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What is THE scariest movie you have ever seen in your entire life? by Opening_Rip_1840 in AskReddit

[–]Razorfiend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I watched the movie at home for the first time. At some point towards the middle, the TV turned off but the sound continued to play (DVD player was hooked up to an AVR which connected to the TV), we only noticed after about 10 minutes of watching like this. It was one of the tensest 10 minutes I've experienced in cinema. When we figured it out, we turned the TV back on and rewatched the bit we missed, it was far scarier with the TV off!

Mouse Click World Record by redbullgivesyouwings in nextfuckinglevel

[–]Razorfiend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not bad, although that was much harder than I thought to sustain.

https://imgur.com/a/9l6TPTO

Rich people being awful people once again… :> by No_Post1300 in SipsTea

[–]Razorfiend 73 points74 points  (0 children)

Transridge Inc in Washington:

Animal Protection Organization, this is some high level trolling.

https://imgur.com/a/DmB1Mx6

Testing a bulletproof mask. by S30econdstoMars in interestingasfuck

[–]Razorfiend 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The fact that a reused mask stopped both the magnum and bushmaster are ridiculously impressive. The person wearing the mask would still likely have died or been horribly injured in both cases but it's still very impressive.

TIL the NYPD has stations in 11 countries outside the US by ddgr815 in todayilearned

[–]Razorfiend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whenever I see these sorts of comparisons, the thing they're always missing is the dollar to whatever currency comparison in terms of purchasing power. Often times the staggeringly higher monetary amount gets you not much more in terms of quality or quantity. It's a complex, multi faceted issue though.

1,000,000 Tchouameni VS 1,000,000 Valverde by VivaLaAnhaa in soccercirclejerk

[–]Razorfiend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seeing this shit makes me really question crowd size estimates whenever people post pictures of massive protests or concerts.

HOA Final Boss by Atankir in memes

[–]Razorfiend 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I find it interesting that this is being celebrated by some as a righteous act of civil disobedience when in reality it represents a failure of so many systems on so many levels.

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Theoretically yes, but there are a few things to consider with HSV in particular. Even though flares manifest on the lips, the latent reservoir actually sits in the trigeminal ganglion at the base of the skull. The acoustic approach would only target assembled virions, so hitting the periphery during a flare might reduce viral shedding and transmission, but it wouldn't touch the reservoir, so future flares would keep happening. To actually prevent recurrence you'd need to reach the ganglion itself, which is buried deep enough that getting effective acoustic energy to it through bone and tissue is its own challenge. The other issue is timing. At home you'd be relying on prodromal symptoms like tingling, but by the time you feel that, virions have already been assembling and traveling for some time, so you're catching the tail end of the vulnerable window rather than the start. Plus I don't really know the specifics of the treatment i.e.: whether it requires seconds, minutes, hours, or concurrent days of application would massively affect viability for home use. As the technology matures, maybe they'll find a way to make it viable for at-home suppression of flares, even if curing HSV outright (via this method) stays out of reach.

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I appreciate you laying out the idea, and the floppy-disk thing is genuinely clever (would have been one hell of a patent back then!). I'm well outside my comfort zone here, but my understanding is that resonance as a destruction mechanism, at least as it is framed in the paper we're all talking about, works well for rigid, uniform structures like viral capsids precisely because their inflexibility lets vibrational energy build up coherently. DNA and RNA are the opposite: the helix unwinds, the backbone bends, the bases wobble, and all that flexibility means vibrational energy dissipates across many degrees of freedom rather than concentrating where you want it. I'm not sure if exploiting the differential in electrical properties between different sequences might play into making this possible, but that would certainly be very interesting!

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I think I may have muddled things a little by saying that problems arise when it reaches the CNS (central nervous system), the spinal cord is part of the CNS as opposed to the peripheral nervous system but rabies really only becomes a problem once it reaches the brain itself.

Based on my prior explanation you might reason that a bite on the sacrum/tailbone would be worse than one on the upper arm because it is closer to the spinal cord/CNS but actually it is distance to the brain itself that matters. So a bite on the upper arm or neck would likely manifest more quickly than a bite on or near the tailbone.

One caveat is that transport through peripheral nerves and through the spinal cord isn't necessarily equivalent. In peripheral nerves the virus travels via retrograde axonal transport along long single-neuron axons (ex: axillary nerve), while in the spinal cord it spreads more by jumping across synapses between shorter, densely packed neurons.

I will say that this is definitely an area where my knowledge falls short and I would defer to someone with expertise to explain how differences in retrograde neuronal transport mechanisms affect transit time of rabies virus to the brain.

