Immunity Amnesia

#TIL When infected with measles, the immune system takes a reboot and abruptly erases every memory of pathogen it’s had before, essentially making your body vulnerable to infections. Rebuilding immunity takes years… in 2002, a group of Japanese scientists discovered that the receptor the measles virus binds to – a kind of molecular lock that allows it to enter the body – isn’t in the lungs, as you would expect for a respiratory virus. Instead, it’s on cells from the immune system. ...

February 15, 2022 · 1 min · 134 words · Srikanth Perinkulam

Ephemeral devices

This is fascinating! A few GPS devices apparently had a mild(?) path offset issue few days ago: The issue has to do with the ephemeris data file, also called the EPO file (Extended Prediction Orbit) or Connected Predictive Ephemeris (CPE). Or simply the satellite pre-cache file. That’s the file that’s delivered to your device on a frequent basis (usually every few days). This file is what makes your watch near-instantly find GPS satellites when you go outside. It’s basically a cheat-sheet of where the satellites are for the next few days, or up to a week or so. ...

January 6, 2021 · 1 min · 188 words · Srikanth Perinkulam