Infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Syra Madad explains what’s going on with the new COVID-19 variants — and whether you should worry about the mutations]. Then, learn about a new theory on how our planets formed.
Learn about what's going on with the new COVID-19 variants — and whether you should worry about them — with Dr. Syra Madad, nationally recognized epidemiologist and the senior director of the pathogens program at NYC Health and Hospitals. Then, learn about a new theory on how our planets formed.
Additional resources from Dr. Syra Madad and #ConqueringCOVID:
New theory on how our planets formed by Grant Currin
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/when-to-worry-about-covid-19-variants
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about what’s going on with the new COVID-19 variants, with infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Syra Madad [SYE-rah mud-DAHD]. Then, you’ll learn about a new theory on how our planets formed.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY: We know it’s hard to wrap your head around all the latest developments with the coronavirus pandemic. So we talked to an expert to help you understand the latest — specifically, what to do about the new coronavirus variants, and what effect they might have on the vaccines. Dr. Syra Madad [SYE-rah mud-DAHD] is a nationally recognized epidemiologist and the senior director of the pathogens program at NYC Health and Hospitals.
CODY: One of the big things we talked to her about was the fear factor: How worried should we be about these new coronavirus variants? Dr. Madad told us that even with these new variants, quote, “what we have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic, we just need to keep doing it, and doing even more of it,” unquote. Basically, near the beginning of the pandemic, we figured some things out: wear masks, stay away from other people, wash your hands… and as far as the variants go, we just need to stick with the game plan.
ASHLEY: Right. But hopefully, someday we won't have to be so vigilant — and the vaccines are one way we can make that happen. So it's pretty important to know how these new variants might affect the vaccines. Here’s what Dr. Syra Madad told us when we asked: what would it take for a vaccine to stop being effective against a mutation?
[CLIP 2:47]
ASHLEY: To be extra clear on this: Dr. Madad told us that when it comes to coronavirus variants, it WOULD be concerning IF we saw severe disease, hospitalization, or death after infection — but she hasn’t. So in the meantime, like we said, we just need to keep doing what we've been doing. Which can be a little disheartening — I mean, we've been doing this stuff, and there's still a pandemic. So I asked Dr. Madad — how are we in a better place now than we were at the start of the pandemic?
[CLIP 1:22]
ASHLEY: The “proning” that she mentioned is basically where doctors lie patients face-down, because that helps them breathe better.
CODY: But even knowing how we've improved in the last year, a lot of us are still getting pandemic fatigue at this point. And along with that, a lot of people are starting to go out more. There have been mixed messages from a lot of people on exactly what we should and shouldn’t be doing. So here’s a nice reminder to help you calculate risks before you take them.
[CLIP 1:54]
ASHLEY: Again, that was Dr. Syra Madad [SYE-rah mud-DAHD] is a nationally recognized epidemiologist and the senior director of the pathogens program at NYC Health and Hospitals. She’s also featured in a brand-new documentary: “The Vaccine: Conquering COVID” is streaming now on discovery+. The special goes behind the scenes of the race for a vaccine and features interviews with Dr. Madad and more of the world’s leading doctors, including Dr. Anthony Fauci. Again, “The Vaccine: Conquering COVID” is streaming now on discovery+. And if you haven’t signed up yet, then start your 7-day free trial at discovery-plus-dot-com-slash-curiosity.
There’s something weird about our solar system: the inner planets are wayyy different than the outer planets. The leading theory for why rests on Jupiter: it formed first, and that big chonker kept the inner and outer planets from exchanging materials. But new research is posing a different theory. If it’s correct, then Jupiter wasn’t the star of the show. Real credit goes to radioactive isotope aluminum-26.
Here’s what I mean. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are small, dry, and close to the sun. Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus are farther out, very different sizes, and chock full of ice and volatile elements like hydrogen and helium.
The new theory says this is why: About 4 and a half billion years ago, a young sun was surrounded by a disc of gas and dust. The heat of the sun separated the disc into an inner region and an outer one, divided by what scientists call the “snow line.” Water molecules inside the snow line were gaseous, because they were close to the sun. Water molecules outside the snow line formed ice crystals.
Juuust beyond the snow line, water vapor condensed onto grains of dust. These clumps grew and grew until they formed objects about 100 kilometers in diameter called planetesimals. These water-rich planetesimals eventually became the inner planets, including Earth.
For the next half-million years, energy from the sun made the disc of gas and dust warmer and warmer. That pushed the snow line farther away from the sun. At the same time, the sun’s gravity pulled gas and dust particles inward. But those particles couldn’t cross the snow line. That traffic jam led a second class of planetesimals to form — planetesimals that would become the outer planets. They got a late start, but the conditions out there made them form a lot faster.
So why are the inner planets relatively dry while many outer planets are mostly ice? Why are volatile elements more common in the outer planets? The answer is a radioactive isotope that was apparently really common in the early solar system. It’s called aluminum-26, and it has a half-life of 700,000 years. Aluminum-26 releases a ton of energy as it decays, and the researchers think that caused a lot of the water and volatile elements on the inner planets to evaporate during those early days. But a lot of that decay had already happened when the outer planets started forming, so they were able to hang onto their water and volatile elements.
It’s going to take a lot more research before cosmologists can decide whether this theory hits the mark. But it’s the story of how we came to be, so I’d say it’s worth it.
Let’s recap today’s takeaways
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by me Cody Gough and Grant Currin, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Curiosity Daily is produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Stay home, save lives, and join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!