Week of September 15, 2025
I tried not to laugh when one of last week's clinic patients stated, "The one thing you need to understand about me is I cannot start my day without a cinnamon Pop-Tart." We were discussing the relationship between his diet and kidney stones. His face betrayed his struggle—earnestly but reluctantly admitting his proclivity for packaged toaster pastries and a sommelier-like palate for chips and cheese puffs. (He spoke with the reverence of someone who discusses the vintages of Frito-Lay products.) Humans are messy and inconsistent; I have often discussed salt and processed food with this well-educated person. And, despite the presence of and commentary from his weaponized spouse (she and I teamed up on this topic), he still spoke of Pop-Tarts and potato chips like a constitutional right (is it the 6.5th amendment?). He should have invoked the 5th.
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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/1T2tas7m3v2e5d15kQHRpgxeV9oihG6db/view
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Science and Technology Trends
Who among us hasn't asked ourselves, "I wonder if the reduced surface friction of ice is due to surface-level pressure-induced thermal melting or if the water molecules experience cold, displacement-driven amorphization?" Wonder no more, dear readers - German researchers have employed molecular modeling to describe the 'Cold Self-Lubrication of Sliding Ice,' a title that could double as a trash romance novel or a detailed molecular engineering paper. Though a seemingly mundane topic, it speaks to how much more we have to learn about our world (Admittedly, I clicked the link in the spirit of a 12-year-old giggling at a double entendre).
Journal Article
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/1plj-7p4z
Claude Review of the article
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/f94faec4-85b8-4a97-88f4-1e8cc8d94ff1
Claude generated a back-of-the-book summary of the trashy romance novel of the same title (I wish I had come up with the character Dr. Frost Winterbottom!).
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/c30cfc66-7941-4ffc-b4f8-1d2c361e5038
If 5G wireless technology inspired a concerning amount of misinformation and conspiracy theories, imagine how provocative 6G will be. 6G's "dual electro-photonic" design, with thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) components enabling high-speed optical modulation delivering ultra-fast data transfer (even in low-frequency bands) with "adaptive spectrum management," is clearly designed to cause household appliances and your mother's living room ficus to attack humans. Fortunately, most of us won't notice the skulking Ninja Air Fryer plotting with the plants. By 2030, 6G will facilitate 100 gigabits per second data rates, enabling 8 K hyper-targeted, real-time AI-generated TikToks to distract us.
https://www.livescience.com/technology/communications/scientists-develop-full-spectrum-6g-chip-that-could-transfer-data-at-100-gigabits-per-second-10-000-times-faster-than-5g
Here is a summary of studies looking at 5G data: "There is no conclusive evidence that supports significant health risks from 5G radio signals at environmental exposure levels that stay within established safety limits."
https://www.openevidence.com/ask/f06b33e3-643c-4042-bea1-92e14061d640
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T2tas7m3v2e5d15kQHRpgxeV9oihG6db/view?usp=sharingAlso, take a look at my 8/25 newsletter on this topic
https://www.whatadamisreading.com/2025/08/what-adam-is-reading-week-of-8-25-25.html
Anti-Science Articles
The Unbiased Science Podcast offered a fantastic blog overview of the history of vaccines and vaccine technology. "If someone asks why we needed mRNA when other vaccines worked fine, here's what you can say: We didn't need it for diseases we'd already conquered. We needed it for the battles we can't win with our existing tools."
https://theunbiasedscipod.substack.com/p/from-smallpox-scabs-to-mrna-shots
Likewise, it is a good time to remind ourselves why the Hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth is a good idea. STAT news covered this topic in detail
https://www.statnews.com/2025/09/11/newborn-hep-b-vaccine-debate-how-it-started/
STAT news also reviewed the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) promises to date. Removing food additives and drawing attention to ultraprocessed foods have had the most traction. There are still numerous promises to fulfill.
Article (behind paywall)
https://www.statnews.com/2025/09/10/rfk-jr-maha-promise-tracker-fact-check/
PDF of Article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TLasv9VJi7k3t8Krg1f8slNCmng8EXQl/view
Summary of the whole article:
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/004205c7-d613-470d-b582-750d4914bae4
UPenn Biostatistician Jeffery Morris shared an excellent analysis of the "major study" cited in recent congressional hearings that supposedly linked childhood vaccines to "dozens of chronic illnesses." Spoiler: The study suffered from numerous fallacies, resulting in rejections from major medical journals. Morris' X thread analyzing the data is worth reading.
https://x.com/jsm2334/status/1966282058612838632
Living with AI.
Albania is trying something mildly dystopian—Diella, an artificial intelligence–based virtual entity, was appointed by the Albanian government (with Microsoft partnership support) as the world's first AI-powered "virtual minister." Diella will oversee public contracting and government procurement processes, aiming to offer completely transparent transactions free of human-driven bribery, favoritism, and administrative delays. (The question is, who is watching Diella's parameter weighting, output, and bias? I can't wait to hear about the 20 trillion Euro contract for Albanian-language trash romance novels obtained through prompt injections.)
