Long covid is not the only chronic condition triggered by infection
Finding similarities between post-infectious illnesses could lead to better treatments
SOME INFECTIONS—HIV/AIDS, for example—are chronic. If you catch one you are stuck with it indefinitely, unless a treatment exists to clear away the guilty pathogen. Many, though, are acute. Unless they kill you, your immune system will do the clearing and you can carry on as before.
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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Peering through the fog”
From the February 24th 2024 edition
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AI researchers receive the Nobel prize for physics
The award, to Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield, stretches the definition of the field
A Nobel prize for the discovery of micro-RNA
These tiny molecules regulate genes and control how cells develop and behave
AI offers an intriguing new way to diagnose mental-health conditions
Models look for sound patterns undetectable by the human ear
Why it’s so hard to tell which climate policies actually work
Better tools are needed to analyse their effects
Isolated communities are more at risk of rare genetic diseases
The isolation can be geographic or cultural
An adult fruit fly brain has been mapped—human brains could follow
For now, it is the most sophisticated connectome ever made