AI and E. coli, side by side — what a ride!

The Finnish media Helsingin Sanomat (HS) reported this morning that artificial intelligence, or language models, reflect the values of their developers. The article was based on the same questions that HS has asked candidates from different political parties in connection with elections. This made it possible to compare the language models with the parties and their values.

Most language models lean toward value liberalism and the left – among Finnish political parties, the closest equivalents are mainly the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Greens, and the Swedish People’s Party (RKP). The Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset), by contrast, is the furthest away.

When reading this news story, it is worth remembering that people probably do not ask language models very much about values, but rather about various facts. As far as those are concerned, current language models are, at least in my own experience, quite reliable.

* * *

Yesterday, I also happened to read a scientific paper about a completely new kind of AI-based approach in which Paul Ahavi and his colleagues used E. coli bacteria as a living information processor by analyzing their natural growth responses in plasma samples from COVID-19 patients. This was done without genetic modification or specialized equipment.

In practice, the researchers classified early-stage plasma samples from COVID-19 patients according to how severe the disease subsequently became. The classification was based solely on bacterial growth data and was analyzed using machine learning, or artificial intelligence.

The study showed that AI could analyze the effects of metabolites in patients’ plasma on the growth of E. coli and link those effects to the subsequent progression of the disease. In other words, by analyzing bacterial growth, it was able to distinguish a disease that would develop into a mild case from one that would become severe – essentially determining who would recover from the infection on their own and who would require treatment.

Based on their results the researchers concluded that “these findings position biological reservoir computing as a robust, scalable, and low-cost platform for intelligent biosensing, diagnostics, and hybrid bio-digital computation, while providing new mechanistic insights into the computational capabilities of living systems.”

The ability of the combination of E. coli and AI to predict the progression of COVID-19 was roughly as accurate as what can be achieved with precise – and extremely expensive – biochemical measurements. This means that the combination would seemingly offer a vastly cheaper way of analyzing large numbers of patients in connection with a wide variety of epidemics – and potentially even in developing countries.

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The difficult times for Finland's economy are coming to an end

Finland's economy has struggled since 2008. This is partly due to the fact that the global crisis at that time was preceded by Nokia's success as a mobile phone manufacturer, which led to an expansion of the public sector in hopes of scoring political points.

Then Nokia's glory days came to an end, and Finland was left with an oversized and expensive public sector relative to its income. However, dismantling it proved nearly impossible for the ruling politicians, as almost the entire population benefited from it.

The current Finnish government has started to address this problem, but the recent rise in interest rates has made the situation more difficult by increasing state expenditures just as public sector spending has been reduced. At the same time, the country's labor unions have opposed all changes, and the private sector hasn't recovered as hoped after the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, according to Finland's Ministry of Finance, there now seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. According to its top official, "price increases have clearly slowed down. Interest rates are on the decline, and the ECB is likely to lower rates two more times this year, which the markets have already priced in. The decline in GDP appears to have genuinely stopped, and there are signs of a revival in the housing market."

The official also praises Finland's "excellent" cost competitiveness, meaning the ability to produce goods and services at competitive prices compared to other countries. Additionally, alongside Nokia and the forest products industry, "new beginnings" have emerged in sectors like clean energy, artificial intelligence, and chip technology.

When you add to all this that the country has a right-wing government, which can be expected to refrain from redistribution policies, it seems that Finland is also emerging from its decade-and-a-half-long economic downturn.

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Finland's COVID-19 policy saved approximately 2,600 people from death

The coronavirus pandemic is far behind us, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused it has become just a part of everyday life. Therefore, it is a good time to look back a bit and examine the statistics related to the pandemic.

Among these, death cases are naturally the most reliable, so I will focus on that in this review. On a global level, the pandemic has been reported to have caused slightly over seven million premature deaths.

Is this then a lot or a little? This can be determined by comparing the number of deaths to previous pandemics.

The Spanish flu, caused by the influenza virus, is estimated to have killed 17-100 million people worldwide just over a hundred years ago. This is already a significantly higher number – and considering the increase in the world's population over the past hundred years – it is an astonishingly worse pandemic.

