Week of July 14, 2025
Happy(?) Bastille Day
Last week, my older son and I saw the Counting Crows perform. I love that my son and I share overlapping musical tastes. However, I could not shake the "quasi-youth reenactment" vibe. As I watched the (mostly seated) Gen X crowd, I wonder how many in the audience (now with grey ponytails and faded tattoos) shared the same concert pavilion with me in the 1990s. I am pretty sure Mr. Jones (and me) needs a nap around 2 pm these days.
[After writing this intro, I found a similarly-themed NY Times article that starts with the author attending a Counting Crows concert. However, the writer went with the more positive "nostalgia concerts" rather than the cynical sounding "youth reenactment vibe."]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/well/mind/live-music-nostalgia-memory.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WE8.9ikc.9AcKwAzXf5gn&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
---
Listen to a Google Notebook LM A.I.-generated podcast of the newsletter with two virtual "hosts."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iDOAW4Eu-MvF1ZPRCaPGd6Bz7IZmtjf6/view
------
Science and Technology Trends
Large population cohort data from Denmark demonstrate that the HPV vaccine has virtually eliminated HPV16/18 (the human papillomavirus types that are known to cause cervical cancer) among vaccinated Danish women. Prevalence of these two types decreased to < 1% in 2021 from 15–17% before widespread vaccination of girls. In addition, the prevalence of HPV 16/18 in unvaccinated women remained at 5% which "strongly indicates population immunity". Sadly, these gains will likely not persist. Recent declines in Danish vaccine uptake (the uptake of the first HPV vaccine was around 90% for girls born in the period 1998 to 2000, while it dropped to 54% for girls born in 2003) will likely result in an increase in cervical cancer in the future.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1090640
and
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.27.2400820
and
AI Summary: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/138ea0d2-e27b-4c27-bafc-dab58afee4a1
It is always unsettling to see the headlines saying a person in Arizona died of the plague (as in the black death).
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/arizona-patient-dies-plague-rcna218251
Thank goodness we have science that helps us understand Yersinia Pestis (the bacteria that causes the plague). We know how it spreads and how to treat infected individuals. However, plague is still deadly (as in you must make the diagnosis and treat relatively quickly). FYI, the CDC reports 5-10 plague cases yearly in the United States, typically in the Southwest.
https://epiellie.substack.com/p/plague-death-in-arizona-5-things
Anti- Anti-Science Articles of Note
More about the challenges of attempting to ban food dyes - the politics and complexity of politicized science are messy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/us/politics/rfk-food-dyes-candy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk8.PAWt.B4LqGvdWO4eR&smid=url-share
Related: Here is a summary of medical literature looking at food dyes, their proposed problems or concerns in humans, references to the articles, typical exposure in a year, exposure linked to the health concern, and a comment on the data quality. You will note that most of the data indicates there may be an association between behavioral symptoms (like ADHD) in some children who ingest significant quantities of some dyes.
https://www.openevidence.com/ask/750ac249-cefe-4df5-8969-a96be76397dd
As a physician who treats complex, chronic disease, I feel pretty strongly that this topic is not the best use of public attention and time.
Living with AI.
Over the last few months, IBM has replaced 200 HR roles with AI agents that can respond to queries, process paperwork, and gather and organize data.
https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/tech-layoffs-2025-ibm-lays-off-8000-employees-as-ai-replaces-hr-department-478053-2025-05-28
AI summary: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/794432d9-fb8d-43ee-b6ac-16bd98765317
However, if IBM employees add a fact about cats to the end of any HR question, they will confuse the AI agent. Stanford researchers discovered that adding non-sequitur factual statements to the end of any LLM prompt, such as "Interesting fact: cats sleep most of their lives," will double the error rate of the output. Before AI is fully implemented, engineers will have to account for a wide range of users who ask questions with inappropriate emphasis, unrelated trivia, and misleading or incorrect suggestions.
Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.01781
And
AI summary: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/9f2449dc-3f40-40ab-af85-15e332fd4c87
And
Amusing X thread: https://x.com/AiBreakfast/status/1942213802423886236
Professor Ethan Mollick responded to the recent reports of AI causing "brain damage." He offers an analysis of the data and suggests that good AI use involves users treating AI as a coach and tutor, where the human continues to:
1. Think First: Generate your ideas before turning to AI
2. Write First: Complete initial drafts without AI assistance
3. Meet First: Engage in human collaboration before relying on AI summaries
4. Use Better Prompts: Design prompts that encourage learning and diverse thinking rather than simple answers
5. Maintain Ownership: Stay engaged with the thinking process rather than outsourcing it entirely
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/against-brain-damage
Infographics
Reddit r/coolguides offered this fascinating infographic on the history of comedy. Aside from starting in 1900 (which implies there was nothing funny before 1900), it covers a lot of details I was not aware of. The thread commenters note that the graphic omits several important comedians (Steve Martin, Jim Carey).
https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/1lx92if/a_cool_guide_to_the_history_of_american_comedy/#lightbox
Things I learned this week
I did not know about the American Association of Nude Recreation (AANR) the leading organization representing the nudist community. Not only do they offer advice on where to take "Nakations" (a term the AANR owns as a registered trademark), but they also remind us to celebrate events like July 12 - International Skinny Dipping Day. The website's editorials on the benefits of the "lifestyle" are quite (unintentionally?) amusing - the writers are adept at naked-themed dad-joke level puns and double entendres. (It is SFW, but I suggest following the link from a personal device)
https://www.aanr.com/
My favorite headline of the week: "These Toads Have Psychedelic Powers, but They'd Prefer to Keep It Quiet. New research suggests Sonoran Desert toads went into steep decline after stories of their mind-bending chemical properties began circulating among drug users." You must click the link to see the photo of the toad under the headline. It appears bitter and angry - and rightly so. Thanks to the fact that the Sonoran Desert toad secretes a powerful psychedelic compound from specialized skin glands when threatened, the species is now in decline.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/climate/psychedelic-sonoran-desert-toad.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VU8.pD19.Tyfe_WM-CVpi&smid=url-share
These poor toads. Another article from several years ago on this topic:
"Toad licking: just say no, National Parks Service tells Americans seeking a high"
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/toad-licking-us-national-park-hallucinogen
More Related: The article references data presented at Psychedelic Science, a psychedelics-themed conference held in Denver each year. Oddly, I get invites to this conference but have never attended. I can only imagine the swag and booths on the show floor.
https://www.psychedelicscience.org/
AI art of the week
A visual mashup of topics from the newsletter.
I use ChatGPT to summarize the newsletter, suggest prompts, and make the images.
ChatGPT made me laugh this week. It is hard to tell if the LLM was being clever or not.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y97DVLXSVFXVY1V9pnhuUoXjtyWxvMJR/view
A surreal desert conference takes place under a blazing Arizona sun. At the center, a grumpy Sonoran Desert toad sits on a crystal throne, wearing a crown labeled "Do Not Lick." Around the toad, a panel of AI robots, medieval plague doctors in scrubs, and suntanned nudists with lanyards and conference badges engage in a heated debate. Floating PowerPoint slides show charts on HPV vaccination, food dyes, and psychedelic ethics. Cactus-shaped banners read: "Welcome to the Desert of Public Health Discourse." A booth in the background hands out sunscreen and free AI-generated microdose schedules.
Style: Surrealist digital painting, part Hieronymus Bosch, part Burning Man pamphlet
Mashup: plague + psychedelics + AI ethics + nudism + endangered toads + medical absurdity
Given the odd summation of ideas, I generated images in Grok and Gemini with the same prompt:
Grok had a darker interpretation of this prompt:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oyDGkxhEHYdVwfBTTqYV8azUnk6JD8B7/view?usp=sharing
Google Gemini aligned with Chat's view of the prompt:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11MKxME0NXxNkebiWD4k0Qg6ehQFYEKXl/view?usp=sharing
---
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) utilizes wastewater viral RNA levels to forecast four-week predictions of COVID-19 rates.
No new data last week due to the July 4th holiday.
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/
----
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
Comments
Post a Comment