17 August

Electrochemistry is one of the hot fields right now, obviously with the explosion in interest in and demand for new types of batteries. What’s interesting is that the main element that features there, lithium, has featured in human treatment of our own electrochemical organ - the brain. Lithium has been used for a long time in medicine, for example to treat depression and bipolar disorder. What has limited its potential is that it has a toxicity at the doses needed, for example for the liver. Lithium carbonate has been the main compound tried. The newest research shows the promise of a big range of other lithium compounds, at vastly smaller doses. Lithium orotate in particular, the subject of recent work at Harvard showing it not only maybe cures but even reverses dementia, in mice. At 1/1000th the dose of lithium that lithium carbonate would need. Human trials underway. So much wonderful knowledge and expertise out there. And we’re wallowing in a bog of kidult social media idiocy, where important adult work is re-routed to adolescent team sports, like everything is a football game. My patience with it is pretty much zero now. I may be posting less.