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Viral hepatitis is an inflammatory liver disease caused by infection with any of the known hepatitis viruses—A, B, C, D, and E. Most of the global viral hepatitis burden is from hepatitis B and C, which affect 354 million people and result in 1.1 million deaths annually. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 2020 there were 14,000 and 50,300 new acute infections of hepatitis B and C in the United States, respectively, while at least 880,000 people in the country were living with chronic (long-term) hepatitis B and 2.4 million people had chronic hepatitis C. About half of those with viral hepatitis are unaware of their infection. Chronic and persistent inflammation from the disease can lead to liver failure, cirrhosis, or liver cancer. Viral hepatitis affects all ages and there are pronounced inequities in disease outcomes in the United States. Hepatitis B and C disproportionately affect people living with HIV, and HIV increases the rate of complications and death in people with viral hepatitis.

On this World Hepatitis Day, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, shares a snapshot of its investments in basic (laboratory), preclinical (laboratory/animal), and clinical (human) research to improve screening, prevention and treatment for hepatitis B and C. Scientists in the Hepatic Pathogenesis and Structural Virology sections of NIAID’s Laboratory of Infectious Diseases conduct basic and translational research to better understand hepatitis B and C disease progression, clarify the role of hepatitis viruses in liver cancer, and inform discovery of new vaccines, medicine and technologies. Both NIAID’s Division of AIDS (DAIDS) and the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Disease (DMID) support scientific programs focused on hepatitis B and C research and curative strategies, reflecting the widespread impact of viral hepatitis and the urgent need for safe and effective interventions.

Finding a hepatitis B cure.

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A laser for vibrational energy, rather than for light, operating in the quantum regime could teach researchers about the interplay between spin, vibration, and dissipation in quantum mechanics.

Phonon lasers replace the light excitations (photons) that are used in a standard laser with vibrational excitations of matter (phonons). Researchers have now coaxed two ions into forming a phonon laser containing fewer than 10 phonons, placing it firmly in the quantum regime [1], whereas previous phonon lasers had at least 10,000 phonons. The researchers plan to use this quantum phonon laser as a tool to investigate the role of dissipation in the behavior of quantum systems.

Dissipation—energy leaking into or out of a system in the form of heat—is often seen as a nuisance in physics, for example, when it takes the form of air resistance and reduces the fuel efficiency of a car or an airplane. But quantum systems also exhibit dissipation, and its effects in the quantum realm are not fully understood. Jonathan Home of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and his colleagues wanted to investigate how two separate sources of dissipation can interact to affect the behavior of a quantum system. “A laser is the simplest quantum system we could think of” that allows such experiments, Home says.

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It’s possibly the most famous question in all of science — where is everyone? Join us today for deep dive into Fermi Paradox. 🌏 Get exclusive NordVPN deal here ➵ https://NordVPN.com/coolworlds It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!✌

The Fermi Paradox has been a topic of keen debate amongst scientists, astronomers and the rest of us for more than seven decades. We can’t resist the urge to speculate about aliens! But what is the paradox even really about? What explanations have been offered? Today, we explore this famous question, and offer a mind-shifting explanation.

Written and presented by Prof David Kipping.

→ Support our research program: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support.

Continue reading “The Fermi Paradox Has An Incredibly Simple Solution” | >

Go to https://brilliant.org/drbecky to get a 30-day free trial and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription. A new research study has come out claiming that to explain the massive galaxies found at huge distances in James Webb Space Telescope images, the Universe is older than we think, at 26.7 billion years (rather than 13.8 billion years old). In this video I’m diving into that study, looking at what model they used to get at that claim (a combination of the expansion of the universe and “tired light” ideas of redshift), how this impacts our best model of the Universe and the so-called “Crisis is Cosmology”, and why I’m not convinced yet!

#astronomy #JWST #cosmology.

My previous YouTube video on how JWST’s massive galaxies are no longer “impossible” — https://youtu.be/W4KH1Jw6HBI

Gupta et al. (2023; is the universe 26.7 billion years old?) — https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/m…32/7221343

Continue reading “Has JWST shown the Universe is TWICE as old as we think?!” | >

In this episode, I interview Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Neurology & Neurosurgery at Stanford University. We discuss stress, what defines short-term versus long-term stress, and how stress can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on the context. We also discuss stress mitigation and how our sense of control over stress mitigation techniques, including exercise, determine health outcomes. Dr. Sapolsky explains some of the key effects of the hormone testosterone — how it can amplify pre-existing tendencies for aggression or sexual behavior, but that it does not produce those behaviors per se. He also explains how testosterone impacts our social hierarchies, sense of confidence, and willingness to embrace challenges of different kinds. He also explains how our behaviors and perceptions shape testosterone levels. And we discuss estrogen and the powerful role it plays in brain development, health and longevity. Finally, we discuss free will, what it means to have free will, and if we have any free will, including how knowledge alone might allow us to make better decisions for ourselves and society.

#HubermanLab #Testosterone #Stress.

Thank you to our sponsors:
ROKA — https://roka.com — use code “huberman“
InsideTracker — https://insidetracker.com/huberman.

Our Patreon page:

Continue reading “Dr. Robert Sapolsky: Science of Stress, Testosterone & Free Will | Huberman Lab Podcast #35” | >

New Patreon page! https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll.

Blog post: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2018/08/13/epis…n-nothing/

It’s fun to be in the exciting, chaotic, youthful days of the podcast, when anything goes and experimentation is the order of the day. So today’s show is something different: a solo effort, featuring just me talking without any guests to cramp my style. This won’t be the usual format, but I suspect it will happen from time to time. Feel free to chime in below on how often you think alternative formats should be part of the mix. The topic today is “Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?”, or equivalently “Why Does the Universe Exist at All?” Heady stuff, but we’re not going to back away from the challenge.

What I have to say will roughly follow my recent paper on the subject, although in a more chatty and accessible style. It concerns ideas at the intersection of physics, philosophy, and theology, so tune in if you’re into that sort of thing.

Continue reading “Episode 9: Solo — Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?” | >