Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 1h

Science is amazing. The Republican push to kill research will drastically reduce life saving discoveries like this. It is self defeating and we should return to funding science.

Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 3h

Researchers envision their vaccine being used as both a treatment and a preventive, and as an approach to treating multiple cancer types.
• www.umass.edu/news/article...

The study has been published in Cell Reports Medicine. YES, it is PEER-REVIEWED.
• www.cell.com/cell-reports...

🧪🧵⬇️

HIGHLIGHTS
•Lipid NPs carrying STING and TLR4 agonists promote synergistic type I interferons
• NPs drain efficiently to lymph nodes and increase polyfunctional T and B cells
• NPs improve tumor-free outcomes with memory against multiple aggressive tumor models
SUMMARY
We report on the utility of a "super-adjuvant" nanoparticle (NP) system as a modular, customizable platform for next-generation cancer vaccination. Using nanomaterials engineering technology, we aim to harness not only the effective adjuvanticity of whole-pathogen vaccines, but also the safety of subunit vaccines.
Our lipid-based NP platform co-encapsulates agonists of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathways to promote synergistic production of type I interferons and other
proinflammatory cytokines in innate antigen-presenting dendritic cells and macrophages.
Compared to empty NPs and free agonists, dual-adjuvant NPs administered with antigenic peptides or tumor cell lysate promote increased antigen processing and presentation, drain efficiently to nearby lymph nodes, increase polyfunctional tumor-specific T and B cells, and improve tumor-free outcomes upon vaccination and subsequent challenge with multiple aggressive tumor cells.

Graphical Abstract

The vaccine combines two immune-stimulating molecules (adjuvants) in a tiny lipid nanoparticle that enhances both innate and adaptive immune responses. The innate immune system acts as the body’s first line of defense, responding quickly and non-specifically to invaders using cells that release inflammatory signals. The adaptive immune system takes longer to activate but provides a targeted, long-lasting response, training T-cells and B- cells to recognize and remember specific threats. Together, they form a coordinated defense: the innate system alerts and activates the adaptive system, which then delivers precise and durable immunity.

2

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 21h

Seriously, the kid needs fiber!

2

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 21h

The wet toilet paper solution for your home seat bidet is reusable cloth baby wipes. Throw used ones into a reusable diaper pail or a compost bucket with a charcoal filter. Wash them on the hottest setting and never flush a tree down your toilet again.

www.grovia.com/products/clo...

GroVia Reusable Cloth Wipes :: White

GroVia's collection of ultra-soft terry cloth diaper baby wipes are soft enough for baby's face but generously sized for maximum coverage during diaper changes.

www.grovia.com

2

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 22h

I mean I don't get the extreme appeal of a movie like Minecraft, but it seems to have given Gen-Z some movie memories that they judge to be good.

a green monster is holding a stuffed duck with a yellow beak

ALT: a green monster is holding a stuffed duck with a yellow beak

media.tenor.com

3

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 22h

Yes the seat integrated bidet is so much better. What happens if you bidet on this thing and then have to go again? You crab walk back to the toilet? I'm pro-bidet, but this is a dated waste of space.

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 1d

This particular solar farm does have sheep grazed under it! The main holdup for this seems to be the lack of shepherds. Hopefully more people will go into this profession and reduce the amount of mowing we have to do under solar panels.

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 1d

That makes sense and roughly matches the blue bar in the graph I posted from 2005. Scary to realize how much more irrigated corn is being grown in the Ogallala region. If we dry out the Ogallala aquifer and make another dust bowl to power like 1% of VMT it's gonna be a tragedy.

The Dry Future of the American Plains: Threats to the Ogallala Aquifer | The Triple Helix at UChicago

voices.uchicago.edu

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 1d

It'd be great if solar ordinances required this last type of development, but instead what we frequently see is ordinances with requirements that are simply there to try to prevent solar, not trying to get it installed in an environmentally friendly way.

