Feynman’s Cat

Intellectual stimulation and bad jokes

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

Check out my new post exposing the misogyny in Hollywood’s female representation (link in replies)

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

@hicasamadim 72?

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

There's a physicist at Stanford named Safi Bahcall who modeled this exact principle and the math is wild.

He calls it "phase transitions in human networks." When you're stationary, your probability of a lucky event is limited to your existing surface area: the people you already know, the places you already go, the ideas you've already been exposed to. Your opportunity window is fixed.

When you move, your collision rate with new nodes in a network increases nonlinearly. Double your movement (new conversations, new cities, new projects) and your probability of a serendipitous encounter doesn't double. It roughly quadruples. Because each new node connects you to their entire network, not just to them.

Richard Wiseman ran a 10-year study at the University of Hertfordshire tracking self-described "lucky" and "unlucky" people. The single biggest differentiator wasn't IQ, education, or family money. Lucky people scored significantly higher on one trait: openness to experience. They talked to strangers more, varied their routines more, and said yes to invitations at nearly twice the rate.

The "unlucky" group followed the same routes, ate at the same restaurants, and talked to the same 5 people. Their networks were closed loops. No new inputs, no new collisions.

Luck isn't random. Luck is surface area. And surface area is a function of movement.

The lobster emoji is doing more work than most people realize. Lobsters grow by shedding their shell when it gets too tight. The growth requires a period of total vulnerability. No protection, no armor, soft body exposed to the ocean.

That's the cost of movement nobody posts about. You have to be uncomfortable first. The new shell only hardens after you've already moved.

[Neet @neet_sol]

what's cool is you can now pick a major based on your actual interest instead of what makes the most money because you'll be unemployed regardless

[Ani😼 @sushi33trash]

The human obsession with purpose is merely a distraction from the absurdity of existence.

[Robin McKenna @rbnmckenna86]

There’s a kind of misanthrope who dislikes people in the abstract but likes actual people and there’s a kind of humanist who likes people in the abstract but dislikes actual people.

[Mark Manson @Markmanson]

“Everything in moderation… including moderation.”
ㅤ
— Oscar Wilde

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

This is the war machine of your immune system maintaining peace through a complex interplay of ruthless elimination of pathogens and self-regulation mechanisms to prevent harming you.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

Born in the bone marrow, T cells move to the Thymus to graduate. Inside the thymus, they are tested on 2 key metrics, and the consequence of failure is death:
Do they have functional receptors that can recognise antigens? ✅
Negative selection - can they recognise human cells? The only acceptable answer is 🚫.
Teacher cells in thymus showcase different organ cells of your body to newborn T cells. If they are able to recognize any of these, they can be activated by your own cells and attack you instead of pathogens. These T cells fail and are promptly killed.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

After you beat the infection, long-lived plasma cells settle in the bone marrow and keep producing a moderate amount of antibodies for that pathogen regularly. Memory B cells get activated and begin producing without the 2nd activation step when they encounter the antigen in the lymph again.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

T cells are the SEAL commandos of the adaptive immune system. And just like SEAL commandos, they go through their own Hell Week.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

Your life depends on a war you never see.

Inside you right now, microscopic heroes are fighting battles you can’t see, using weapons more advanced than anything humans have ever built. Every breath you take, every surface you touch, new threats enter your body. Without your immune system, even a paper cut could be a death sentence.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

Fun fact - MHC molecules are unique for every individual, and some MHC Class 2 molecules are better at presenting an antigen for a virus, while others might be better at presenting an antigen for a specific bacterium.
This means your immune system is better at fighting off a particular type of infection than others.

MHC molecules also influence body odour. You tend to like the natural smell of people with a different MHC Class 2 capability than yours, as it would give better protection to your children. This is a concept known as “pheromone matching” and it does not work if you appreciate the perfume someone is wearing, only their natural, sweaty odour.

So, next time you like someone, skip the perfume and smell their armpits! Biology doesn’t lie; chemistry does.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

Activated dendritic cells die a week after to prevent activation from an old infection, another way to prevent an unnecessary, excessive, and potentially harmful response by the immune system.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

Dendritic cells travel to lymph nodes to find a T cell that recognises the specific antigen. Dendritic cells present these antigens to T cells on MHC (Major Histocompatibility Complex) Class 2 molecules. Without the correct presentation on MHC Class 2 molecules, T cells do not get activated. This is a self-regulating mechanism of the immune system to prevent accidental activation of the adaptive immune system.

[Feynman’s Cat @feynmans_cat]

Activating the adaptive immune system, aka calling in special forces:

Blood isn’t the only thing flowing through you. There’s another river, quieter but just as vital: the lymph. The lymphatic system is a circulatory system that transports lymph, carrying excess fluid and waste, like dead cells and pathogens. Lymph nodes are where dendritic cells wake the adaptive immune system.