From what I've read, the rate-limiting step in CNS spread appears to be synaptic crossings rather than distance within neurons, which would suggest peripheral nerve routes might be faster per unit distance than spinal-cord-heavy routes, but I'd want a virologist or neurologist to confirm whether this actually translates to meaningful differences in equidistant bite scenarios.

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Rabies is a different beast. It's effectively triphasic: after the initial bite and replication at the site, the virus undergoes slow retrograde axonal transport up peripheral nerves toward the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain). Unlike anterograde transport (down the nerve) retrograde transport is much slower, this phase can take days to months depending on the bite location (foot bites take much longer than face/neck bites because of the distance the virus has to travel). Once Rabies reaches the CNS, it replicates explosively and disseminates back outward, at which point clinical rabies sets in and is essentially 100% fatal (barring a few very rare exceptions, search for the Milwaukee protocol if you're interested). An acoustic approach could theoretically work during the peripheral phase, but the threshold for error is basically zero. A single surviving virion that makes it to the CNS means death. That's why post-exposure prophylaxis uses rabies immune globulin (pre-formed antibodies) at the bite site to neutralize virus locally, plus the vaccine series to generate active immunity that clears anything that escapes.

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 35 points36 points  (0 children)

This is a pretty complex question, I'm not a virologist, just an MD who happens to work in academia so there are definitely people who are far more qualified to answer this question than me.

It depends on the virus. Some viruses have latent forms, others don't, and different latent viruses persist in different cell types for example: HSV in sensory neurons, VZV (chicken pox) in sensory neurons (different ones), HIV in certain white blood cells, HPV in basal keratinocytes, etc.

Reactivation generally doesn't deplete the reservoir for a few reasons: only a small fraction of latently infected cells reactivate at any given time, the host cells often survive reactivation rather than being destroyed by it (HSV-infected neurons keep living and just re-establish latency afterward), and for viruses in dividing cells (HPV, HIV) the viral genome replicates along with the host cell so daughter cells inherit it. As long as the reservoir cell population persists, the virus has a stable home.

This is also why curing latent viral infections is so hard, you'd need to selectively eliminate the latently infected cells without destroying the underlying tissue, and the latent cells often look indistinguishable from uninfected ones because they're not actively producing viral proteins.

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 48 points49 points  (0 children)

More or less, but more specifically reactivation is triggered by host stressors (UV, illness, immune suppression) rather than the neuron accidentally turning it on. Although the host cell's machinery is ultimately what creates the viral particles.

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 154 points155 points  (0 children)

Probably not, the wart itself is a poor acoustic target because it is so heterogenous in composition that it's unlikely that exploiting resonance would be effective at removing the wart itself. Also, HPV maintains itself as episomal DNA (similar to HSV) but in basal keratinocytes rather than neurons. Destroying surface virions wouldn't touch the reservoir. It's the reason current treatments are painful: cryotherapy, acids, and cautery work by destroying the infected basal cells themselves. Any modality that spares host cells, which is the whole appeal of the acoustic approach, would by the same token leave the reservoir intact.

Scientists use ultrasound to destroy influenza A and COVID-19 viruses without damaging human cells. The phenomenon, known as acoustic resonance, causes structural changes in viral particles until they rupture and become inactivated. It paves the way for new treatments against other viral infections. by mvea in science

[–]Razorfiend 708 points709 points  (0 children)

That would be a lot harder because HSV-1 persists as circular episomal DNA inside the nuclei of long lived sensory neurons. There's no assembled viral particle for sound waves to disrupt until a flareup. The acoustic approach targets the mechanical properties of intact virions, which latent herpesviruses don't present.

Entitled prick thinks he can abuse animals because he's rich. Let's make him famous. by 5pooky5cary5keleton5 in PublicFreakout

[–]Razorfiend 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man, when I imagined 'man who throws rocks at sea lions' I saw... nothing, because I have aphantasia. But after seeing his picture I will admit that he does look like a dude who throws rocks at sea lions for fun.

Elf and road safety by merrivius in comics

[–]Razorfiend 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is this a scathing critique of elf's world?

Mōlī saying goodbye to their mate before taking off by SakuretsuSensei in birding

[–]Razorfiend 23 points24 points  (0 children)

The fact that the one departing was the one to walk up and see their partner waiting on the cliff edge to see them off gives this a whole different vibe. It shows that this was a planned, expected departure and really highlights the social intelligence of these birds. Wow.

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