Week of March 24, 2025
Our sons' colleges' spring breaks are staggered, and we will have at least one of them home every weekend in March. The combination of parents' weekends, holidays, and semester breaks makes empty nesting with college kids seem less like they moved out and more like we sent our kids to a costly sleep-away camp for 6 to 8-week intervals.
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Listen to a Google Notebook LM A.I.-generated podcast of the newsletter with two virtual "hosts."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u2Mc7dzZgGNv-SxVu4ihuRKQ4FzPxWAL/view
Again, the AI hosts believe they are me and they are writing this newsletter. Google's algorithm has now demonstrated two weeks of creative appropriation. I would go on strike, but I am not sure the Notebook LM voices will care. I also noted that the female voice is the lead this week.
About NotebookLM: https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-audio-overviews/
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Science and Technology Trends
Researchers at Michigan State University published new understandings about dopamine's function in the brain. Traditionally, dopamine is known as a neurotransmitter involved in signaling reward and pleasure. This latest research reveals that dopamine also plays a critical role in helping prioritize the value of memories. Given the prevalence and surprising impact of GLP1s (like Ozempic's tendency to decrease gambling addiction and alcohol abuse), these data speak to a more complex, longer-acting, and nuanced relationship between dopamine, memory, and behavior.
https://neurosciencenews.com/dopamine-reward-memory-28487/
Claude Summary of the research:
https://claude.site/artifacts/27ce08ae-dee6-40dd-a6c7-28ec31a42619
Mississippi is the third state (including Florida and Alabama) to ban cell-cultured meats (meats that are grown from cell culture rather than taken from slaughtered animals). Several companies are attempting to enter this market, but no commercially available "cultivated meat" products exist. Interestingly, this topic intertwines environmentalism, large-scale agribusiness, and various concerns of "natural vs. unnatural." The most intriguing part is none of the lawmakers in Mississippi articulated why they wanted this ban.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/science/whos-afraid-of-lab-grown-meat.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Related -
Thailand is the global leader in edible insect production, with over 20,000 cricket farms collectively producing around 7 tons of crickets annually. Other "farmed" insects include locusts, weevils, silkworm pupae, caterpillars, ants, and water bugs. I wonder how lawmakers in Mississippi would rank eating insects relative to lab-grown meat.
(Link requires Nat Geo or Disney+ account)
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/thailand-edible-insect-industry-eating-bugs
Related summary:
https://claude.site/artifacts/9f9f435a-64e1-4c2e-8a16-d4dd87151224
Anti- Anti-Science Articles of Note
Last week, one of my patients (with a proclivity toward alternative therapies and supplements) started asking me about a series of YouTube videos that claim to share the secrets of "reversing type 2 diabetes." In particular, he mentioned the supplement berberine - reporting that at least one of the YouTube doctors stated, "Berberine is all natural and is less 'toxic' than prescription medications [like metformin]."
Sure enough, a little searching yielded videos from various healthcare professionals, physicians, and non-physicians.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=reverse+diabetes+type+2+berberine
Unlike many supplements, several short-term, moderate-quality clinical studies support some YouTuber's claims about berberine's value. However, there is a big difference between demonstrating some clinical efficacy and short-term safety, and another thing to state is that berberine "reverses type 2 diabetes."
When I meet with this patient again, I will share the following:
- The notion of "reversing" diabetes is fallacious. The question is how well-controlled glucose levels remain over time.
- Like metformin, berberine is a medication - with efficacy, safety profile, and side effects. It is, however, sold over the counter.
- In several short-term trials (primarily out of China), berberine appears to lower the 3-month average blood sugar (also called the hemoglobin A1c) by 0.5-1.5%. Metformin, one of the most commonly prescribed diabetic medications, lowers A1c on average by 1-2%.
- Berberine appears reasonably safe for short-term use, though it can interact with numerous medications. Thus, doing a medication review with your pharmacist or physicians before using it is critical (it can interact with cholesterol medications, for example). Also, I note no long-term data on berberine use - all studies were for 3-6 months of use.
- Metformin has long-standing data (like decades of use) about its balance of safety, efficacy, and side effects.
- Metformin is an FDA-approved medication, meaning manufacturers must maintain and report on purity and consistency. Berberine is an over-the-counter supplement. Supplement manufacturers are not required to adhere to the same FDA oversight, and independent testing has routinely demonstrated high variability of active ingredients (by as much as 25-30%) amongst many supplement brands.
- As always, social media healthcare is rarely unbiased. Your time, eyeballs, money, and outrage are payment for their work. Scams promising "secret answers" and simple solutions are very appealing. (I should be selling Dr. Adam's Magik Kidney Unguent on YouTube, right?)
- So, for some appropriate patients, berberine may be a reasonable addition to their medications for controlling diabetes. It is not a magic pill and will not 'reverse' anything.
