4 October 2026
Hello again, fans of science,
Hallo allemaal, wetenschapsliefhebbers!
[Nearly 30 million people speak Dutch as a first or second language.]
MEDICINE / HEALTH
The ‘Barbie Peptide’ [caricatured in the above graphic] is just one of dozens of peptides being promoted as cures and enhancements, but in most cases totally lacking in vetting through clinical trials. [One exception is semaglutide (Wegovy / Ozempic).] Many of the commercial peptides come from China with no assurances as to safety or whether any peptides are even present in the package.
¿And what is a peptide? They are ‘short’ chains of amino acids. Proteins are long chains of typically 300 to 400 amino acids that must fold up correctly in order to be biologically active as ‘intended’. Semaglutide is a peptide with just 31 amino acids. The ‘Barbie Peptide’ is a chain of 13 amino acids and is touted as promoting weight loss, a sunless tan, and sexual arousal. Nausea is a more common outcome.
¿Questions? ¿Want to learn more? Peter Koshland, PharmD, is giving a free livestream talk on peptides this Thursday [7:30 PM Pacific] and will answer your questions at the end.
SPACE
Last Monday, ESA’s JUICE [JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer] spacecraft completed its second Earth flyby [after a flyby of Venus] to test and calibrate its instruments and to pick up more velocity to reach its destination of Jupiter’s icy moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. It will get a final velocity boost with a flyby of Earth in January of 2029.
Commander Jessica Watkins is the first Black woman to head a crew up to the ISS. They reached the International Space Station on Friday after a [relatively] short 7 hour and 55 minute journey.
A 38-year-old 1,400 kg U.S. spy satellite exploded in low Earth orbit last month, likely due to deterioration of batteries or pressurized tank. A piece of its shrapnel [travelling at 7.8 kilometers per second (4.9 miles per second)] could potentially collide with another satellite – defunct or active – and initiate the cascade of collisions known as the Kessler Syndrome. Hopefully not!
RAFFLE
The winner gets to choose from dozens of science-themed hats in various colors. Just send an email to david<dot>almandsmith@gmail<dot>com before noon Friday with your guess of an integer from 1 to 1,000. In our previous Raffle, the eOracle chose 326. Of the 23 entrants, “M” was closest with the guess of 286, winning a shirt displaying the double slit experiment.
ARCHAEOLOGY
In the middle of the 14th century, the Black Death plague killed about half of all Europeans. The causal bacterium, Yersina pestis, has now been found in the remains of children who lived in Siberia 5,500 years ago, earlier than previously known. Yersina pestis can be endemic in rodents, especially in those of the squirrel family, Sciuridae. Pendants of marmot teeth suggests the community hunted and ate marmots which belong to the family Sciuridae. However, the strain of Yersina pestis found there lacked the gene that allows for transmission by fleas. The researchers concluded that the disease was likely transmitted by eating under-cooked marmots.
BEAUTIFUL BIOLOGY
This tiny sacoglossan sea slug, Cyerce kikutarobabai, gets no longer than 1.5 cm [0.6 in] and is named after Kikutaro Baba [1905 – 2001], a Japanese biologist who specialized in Cephalaspidea [sea slugs and bubble snails].
Ctenophora [te-NOFF-ur-ruh] is the phylum of predators that have rows of cilia for locomotion that cause a rippling light show. [Also called Comb-Jellies] They have nerve cells that are morphologically different from any other kind of animal. At least one ctenophore, Cestum veneris, has musculature that allows it to swim like an eel. There is some evidence that ctenophores gave rise to sponges, which have no nervous system nor muscles. Also, nerve cells of all other animals may have evolved independently from ctenophoran nerve tissue. Weird, if true.
Fun Nerdy Videos
Mastodon Molar from San Mateo – ABC7 News – 30 secs
Just lying there!
Nancy Grace Roman Telescope Innards – NASA Goddard – 2 mins
In case you want to build your own?
Justin Schmidt – King of Sting – Hannah Fry – 2.5 mins
Contributions of a masochist?
Department of Forgotten Things – Croftiq Studios – 3 mins
A thought-provoking cartoon.
Amethyst in Legend and Quackery – Cup o’Joe – Joe Schwarcz – 4 mins
Joe Schwarcz!
Orcas: Winter in Norway – (no dialogue) – Drew Simms – 5 mins
Dress warmly before watching this!
The Vacuum and Zero-Point Energy – Sabine Hossenfelder – 8 mins
Powering scads of Sci-Fi stories.
A “Sand Heat Battery” – Meanwhile in Europe – 11.5 mins
It gets darn damn cold in Finland!
Prototaxites – SciSchow – Savannah Geary – 14 mins
One of my favorite mysteries.
The Final Parsec Problem – Dr. Becky – Becky Smethurst – 14 mins
Such a good communicator of a sticky problem!
How AIs Learn – Alliance for Responsible Citizenship – Chloe Lubinski – 14.5 mins
If you aren’t already worried, you will be.
America’s Scientists Are Disappearing Neil deGrasse Tyson – 19 mins
Double ungood.
Sulfur – Tales from the Periodic Table – Ron Hipschman – 49 mins
Ron also helps keep the ExplOratorium vibrant.
Climate Change – The Facts – BBC – David Attenborough – 57 mins
Sir David turned 100 in May!
M.A.K.A. [Make America Kind Again] Slogan on hats, pins, shirts, etc.
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“As for quackery and mountebanks, of which the town was so full, I listened to none of them, and have observed often since, with some wonder, that for two years after the plague I scarcely saw or heard of one of them about town.”
—Daniel Defoe [1660 – 1731] English writer, journalist, merchant, and spy