This is BIG (potentially)

 

Covid-19 was a big scare a couple of years ago, and killed numerous people.  Vaccines were developed that saved numerous lives. Influenza (the flu) kills lots of people every year, but getting the flu shot can save your life. Everybody is really scared of Ebola.  If bird flu mutates, it could be really, really dangerous.

So malaria tends to be forgotten, because it's not a First World problem, in general. In the Third World, primarily Africa, it is estimated to kill around 600,000 people, predominantly children, every year. Furthermore, if you go to a place where malaria is endemic and you don't take your malaria prevention pills, you could catch it, like Cheryl (Cole) did.  And clearly getting it is NOT fun.

So news about a malaria vaccine tested in humans should be really BIG news, right?

I can't understand why it's not.

OK, it's not quite a vaccine. It's a monoclonal antibody treatment. Maybe that would be a little more difficult to administer all over Africa.

But still  -- it works.

New Malaria Antibody Yields Full Protection in Human Trial

"Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are laboratory-made protein clones that mimic the body’s natural immune defenses. MAM01 targets a highly conserved region of the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein — a protein on the parasite’s outer surface — to block infection before it reaches the bloodstream.

The Phase 1, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolled 38 healthy adults aged 18 to 50 with no prior malaria exposure. Participants received one dose of MAM01 or a placebo, and were then exposed to mosquitos carrying malaria, several months after dosing. This was done under carefully controlled conditions known as a challenge study. After the malaria challenge, none of the participants who received the highest dose of the monoclonal antibody developed infection, compared to all the participants in the placebo group."

I emphasize the words "none" and "all" in the above. That's like a perfect test  - that's phenomenal.

See why I said it's big?  Now, I don't know if there are special storage or preservation procedures that make this hard to distribute or administer, but it sure sounds like a potential game-changer in the malaria battle.

Reference: Lyke KE, Berry AA, Laurens MB, et al. Human monoclonal antibody MAM01 for protection against malaria in adults in the USA: a first-in-human, phase 1, dose-escalation, double-blind, placebo-controlled, adaptive trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2025:S1473-3099(25)00481-5. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(25)00481-5

Kill the blue blobs. All of them.

Lighthouse of the Week, January 25 - 31, 2026: Cabo San Jorge, Argentina

 

For historical reasons, I was poking around the coast of Argentina recently. So even though this Lighthouse is a bit late for last Week, I'm still going to use it.

Argentina has quite a few lights, but from what I can see in the Directory, not a lot of them are the traditional tower variety.  Many of them are the skeletal kind, or little boxes.

However, this one is quite handsome.  So as is my habit, first the location, which is here on the coast of Argentina.  It's "in the middle" of the coast, well south of Buenos Aires.

So now about the lighthouse, let's learn:

"1925 (Santiago Orengo). Active; focal plane 78 m (256 ft); four white flashes, separated by 5 s, every 32 s. 27 m (89 ft) square brick tower with lantern and gallery, painted white; lantern and gallery painted black. ... Located about 13 km (8 mi) north of Comodoro Rivadavia, the southernmost city of Chubut."

I acquired three pictures and a video, which are shown below. The video shows that the lighthouse is breathtakingly isolated.

I just found this out

 

I watched a Julie Andrews biography a few days ago, and near the end, it showed scenes of her voice-over work, most notably Gru's mother in the Despicable Me series. I was curious what else she's done, and so I looked at her IMDb biography.  I noticed that she was listed in the cast of Aquaman as Karathen. I couldn't remember who that was, so I looked it up, and this is who Karathen is.

If you don't remember, or don't care, or didn't see the movie, Karathen is the gigantic sea creature that guards the Trident of Atlan.  For those who might possibly see the movie who have not done so to this point, that's about all I can say. 

But I can say that the voice is suitably imposing, though pretty much unrecognizable as Julie Andrews. I guess she should have sung a stanza of "The Sound of Music". 

He's an article about her role:  Julie Andrews Is Baffled By Her Aquaman Voice Role