Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lesley Anson, who has established herself in the world of science editing and communication. By working as a scientific editor at Nature, managing her own established journal and more recently starting up her own freelance consulting company Anson Scientific, Lesley has been able to develop critical analytical skills and see this sector from every possible angle.
The European Commission and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have both recently given the green light to market a new drug designed for adult patients with Cushing’s disease. This autoimmune disorder, which impacts roughly 13 million people per year, is a form of Cushing’s syndrome caused by a benign tumor on the pituitary gland. The tumor causes increased cortisol levels, and the goal of the drug is to lower cortisol levels without the unintended side effects seen with other medications such as hyperglycemia or liver damage.
Homophonic substitution ciphers have long pervaded brute-force decryption attempts due to the astronomical number of possible keys. The aim of this study is to identify only those combinations of homophones most likely to represent a given plaintext character, in order to reduce the key space of the cipher and increase the efficiency of brute-force decryption attempts.
