Hacker News Reader

uj8efdjkfdshfon Life-changing cream to treat skin cancer moves closer to reality

Having had a look at it, it seems like this involves a molecule (Q2361) closely related to tacrolimus that is capable of binding to FKBP12 where tacrolimus would normally bind but without affecting the function of FKBP12.[1]

This seems to be useful in the specific case of people on long term tacrolimus as it locally antagonises tacrolimus activity in the skin to reduce cancer risk.

[1] https://jitc.bmj.com/content/jitc/11/9/e006783.full.pdf

uj8efdjkfdshfon The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

To be fair I've always used scissors with the blade pointing towards me because it always felt more natural despite being told off for using it the wrong way.

uj8efdjkfdshfon The Tao of Unicode Sparklines (2021)

If you're going to pick a font to avoid this issue you might as well as define your own custom sparkline font with fancy ligatures.

uj8efdjkfdshfon Leonard Rome's lab discovered an odd component of cells in the 1980s: Vaults

Interesting read. From what I can tell, it seems to provide gain control for the innate immune system?

[0] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11033-024-09305-y

uj8efdjkfdshfon How the ADHD Brain Processes Sugar Differently

Nope, they generally cause ADHD by chelating zinc and the resulting zinc deficiency drives the ADHD phenotype. I should also note that zinc deficiency can cause insulin resistance, but this causes the opposite of the described effect.

uj8efdjkfdshfon A formula for responsive font-size

Huh, interesting. I've been using a clamped version of 1.5vw + 1vh for landscape and 1vw + 1vh for portrait, and then scaling everything else by rem for consistency. Might give this a try though.

uj8efdjkfdshfon Linux TTY font for Chinese, but treat it as a syllabic writing

Oh god that looks cursed. Have you thought of just representing the characters using Zhuyin?

uj8efdjkfdshfon Detection of L-Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction from Electrocardiographic Images

I should point out that ECG machines that use heuristics to provide on the spot diagnoses already exist, are widespread and are way easier to implement.

[0] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199112193252503

uj8efdjkfdshfon Detection of L-Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction from Electrocardiographic Images

Let me guess, they just rediscovered that Q waves in V1-V3 are predictive of LVSD?

uj8efdjkfdshfon LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K

The one interesting thing I should note is that synthesis of the copper phosphide intermediate tends to result in a copper deficient product, so I wonder if the presence of lattice defects in this might have an effect on where the copper atoms intercalate in the lattice.

uj8efdjkfdshfon Show HN: Guess the animal by looking at a limited amount of pixels

https://neontomo.com/play/guess-the-animal/img/dog/15.jpg

ha. Also, the game becomes really easy when you inspect element.

uj8efdjkfdshfon Fake Dog for Home Security

Because most people define sentience as 'a black box that reacts meaningfully to inputs in a sufficiently unpredictable and inexplicable manner', and for most people (especially researchers in these fields), current neural networks do not meet this bar.

uj8efdjkfdshfon MIT-designed project achieves major advance toward fusion energy

These high magnetic fields are generated using flux compression[0], in which the incompressibility of magnetic field lines means that compressing the coils generating the magnetic fields will increase the strength of the resultant magnetic field. However, the implosion process permanently destroys the magnet, which makes it highly unsuitable for continuous use and certainly shouldn't be used anywhere near your fusion reactor.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_pumped_flux_compre...

uj8efdjkfdshfon Why we're blind to the color blue

It's no big surprise given that the fovea, which is responsible for detailed vision, contains no blue cones.

[0] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.ht...

uj8efdjkfdshfon Ask HN: Large USB drives that don't get blazing hot?

To be fair, I've always had overheating issues with the microSD cards I've used to the point where I've stopped bothering with them.

uj8efdjkfdshfon China Launches First Crew to Live on New Space Station

It's because the ISS was started during a rare period of cooperation just after the fall of communism but before the rise of Putin. By the time Russia started regressing into authoritarianism, it was too late for the US to ban Russia from the ISS, especially when the ISS depends on the Russian orbital segment for station keeping and life support.

uj8efdjkfdshfon Ask HN: What's an interesting DIY genetic engineering project?

Check out the Thought Emporium [0] on YouTube, they've got a number of biology experiments that you might find interesting. My personal favorite is the one where they make a meat berry.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV5vCi3jPJdURZwAOO_FNfQ

uj8efdjkfdshfon Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

Let's not forget: - non invasive medical imaging, particularly in terms of new approaches to generating or interpreting CT/MRI/ultrasound scans - more ergonomic surgical robots that don't hold their instruments like a 3 year old toddler - AI/expert systems for rapid triage and assessment of patients - more effective ways of drug delivery (both cell based therapy and developing better oral formulations)

uj8efdjkfdshfon The case against plant consciousness

I'd personally back such a definition of consciousness, and reframe the question more as one of what level of consciousness (eg complexity of processing, breadth of collected inputs) must an entity possess before we consider its consciousness as being meaningful to us.

uj8efdjkfdshfon BioRender – Professional Science Figures

No chevrons? I am disappointed.

uj8efdjkfdshfon Intel’s new boss wants to teach the chipmaker new tricks

>since when do we air quote measurements?

Ever since the process name stopped being indicative of the minimum metal pitch, or any aspect of the process itself.

uj8efdjkfdshfon Cray, AMD to Extend DOE’s Exascale Frontier

The main difference between the brain and a CPU is that the brain runs at a much lower, variable clock speed (10-100Hz) to reduce switching costs and makes up for this with extensive pipelining and parallelization when possible. The high node count and necessary connectivity is then possible due to the use of directed self assembly.

At any rate, it is quite likely that the neocortex of the brain simply computes a function(s) recursively upon sensory input (see Chomsky's minimalist program for suggestions on what it could be). What is unclear is what this function is, and how it comes about - for this reason the approach by some has been to attempt to simulate an entire brain to see what it does. But without the necessary abstractions, this will be inherently wasteful and generates nothing new other than validating your experimental data.