Insights & Outcomes: Thermodynamics and the algebra of everything

This month in Insights & Outcomes, Yale scientists take a deep dive into thermodynamics, discover a new drug to treat seizures, and unify the algebra of … everything.

As always, be sure to keep tabs on the latest research news in the Science & Technology and Health & Medicine pages on YaleNews. For now, grab your lab coat and let’s go:

Words of wisdom about wasted energy

It’s long been understood that you can eliminate wasted energy in a thermodynamic change — from a car’s speed to the biological processes in a cell — as long as the change occurs slowly enough. But there’s a limit to this, according to assistant professor of physics Benjamin Machta and graduate student Samuel Bryant.

In a new study, they report that all controlled thermodynamic changes must consume a minimum amount of energy, regardless of speed. “Previous analyses have missed an important, but easily overlooked point,” Bryant said. “The control mechanism responsible for changing the object under consideration must necessarily waste some energy.” Machta and Bryant said their work is particularly relevant for biology, where processes such as the release of calcium in muscles, “do seem to be paying substantial costs” in energy. The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Targeting a protein linked to seizures

The prognosis for people suffering from chronic epilepsy is often poor, even after surgery and with anti-seizure medication. Now a Yale team has found that an experimental drug — which targets a protein linked to two genetic disorders associated with intractable epilepsy — reduces seizures and cell abnormalities in mouse models of the conditions. “This is a completely new treatment with unexpected benefits,” said Yale’s Angelique Bordey, professor of neurosurgery and of cellular and molecular physiology and senior author of the research.

Bordey and first author Longbo Zhang said they hope the drug that targets the protein FLNA might help reduce seizures in those with epilepsy as well as two genetic disorders, tuberous sclerosis complex and focal cortical dysplasia type II, which is found in a subset of patients. The study appears in Science Translational Medicine.

No link between ACA expansion and the opioid epidemic

A study led by Yale emergency medicine assistant professor Edouard Coupet II, M.D., found that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not associated with a change in opioid overdoses (ODs). The researchers found no link between expansion of insurance for young adults under the ACA (via extended dependent coverage) and any fatal prescription, non-prescription opioids such as heroin, or methadone overdoses, nor emergency department encounters. Such a link had been suggested by advocates of ACA repeal. Researchers compared a group that was eligible before the ACA passed to a group that became eligible after ACA passed.

Coupet, a National Institute on Drug Abuse-sponsored Yale Drug Use, Addiction, and HIV Scholar, said the findings underscore the importance of increased insurance coverage in providing mental health and addiction services to vulnerable populations. “Around the time when young adults are seeing a lot of behavioral health issues manifest, including substance use disorders, expanding access to providers allows them to pursue addiction treatment,” he said. The study appears in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Algebra to the rescue

For more than a century, classical mechanics and quantum mechanics have been thought to be very different. Peter Morgan, a laboratory associate in physics, now argues that they can be unified. In a new study, Morgan takes an algebraic approach to demonstrating that classical and quantum mechanics are equally capable of modeling measurements and analyzing measurement results. A more precise understanding of their relationship, Morgan said, enables a unification of “collapse” and “no-collapse” interpretations of quantum mechanics. “This recognition provides for new approaches to the unification of general relativity, which is essentially classical, and the standard model of particle physics, which is essentially quantum,” he said. The study appears in Annals of Physics.

No patient bias found toward ER docs based on race or gender

Researchers at Yale and the University of Michigan found, to their surprise, that people do not report bias toward emergency room physicians based on gender or race. The study enrolled 3,592 participants from across the U.S. and asked them to imagine that they had been admitted to the ER for stomach pain. Participants were presented with a physician’s image — a white man, white woman, black man, or black woman — and two conflicting diagnoses, a conservative one established by the physician, and a more aggressive one (appendicitis) that the participant self-diagnosed using a web-based source. Researchers asked a series of questions related to confidence in the diagnosis and treatment plan. They found no loss of confidence or satisfaction in physicians based on race or gender.

“These results have different implications for different groups. The results are positive from an organizational and policy standpoint, and make a strong case for continuing to build a diverse and inclusive physician workforce,” said Basmah Safdar, M.D., associate professor of emergency medicine, who specializes in sex and gender-specific research. Safdar said the findings do not invalidate the many negative personal experiences women and black physicians experience due to patient bias. The study appears in JAMA Network Open.