An even harsher ordeal was the bacterial disease known as the Black Death that raged during the Middle Ages. According to Wikipedia, it is "estimated to have killed 30-60 percent of Europe's population, i.e., 25-50 million people, and an equal number in the Middle East and North Africa."

The essential difference between COVID-19 and the aforementioned diseases lies in the advancement of medicine, which enabled the identification of people infected with the coronavirus – and their isolation from spreading it to others – as well as the development of vaccines and treatments that effectively reduced mortality. Therefore, it is clear that if the virus had spread to people a hundred years ago, the impact would have been significantly more devastating than what we have experienced now.

* * *

One interesting topic of discussion has been the difference between Finland's strict and Sweden's more lenient COVID-19 policies. This can be examined by comparing the number of deaths caused by the virus in both countries.

Statistics show that a total of 27,407 people have died from the virus in Sweden. In Finland, the corresponding number is 11,958. The relationship between these numbers can be compared to the population ratios of the two countries. It is seen that about 2.1 per mille of the population died in Finland, and 2.6 per mille in Sweden.

Thus, it can be said that Finland's stricter COVID-19 policy, compared to Sweden, saved approximately 0.5 per mille – or roughly 2,600 lives – from death caused by the coronavirus. Therefore, the difference is not very large, and I do not take a position here on whether it is sufficient to compensate for the negative effects of the policy implemented.

Instead, I state that humanity should continue to prepare for the emergence of zoonotic diseases. Their occurrence cannot be predicted precisely, but it is certain that a new pandemic will occur sooner or later. And therefore, perhaps the most important lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is that with good prior planning and preparedness, Finns can be spared the confusion witnessed during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Is the world´s best skier in classical technique, Iivo Niskanen, going to recover from COVID-19

Cross-Country skiing is nationally the most important winter sports of Finland, and has been responsible of the lions share of all Olympic medals in the sports history of my home country. However, during the last two decades the success has not been much worth mentioning except for one skier. 

That one is Iivo Niskanen, who - during the last decade - has been the clearly the world´s best long distance skier in classical technique. He won the World Youth Championship (under 23 years) in 2014 and at the same year earned a gold medal in the team spring (with classical technique) in Olympics. Thereafter he has been the best in the classical competitions of the World Championships of 2017 (15 km) and Olympics of 2018 (15 km) and 2022 (50 km). Only in World Championships of 2019 he was the second (15 km) in the classical race. 

As my reader understands, such a dominant sports figures are rare in countries with only 5,5 million people. And therefore Finns are extremely interested in their hero, who - however - had a COVID-19 infection several weeks ago. And has thereafter not competed on skiing tracks, not in national or international competitions.

In this winter the main competitions in cross country skiing are Tour de Ski starting in a week and World Championships in Slovenia (Planica) in late February. Tour in this year is exceptional, because four out of its seven competitions are going to be raced with classical technique. And therefore Niskanen would have excellent chances to win the whole tour. 

Therefore the most important sports  question right now in Finland is whether Niskanen has recovered from his COVID-19 well enough to compete in Tour. He has been selected into the Finnish Team by the head coach of the Cross Country Team, who, however, said that Niskanen decides himself whether he competes or not. 

Knowing Niskanen´s mind, he will not be racing unless he considers he has true chance for success. But as we know, recovering from COVID-19 may take weeks or even months.

So, if Niskanen will not participate Tour, it is not possible to avoid speculations about his recovery towards the World Championships, where 50 km with classical technique would be waiting to be dominated by the Finnish star. And all sports fans in Finland expect him - if in his best shape - to win the competition by a clear difference to other competitors. 

And even worse. Niskanen is the only - or at least the best - hope of Finland to have a winner in the World Championships, where Norwegians are expected to dominate all other male competitions. That was demonstrated e.g. last weekend in Davos, when they had a total of six best skiers followed by a German. 

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Share of EU recovery funds will turn attitudes more negative

Finland´s share from the EU recovery (from COVID-19) funds is reduced by 300 million euros. Therefore, our share of funding is 4,2 billion euros less than our payment on the package. 

The reason for our reduced share is the economic recovery of Finland that being more positive than predicted. The basis for this conclusion is the development of the national GDP, which in 2021 increased by 3.5 percent from year 2020. 

Therefore one - e.g. the Prime Minister of our country - might think that the reduction in Finnish share is a fair decision. Unfortunately I must point out three facts. 

