31–40 of 215 posts
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There is still the threat of WW3...
Does not seem particularly high right now, TBH.
I would say it's perhaps never been higher since the Cuban missile crisis.
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Really? Putin seems to slowly change his mind, even as far as the aims of his "special military operation" are concerned. It looks like he is slowly realizing what he got himself into and his aim is to keep Ukraine unstable to prevent its association with the EU.
No, there's a new mass troop mobilization coming, the grain deal was cancelled, Russia is firing on civilian shipping ports (including ones right on the border with NATO ally (EDIT: meant member) Romania), and Belarus is performing provocations across the Polish border. Unfortunately, I think things are just getting started.
If 2023 ends up giving us AGI, room-temperature superconductors, Starships and a cure for cancer, I think we will able to call it a good year...
It is probably too late with record high temperatures, every few years, for centuries to come.
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Maybe. But a bigger molecule will be less soluble and less capable of getting into the cell.
Right! I forgot about good ol’ Lipinski: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipinski%27s_rule_of_five
https://www.pmf.ni.ac.rs/chemianaissensis/wp-content/uploads...
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Right! I forgot about good ol’ Lipinski: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipinski%27s_rule_of_five
Note that a number of well-known drugs violate Lipinski's rules. For instance, digoxin is absorbed by transporters and violates 2 rules. Atorvastatin is another famous example (again 2 rules violated). I believe that it is absorbed through Peyer's patches in the intestine. https://www.pmf.ni.ac.rs/chemianaissensis/wp-content/uploads...
> Some authors have criticized the rule of five for the implicit assumption that passive diffusion is the only important mechanism for the entry of drugs into cells, ignoring the role of transporters.
> Studies have also demonstrated that some natural products break the chemical rules used in Lipinski filters such as macrolides and peptides.
Going to have to start following this Derek Lowe guy. He also had a good balanced bit on room temp superconductor. Well done science reporting without the hyperbole.
He's been doing it for 20 years.
https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/05/derek-lowe-chemist-blogg...
He also had an excellent series on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates during the height of the COVID media insanity. It was one of the few places to get a balanced, informed take on different approaches. Specifically, discussing the uncertainty bounds around results.
Definitely a gifted science communicator. (No small skill, to distill but not pol/dilute!)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? Putin seems to slowly change his mind, even as far as the aims of his "special military operation" are concerned. It looks like he is slowly realizing what he got himself into and his aim is to keep Ukraine unstable to prevent its association with the EU.
No, there's a new mass troop mobilization coming, the grain deal was cancelled, Russia is firing on civilian shipping ports (including ones right on the border with NATO ally (EDIT: meant member) Romania), and Belarus is performing provocations across the Polish border. Unfortunately, I think things are just getting started.
Why is Belarus performing provocations on the Polish border? Seems to me that Lukashenko is either doing it for himself, or for Putin. I can't see why he'd be doing it for himself. He might see Poland, flawed but still something of a democracy, as a threat to inspire those seeking democracy in Belarus.
But it seems to me to be more likely that he's doing it for Putin. (This also might involve Wagner going to Belarus, not to escape Russia after the coup attempt, but in order to do a job for Russia.) But what's the point? Belarus isn't going to conquer Poland. Russia's not going to conquer the Baltics. So what's going on?
If this is all a master plan, I think it's most likely that Putin is trying to create a war (or at least a real threat of war) with NATO, to give him an excuse to call for a mass mobilization in Russia. This in turn will give him enough force to at least keep what he has in Ukraine. (He's gambling - almost certainly correctly - that NATO has no stomach for anything beyond defending themselves. Think of the "Phony War" phase of the western front in WWII.)
If I'm right, this is an extremely dangerous game that Putin is playing. Wagner could get out of hand (it already did once). The war could escalate. The Russian population could get fed up. The Russian elites could get fed up.
But Putin may feel that he has no choice, because otherwise he would lose power, and because he may not survive a fall from power.
(Wow, this has gone really far afield from a discussion of a promising cancer drug!)