Aditya Raghunandan won first place at the Steadman Family Postdoctoral Associate Prize with work (partly) inspired by Eddie Murphy. He compares his work on how the brain cleanses itself of waste to how “Eddie Murphy famously eludes a police stakeout by sticking bananas up the tailpipe of a patrol car, causing the engine to stall”. Through particle tracking, the brain’s “tailpipe” – cervical lymph vessels in the neck – was shown to lose its flexibility with age, mimicking the “banana up a tailpipe” blockage for the brain’s removal of waste. Read full article here
Societal Issues
To curb drug deaths, communities turn to Reddit, texts and wastewater
With drug overdose deaths on the rise, authorities are attempting to curb the epidemic by tracking and sharing information in real time. In one unique effort, a nonprofit in New York City is using drug-testing equipment and stamping or marking habits of dealers to identify drug batches that may endanger users. Other approaches are also being used, such as monitoring drug-related chatter on Reddit and analyzing local wastewater for opioid and other drug levels. With the combination of these efforts, researchers hope to put a dent in the opioid crisis and reduce overdose deaths. Read full article here
Merv
June 1, 2023
