“Following the steepest gradient of smell/taste of whatever is in the middle?”

How does that differ from any other problem-solving animal?

A randomized controlled trial is usually better than the alternatives, even if it is not blinded. And non-blinded RCTs are performed all the time, for example for new surgical treatments (nowadays sham surgery is frowned upon!)

Evolution also in action - different strategies for responding to evolutionary pressure.

Group A: moves cautiously and with extensive forethought. Acts slowly but with higher success rate and longevity. Reproduces below replacement level.

Group B: Shotgun approach, devil-may-care attitude. Pops out kids like a mushroom releasing spores. Overwhelms evolutionary pressure by sheer volume. Some offspring migrate over to Group A, keeping the two groups in some sort of balance, if not harmony.

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This is a pretty dense review, but it covers your topic extensively. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4544655/

To briefly state one point they examine; the changes in glycogen levels observed in the sleep/wake transition, may be more diagnostic of that transition happening, and not actually a causative agent of that transition.

Similarly two other reviews examining the role of adenosine in sleep found that while adenosine does have a role in sleep, it is much more specific in its function, not a master "go to sleep" signal https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769007/, and that the role adenosine takes changes depending on where in the brain, and what receptors it is working on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650574/

Looking around for publications, its clear that there is a lot of work being done and different camps with different models they are testing. I don't think their is a complete mechanism that everyone agrees on.

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Now that I've looked deeper, I actually do have both physical chemistry and physics book that have the dE = dQ - dW convention, and ones with the opposite. So it doesn't seem to be a strict physics vs chemistry vs engineering thing.

Something I noted though, when the convention is dE = dQ - dW, PV work at constant pressure is +PdV, while when it is dE = dQ + dW, work is -PdV. You end up with the same dE = dQ - PdV expression, and I'd guess that all the other thermodynamic quantities end up not being different as well. Does the sign convention really not manifest in any meaningful way? I guess it makes sense that this is such a small detail that I didn't even notice it.

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Good point. The potential H2H variant could render the current H5N1 vaccine useless.

And broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts... the very smell of them cooking makes me gag and I have tried to eat them but can't keep them down.

> The USA does try to keep an updated stockpile of H5N1 vaccine, at least enough for doctors, first responders and the armed forces.

That's sensible. Do we know how effective the h5n1 vaccine is, given that bird flu is so rare in humans to begin with?

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We don't really stockpile flu vaccines because influenza changes and so older versions would not be very helpful. Instead we stockpile the raw materials and production capabilities for the vaccines. The traditional flu vaccine is made using chicken eggs infected with the virus so many countries have their own emergency supplies of chickens/eggs for this purpose.

Now that we also havecell based flu vaccines that don't require chicken eggs as well as future mRNA based flu vaccines that can be rapidly mass produced there will likely be a variety of of options for stockpiling/emergency preparation.

"Cryo" may not have been the exact word I was looking for. How long do they last, sealed and in a fridge?

>If it becomes easily transmissible between humans, either the antivaxxers change their minds fairly quickly or the only people left will be ones who believed in vaccination.

Evolution in action, people: move with the times or remove yourself from the gene pool. It's incredibly sad, and I wish it weren't like this, but if you can't be persuaded with logic to do something for your own safety and the safety of others well... there's a point at which we can't do any more for you, and we have to let nature take its course.

Edit: in case it wasn't obvious, my comment above is in support of vaccination.

I'm a microbiologist, so I knew at least some of these on the eukaryote side, but I've never really looked at plants before.

Rebar is simultaneously the thing that makes concrete capable of long unsupported spans, and the main reason concrete is not permanent and needs to be maintained to not fall apart.

The difference between nanotubes and rebar is a matter of scale. We will probably always need both. In bridges the rebar or cables would keep the entire block under compressive tension so the concrete can be used in long spans. The nanotubes keep it from flaking and cracking locally from temperature variations. If we can reduce the internal steel grid to a more directional set of tensioned cables then there are less places where water intrusion and could cause the steel reinforcement itself to rust, expand and crack the concrete. And even when it does the carbon or fiberglass micro structures will prevent the cracks from starting and reduce their spread.

Whew, got nerd sniped. Wikipedia is a crazy, wonderful thing.

• The two species of gorillas are comfortably over the 100lbs limit on average, but humans, chimps (but not bonobos), and orangutans (three species) should also count if we're talking about average adult weight, remembering that males are generally quite a bit larger than females. So that's seven primates.

• There are eight or nine extant bovine species (genera Bos and Bison), all much heavier than 100lbs, as well as six species of buffalo.

• I think there are maybe ten species of cervids (deer) that are unambiguously over 100lbs on average, with several others that are straddling the limit.

• 94 cetaceans, all of which over the limit except maybe the very smallest dolphin and porpoise species.

• Four species of tapirs in addition to the five rhino and two hippos you mentioned.

• Only one extant horse species, but eight other equines (donkeys and zebras), all weighing several hundred pounds.

• There are 18 extant species of suids (pigs), all or at least almost all of them clearly more than 100lbs on average.

• There are seven species of sheep, at least three or four of them over 100lbs on average.

• Nine species of goats, most of which straddle the 100lbs figure, so let's be conservative and not include them.

• There are 91 antelope species which makes sense given that it's a catch-all group encompassing those bovids that are not cattle, goats, or sheep. There's a huge variation in size, but I'd guesstimate that at least ten of them pass the 100lbs test.

• Of the big cats, three (tigers, lions, and jaguars) are comfortably over the limit, with the others straddling it.

• Eight species of bears, out of which at least four are clearly over 100lbs.

• And finally, there are 34 extant species of pinnipeds, all of which weigh over 100lbs thanks to all the blubber!

I'm probably forgetting something but all the major groups should be accounted for.

(EDIT: forgot giraffes and the okapi, five species in total)

So that adds up to over 200 species quite easily. The 148 figure is possibly still defensible depending on the definition of "over 100lbs" used though. Also, over half of the species are aquatic or semiaquatic.

And vice versa, yes. It's hard to distinguish these people, though, since they often don't know what asparagus pee smells like and have nothing to compare it to if they did smell it.

There have been very few infections in Humans over the last 25 years (under 1000 confirmed last time I checked), and mostly they happen in places that a flu vaccine isn't widely available or used. So, we really have no idea in a real-world sense.

The problem with H5N1 that could cause serious problems is a mutation/variatnt that would allow for human-to-human transmission , which the current variant doesn't have - so a human-affecting pandemic of H5N1 would be a fundamentally different variant to the strain(s) we know of today.

The mutation needed to H2H transmission may or may not affect the protection afforded by a flu vaccine. Think about how different Covid has been, variant to variant, and with the various vaccines we have.
(tldr: more data required)

Tons, no. We don't know what the antigens of a future pandemic strain would be.

The USA does try to keep an updated stockpile of H5N1 vaccine, at least enough for doctors, first responders and the armed forces.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28554058/

Influenza vaccines can't be frozen without having decreased efficacy. They have a narrow window of temps they can be stored in a refrigerator, and once room temperature, must be used within 72 hours.

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Dude, your knowledge is profound! I was just on a diet and my stools were concrete grey. (They are normal now that I'm off it, but I would really like an explanation of this.)