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First the link to this week’s complete list as HTML and as PDF.
There are two new articles on antibiotic abuse. Negishi confirms the rationale behind giving antibiotics for viral infections. Viral infection does indeed suppress the immune reaction against bacteria. By describing the mechanism Negishi et al. also open the way towards a more sensible treatment. Abt et al. demonstrate yet another downside of antibiotics, killing beneficial gut flora also impairs the antiviral immune reaction.
I don’t quite understand Pike’s methods. In most cases, he says, the whole thickness of the overlying deposit yields a single sample. The most parsimonious model is precipitation beginning right after the completion of the artwork and continuing linearly until today. For very short times like 40 ka the buildup of Thorium too is highly linear. So the naive expectation is for the artwork to be about twice as old as his averaged age for the deposit. For his measured 40 ka to be anywhere near the true age, as he seems to assume, the precipitation must have begun shortly after the artifact, gone on for a short time only, and then stopped. Are there any reasons for this assumption or am I missing something vital here?
Addendum
Rethinking the question I was overly critical there. Of course these are minimum ages, but having a whole number of them spanning a large range and looking at only the oldest, it’s quite reasonable to assume them to come rather near to the true ages.
Cockrill takes a close look into the warped brain of Apple aficionados. This article comes in the same week as reports about Apple users showing a significantly different consumer choice in online shops and travel agencies, so much so, that it pays to gear offers towards their preferences. Personally I find it a good thing to have just those items, that after having compared the alternatives I’m going to choose anyway, offered first.
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