What I'm Reading (Mar. 6)

Cardboard has been with us for so long. The pandemic brought cardboard to new highs as delivery became THE thing. 

“Cardboard’s ubiquity rests on simple claims: I can hold that, and I can go there. The Container Corporation of America was founded in 1926, and upon those claims it built an empire with surprising reach. The CCA made collapsible shipping boxes, and it transformed packaging into a science and an art. It advanced market research, shaped mid-century taste, and altered the chromatic universe through color standards. It employed some of the best graphic designers of the period…”

From the journal Places, a deeper dive into a long history with cardboard, World in a Box

In the 19^th century, the spent grains used in brewing were used to adulterate milk. Of course, that was before milk came from almonds and oats.

“Huge brewers such as the Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev and Chicago-based Molson Coors have even created their own vegan barley milk spin-offs made from spent grain. Molson Coors claims its Golden Wing product has a "rich and creamy taste" and 25% less sugar than most oat milks.”

Breweries have used this spent material as cattle feed but are now finding additional uses that might make it more sustainable. And who doesn’t want to help the Earth by lifting a pint or two? From the BBC, How beer sludge is being turned into vegan milk and leather

Seahorses defy some of our beliefs about nature. More specifically, male seahorses become pregnant. 

“The most well-known and fascinating aspect of seahorse reproduction is male pregnancy. Male seahorses aren’t the only animals that put a great deal of effort into raising their young, but they are the only ones that become pregnant, subject to all aspects of the phenomenon—even stretch marks.

The direct transfer of unfertilized eggs from the female into the male’s brood pouch affords him confidence in his paternity. The male nourishes his offspring inside the pouch and maintains a perfect developmental environment. Unlike other animals, where promiscuity is rife, the male seahorse is 100 percent sure that each of the offspring he carries is his own, with no risk of cuckoldry.

This explains the extreme lengths to which male seahorses are willing to go in raising their young.”

From Nautil.us, The Strange Romance of Seahorses

As a physician, I am drawn to articles discussing the meta of my profession. In this case, applying an evolutionary lens may help us better understand what we so definitively and not necessarily correctly call disease.

“If you infect a rabbit with a virus or a bacterium, it’ll start to run a fever. Why? The surprising answer is that fever is not a disease; it’s a defense: a useful evolved mechanism that animals use to kill invading pathogens. Studies show that if you give fever-suppressing drugs to infected rabbits, they’re more likely to die.”

Originally from Aeromagazine, it is now just a pdf. Why Do We Get Sick The New Evolutionary Medicine