°              STILL MORE               

* Special Tribute to University of Illinois. * Introductory Note Below are great U of I tech achievements, but let's begin with: "it continues to continue!" Forbes - recent article about a company just emerging from "stealth mode" founded by two Illini PhDs. Xerion Advanced Battery Co. is commercializing a breakthrough greatly improving lithium batteries, but also a) cutting costs & carbon footprint throughout entire supply chain and b) enabling procuring and refining the essential materials almost exclusively from domestic sources, including California's Salton Sea .
Those of us who prospered in Champaign-Urbana probably never knew Bob Miner, a math major, born in 41 to Iranian-Assyrian parents in Cicero. Miner ended up in Silicon Valley writing code for what became Oracle Corp -- which he cofounded with Larry Ellison, who had also attended U of I. The university has an incredible digital-age record of achievement, starting perhaps with Jack Kilby (in uniform) who invented the microchip. John Bardeen, who invented the transistor, and who is the only person to win the Nobel Prize in physics twice, taught there for 24 years. Another UI great, son of an impoverished Ukrainian coal miner, born in Ziegler, IL, grew up in Glen Carbon, Il, [neither of which you have ever heard of] is Nick Holonyak -- he invented the ubiquitous light-emitting diode (LED), used in lightbulbs, mobile phones, TV sets and microscopic surgical equipment. Other graduates include founders of PayPal, YouTube, Lotus, Netscape, Yelp!, Safari, Firefox, Mortal Kombat (video games), and Tesla. Others had substantial roles in creating MRI scanners, LED screens, DSL (internet access), and JavaScript (www). And the current (2021) CEO of IBM is an Illini: Arvind Krishna.
Finally, what about the internet? -- UI has that covered, too.
Washington Post 2023: "William Wulf, computer pioneer who opened way for internet, dies at 83 . . . born Dec. 8, 1939, in Chicago. His father was a mechanical engineer who had emigrated from Germany and his mother was a homemaker. He studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1961 and a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1963. [PhD U VA, computer science] . . . [1988] swapped ideas about the future of a dial-up network that was barely known to the public and restricted mostly to academia and federal agencies. Imagine, the colleague said, if this system was open to everyone. “And that hit me like a ton of bricks,” Dr. Wulf recalled. . . . [Contacted Al Gore] . . . Gore helped push the changes through in Congress — becoming lampooned in the process after making comments suggesting he “invented” the internet. Dr. Wulf, meanwhile, as head of the National Science Foundation’s computer and engineering directorate, oversaw changes to consolidate the data-sharing technology, first developed by the Pentagon, and open it up to civilian users."
Oh, and the first browser? U of I. And early email system for the PC? Eudora.

Hard to believe . . . but there's more! This is not technology, but biology -- revolutionary biology! There have long been two branches to the tree of life, depending on whether an organism's cells have or lack a nucleus -- known by the Greek word for "kernel" (karyote). Prokaryotes developed first ("pro"="before") and comprise bacteria (many forms, incredibly abundant). Eukaryotes includes us (and so much more, including plants and fungi, et al.).
Two branches, a fundamental biological division, first proffered by a French biologist in the 30s. Universally accepted -- until the U of I changed all that, starting in the 70s. Professor Carl Woese and collaborator George Fox, discovered a kind of microbial life which they called the “archaebacteria” (Archaea).They reported that the archaebacteria comprised "a third kingdom" of life, now seen as a third branch to the tree of life.
(Interestingly, there was much skepticism at first, even by some of the great names in biology (Harvard, MIT), but today the U of I has won out, and the 3rd branch is accepted).

Hard to believe . . . but there's still more! Recently discovered! Donald Bitzer, Unsung Pioneer of Interactive Computing, Dies at 90 (December 2024) In the 1960s and ʼ70s, he developed the PLATO computer system, which combined instant messaging, email, chat rooms and gaming on flat-screen plasma displays. 1960! "Dr. Bitzer, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois, began developing PLATO in 1960 as a tool for educators to create interactive, individualized coursework. . . . PLATO, an acronym for Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations, initially ran on television-like screens connected to the university’s ILLIAC I computer, a five-ton machine powered by 2,800 vacuum tubes."
1964! "To increase interactivity, in 1964 Dr. Bitzer, along with a fellow professor, H. Gene Slottow, and a graduate student, Robert Willson, invented a plasma display illuminated by gas-infused pixels — the same technology that would later power flat-screen televisions.     Thousands of PLATO terminals, radiant with bright orange text and graphics, were installed around the University of Illinois campus . . ."
Touch-screen terminals! Connected via phone lines! Internet anyone? 1964. Univ. of Illinois.
"In 1981, as personal computers began creeping into the marketplace, Dr. Bitzer appeared on The Phil Donahue Show with a PLATO terminal to discuss the future of computing. Dr. Bitzer touched words on the screen to reveal images and texted with someone at the University of Illinois, mesmerizing Mr. Donahue.     'Can we get a little closer?' the host said to a camera operator. 'This is an electronic miracle.'"
More on this amazing story here (NYT): PLATO and here (WP): PLATO.

Prominent vax deniers who've died of covid:
[2021] a) Scott Appley, TX GOP official 8-4; b) Dick Farrel, FL radio host 8-4; c) Jimmy DeYoung, syndicated TN preacher 8-15; d) Pressley Stutts, SC GOP leader 8-19; e) Marc Bernier, Daytona Beach radio host 8-28; f) Herman Cain, Anti-mask Trump rally 7-30; g) Phil Valentine, Nashville radio personality 8-22; h) Bob Enyart, CO radio host 9-13; i) Marcus Lamb, televangelist 11-30; j) Doug Kuzma, anti-vax podcaster 1-7; k) who's next?
Here are others: Blood on their hands.[2022] Most not prominent, but very long list.

First malaria, then dengue! Major breakthroughs. Malaria-1 (microbe). Malaria-2 (outside a lab).   (2021) Malaria-3 (vaccines) (2022) Malaria-4 (antibody drug) (2022) 'Miraculous' mosquito hack cuts dengue fever by 77% (2021) Dengue Scientists used mosquitoes infected with "miraculous" bacteria that reduce the insect's ability to spread dengue by competing for resources and making it much harder for dengue virus to replicate within the mosquito.
* More good news: New drug (not Aduhelm/ aducanumab) reinvigorates mechanism for digesting/recycling unwanted cell proteins. Mice only now, but "drop-off in cellular cleaning that contributes to Alzheimer's in mice also occurs in people." ScienceDaily.
Bacteria: can they save us from the global plastic crisis? Tasty solution? Do you like vanilla? Scientists have devised a novel way of tackling the mounting issue of plastic pollution -- by using bacteria to transform plastic waste into vanilla flavoring. (2021)

A Chicagoan: J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. was a mathematical Manhattan Project standout despite racism. Age 13 when he enrolled at U Chicago. (His brother, age 14, enrolled at U WI). Wilkins

Chemotherapy-immunotherapy combo may work in lung cancer. Combo