Brief overview:
https://apnews.com/article/albania-new-cabinet-parliament-ai-minister-diella-corruption-5e53c5d5973ff0e4c8f009ab3f78f369
and
The Times of India covered this in detail
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/this-country-is-first-in-the-world-to-make-ai-a-minister-and-its-duties-are-fighting-corruption/articleshow/123853781.cms
JAMA AI published the first systematic analysis linking pre-market clinical validation to post-market safety outcomes for approved AI medical devices and tools. The authors used FDA and financial databases to categorize manufacturer type. They found that the current 510(k) clearance pathway for AI devices does not offer enough rigor around pre-market clinical validation and post-market safety, with nearly 6% of AI tools released since 2022 experiencing a recall in the first year (as compared to ~2% of typical approved devices between 2001 and 2021). These data highlight the importance of having good pre-market validation, a human-in-the-loop sampling of the output, and governance processes throughout the entire lifecycle of an AI tool's development.
Article:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2837802?guestAccessKey=a4ed5add-41bd-4737-9a6d-d7394a206ed1&utm_source=postup_jn&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jamaai&utm_content=new_this_week-tfl_&utm_term=091325
AI Summary
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/191bf4f8-7dfe-4922-9bd8-935b8f133856
Infographics
What Is Each Generation Most Likely to Splurge on in 2025?
https://www.qualtrics.com/m/assets/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/generational-splurges-4.png
from
https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/what-is-each-generation-most-likely-to-splurge-on-in-2025/
I like the horizontal axis label - "Percentage with Intent to Splurge" which sounds like the title to a consumerism-parody of a James Bond movie.
Things I learned this week
Last week, I found another doctor who uses creative means to describe their observations and job. Dr. Nathan Gray, a Johns Hopkins internist and palliative care specialist, uses cartoons to explore the struggles of working in healthcare.
https://inkvessel.com/
Cornell University does not have any rules against butchering wild game in its dorm rooms. In a world critical of higher education's tendency not to teach marketable skills, this seems like a real opportunity, doubly so for the Ivy League. The article, "Students legally skinned, butchered black bear carcass at Cornell residence hall” make it sounds like the college could not find a rule to hold them accountable to. I suspect there are many college students now scouring their res life handbooks for other omitted pastimes and activities.
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/strange/cornell-university-students-kill-bear/
Thanks to Ground News, I learned that this topic is non-partisan.
https://ground.news/article/cornell-students-skins-bear-carcass-in-shared-dorm-kitchen
My favorite headlines this week covered parthenogenesis- asexual reproduction available to some species (like lizards). It is rare but documented. The range of headlines displayed on the Ground News website described the story of the parthenogenic birth of 8 baby iguanas at an English zoo entertained me. They ranged from miracle-like' virgin birth' comments to the more judgey conservative social commentary of 'fatherless iguana babies.'
https://ground.news/article/iguanas-virgin-birth-hailed-by-zookeepers-as-one-of-the-rarest-events-in-the-animal-kingdom
Here are some details on asexual reproduction amongst plants and animals (that clearly don't need trashy romance novels, which would be far less titillating if parthenogenesis were a human thing):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis
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.
Some weeks, the topics better lend themselves to AI-generated art. Even the prompt is entertaining.
A 70s heavy metal album cover style - A towering, psychedelic arena of judgment, half-courtroom, half-dormitory temple, lit by hellfire and fluorescent dorm lights. In the center, a giant glowing cinnamon Pop-Tart sits on a cracked marble pedestal like a sacred idol, wrapped in chains of salt crystals. To one side, a cyborg Ninja Air Fryer overlord looms, its glowing green photonic eyes fixed, its cables tangled with writhing household plants that strangulate panicked humans. Across the blood-soaked dorm floor, students in ceremonial robes butcher a massive black bear, its ghostly spirit rising in crimson flames above them. At the bear's feet, an altar cracks open to reveal eight neon-green iguana hatchlings with flaming wings, glowing like unholy prophets of parthenogenesis. Lightning bolts shaped like molecular diagrams streak across the sky, while chrome gothic lettering overhead reads: "Snackrifice of the 6.5th Amendment."
Grok
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YANu4bvj8Z1gLRD_kmmjUyAJ4482W6c9/view
Gemini
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y51foC1ign8KeEGNyjF-8iHZXdZuOMaJ/view
ChatGPT
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y51foC1ign8KeEGNyjF-8iHZXdZuOMaJ/
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Last week, COVID wastewater concentrations implied that approximately 1 in 49 Americans were infected. That is 3 to 4 people on every 737-800 max plane.
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) utilizes wastewater viral RNA levels to forecast four-week predictions of COVID-19 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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