#Standard Enzyme

[raskies456]

literally just looking at various potential research labs for grad school and my brain has the audacity to give me the “fucking up the protein purification in front of everyone so badly they all think I’m an idiot” nightmare again

[phagodyke]

INTERVIEW DONE GETS UP FROM MY DESK AND WALKS INTO THE SEA FOREVER.........

[b1asho]

Now, time for the grub to giant creature speedrun. Oh and there's a guy with stripes there too.

The sundyne life stages are:

'Egg, Early-Stage Larva, Late-Stage Larva, Prepupa, Chrysalis, Juvenile (aka hatchlings, dawns, or stilts) molt 1 (of 4), Subadult (aka drakes or kits) molt 5(of 7), Adult (adult females can be called prongs or sights while adult males can be called crowns or shines)'

Here's some more info:

They follow a pretty similar process to Drecu. Clutches are around 6-12 eggs that the female lays on the male’s lower back/hip area (they're held in place with the male's big gonopods)

Larva are soft n squishy. As they’re growing, they look almost identical to Drecu (even their extra little arms are hard to notice because they stay under the body most of the time) the most noticeable difference is the prepupa size and darker coloring, which sometimes aren’t as pronounced as a drew here. Sundyne grow Very fast (multiple individuals have noted that it’s pretty painful during the juvenile and subadult stages). Unlike Drecu, how they emerge from the chrysalis depends on good ol’ genetics rather than pheremones/enzymes. Even freshly pupated, there is a notable difference between male and female that continues on to subadult and adult stages. They're called dawns because of their muted coloring, or stilts because of their disproportionate leg and arm length.

Not all adult females have these, but the one I drew has those branches on her horns as an indication of fertility/matriarch status. Reproductive females will drop their horns and regrow them with this new feature; the more clutches they have, the greater the size and number of prongs. Nonreproductive females might drop and regrow their horns due to environmental changes (such as better nutrition or isolation from other sundyne), but they won’t get the prongs.

Males can’t shed their horns at all! However, as you can see here, they are generally more brightly colored and yellowish than females. The male pictured here actually has an absolutely goated color scheme, he’d be seen as extremely attractive and popular thanks to his dark black and prominent yellow coloration. They see yellow as their special royal color, since that pigment is what makes their signature bright orange patterns (as opposed to the simple red of Rox. The black is actually just a very dark blue). I was playing around with how much yellow tone the average Sundyne could have, as opposed to the mutation where they *only* have the yellow color (an extreeemely special and cool thing for them)

Misc fun facts:

-The random guy for scale has several splice traits going on at once: stripes, whiskers, and naturally growing pink hair! This is pretty common (I just haven’t drawn a lot of humans for example XD). Now that they aren’t being monitored or intentionally tailored, these naturalized gene mods just mix n match randomly.

-he’s not pictured here duh, but the current Seru (Emperor) has the all-yellow mutation, which was part of why he was able to take the other clans by storm ( thanks to that “born holy” type charm that they just couldn’t ignore. ). His giant angry wife, however, is fairly standard as far as Sundyne females go.

-As you could’ve guess from what I just said about the average Sundyne egg clutch size, Maro actually *had* around 5 blood-siblings from the same clutch as her! I wonder what happened to them…

[dakusan]

hihi! first of all, i love your works. i binged them SO hard and now i’m left with some questions… do blood dolls get anemic from too much blood loss? do they scar from vampire bites? what’s common for vampire-blood doll aftercare?

i know it’s a little more biology focused, but i’m so invested in this universe i have to know!!

from, an anemic anon <3

OH HELLO MY ANEMIC ANON. 🩸💌 You radiant little hemoglobin-deficient blood goblin. You just served me a question laced in SCIENCE, FANGS, and NEED—aka my personal food pyramid. Let’s bite into it.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

🧬 D O B L O O D D O L L S G E T A N E M I C I N T H E V A M P ! S K Z U N I V E R S E ?

Short answer? Yes, they can. Long answer? Not if their vampire is responsible.

Let’s break it down with some juicy vampire biology:

🩸 1. BLOOD LOSS & ANEMIA – THE RISK IS REAL

In real-world terms:

Losing ~450 mL of blood = what’s taken during a standard blood donation

Doing that too often = iron depletion, fatigue, weakness → anemia

In the vamp!SKZ AU:

Feeding = a controlled blood draw, but not always small

Frequency matters: ▫ Once every few weeks = manageable ▫ Once every few days = get your ass in a transfusion chair, baby

🧛 Abnormal vampires especially have a harder time regulating when emotional or aroused—so if your vamp’s obsessed? He might overdrink unless he's anchored by rituals, bond rules, or your safety cues.

But the moment you show signs of dizziness, cold limbs, or pallor?

“Stop. You’re not okay. We feed only when you’re strong. You come first.”

They will shut it down FAST.

💉 2. DO BLOOD DOLLS SCAR FROM BITES?

TLDR: Not unless something goes wrong.