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 1d

A few solar farms have experimented with simply laying the panels on the ground (no racking) and I expect that'd be far worse for the soil. Others have bulldozed the area before building, which is bad too. Many do it right, limited earth moving and native plantings. This can improve soil health.

Solar panels with a bunch of plants growing under them.

1 4

Reposted by Profit Greenly

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 2d

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 2d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

130 2.3K 4.6K

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

As long as they're electric, or eBikes even, the most efficient form of transport (though limited in range). All of these are electric vehicles that can be powered by solar and replace gas cars, trucks, etc. that are also burning ethanol.

1,000+ MPGe eBike to Profit

We're in the midst of a quiet transportation revolution right now.

www.profitgreenly.com

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

Wow, not the best bf in the world, but at least he finally turned around.

1 1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

Wait so there was a second person in the truck he was going to drive to their death?!?

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, I remember touring Virginia Tech's experimental switchgrass fields decades ago. Seemed promising at the time but it's gone just about nowhere. On the other hand olar and EVs have massively improved both in performance and price since then. It was an idea that didn't pan out.

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

It could be fully counting the ethanol corn as livestock feed because that's what they do with the stuff leftover after making alcohol. That's actually a common pro-ethanol argument, that it helps feed cattle. This of course ignores the environmental impact of cattle, particularly corn fed cattle.

1 1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

We grow far more than enough food for our people, and even for others overseas (with a ton left to burn in our cars). The issue is not the amount we grow, it's how it gets used after it's grown. "Luckily" Republicans destroyed USAID and other programs that helped distribute our crops to save lives.

The full lethal impact of massive cuts to international food aid

The sudden withdrawal of almost half of global funding for nutrition suddenly will have dire consequences for decades.

www.nature.com

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

Great image comparing land use of biofuels vs solar.

Søren Have @sorenhave.dk · 2d

Hard agree.

@transportenvironment.org made this nice illustration (for EU): te-cdn.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/files/202303...

1 2

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

Not sure where that number comes from, care to link?

1 1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

Basically only 1 company in Brazil makes cellulosic ethanol. Their total production (~50M liters) is a rounding error when divided by total ethanol production worldwide (>100B liters). There's some potential, but really it's been leapfrogged by solar/wind powered EVs and renewable natural gas.

Whatever happened to cellulosic ethanol?

Technological immaturity, falling oil prices, overoptimistic investors, and regulatory uncertainty are blamed for the failure of a promising biofuel technology

pubs.aip.org

1 1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

~40% of the ENTIRE corn crop of the US is used to make ethanol. This gets blended with gasoline to power well under 10% of our vehicle miles. If we converted 100% of our vehicles to EVs installing solar on a small fraction of the land this corn is grown on would power them all.

US domestic corn use graph from 1980 to 2020. The orange bar representing "Alcohol for fuel use" (aka ethanol) starts growing in early 2000s, explodes before 2010 and stays huge through the graphs 2022 end. This explains most of the increased corn production in the US.

8 62 120

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly. We could reduce US corn emissions by 40% by switching to EVs that don't need ethanol. Heck we could power them all with solar installed on a fraction of that land and find some other better use for the rest of it. This should be added as a 5th practice, probably the most impactful one.

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

It me, except my rant is about how amazing eBikes, heat pumps, and solar panels are.

2

Reposted by Profit Greenly

All In with Chris Hayes @allinwithchris.bsky.social · 2d

“Putting your political opponents in jail because they are your opponents—not because of what they did—is the heart of tyranny. It is an obviously impeachable offense,” says @chrislhayes.bsky.social on the indictment of NY AG Tish James on Trump-ordered charges.

43 350 1.5K

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 2d

I Think You Should Leave Tim Robinson GIF

ALT: I Think You Should Leave Tim Robinson GIF

media.tenor.com

1

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 3d

Seems like the beef is with your claim that Schumer should face criminal charges for saying that the biggest problem with the budget is the removal of healthcare subsidies. I agree that it isn't, but I'd save the criminal charges for those committing the actual crimes.

1