how those with expensive cars were less likely to stop for pedestrians than those with cheaper cars.

On a personal note, as somebody who grew up in a somewhat poor, broken family, it frustrates me to see the lack of understanding of those in need by the middle classes and above in my every day life, who only help and do 'altrustic' things when they feel like making themselves feel fulfilled and generous. After that, it becomes a burden to them, an annoyance. It's an eye opening thought that those doing worse than me may see things in an even more selfless light than myself.

You can read more here

Tuesday: Clean air is bad for you

_{Now this is the life}

Living in China, I can't emphasize enough the importance of cleaning up our air, our atmosphere. Just, get rid of the pollutants, it's that simple!

Or is it?

No. A study from Caltech found that Gas-phase autoxidation has been occurring in big cities that have cleaned up their air pollutants. Gas-phase autoxidation is basically when there's an imbalance of two molecules in the atmosphere, causing a new organic hydroperoxide to form, in the case of our cities.

Efforts to clean up the air have focused on nitric oxides (NO) and hydrocarbons. But hydrocarbons are harder to clean up than NO because their sources are less regulated (leaf blowers, for example). So where hydocarbons have slowed down in their decline, NO continue to drop with our efforts.

But the side effect of this is that hydrocarbons can't react with NO like they naturally would, forcing them to react with themselves, and this is Gas-phase autoxidation, which results in hydrocarbon aerosols. Though we don't yet know the consequences of this, it's fair to say that breathing particulate matter has historically been bad for us, and one hydrocarbon, hydroperoxide, is a skin irritant in bad cosmetics.

We just can't get a break trying to fix the mess we made, can we?

You can read more here

Wednesday: Snake Fungi

A few years ago, it came to light that a fungus was working hard on the mass extinction of amphibians, frogs in particular. This chytrid fungus is still at large and there are huge efforts to save a few species that are now set to be extinct in the wild, if not already.

Well, good news! The next killer fungus decided to diversity into reptiles. This new fungus, called Ophidiomyces ophidiodiicola, or OO as I'm going to call it despite its catchy full name, has been found indiscriminately attacking numerous snake species in the US and Europe, but could already be a global phenomenon.

At this point, the fungus is so indiscriminate that Herpetologists are warned to assume that all snakes now have the pathogen, or at least are capable of contracting it. So far there seems to be no limit when it comes to habitat, genetics, ancestry or more, that the fungus can't bypass and attack.

The disease itself is pretty nasty too. Similar to the Chytrid fungus I suppose, it attacks the skin, causing skin lesions that spread rapidly across the body. This can be fatal in itself, but in an extra effort to molt the outer skin away, the snakes are left exposed to predators for longer, as well as simply starving or dying from environmental factors. If successful in their molt, this does appear to solve the problem, so there is that.

Little is known on how it could spread, but like all the other incredible effective murderous fungi, global domination is a casual affair.

You can read more here

Thursday: The Good Fungus!

_{Thanks, guys}

You probably have this horrible image in your head of evil fungal cordyceps taking over the world, and you're not more susceptible to voting on complete fungal annihilation before it's too late, but hold your mushrooms, fungus is a vital part of our ecosystem too, and recent studies show that it actually helped in the creation of life as we know it.

If I asked you where Oxygen came from, you might think plants. And you'd be right, but also wrong. Researchers simulated old-world conditions - atmosphere and all - for plants and fungi to grow in, and found that the fungi's role was imperative. By digging into the rocks, fungi would actually 'mine' phosphorous and transfer the mineral to their symbiotic pals, the plants, who then used the phosphorous to power photosynthesis, and thus, create oxygen.

Under old-world conditions, the fungal contribution was not small, and would have dramatically altered the state of Earth's atmosphere at the time. Something plants take for granted nowadays are roots and the ability to hold water. To make matters worse, the soil at the time was not soil as we know it, since it was all mineral, and nothing organic (not much life around half a billion years or so ago to die and become soil). Thankfully, good old fungi could ulitilise organic acids to dissolve the minerals and provide to the plants. In return, the fungus gets a steady supply of carbohydrates.

So next time you see a fungus wiping out an entire species, give a nod to appreciate the fact that the borderline extinct creature may not have even existed if not for the fungal brethren.

Note: The mutualistic relationship between plants and fungus is said to be more complex than this, something perhaps @dber can explore in a later post

You can read more here

Friday: Evolution evolution

_{So complex}

With all these fungi killing us all off, it might be a good move to start evolving against it, fast!

Thankfully, there's an app for th... er, a genome for that.

But we didn't know that using our current and common method of gene sequencing. A new method has arisen and has been used by researchers to find several pieces of evidence for phenotypic adaptation, something that drives evolution faster when necessary.

This new technology allowed the researchers to look at a much broader chunks of genes and this equipped them with the ability to look at an enzyme family in fruit flies which is associated with pesticide and cold resistance (and more). This phenotypic adaptation allowed a structural change of one gene 50 times faster than normal, giving more light to how these insects adapt so rapids against specific things such as nicotine resistance.

This has larger implications. This new technology highlights how there are so much more potential medical and agricultural secrets locked away in our own genomes that we've simply missed up to this point. Get busy, scientists! Lots of work to be done!

You can read more here

So lessons learnt: Love and hate mushrooms, stop bragging about being so rich, stop...cleaning the air? And assume you know nothing about anything. Enjoy!

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