Bite wounds are like surgical punctures—small, clean, deep. But in this universe, vampire saliva contains:

✅ Anticoagulants (to keep blood flowing) ✅ Mild anesthetics (to numb pain) ✅ Regenerative enzymes (especially in Abnormals) that stimulate tissue healing

So for most blood dolls? No permanent scars. Just fleeting marks, like hickeys with purpose.

Exceptions:

If the bite was rough, rushed, or feral

If the vampire was in bloodlust and tore instead of pierced

If it’s part of a ritual (some Abnormal bonding marks are designed to scar permanently)

In those cases? Yes. You might carry soul-bound scars—usually in pairs, just where the collarbone meets the neck.

🛁 3. VAMPIRE–BLOOD DOLL AFTERCARE: THE SACRED ART

Aftercare is NON-NEGOTIABLE. Especially when blood, power dynamics, and possible overstimulation are involved.

What it usually includes:

🩸 FOR THE BLOOD DOLL:

Fluids: iron-rich tea, juice, broth, electrolyte packs

Warmth: heated blankets, skin contact, body temp regulation

Pain relief: soothing balm applied to bite site

Emotional check-in: “Are you dizzy? Cold? Do you feel okay with what happened?”

Feeding you: vamps tend to hand-feed you afterwards, like a reverse communion

Resting with you: most vampires curl around their Dolls after feeding like you’re the altar and they’re the sinner repenting

🧛 FOR THE VAMPIRE:

Grounding. Feeding can make them euphoric, high, or emotionally cracked open.

Soulmate bond flares? Feral urges? They need your voice to calm. Your hands. Your presence.

Sometimes they shake. Sometimes they cry. Sometimes they beg you to let them stop—even when you’re okay.

It’s intimate. Messy. Holy.

💘 BONUS: VAMP!SKZ AFTERCARE FLAVORS

Chan: Warm compress on your neck. Tucks you into his lap. Feeds you iron tablets like they’re candy.

Minho: Silent but thorough. Disinfects everything. Stays beside you all night, watching your breath rise and fall.

Changbin: Carries you. Literally. Gives you protein shakes and wraps you in his hoodie.

Hyunjin: Cries because you bled for him. Kisses the bite. Paints you while you rest.

Jisung: Panics. Apologizes 15x. Brings a care kit he labeled “🧛‍♂️ Post-Chomp Essentials.”

Felix: Hand-feeds you strawberries dipped in chocolate. Whispers gratitude against your skin.

Seungmin: Doesn't speak. Just makes you tea, hand feeds you medicine, stays and cuddles you.

Jeongin: Tries to act chill. Secretly tracks your vitals on his phone. Has a pillow fort and 3 blankets ready.

🩸 T L D R

– yes babes you can get anaemic 🫠 – your vamp better be hydrating you with broth and apple juice after he munches on your neck like a snack pack – most bites heal clean, but if he’s feral or in love? maybe that scar’s permanent now 🥰 – aftercare = sacred. it’s giving blood-soaked boyfriend privilege – if he bites you and doesn’t wrap you in a blanket burrito while whispering you’re his moonlight, drop him.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

Thank you for your absolutely unhinged and medically delicious question. I approve. Your blood is valued. Your iron levels are being watched.🧛‍♂️🧃

[rxttenfish]

The Common Chupacabra (F.N. 03761, I. gastroferrugo ) is a common sight for paranatural workers of all stripes. Occupying an ecological role not dissimilar to a fox or other mid-sized canid, they are often dealt with in very similar ways and thus hold minimal threat to humans.

While their feeding habits can be gruesome, chupacabras remain skittish around humanity and avoid areas of human contact. Indeed, the titular "goat-sucking" that they are so named for is only known from specimens who were already injured or displaced, and thus habituated to humans and their livestock for lack of more suitable prey items. They can, and often do, act defensively if backed into a corner, but the most common chupcabra defense mechanism is that of flight and avoidance, only taking more drastic actions if forced to or if young are threatened.

It is because of this that paranatural agencies will commonly use them as training material, assigning newcomers lost, confused, hurt, sick, displaced, or habituated chupacabras as their first mission. Due to their straightforward nature and lack of threat to humans, many hold positive views of chupacabras, some even using their local morphological strain as mascots.

It is not uncommon to see chupacabras in captivity, as they take well to basic training for veterinary assistance, research purposes, or education among the agencies who keep them. While far from the training associated with domestics such as the dog, chupacabras can still be taught using methods spearheaded in zoos, and are often food and toy motivated. Small rodents, pre-killed, or disposable pouches filled with warmed blood are often used as treats, and enrichment is provided through offerings of different sources of blood.

Chupacabras are sangivores, and thus primarily feed on blood. However, this is where the subtle gradient between sangivory and typical carnivory becomes apparent, as certain morphological strains of chupacabra will vary in their feeding methods. Certain strains local to parts of South America or Northern Africa will inject a digestive enzyme into their prey to liquefy their innards. Other strains found in Arctic locations or high altitudes will demonstrate a lack of preference towards food choice, consuming solid parts of the muscle and organs alongside their primary target of blood. Other strains, most commonly associated with Oceania, have a "messy" feeding style that will force the entire head into the body cavity, both manually blending the flesh into a liquid, and in more accidental consumption of solid matter. Most chupacabras will target prey that is a fraction of their own body size, but will readily bring down prey targets as large as deer as well.

