Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@qoto.org

"The existence of successful class mismatched T cells in the periphery—those that demonstrate high specificity and are signaling competent—could thus reflect a specific subset of cells that have escaped thymic development mechanisms, or they could be rare instances of pedestrian, class-restricted T cells that express a TCR nonetheless cross-reactive with a mismatched MHC ligand."

#Immunology

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34896-0#Sec7

Humpback hits

'Songs evolve over time, and differ across populations. This slow evolution can be occasionally interrupted by a kind of revolution, in which one population completely adopts the songs of another in a period of just a couple of years or less. “It’s like a new hit song,” Niksic said—a wide and rapid spread of creative content that’s “unparalleled in the animal kingdom, excepting humans.” She went on, “There’s so many similarities between their culture and ours.”

https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/how-a-marine-biologist-remixed-whalesong

'As is the case for other developmental loci, understanding
the functions of individual PAX6 enhancer elements, and whether they act in redundant,
additive, or distinct ways, will help to decode non-coding mutations at this locus and further
our understanding of the mechanisms of enhancer activity during development.'

#Zebrafish #Development #DevelopmentalBiology #Preprint #Pax6

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.25.517987v1

'As Luria’s success grew, so did his political involvement. He campaigned for racial desegregation and workers’ rights. He supported Democratic candidates for Congress. He protested against the biological and nuclear weapons. He lobbied for academic freedom when the congressional House Un-American Activities Committee tried to impose anti-communist legislation on universities.

The FBI paid attention. Selya’s description of the United States during the cold war has eerie similarities with communist East Germany. The FBI recruited friends and colleagues to dish dirt; Selya obtained the reports through the Freedom of Information Act. Most informants commented on Luria’s liberal-mindedness but fell short of alleging that he was a member of the Communist Party. The agency illegally monitored his post, Selya writes. Most suspicious were two letters from New York, signed ‘SA’. The sender? The magazine Scientific American.'

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04153-x

'Tomando como punto de partida los más de 1.180 monumentos incluidos en la Lista Roja de Hispania Nostra, la historiadora del arte Raquel Álvarez publica el libro ‘101 monumentos que tus hijos, tal vez, ya no verán’.'

https://elpais.com/elviajero/2022-11-26/una-apasionante-ruta-por-el-patrimonio-espanol-en-peligro-de-desaparecer.html

Kudos to Times reporter Pam Belluck for writing responsibly about lecanemab:

"That history gives the lecanemab trial added significance, marking the first time that attacking amyloid has clearly correlated with a slower rate of cognitive decline, experts say. But because the rate was not dramatically slower, several doctors who treat Alzheimer’s questioned whether the effect would be noticeable to patients or their families."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/29/health/lecanemab-alzheimers-drug.html

Students arrested at Lisbon University for climate for climate protest. The Dean of their college called the police.

'Em causa estão os quatro estudantes que foram detidos quando estavam em protesto pelo clima na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (FLUL). Depois de terem sido ouvidos pelo Ministério Público a 14 de Novembro, os alunos recusaram a suspensão provisória do processo e escolheram ir a julgamento, para que o caso não fosse “silenciado”.

https://www.publico.pt/2022/11/29/azul/reportagem/lutar-clima-nao-crime-julgamento-alunos-detidos-protesto-ja-comecou-2029577