September 1, 2023: A new clue about long COVID, the physics of flipping bottles and catch up on our most-read stories of the week. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | The cognitive problems and "brain fog" that linger months, even years, for some people after they have COVID could result from blood clots triggered by the infection, a new study found. These clots leave telltale protein signatures in blood. In a study of more than 1,800 people in the U.K. who were hospitalized for COVID between 2020 and 2021, those who still had brain fog six or 12 months after infection tended to have elevated levels of at least one of two proteins in their blood: D-dimer (produced when blood clots break down in the body) or fibrinogen (produced in the liver and causes clots to stop bleeding).
Why this matters: Up to 15 percent of people who contract SARS-CoV-2 develop long COVID. The condition has proved difficult to treat—or even diagnose—because of the mishmash of reported symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, respiratory problems and numerous other effects. These newly discovered protein signatures in the blood suggest that testing for them could help predict, diagnose and possibly even treat long COVID.
What the experts say: Clotting is not the whole story of long COVID. The infection has been linked to metabolic problems caused by cell damage and inflammation in the brain, as well as autoimmune conditions. Long COVID "is so much more complicated than people imagine," says David Joffe, a respiratory physician at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia. | | | Inspired by the "bottle flip" challenge on social media, two physicists discovered that it's possible to control the height of a container's bounce by swirling the water inside. They built a contraption that could spin and drop bottles, and then glued halved rubber balls to the bottom of plastic bottles to enhance their bounciness. A high-speed camera captured the drops at 2,000 frames per second and observed that the faster the water was swirled in the bottle, the lower it would bounce.
How it works: The swirling water inside the bottle gets pushed to the sides of the container, which forces it upward evenly along the walls. When the bottle hits the ground, the spun-up water courses down toward a single point at the center of the bottle's base. With nowhere else to go, the water flies back upward. Most of the falling bottle's momentum gets redirected into this vertical jet, rather than into the bounce, dampening the bottle's impact.
Why this is so cool: Such findings could perhaps be useful for mitigating collision damage to fluid-filled containers like fuel tankers. It's also a fun experiment to do at home, say, during a long weekend. | | | Credit: Brown Bird Design; Source: "Swirling Fluid Reduces the Bounce of Partially Filled Containers," by Klebbert Andrade et al., in Physical Review Letters, Vol. 130; June 16, 2023 | | | • Since the devastating wildfire in Maui, the carcinogenic chemical benzene has turned up in the public water system in Lahaina. Scientists also fear that contaminated runoff will flow onto the island's sensitive coral reefs. | 5 min read | | | • What color is the sun? It depends on your interpretation of color, the way colors work, the way our eyes see and, just as important, the air we see through. | 5 min read | | | • The Luddites, the 19th century textile workers known for smashing automated machinery, did not hate technology, just some of its implications. Editor Sophie Bushwick investigates what we might learn from the Luddites when it comes to AI. | 10 min listen | | | • In last week's Republican debate, not one of the eight nomination hopefuls raised their hands to show they believed in the reality of human-caused global warming. Denial of climate change is driven by ideology, leaving its consequences to harm us all—especially the world's poorest, writes David Robert Grimes, a scientist and author of Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World. | 5 min read | | | ICYMI (Our most-read stories of the week) | | | • New Air-Conditioning Technology Could Be the Future of Cool | 6 min read | | | • How Wealthy UFO Fans Helped Fuel Fringe Beliefs | 5 min read | | | • Particle Physicists Dream of a Muon Collider | 12 min read | | | Once you try out the "bottle flip" challenge, maybe you'll be in the mood for more at-home science experiments. I have just the thing for you! Check out our collection of hundreds of DIY science experiments, with materials you probably already have around the house. | Let me know if you give any of these a try or send any other suggestions or feedback to newsletters@sciam.com. Enjoy the long weekend, and I'll see you back here on Tuesday. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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