The most notable trait of chupacabras is their large variety of morphological strains. Those who are not yet familiar with the paranatural may assume that there are many different species of chupacabra and that they are an ancient lineage which has experienced much speciation.

They are not. Early researchers made the same mistake in categorizing them, assigning the chupacabras they were most familiar with as the Common Chupacabra and providing a list of, now defunct, names for the other varieties that they saw. Some speculated that chupacabras were not, in fact, a genus, but that they were a niche that multiple different animals had specialized into.

Later research proved them to be wrong. All chupacabra are a single species, fully capable of interbreeding with every other member of their species, regardless of the differences in morphology, reproductive strategy, or feeding methods. The variety of morphological strains observed, then, is a highly visible demonstration of chupacabra relatedness and gene flow. A population will be equally related to each other, and thus arrive at a standard for morphology, but as this population is split up and gene flow is disrupted, more isolated populations will begin to veer wildly from their initial appearance.

Indeed, this has been used to form maps of chupacabra genealogy and movement patterns, as well as serving as excellent indicators for other monster activity. The most isolated populations can appear nothing at all like their forebears, due in large part thanks to their supernatural skills of adaptation. All chupacabra have a high degree of mutation when they breed, with a high number of these mutations being not only survivable, but thriveable, and occurs with a high prediction for environmental stresses. It is commonly accepted that local strains will remain close to their initial body plan with minimal variation, but research is still being done on the genetic drift over time, as well as reports of sudden, abrupt change in response to environmental catastrophe.

This is exaggerated even further when chupacabra from only distantly related populations interbreed. Further research needs to be conducted.

-

A little sketch and blurb for a Monster of the Week game I help co-DM with @carthus-flame-arc! One of our players took home a chupacabra joey last time, and so I thought it best I draw some growth charts for it.

[mariacallous]

Last August, KJ Muldoon was born with a potentially fatal genetic disorder. Just six months later, he received a Crispr treatment designed just for him.

Muldoon has a rare disorder known as CPS1 deficiency, which causes a dangerous amount of ammonia to build up in the blood. About half of babies born with it will die early in life. Current treatment options—a highly restrictive diet and liver transplantation—aren’t ideal. But a team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine was able to bypass the standard years-long drug development timeline and use Cripsr to create a personalized medicine for KJ in a matter of months.

“We had a patient who was facing a very, very devastating outcome,” says Kiran Musunuru, professor for translational research at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who was part of the team that made KJ’s treatment.

When KJ was born, his muscles were rigid, he was lethargic, and he wouldn’t eat. After three doses of his custom treatment, KJ is starting to hit developmental milestones his parents never thought they’d see him reach. He’s now able to eat certain foods and sit upright by himself. “He really has made tremendous strides,” his father Kyle Muldoon says.

The case is detailed today in a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine and was presented at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy annual meeting in New Orleans. It could provide a blueprint for making customized gene-editing treatments for other patients with rare diseases that have few or no medical treatments available.

When the body digests protein, ammonia is made in the process. An important enzyme called CPS1 helps clear this toxic byproduct, but people with CPS1 deficiency lack this enzyme. Too much ammonia in the system can lead to organ damage, and even brain damage and death.

Since KJ’s birth, he has been on special ammonia-reducing medicines and a low-protein diet. After receiving the bespoke Crispr drug, though, KJ was able to go on a lower dose of the medication and start eating more protein without any serious side effects. He’s still in the hospital, but his doctors hope to send him home in the next month or so.

Both KJ’s parents and his medical team stop short of calling the Crispr therapy a cure, but they say it’s promising to see his improvement. “It's still very early, so we will need to continue to watch KJ closely to fully understand the full effects of this therapy,” says Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, director of the Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Frontier Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Penn Medicine, who led the effort with Musunuru. She says the Crispr treatment probably turned KJ’s severe deficiency into a milder form of the disease, but he may still need to be on medication in the future.

Ahrens-Nicklas and Musunuru teamed up in 2023 to explore the feasibility of creating customized gene-editing therapies for individual patients. They decided to focus on urea cycle disorders, a group of genetic metabolic conditions that affect the body’s ability to process ammonia that includes CPS1 deficiency. Often, patients require a liver transplant. While the procedure is possible in infants, it’s medically complex. Ahrens-Nicklas and Musunuru saw an opportunity to find another path.

When KJ was born, the researchers used genome sequencing to determine the specific genetic mutation driving his disease. It turns out KJ had actually inherited two different mutations in the CPS1 gene—one from each parent. The team decided to target the mutation that had been reported before in an unrelated patient known to have severe CPS1 deficiency; the other hadn’t been seen before.

KJ’s team turned to Crispr, the Nobel Prize-winning technology that can precisely edit DNA. So far, only one Crispr-based medicine is commercially available. Approved in late 2023, it treats sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Other Crispr-based therapies are in development for more common diseases that affect tens or hundreds of thousands of patients.

The allure of Crispr is its potential to directly address the underlying genetic cause of a disease rather than simply treat symptoms, as the vast majority of current medicine does. The approved Crispr therapy, Casgevy, is given as a one-time treatment. But the Philadelphia-led team specifically designed KJ’s therapy to be redosable out of safety concerns, starting with a low dose to ensure there were no adverse effects. Terry Horgan, a 27-year-old with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, passed away in 2022 shortly after receiving the first known custom Crispr treatment. His death was likely due to a reaction to the virus used to deliver the Crispr molecules.

For KJ’s treatment, researchers used a version of Crispr called base editing that can change one “letter” in a DNA sequence to another. They packaged the base-editing components in tiny bubbles called lipid nanoparticles, which were then delivered via an IV infusion.

Before it could be given to KJ though, it was tested for safety in mice and monkeys. Since the drug was unapproved, the team needed permission from the Food and Drug Administration to use the experimental treatment in an individual patient. The researchers applied to the FDA on February 14 and received approval on February 21. They gave KJ his first dose on February 25.

“The clinical responses described are impressive,” says Timothy Yu, a neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital who wasn’t involved in making KJ’s treatment. He says the Philadelphia team’s approach was a “very thoughtful and comprehensive end-to-end process.”

Yu’s lab has been working on customized genetic medicines based on antisense oligonucleotides, or ASOs—short molecules that block the production of proteins. Yu developed a personalized ASO in 10 months for a young girl with Batten disease, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder. The treatment was dubbed milasen, after the patient, Mila. It was the first medicine that was tailor-made to treat a single patient’s genetic mutation. The treatment temporarily improved Mila’s condition and quality of life, but ultimately, she died in February 2021 at 10 years old.

“The superpower of Crispr base editing is its broad applicability to many types of genetic mutations. Its kryptonite is that we are in the very early days of demonstrating efficient and safe Crispr delivery to many different organs,” Yu says. ASOs, meanwhile, are well vetted for use in the brain, spinal cord, and eye, which are more difficult to address with Crispr.

Crispr could potentially address a variety of genetic diseases and types of cancer, but getting it to the right place in the body remains a challenge. The approved Crispr medicine, Casgevy, involves removing a patient’s cells and editing them outside the body, an arduous and expensive process. A drug given directly to the body would be much more practical. The liver is an easy first target because lipid nanoparticles naturally gravitate there, but only some diseases can be treated in this way.

Since urea cycle disorders primarily originate in the liver, they could be a prime target for custom Crispr medicines. “We’ve just written a new playbook,” says Fyodor Urnov, scientific director at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, who collaborated on the paper.

Urnov says KJ’s case demonstrates that bespoke genetic treatments can be made quickly and used successfully to treat critically ill patients. “This could have failed in so many ways,” he says. “Nothing was a given.” Every day, he worried that KJ would pass away before they could finish making the therapy.

The team did not say exactly how much the therapy cost to produce, but Musunuru says it was comparable to the cost of a liver transplant, around $800,000. The companies involved in manufacturing—Aldevron, Danaher, and Integrated DNA Technologies—made in-kind contributions.

“Though it will take a lot of work to get there, my hope is that someday no rare disease patients will die prematurely from misspellings in their genes, because we'll be able to correct them,” Musunuru says.

[transmutationisms]

[prefacing by saying I don't know much about drug interactions and have to look this stuff up online if needed] since cbd became a regular drug for me I've noticed this thing when I try to find drug interactions with pharmaceutical drugs, I'll often read through article after article to see if cannabis has interactions with some drug and it feels like the articles are reluctant to ever say 'no', as if it might implicitly "allow" cannabis use. I read a lot of "there may be an unsafe interaction, however this has never been proven" and idk if that's just standard to give with drug interactions, or if that many tests aren't run with cannabis, or if it's just a bias around it? I wondered if you might have some light to shed on this, and on how to actually find reliable information about such things then?

my understanding is a combination of legal restrictions & funding structures favouring topics perceived as prestigious & respectable have resulted in a relative lack of large, well-designed, well-controlled studies about cannabis drug interactions, so a lot of what's trickling down into popular sources is anecdotal or single case-study reportage. in the last few years i have seen some papers on THC interactions with many rx drugs via the CYP enzymes (CYP3A4, CYP2C9, CYP2C19) but a lot of this is still at the stage of 'hypothesis that makes sense & that researchers then try to confirm largely by mining the existing literature and interpreting the same anecdotes & case studies with this theory in mind'. so, although there are definitely some interactions that are well documented (coumadin; many anaesthesia drugs) there are a lot more where the effects are reported or suspected but not well studied. and many of these are further complicated by being relatively commonly rxed drugs that therefore might have a high probability of picking up random adverse events, esp in situstions like acute toxicity presenting to an emergency room, which is where a lot of drug interaction case studies start from -- plus lots of these rx drugs are psychoactive ones that many doctors think patients need to be forced to stay on & that get you a non-compliant label if you quit them or don't like them or ever think about combining them with recreational substance use (eg fluoxetine, olanzapine, etc). so the literature from what i've seen is kind of a shitshow. but this isn't really an area of expertise for me, i mainly just skim around in it when something interesting catches my eye

[thecglcatalog]

Medicated Adult Baby Formula

Give tiny littles their medicine in that comforting way!  

