Tom's Top 3: August 19, 2025
Of Mice and GOATs
Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s installment of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays, where I highlight three pieces of content (Podcasts/Shows/Songs/Articles/etc.) that I found interesting or noteworthy from the prior week.
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This article from Mark Johnson at The Washington Post revealed some very exciting progress on Alzheimer’s treatment from Harvard Medical School researchers. The team, led by professor Bruce Yankner, reversed Alzheimer’s in mice using lithium orate, restoring proper brain function.
While this is just a mice study and is far away from human applications, it’s big news nonetheless since no medication has succeeded in reversing the disease to date. Better yet, lithium orate is incredibly cheap, and the little amount of lithium required might allow this treatment to reach clinical trials sooner.
Lithium plays an important role in the brain, essentially serving as the security guards that help clear debris. Beyond treatment, measuring lithium levels in the brain could be a way to screen patients for Alzheimer’s before they even show symptoms.
Not only is this development huge for Alzheimer’s research, but lithium could be used for treatment of Parkinson’s disease as well. With over 7 million Americans afflicted with Alzheimer’s, I pray our medical system can move quickly on these clinical trials.
Credit to Tim Ferriss for posting the article and sharing the archive link in his newsletter.
[YouTube] Stanford Graduate School of Business - Doug Leone: What Matters Most to Me and Why
Doug Leone, Silicon Valley legend and former MP at Sequoia, laid out his three keys to success on stage at Stanford GSB:
If you choose to have kids, invest in them
Strive for success, but make sure to bring people along for the ride
…and stay away from the jerks
Bring it everyday
Fearlessly attack the day and stay at it
[YouTube] Films&Stuff - Why Jurassic Park Looks Better Than Its Sequels
We’ve talked a lot about aspect ratios on this newsletter. Well, we’re back baby!
Ever wonder why the first Jurassic Park looks like a million bucks, while the sequels fall flat?
The answer is aspect ratios!! Err, well, more realistically the answer is the GOAT, Steven Spielberg.
Rather than shoot in the widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio like most action movies, Spielberg went with 1.85:1. This gave the picture more vertical space to work with, which makes a difference when you are trying to juxtapose the size of humans and dinosaurs.
There is more to Spielberg’s cinematography than just aspect ratios. The video astutely points out that Jurassic Park is a hidden horror film, with the wonder of the first half being rudely interrupted with the terror of the second half. Spielberg is able to escalate the horror through use of claustrophobia.
Many of his movies are a dance between the protagonist, antagonist, and the environment. In Jurassic Park, the characters have to deliberate every single movement, which makes their navigation around the environment that much more suspenseful.
Spielberg also uses a “frame within a frame,” often shooting the dinosaurs through another lens, typically glass. This tactic blends their environment with our own, which the video clearly shows through many of the iconic clips from the movie.
That wraps up this edition of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays. If you made it to this point, please drop a 1️⃣, 2️⃣, or 3️⃣ in the comments to let me know what you found most interesting/useful. And as always, please like and consider sharing with a friend who you think would enjoy! I’ll be back next week. ✌️
3️⃣
1 but 3 gets credit for the perfect gif choice