Aug 3, 2026, 10:46 PM@marick perhaps she doesn't know herself, and here is a grand opportunity to surprise her with your brilliance! 😃
I read medical research a couple of hours a day and during COVID, probably more.
I expect that right at this very moment, a drug company is trying to figure out how to patent those antibodies
@deepmud She doesn’t remember ever learning about those antibodies.
Regarding https://hms.harvard.edu/news/no-llamas-required:
"Llamas are famously hard to draw blood from because of the anatomy of their neck and thickness of their skin. And they don’t cooperate. Using yeast seems much more pleasant and efficient.”
(Her attitude toward llamas seems to be llamas are to cows as cats are to dogs. Not horrible, but her favorite species are… her favorite species.)
Aug 4, 2026, 3:49 AM@marick fortunately, it appears that once some have been drawn from the unwilling llama, they can be reproduced outside of the critter.
Everyone gets to have favorite animals. I like dogs. And sheep.
@deepmud Speaking of favorite animals, you missed your chance to nominate The Guardian’s invertebrate of the year (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/01/nominate-your-invertebrate-of-the-year). Dawn and I both nominated the noble Horseshoe Crab (Limulus polyphemus).
Last year was the tardigrade. Bah. Overhyped.