Random Things of Interest

Here you will find links to various things of broad interest to the group. Items are not necessarily scientific and may include opinion pieces, press items, and newspaper articles.

DHS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYMaster Question List forCOVID-19 (caused by SARS-CoV-2)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ftMMnGqRwxTvLzJ9goBJO5yThGz1viZq/view?usp=sharing

Version of 29 June 2021

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is paying close attention to the evolving Coronavirus Infectious Disease (COVID-19) situation in order to protect our nation. DHS is working very closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), other federal agencies, and public health officials to implement public health control measures related to travelers and materials crossing our borders from the affected regions.

Based on the response to a similar product generated in 2014 in response to the Ebolavirus outbreak in West Africa, the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) developed the following “master question list” that quickly summarizes what is known, what additional information is needed, and who may be working to address such fundamental questions as, “What is the infectious dose?” and “How long does the virus persist in the environment?” The Master Question List (MQL) is intended to quickly present the current state of available information to government decision makers in the operational response to COVID-19 and allow structured and scientifically guided discussions across the federal government without burdening them with the need to review scientific

Invitation to contribute to the Research Topic "Multi-scale Hybrid Models of the Immune System"

https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/17431/multi-scale-hybrid-models-of-the-immune-system

We are currently inviting submissions of papers describing new computational models that exploit different modeling techniques to unravel the immune system. Especially welcome are papers tackling the spatial and temporal complexity of the innate and adaptive immune responses using a combination of mechanistic and AI approaches, as well as articles discussing progress and challenges in multi-scale hybrid models trained on big immunological datasets.

The deadline for submissions is the 15th of September. If you need additional time, please, let us know and we will do our best to accommodate your timeline.

We are very much looking forward to your contributions,

Maria Rodriguez Martinez
Filippo Castiglione
Paolo Tieri

2021 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting

Matthew R. Francis. “Balancing Homeostasis and Health.” SIAM News. Accessed June 21, 2021. https://sinews.siam.org/Details-Page/balancing-homeostasis-and-health.

Science journalism grows up 

Deborah Blum, Science  23 Apr 2021:Vol. 372, Issue 6540, pp. 323 DOI: 10.1126/science.abj0434

"Today, countless “science communicators”—from press officers to scientists themselves—work to foster a positive portrait of science. And there's still a place for journalistic stories about the wonders of science. But the past century has proved that this is not the most important contribution of science reporters. Rather, it is to portray research accurately in both its rights and its wrongs and stand unflinchingly for the integrity of the story."

The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/

Reproducibility and Replicability in Science, National Academy of Science.

(Link) An effort to explore issues in reducibility and replicability in science initiated by congress. Effort ran from October 2017 through June 2019. The groups final report is available here. The group also commissioned five other papers: