links 02/14/25: https://roamresearch.com/#/app/srcpublic/page/02-14-2025

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomeronasal_organ
  • organ in the nasal septum of many animals that helps them "smell" non-volatile compounds like pheromones
  • it's supposed to be "vestigial" in humans, but I've also heard claims that it's still functional! intriguing!
  • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flehmen_response when animals "sneer" or flare their lips, it's to expose their vomeronasal organ and pick up pheromones.
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholecystokinin hormone used in bile release, satiety, and fear. very reliably induces fear/panic in humans and animals.
  • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholecystokinin_antagonist can you treat anxiety by blocking CCK receptors? looks like this line of research was abandoned because peptides are hard to get into the brain. i think we may have better ways around this problem now?
  • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12789687/ more on CCK antagonists
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenocorticotropic_hormone ACTH is a hormone involved in the HPA axis, including anxiety. but not something you want to inhibit across the board.
  • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypopituitarism  this is what would happen, giving results kind of like:
    • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison%27s_disease
    • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenal_crisis
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91-Melanocyte-stimulating_hormone?searchToken=d8yek3asorql89td1t0fy80ay alpha-MSH is what makes some reptiles and fish turn dark when frightened, and is chemically related to ACTH, but in mammals is less a fear thing, more related to pigmentation, appetite, and sexuality.
• https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/episodes/zeke-faux-stablecoins-tether/ Patrick McKenzie on his usual crypto-skeptic beat
• https://genders.wtf/
• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZf8MsW31eer-VruxpNmVGjiwZAdPk_akKVA-owo8DQqwgPA/viewform apply to intern at Alexandria AI, translating public domain books into as many languages as possible.
  • https://www.alexlib.org/
• https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/climate-outlaws Make Sunsets' case that their solar radiation management geoengineering is legal and safe.
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lewin I <3 this guy. this is what made the Long Nineteenth Century great. his accomplishments range from:
  • characterizing the traditional use, psychoactive effects, and active compounds of ayahuasca, peyote, kava, betel, and possibly others
  • exposing the causal connection between dental amalgam fillings and mercury poisoning
  • analyzing the effect of aconite on the heart
  • various medical and toxicological works
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%92-Carboline  some of the beta-carboline alkaloids are anxiogenic
  • some other beta-carbolines function as MAOIs in ayahuasca, allowing the DMT to be active when taken orally
    • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmaline
    • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmine
      • also is a fluorescent pH indicator!
  • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-Methyl-%CE%B2-carboline does things to the brain maybe. also MAOI.
• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/334068 "bubble bath cystitis", paper from 1967 -- not that interesting, just that some ingredient in a bubble bath soap led to irritation of the urethra in several diabetic women.
• https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1097-0142(196904)23:4%3C791::AID-CNCR2820230408%3E3.0.CO;2-Y instead of mammograms, xerox your breast! 1969 paper
• old papers on cheaply testable electrical properties of tumors:
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3181/00379727-15-174 1918, tumors are lower in resistance than healthy tissue, and fast-growing tumors more so than slow-growing ones; this is true both for plants and animals!
  • https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2599246/pdf/yjbm00323-0079.pdf electrical potential across a mouse tumor (in millivolts) is quite a bit higher than across healthy tissue, and more so for fast-growing than slow-growing tumors
  • https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2246588/pdf/brjcancer00131-0037.pdf rat tumors generally have a more acidic pH than healthy tissue, but malignant vs. benign tumors have similar pH. the more epithelial tissue there is in a tumor, whether malignant or benign, the more acidic it is.
  • https://aacrjournals.org/jcancerres/article/10/3/340/449670/The-Electric-Capacity-of-Tumors-of-the-Breast1 1926 paper, human malignant breast cancer tumors have about 2-3x the capacitance of normal breast tissue or benign tumors -- about 2000-3000 microfarads vs 1000 microfarads.
  • https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Bio-Electric-Properties-of-Cancer-Resistant-and-Burr-Smith/dd717f464d7eb79bbd1930ba6e83e6e8d3892826 1938 paper, also finding much higher electrical potential across spontaneous rodent mammary tumors vs. healthy tissue.
  • https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/39776631/Electropotential_measurements_as_a_new_d20151107-4851-h89ivn-libre.pdf?1446919144=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DElectropotential_measurements_as_a_new_d.pdf&Expires=1739483830&Signature=FXOzcLf25~bmWK7rQ0d2KFBbNubAEv7aj7IxPlvHWDKqtv1kvCFXxrKrJyuFTtkS9iRVzddlnzVuNVuGWhURe-LgRl~cTqW8npUzCrTxLsBU3NutUu6e7gkPKPqlOzZy6Ds0UKuzFbu-ZIGLzty1BBSAT8SpjNNpOiocx5hFDCxz~z6CZOzG4tr0jFwE65B04F9nHIcoPipwN42D6tsG5Kd-SaFev55RlZhnHqv5tF0Lnd0puEwvUv3FXkYeVoLbgZDzD~PPLiuup7wDuInZj-SfDbK5pEWbj4GXnnjsTIOrmw-5YxUav1GHYkgoZs94OLUw~OHg5ar8ZizSai1~Fw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA 1998 polarization score for detecting breast cancers
• https://www.marinanitze.com/ works on reforming/solving tech problems in government.
  • https://reason.com/2023/07/23/foster-parent-red-tape-hurts-families-and-taxpayers/
  • https://reason.com/2025/02/13/i-tried-to-fix-government-tech-for-years-im-fed-up/
• https://sloan.org/programs/digital-technology/aipostdoc-rfp Sloan Foundation is looking for social science postdocs to study the implications of AI For Science.
• https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.11654 Nico McCarty and others' roadmap for an AI virtual cell.