First, the economic growth of Finland was made by increasing its indebtedness considerably - by decisions made by a government led by the above mentioned prime minister. Second, the economic growth of Finland is predicted to slow down during the ongoing year. Third, the future of the Finnish forest industry - responsible of ca. 20 percent of the export value - has been challenged by the commission despite its high sustainability compared to other EU countries.

It should also be noted that the taxation burden on Finnish taxpayers is among the highest in EU, and increasing quickly. Therefore I would not be amazed if the attitudes among ordinary people in Finland would turn more negative towards EU in the becoming years. 

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COVID-19 against Finland´s NATO plans

The president of Finland - Sauli Niinistö - has an infection of SARS-CoV-2. Fortunately, according to the announcement, his condition is good, and he continues working.

Timing of the virus infection was worst possible. That is, exactly in the middle of Finland´s preparation of its application to join NATO.  

There is no doubt that Russians and their trolls would not do their best to take advantage on the situation. An example was already given by a member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, Robert Skidelsky, who warned in Twitter that "application by Finland to join NATO would be a catastrophic mistake". 

Therefore I hope the infection would not affect President Niinistö´s activity in this task of utmost importance. But if it does, I hope he will share this duty with the Prime Minister Sanna Marin to get the NATO application submitted without any delay, but taking care of all preliminaries necessary. 

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World oceans are filled with previously unknown viruses

COVID-19 pandemic has been ongoing for ca. 1,5 years now. It started when a new RNA virus SARS-CoV-2 learned to reproduce in humans, and to efficiently transmit between different people. Furthermore, the pandemic has had several waves due to rapid evolution of the virus from the original form to ever increasing variants with more and more efficient transmission between people.

The pandemic underlined the dangers of new viruses. The human immune systems are not prepared for their attacks and neither has evolution prepared our genes to resist their effects. As a result, such a virus may be life threatening and kill millions and millions of people.

Therefore it was interesting to read about new research showing, that oceans of the world are full of unknown RNA viruses. And not only new versions of the kinds of virus types previously known, but completely unknown virus groups rooting in the earliest history of the life itself.

These new viruses are not causing diseases of humans, but mostly multiply in lower eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea. In doing that, these viruses affect evolution of their host organisms, affect marine community dynamics, speed up the cycles of matter in the biosphere and evolve themselves.

It remains to be seen, how the research described above affects practical human life. It is, however, clear that this piece of curiously driven science affects considerably the worldview of virologists and microbiologists and adds to their creativity towards new research projects. 

History has shown that such a cumulative increase of understanding is the basic value of the scientific inquiry. Any piece of new knowledge may ultimately lead to useful practical applications. And that has raised the western part of the world developmentally above rest of the human cultures.  

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American black population more vulnerable to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2

The spread of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has turned the number of COVID-19 cases up again. In Finland, the number of daily deaths have during the last weeks been the highest during the epidemic that started more than two years ago. Globally, however, the number of deaths were higher in January and May 2021. 

Omicron variant is known to cause less serious symptoms compared to previous variants of concern, and thus the death rate per the number of infections is lower. Therefore it was highly interesting to read from the Science magazine about research conducted in the USA on COVID-19 related differences between ethnic groups. 

The leading American science-journal reported that black adults were hospitalized for this disease at four times higher rate compared to white adults. The difference between the two groups was 40% versus 47% after two vaccinations and 44% versus 55% if they were given a booster. However, in both groups the hospital stays for Omicron were shorter compared to those caused by the previously common Delta variant, namely 5 days versus 4 days, and intensive care was not needed that often. 

The question that came to my mind was, whether this racial difference has something to do with the genes from archaic humans, Neanderthals, which do not occur in African groups of people. That was because it was previously noted that in the UK people with South Asian roots died for corona considerably more often that those associated with other ethnic groups - and the explanation was the genetic inheritance from the Neanderthals, which made them more susceptible for the virus. 

It was, however, also noticed that the same genes were rare among people of the easternmost Asia, possibly due to prehistoric selection caused by ancient viruses related to SARS-CoV-2. So, could it be possible, that most people with roots outside Africa, have some - yet unknown - genes associated with a higher tolerance to the Omicron virus? 

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