Each special blend of good-for-them ingredients gives a standard adult dose of the active compounds in every eight-ounce bottle.  The base? A classic milky mix of rice, oat, and coconut flours with full-fat milk powder to help the nice medicine be easy on baby’s tummy.

Upset Tummy Formula.  Calm that sour, rolling tummy with cane sugar and catmint, plus a sprinkling of bismuth and magnesium.  Mild, minty flavor.

Painkiller Formula.  Subtle salted-caramel flavoring hides the bitterness of low-dose NSAIDs ground into the milky yum-yums.

Milky Morning Formula.  A bottle that makes all the other bottles settle more nicely!  This extra-creamy mix is infused with enzymes that process lactose and absorb compounds that cause gas.  For lactose-intolerant babies or any baby!  Subtle buttermilky taste.

Feed-a-Cold Formula.  Blend of nasal decongestant, gentle painkiller, and immune-boosting zinc and echinacea hides its twangy metallic taste under the mild flavor of jasmine milk tea.

Drowsy Dreamy Formula.  A drink-up recipe of our popular Drowsy Dreamy Powder gently distracts and soothes baby, making it prone to daydreams and more welcoming of naps.  Vanilla bean flavor.

Cough Syrup Formula.  Thick and nummy with reduced dairy and throat-soothing herbs – plus honey crystals to coat and heal the throat, melatonin and valerian to help baby rest – this delicious medicinal formula comes in your choice of flavors: creamy cherry or root beer float.

After-Tantrum Formula.  A hint of opiate relaxation and a dose of serotonin-enhancing hormone conspire with the light, surprising cucumber-vanilla flavor to comfort and calm a fussy baby, making those big bratty feelings feel more manageable.

[rottenpumpkin13]

Something I don't understand about crisis core is how genesis invented apple juice. That means they didn't have apple juice before? No one thought of making apple juice from the dumb apples before it doesn't make sense

I'll say they did have apple juice (humans have been juicing fruit forever), but they didn't have Banora White apple juice.

Bear with me as I go boring amateur science to explain why Genesis is a genius and a master chemist too.

Not all apples have the same density and fruit concentration, making it so that juicing varies according to variety; different apple varieties have different concentrations of food, water and pectin—pectin is a natural component found in fruit that's also used in the food industry to thicken and increase viscosity—think jams, jellies, preserves, etc.

Different apple varieties have varying amounts of pectin. For example, Granny Smith (a type of white apple like Banora White) contains high levels of pectin. Think: low pectin = mushier, easier to juice; high pectin = denser, less juice. Apples with lower pectin are easier to process and generate more juice, which is essential for commercial juice production.

The process of making apple juice is typically the same: there's the selection and washing portion, crushing/pressing and maceration for juice, filtering and then pasteurization (when the juice is heated up and treated to kill harmful bacteria).

All of this changes when it comes to Banora Whites because they grow at random times of the year. The irregular harvesting would make it difficult to ensure the taste, quality, etc., stays consistent. The juicing process would be harder on top of what we're given to understand is already a hard fruit to juice and make good-tasting juice out of, and not worth it on the financial and commercial scale.

That's where Genesis comes in. First he'd have to figure out how to make it so the ripeness for all apples stay uniform for juicing and figure out the correct sugar content of each apple from different seasons, compare them, and see which blend of which apples works the best. If the apples are harvested at different seasons and different stages of ripeness, he'd have to figure out different maturity areas for them to ripen uniformly before juicing, not to mention the storage. Genesis would've used enzymes to standardize the breakdown of pectin and other compounds, ensuring a consistent texture, and he figured out the correct % to use of apples from different harvest times to balance flavors and sugars to have a consistent taste every time.

Apple boy created a uniform recipe/formula for the apple juice based on harvest times, which he would've had to track according to the season, flavor, density content, etc., and tailored the enzyme treatments based on the apple maturity for easier juice extraction since the apple would be hard to juice.

Another thing I noted: The process for pasteurization from what I hear isn't adjusted according to the pectin content, but a detail about Banora White juice is that we always see it in cans, never really in juice boxes (we see posters of it in bottles but the cans are most notable). The packaging material affects the quality, taste, and shelf life of the juice. Canned juice has a longer shelf life compared to juice in boxes because the metal is impermeable to air and light, but canned juice undergoes heat sterilization, which affects the flavor and nutritional content due to higher temperatures used compared to other pasteurization methods.

Definition I ripped straight from google:

While sterilization destroys all the microorganisms and spores present in the food, in pasteurization, a part of the most resistant microorganisms, a part of enzymes and bacteria spores survive. Not carrying out these processes correctly can lead to enormous dangers both for public health and for your canning business.

Pasteurization is generally required for apple juice (I say generally because not all juices need pasteurization) meaning the Banora White juice we see in the game underwent both pasteurization and sterilization. Pasteurization doesn't have as much of an effect on flavor/nutritional content as some sterilization processes which affect taste and can reduce some nutrients.

Not only would Genesis have to figure out the right pasteurization method based on the apple characteristics I mentioned before and the uniform flavor of the juice, but the sterilization process as well.

