This Week I Learned - Week #14 2025

This Week I Learned - 

* OpenAI is planning to release its first open-weight language model with reasoning capabilities. An open-weight language model's trained parameters or weights are publicly accessible, which can be used by developers to analyze and fine-tune the model for specific tasks without requiring original training data. These language models are different from open-source models, which provide access to the complete source code, training data and methodologies.

* Playlist of the 5-Day Gen AI Intensive Course with Google

* A single human genome's raw data alone demands roughly 200 GB. This is all necessary to comprehend gene variants and their locations at the subatomic level. Statistically, roughly 0.1% of gene locations differ between any two people, creating a broad spectrum of genetic makeup. Understanding these variations helps pinpoint the causes (and target specific mutations) of genes (disordered sequences causing diseases), influencing disease susceptibility and medication response. The transmission of specific hereditary diseases affects many families across generations. Hence, a more nuanced understanding of these specific positions is important to "design" effective treatments, which is called as "personalised medicine".  - ET

* The "Blue Baby" operation pioneered at John Hopkins launched the field of cardiac surgery. Vivien Thomas was an American laboratory supervisor who, in the 1940s, played a major role in developing a procedure now called the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt used to treat blue baby syndrome (now known as cyanotic heart disease) along with surgeon Alfred Blalock and cardiologist Helen Taussig. 

Thomas was unique in that he did not have any professional education or experience in a research laboratory; however, he served as supervisor of the surgical laboratories at Johns Hopkins for 35 years. In 1976, Johns Hopkins awarded him an honorary doctorate and named him an Instructor of Surgery for the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe brought his story to public attention in a 1989 article entitled "Like Something the Lord Made", which won the 1990 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. The McCabe article was also brought to Hollywood and formed the basis for the 2004 film Something the Lord Made.

* India's first lady cardiologist, Dr. S. I. Padmavati, was a distinguished student of Dr. Helen Taussig. In her autobiography, "My Life and Medicine," Dr. Padmavati recalls that Dr. Taussig visited India multiple times and enthusiastically engaged with the students and staff of Lady Hardinge Medical College, where she stayed as their guest. Together, they published the first 1,000 cases of Tetralogy of Fallot in the American Journal of Physicians in 1951.

* The CNBC website highlights side hustles that have evolved into six-figure successes.

* Apple executive John Brandon's Rules for Success:

1. Let go of the old, make the most of the future

2. Always tell the truth, we want to hear the bad news sooner than later

3. The highest level of integrity is expected, when in doubt, ask

4. Learn to be a good businessperson, not just a good salesperson

5. Everyone sweeps the floor

6. Be professional in your style, speech and follow-up

7. Listen to the customer, they almost always get it

8. Create win/win relationships with our partners

9. Look out for each other, sharing information is a good thing

10. Don’t take yourself too seriously

11. Have fun, otherwise it’s not worth it