G’day, Dr Karl here.
Gazing at the heavens or just staring blankly into empty space - we’ve all done it. And there is that phrase ‘stare bear’ that refers to somebody who is staring at you.
We’ve been staring at the stars forever, and for the last six decades, we’ve put telescopes into orbit around the earth to act as our upgraded eyes.
But shifting from astronomy to medicine, staring into space can occasionally be caused by an “absence seizure” – which is a type of epilepsy. They usually happen in children between the ages of four and 14, mostly lasting less than 15 seconds - and can sometimes go unnoticed. A child could have up to 100 absence seizures in a single day – which has a huge impact on their learning and concentration.
G’day, Dr Karl here.
Over the last few episodes together we have considered the difference between a virus and a bacterium, grappled with the intellectual problem of whether a virus is alive or not, and looked at just how we discovered these incredibly tiny critters. That was deep stuff, and I didn’t even touch on where they came from.
But while mysteries surrounding viruses are intriguing, most people are pretty convinced of one thing – viruses are bad news. But that’s only part of the story. In fact, without viruses, we couldn’t have babies or even think.
2020 will be remembered as the Year of the Virus – the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. By early 2021 the COVID virus had truly left its mark on our population, lifestyle, and biosphere. It was all caused by a very small quantity of virus - just several hundred grams. But the Universe is complicated, and viruses can be good guys too. Let’s dive into virus 101.
G’day Dr Karl here,
Now love songs and poems have been written to the beauties of the lips, eyes and even the cheekbones of the human face. But for the poor old nose, the only options are to pay through it, or else keep it to the grindstone.
We see our human sense of smell as woefully inadequate compared to other animals – but that is totally incorrect. Even worse, the loss of smell can be quite disabling or even dangerous.
Awareness of our sense of smell has become more of a hot topic recently with the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant number of people who get the virus lose their sense of smell early on. It seems that a loss of smell can be a very good early sign of COVID-19 infection.
G’day, Dr Karl here.
This story tells more about how under-rated our sense of smell really is – and how loss of smell can be an early indicator of COVID-19.
As an aside, a loss of smell can be deeply linked to some neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer s and Parkinson’s disease, as well as several autoimmune diseases.These include Systemic Lupus Erythematosis SLE, Sjogren’s Disease, and many more.
Why? Well, it turns out that in your DNA, many of the genes associated with smell are located right next to a big bunch of genes that form your immune system, the so-called Major Histocompatibility Complex. Maybe this is the link.