Another thing: Genesis won first place at the national agriculture awards, which is an award that recognizes contributions to the advancement of agriculture and research in agricultural development. And this child from Banora won first place in processed foods. Iconic.

I'll leave you with the thought of Genesis, believing he's proficient in chemistry and medicine enough to concoct a cure for himself, only to be proven wrong.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Assessment of the liver with two-dimensional shear wave elastography following COVID-19 infection: A pilot study - Published May 6, 2024

More study is needed, but this is not a good sign: Just having covid potentially damages your liver?

Abstract Introduction/Purpose The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a widely spread viral infectious disease, which can impact multiple organs, including the liver. Elevated liver enzymes have been reported in COVID-19 patients; however, potential changes in liver stiffness following the viral infection remain uncertain. The main aim of this pilot study was to determine if there is a significant difference in liver stiffness between individuals who have never been infected with COVID-19 and those who had been infected with COVID-19 <6 months, experiencing only mild symptoms. The secondary aim was to compare the liver stiffness between participants infected with COVID-19 depending on the elapsed time since infection.

Methods Two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) was performed prospectively on 68 participants. Thirty-four participants had been infected with COVID-19 (all for <6 months) (COVID-19 group), and another 34 had never been infected with COVID-19 (control group). The mean 2D-SWE measurements of both the COVID-19 group and the control group were compared using an independent t-test. The mean 2D-SWE measurements of the COVID-19 subgroups A (<2 months), B (2 to <4 months) and C (4 to <6 months) were compared using a one-way ANOVA test (P < 0.05).

Results The (mean ± standard deviation) liver stiffness (kPa) of the COVID-19 group (5.26 ± 1.63 kPa) was significantly higher than the control group (4.30 ± 0.96 kPa) (P = 0.005). There was no significant difference in liver stiffness among subgroups A (5.20 ± 1.79 kPa), B (4.70 ± 1.53 kPa) and C (5.96 ± 1.48 kPa) (P = 0.143) respectively.

Discussion The mean liver stiffness of 4.30  ±  0.96k Pa in the control group showed a high probability of being normal as per guidelines. Conversely, the mean liver stiffness of 5.26  ±  1.63 kPa in the COVID-19 group exhibited a statistically significant increase compared to the control group. However, compensated advanced chronic liver disease was ruled out without other known clinical signs, as per guidelines.

Conclusion A statistically significant increase in liver stiffness value was observed in the post-COVID-19 infection group compared to the group who had never been infected. This highlights the potential for short-term impact on liver stiffness associated with COVID-19 infection. However, it is unclear if these changes in liver stiffness are associated with liver injury. Further study is warranted to investigate the effects of COVID-19 infection and its long-term impact on the liver.

[dykesynthezoid]

As someone who’s had to eat at least partially low fodmap for years and now may also have to limit my diet even further to be anti-inflammatory/low histamine, I think this is all so stupid actually. I mean yeah it’s totally logical for people to avoid foods that their body reacts badly to. But it’s annoying that we haven’t gotten farther with addressing the root of the issue.

Like we know what the problem is when someone can’t digest fodmaps. We know what the problem is when someone has histamine intolerance. We know the mechanisms happening there. So why aren’t digestive enzymes more standard for treatment of ibs-like symptoms. Why haven’t we investigated and found a way to tailor the specific digestive enzymes an individual might need. And also have those enzymes covered by insurance. Why isn’t that a standard practice. Why aren’t we farther along in studying H3 and H4 involvement in histamine intolerance. Why don’t we have any differentiation in these low histamine diet lists about exactly how much histamine a certain food contains, whether they actually contain histamine at all or just a substance that can trigger histamine release.

An example: Citrus is often listed as a no-go for the low histamine diet because citrus fruits contain putrescine, which can trigger histamine release. But what none of these sources usually bother to tell you is that putrescine levels are highly variable. First, they’re highest when the fruit is at peak ripeness, and lower when the fruit is unripe or overripe. There’s also the fact that lemons are actually the citrus fruit with the lowest putrescine levels. And there’s almost never references to the fact that storing citrus at a cold temperature, ie in the fridge or in industrial cold storage, will make putrescine levels much higher than if they were stored at room temperature.

Someone with histamine intolerance who loves citrus may be able to perfectly tolerate a lemon wedge from an unripe lemon they bought at the farmers market (was never in cold storage) and kept on their counter. Like if changes to how we handle and acquire food can be made that don’t require us to cut things out of our diets entirely, why haven’t we studied that further?? Why isn’t that information more widely available??

Why does restriction have to be the end all be all??? Why is the expectation always for patients to make these big dramatic changes to their lives and then perfectly adhere to that forever?? That’s not how medicine is supposed to work. Lifestyle modification is normal, yeah, and to be expected. But for all the pressure to be on the patient to change their habits and be perfectly strict about it for the rest of their life?? Where’s the serious effort to lighten that burden. Where is it. Where the fuck is it

[someartistsammy]

Genesis's childhood award, the basis of pasteurization, and the supposed fragility of Banora Whites.

A take on it from a farm kid that actually specializes in growing apples.

