Dead link

Wow last time I walked by it was still a pit!

The one in Osler circle?

As an employee of penn, I think that's all well and good but they definitely could be paying the city some property taxes as well

Every worker deserves the opportunity to be represented by a union

There's also the factor of initial viral load.

Jack gets covid, has no symptoms, and only notices because his work did a random screen.

Jane gets covid and dies from lung failure.

Maybe Jack got a single viral particle and his body had plenty of time to ramp up is response but Jane got coughed on by someone chock full o virus and by the time she started producing antibodies her lungs were already saturated.

Getting stuff off the moon (or asteroids) and into orbit around Venus would be way cheaper than getting materials off of Earth or Mars, so that's one option

I am a molecular biologist.

Aging is the ultimate risk factor for a disease or condition that will kill an organism.

Beyond that, there is no consensus on what aging truly is, how it works or what it does at the molecular level. Sure, telomeres get shorter, but it's unclear if that's cause or effect.

There are drugs that might extend lifespan, but how they work, and what the costs are, are unclear.

If it's even possible to get most people over 100 years old, we're decades from a drug/treatment that does it. Immortality would almost certainly require a brain upload into the cloud but is impossible in a human body.

I am a molecular biologist. This guy is cynical, pessimistic, and totally right.

We still don't even know what causes aging, if all aging is the same, etc.

Yes, that's totally true!

It really underscores the complexity of the issue. E coli in your colon is fine, but in your small intestine it's bad news. Influenza in your large intestines is mostly five but screws you up if it gets deep in the lungs.

It just depends. When you get a cut on your skin, that area is almost certainly going to get bacteria trying to grow in it. Your body will, mostly successfully, fight it off.

But... Sometimes it gets red and infected and then your body will really work at it... And then fight it off. Other times you lose a finger if left untreated.

Same with viruses. Mostly you can fight them off, but eventually one can put you in the hospital.

Then there are the scary members of both viral and bacterial families. Ebola and rabies viruses are always going to do serious damage. Likewise, there are a decent number of flesh eating bacteria that, once they take hold, are very difficult to stop.

Just to throw some other pathogens in there, if a fungal infection manages to get into your spinal fluid or lungs, that can be impossible for your immune system to fight off. Similarly, if an amoeba gets up into your brain you are hosed.

But, for every deadly virus bacteria fungus and amoeba, there are countless numbers of harmless ones that your immune system just deals with without breaking a sweat