Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta

Now Omicron has arrived!

“The sky is not falling”, says Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor. But just when we thought that the pandemic was behind us, scientists are now racing to understand the consequences of the Omicron COVID-19 variant that unexpectedly showed up in South Africa only days ago and has already become the current Variant of Concern. And we’re learning more, in the time between writing this week’s blog and posting it we now know that the Omicron COVID-19 variant has fifty or more mutations and is currently identified in 20 countries.

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Celebrate your best Thanksgiving ever!

Remember the Thanksgiving story you learned in school — how, way back when, Pilgrims and Indians got together at one giant dinner table and ate turkey and stuffing and green beans covered in Campbell's mushroom soup? And then there was peace on Earth?

Actually,  it was the Wampanoag in 1621 who helped the first wave of Puritans arriving on our shores, showing them how to plant crops, forage for wild foods and basically survive.

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Are we alone in the universe?

We may find the answer in the next decade or two relying on clues which science provides to help us find the way.  This includes balancing what we understand about our planet and recognizing what we know are the critical elements for life. 

Next month, the launch of the Webb telescope might give us the means to discover whether we find another earth out there, a Planet B.  The search for Planet B is complicated. Nevertheless we know that even in its most extreme conditions, life is carbon based, liquid water is the solvent for biochemistry, and DNA is the code for genetic information. The building blocks for life, hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are found abundantly in the universe. So what does this have to do with Sterile Processing?

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