Was talking with a good friend of mine last night about various takes in the fandom last night and was reminded of one I had seen semi-recently about Genesis's childhood genius in supposedly inventing pasteurization.

I want to believe this is a take that comes from being uninformed as to what pasteurization actually is, considering him being the first to invent it around the time of 1990 would show a stunning lack of technological advancements in the world of FF7. Let me explain.

Shinra has had a lot of technological advancements, and we can see those constantly portrayed clear as day throughout the world of FF7. However even in the time before Shinra, during the time of the Republic of Junon, it can also be assumed that they would have pasteurization, a process that in the real world was invented in the 1800s. Exploration of the world in Rebirth also reveals multiple areas that have shipment docks from the time of the Republic. This would include the assumption that this is how people both traveled as well as transported and exchanged goods.

Pasteurization is an incredibly important technological advancement as it's allowed for the easier shipment and trade of food on a global level. The definition can be found below.

In food processing, pasteurization is a process of food preservation in which packaged and unpacked foods (e.g., milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than 100 °C (212 °F), to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. Pasteurization either destroys or deactivates microorganisms and enzymes that contribute to food spoilage or the risk of disease, … (continued on Wikipedia)

There are different methods such as Low-temperature long time (LTLT), High temperature/short time (HTST) and Ultrahigh temperature (UHT) (also called Ultraheat treated) however that isn't super important to this, just know that HTST is the standard for apple juice.

The point in this being that if Genesis were to have invented pasteurization ~1990, the rest of the world would have been taking incredibly risky measures in transporting food and risking spoiling for decades, as well as various things being unsafe for consumption such as milk. With the advancements the world already had by this time such as phones, war artillery, windmills, and mako reactors, I find it highly unlikely that he would've been the one to invent pasteurization.

I feel as though it is important to mention that Genesis's award was first place in the National Agriculture Awards, but more specifically, an award in the processed food category. The processed category in these awards directly gives it away in the fact that food was already processed enough to have its own category for awards. Presentation on this is in relation to the presentation of a processed product, and not a form of processing itself. In the assumption that these reflect actual reward categories, there are different categories for scientific invention as well as processing systems.

Reference page for the names/categories presented. This is not the description document.

Agricultural Proficiency Award Area Descriptions.

Although there is the argument that they likely didn't use this same style categorizing, its important to note that they did use categories within the national agricultural awards, and they specifically made the choice of processed food, instead of any of the other choices. If he really made such an important invention, why wouldn't it be stated anywhere as clearly being pasteurization, something that would revolutionize the world, or for that matter why wouldn't it be awarded in the name of development of food science?

I believe its also worth mentioning that the Crisis Core Complete Guide says "Because the fruit can only be harvested in this region, it sells for a high price on the market, but the village children don't seem to know this, …" This would be due to the fact that the Banora Whites are common-place in Banora. In a similar way to how wagyu in Japan is significantly cheaper than it is in the United States, due to export; Genesis would have an easier and cheaper time attempting experimentation methods, if there even needs to be any variation for them, resulting in juice with correct pasteurization due to his being local to Banora. (Market price on them in Banora would be naturally lower due to supply likely being higher than demand, as well as not having to worry about import and export fees. Not to mention being the place where it is naturally grown).

*In the above example I used wagyu as a comparison, however this could just as easily be any other exported food that becomes considered rare when exported, another example which is actually more rare would be the black diamond apple.

While mentioning this, I also want to say that his invention is specifically upon Banora White Juice, not apple juice in its entirety of existence. In similarity to pasteurization, this feels like an over-exaggeration of what Genesis actually accomplished.

While branching through this topic, I also want to bring attention to a take I was sent a while back on the supposed fragility of Banora Whites. While going through the Ultimanias with assistance of a friend, nothing could be found on sources hinting towards Banora Whites being fragile. My next assumption is that this conclusion was likely reached on the basis of Banora Whites being mentioned to be region exclusive, and a high-price market item.

Banora Whites are called just that because of their area of growth being only that of Banora in the Mideel region. The growth of Banora Whites is actually tied to the amount of lifestream that flows through the Banora Underground, this gives Banora a very unique type of soil that allows for the growth of Banora Whites. Since Banora is the only place where the crop grows, giving it a very limited area of growth, and since it cannot be grown globally, gives it a very high market value.

Now into the technicality of things, it could also be assumed that the sale of the Banora White was likely tied to its aesthetics, similar to the way that the pink pineapple is in the real world. The difference here being that when juiced, the pink pineapple loses most of what it has going for it in terms of its aesthetic appearance and thus reducing its marketability and price. Meanwhile, Banora whites, while although losing what would make them have a unique aesthetic appearance, could possibly have a specific flavor to them that translates into the juice.

You see, I believe Genesis's intelligence on the matter comes from not creating some life changing way of preserving things, but rather from preventing waste. Although I do not find any info on Banora Whites being fragile, it can be argued that all apples are fragile in a sense, or at least majority of them. They're truly one of those fruits where sometimes you can chuck them at a tree and only see a bruise or dent, and other times you look at them wrong and they'll split wide open.