Refuting agenda-driven health claims is challenging. It is easy to say, "Here are some amazing secret tips to reverse diabetes," while implying doctors are a tool of big pharma and the medical-industrial complex. Reviewing actual data and discussing and operationalizing imperfect information is far more complex.
Some data supporting my review:
University of Nebraska School of Medicine information for consumers:
https://www.nebraskamed.com/diabetes/is-berberine-a-safe-alternative-treatment-for-diabetes
Google Gemini Deep Research Report on Berberine:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qg9599XZ-n62hlENJrZ18GKjSkTD5RN-L2sByGiIXM8/edit?usp=sharing
The Anthropic Claude TLDR summary of my Gemini report:
https://claude.site/artifacts/06b9f1f6-4759-4c7d-95da-436096e6e44b
Living with AI
NVIDIA and GE are working on AI autonomous imaging to develop robotic X-ray technologies and ultrasound applications. (I can't find much more than a press release.) However, the potential to permit radiologic diagnostics without trained techs is remarkable and game-changing.
https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-and-ge-healthcare-collaborate-to-advance-the-development-of-autonomous-diagnostic-imaging-with-physical-ai
Related - NVIDIA named its foundational model for humanoid robot reasoning and skills GR00T N1.
https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-isaac-gr00t-n1-open-humanoid-robot-foundation-model-simulation-frameworks
The AI Daily Brief's discussion about Apple's failure to deliver AI was quite insightful.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7G1PSJwjgqnbkzeQdEHuw4?si=CrbIWYfuQs6KlfjbCXu4Zg
Infographics
The chemistry of airplane air:
https://cen.acs.org/safety/consumer-safety/Periodic-Graphics-chemistry-airplane-air/102/i26
related:
https://www.iata.org/en/youandiata/travelers/health/low-risk-transmission/
Things I learned this week
The genetically engineered mice with wooly mammoth fur are only the first step in a Crichton-esque future. "Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotechnology and genetic engineering startup valued at $10 billion, has raised $435 million to "de-extinct" the woolly mammoth, a species that hasn't walked the Earth in over 4,000 years. The company also plans to clone a dodo bird and a Tasmanian tiger."
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/03/17/cloning-a-woolly-mammoth/
See last week's issue for more on the woolly mice:
http://www.whatadamisreading.com/2025/03/what-adam-is-reading-week-of-3-17-25.html
The images evoked by the phrase "we train animals to rid the world of landmines and tuberculosis" initially amused me. My amusement turned to interest and respect once I dug into the work of the non-profit APOPO (a Dutch acronym for "Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling," or in English, Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development). APOPO trains African giant pouched rats, through smell, to detect unexploded landmines in various African countries and Ukraine. The rats are also a cost-effective, highly sensitive, and more rapid means of diagnosing tuberculosis from sputum samples of patients with low concentrations of bacteria, such as in children. (Traditional confirmatory lab testing is needed, but this high-volume, low-tech screening is valuable in third-world countries.) Interestingly, the species is considered invasive in North America (Florida, in particular).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambian_pouched_rat
https://apopo.org/who-we-are/faqs/
https://apple.news/Ahw5FQqdcRxKrTRK1Fm1pDw
AI art of the week.
(A visual mashup of topics from the newsletter, now using ChatGPT to summarize the newsletter, suggest prompts, and make the images).
"A surreal banquet scene in the style of a 16th-century Dutch painting. At the long, candlelit table, Renaissance-era lawmakers dine in confusion—some eating golden-plated lab-grown steaks, others delicately nibbling fried crickets, silkworms, and roasted water bugs. In the background, a massive woolly mammoth stands near a window with a dodo bird perched on its tusk and a Tasmanian tiger curled at its feet. At the far end of the hall, a giant African pouched rat wearing a scholar's robe and tiny spectacles presents a scroll of medical findings while pointing to a glowing, floating lung. The room is filled with rich oil-paint textures, muted earth tones, and intricate symbolic details characteristic of Dutch Golden Age art."
DALLE
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IZmoaM5aO9K-ryF9KPE1_pb1vXn-zrF7/view
Google Gemini Imagen3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iPp_INbgqUXXTfxZ_GEyDTja3ZZuhTH1/view
Grok
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M_DkTIXdMXzUP1hN0uWq6NsXgxuaTGJN/view
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COVID rates are trending upward per PMC data, with 1 in 128 individuals shedding viral RNA into wastewater as of last week. The concentrations of Flu, RSV, and Norovirus are still high per wastewater scan data.
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) website uses wastewater levels to forecast 4-week predictions of COVID rates.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
Wastewater Scan offers a multi-organism wastewater dashboard with an excellent visual display of individual treatment plant-level data.
https://data.wastewaterscan.org/
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Clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
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