When thinking of an apple in general, chances are fragile is not the first word that comes to mind, as many other fruits would be considered fragile long before them, and that'd be correct. However, the harvest and transportation of apples, as well as their general growth, can be littered with complications. When moving apples in a commercial wooden apple bin, when you have hundreds of them stacked together, driving faster than even 2MPH by tractor can cause shaking and damage to the fruit by rubbing damage which can create bruising.

Banora is a remote island location, and import and export of items is likely expensive, which would contribute to the income that Banora Whites would bring in (see earlier mention of wagyu and Japan vs US price) Due to being an island, the methods of exporting would have to be either by air, which would be incredibly expensive and fuel taxing, or by ocean. I mentioned earlier that FF7 Rebirth shows multiple docks and ports that would hint towards ocean being the likely way of transportation of food and people. This would require a boat to leave from down by Banora and travel all the way up the coast through the Meridian Ocean. Constant swaying of the ocean and anything unsecured likely leads to aesthetic damages which allow for even less of the Banora Whites to reach market in aesthetically acceptable shelf conditions.

Banora and in general the Mideel Region is a very coastal region that by flora alone also appears to be a very warm and tropical one. By this assumption not only would Banora Whites possibly be prone to sunburn, a reason they likely developed their darker appearance to survive, but also being internally cooked by the heat of the sun. Also being coastal could lead to strong storms brought in by the ocean leaving damage from heavy winds, pelting rain, hail, and similar damaging weather factors. Excessive rain also typically leads to apples suffering growth cracks, which also takes them off the table for being sold to market as-is.

In the assumption that the Banora Whites would survive possibly brutal conditions that are located down in that area, due to any damage caused by going across the sea, they would likely need to be packaged first while in Banora (hence the warehouse) which would also bring up the pricing on them. However, where does this leave the fruit that's been damaged? Just because it has a crack it it or an aesthetic-only scar across the skin does not mean that the fruit is ruined or inedible. This is fruit that can be used for many different things, including juicing. Juicing is a method that ignores damages that are purely aesthetic, and allows for profit where there would otherwise be none given. Genesis's invention is that of one that prevents waste, and allows for another source of income to the area.

Juicing of apples that wouldn't make it to market would keep the price of the pure solid apples that do make it to market still profitable, while also giving use to those that wouldn't be allowed onto the shelves. While its nothing groundbreaking for the world, like pasteurization would have been, it does allow for Banora to be able to sustain itself via income more, and just overall prevent the waste of more food.

Although to some its not as glamorous if he didn't do something that fundamentally changed the world as a kid, that doesn't mean that what Genesis did isn't still something that he was worth awarding for, especially as a youth. Not only did his creation prevent the waste of food, which earned him his award, but Banora White Juice also did become a famous global hit.

[hellsite-proteins]

Baker lab > alphafold

[Google didn't release af3 source code even though it's Nature's standard >:(]

i'm gonna be so honest with you i am much more of a biochem person than a computers guy. i did take a look at what baker lab is doing, and it looks really neat, and i agree google that not releasing the source code is less than ideal. standards about including data are an important part of the accountability and peer review process that is so integral to good science, and so i absolutely appreciate your frustrations! i always think its cool to learn more about different parts of the process, even if the math and code tends to go over my head a bit. to any of my followers who know more about this side of things, please keep sharing :))

however, i think i will still stick with alphafold because 1. i already know how to use it and 2. i don't think i have space to install anything else on my terrible computer

letter sequence in this ask matching protein-coding amino acids:

akerlaalphafldGgledidntreleaseafsrcecdeeventhghitsNatresstandard

protein guy analysis:

this is really more of one long noodle than it is a protein. i've included all the side chains because it's not like they're close enough together for it to look at all crowded. the tiny section of alpha helix feels more like a cruel joke. technically all of these are just strings of amino acids, but that has never felt more true than while looking at this thing. the worst part is, it actually has a consistently mediocre confidence rating, with values around 60-70% everywhere. the one exception to that is the handful of hydrophobic residues, with abysmal confidence to match how miserable they must be out in the open like that. this thing is so disgusting i don't even thing an E1 (ubiquitin-activating) enzyme would know what to do with it.

predicted protein structure:

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Living plastics: A new solution for plastic degradation through synthetic biology

A study published in Nature Chemical Biology leverages the natural resilience of spores, which can endure extreme environmental conditions, by programming them to secrete plastic-degrading enzymes under specific circumstances. These spores are embedded into plastic matrices through standard plastic processing methods, such as high temperature, high pressure, or the use of organic solvents. In normal conditions, the spores remain dormant, ensuring the plastic's stable performance. However, when exposed to specific triggers like surface erosion or composting, the spores activate and initiate the degradation process, leading to the plastic's complete breakdown. The invention of plastics has improved our daily lives, but the massive production and improper disposal of plastic waste have made plastic pollution a major environmental issue. In 2016, Yoshida and team discovered a bacterium, Ideonella sakaiensis, in poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET)-contaminated soil near a recycling facility in Japan. This bacterium can grow using PET as its main carbon source by producing two key enzymes: PETase and MHETase.

Read more.