The day Steve Brusatte’s companion was attacked by a dinosaur

As a party of academics led by world renowned palaeontologist Steve Brusatte crossed the remote landscape of Scotland, one of their number was attacked by an angry dinosaur. The victim, an eminent mathematician of Edinburgh University, had got ahead of the main party, Alone and isolated, he was an easy target as the animal swooped, forcing him to race back to his companions for cover Does this sound like something from a Doug McClure movie? Perhaps. But the dinosaur in question was well within her rights, for the Physicist represented a clear and imminent threat to her chicks: and as her partner was out hunting for fish, she was already in a nervous, jumpy mood. Yep, you guessed it she was a herring gull (Larus argentatus) and many who have wondered along a British cliff edge will have encountered this kind of agonistic interaction. But for Brusatte the anecdote illustrates the clear and simple message Birds are dinosaurs the way that Texans are Americans. The perfect start to his latest book The Story of Birds [1] the third in his triptych of eminently readable titles [2] [3] which make even subjects as arcane as vertebrate palaeontology the easiest of reads for those of curious mind but no formal biological training.

Birds are dinosaurs. How well we remember the scornful reactions when pioneers like Ostrom, Bakker and those wonderful old BBC Horizon programmes back in the 1970s first ventured this heretical asseveration. Actually, quite prominent scholars like TH Huxley had pointed out the glaring obviousity in Victorian times. But as early discoveries filled out the museums, the creatures morphed into giant scaly saurians, all impressively huge, but nicely dead, so they couldn’t bite you. After ruling the planet in majestic grandiosity, they were felled by a rogue asteroid, and disappeared for ever, an object lesson in fallen grandeur. It took some adjustment to realise they were hiding in plain sight all along: birds as Byzantium to the Dinosaurs’ Rome. No longer rulers of all, they are still powerful players, filling our skies and seas and forests with sights of unforgettable beauty and wonder. Even their asteroid defying survival was a bit of a miracle, as their close cousins the Dromeosaurids and the Troodonts, equally fast, intelligent and warm blooded were utterly erased by that same impact.

As in all books Brusatte writes with skill ,easily walking the line between over technical and too simple, the very devil of science writing. If you are in anyway interested in where we have come from, in the immense sweep of time and the deep evolutionary roots of your cat’s bitter rivalry with the family of gulls who live up on the roof, then this one is for you.

[1] Brusatte, Steve. The Story of Birds: An Evolutionary History of the Dinosaurs That Live Among Us. London: Picador, 2026; New York: Mariner Books, 2026

[2]Brusatte, Steve. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World. New York: William Morrow, 2018; London: Picador, 2018.

[3]Brusatte, Steve. The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us. London: Macmillan, 2022; New York: HarperCollins/William Morrow, 2022.

# Doug McClure #TH Huxley #dinosaurs #birds #paleontology #kt impact #mammals #texas #evolution #flight

Friday Night: The Hugo Spritz- and this is how to write a real cocktail story

A few short weeks ago we published a sort piece on Italian Cocktails in which we praised the Aperol Spritz (LSS 15 5 26) Not only were we a bit out of date, but all our efforts to bring you the world of cocktails are at once superseded by this excellent piece by those redoubtable ladies Helena Horton and Anna Al-Othman of the Guardian on the Hugo Spritz shows a how a real cocktail piece is written for a real outlet. So in homage to their efforts we shall almost immediately hand you over to the link below [1]

For it will tell you where the new drink was invented, and by whom (how do they do that?) How it’s waxing in popularity in the smart bars and pubs of London- and presumably elsewhere. How its treading on the heels of its older sorella. And above all what delicious ingredients it sports: ” elderflower liqueur such as St-Germain, prosecco, soda water and mint..” according to the ladies,

Well we’ve certainly got all of those somewhere in the house or garden, so we’re off to give it a try. EWe hope you do too-after reading the excellent article of course.

Put away the Aperol and raise a glass to Hugo spritz, the drink of the summer | Cocktails | The Guardian

#hugo spritz #italy #elderflower #cocktail #mint #drinks #entertaining

Round up Birth order, resistant fungus, solar missions and much more

a few examples from this week’s news

Is Birth order Destiny? We’ve long been intrigued by the thought that your birth order-whether you’re a sibling or an older child, older brother, younger sister,etc-affects your personality and life chances. Latest twist in the saga is this piece about disease from the Independent: Study suggests first-born children are more likely to develop neurological conditions and second-born are more prone to substance abuse

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/first-and-second-born-disease-risk-b3028407.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawTicCtwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMFU1SjR6Q2hsamtwamFOMUxzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzk

Recalcitrant Fungus “A drug-resistant fungus that kills thousands of hospital patients in the U.S. every year survives on human skin by hijacking the body’s immune response, scientists have just discovered.” declares Newsweek. So it’s not just bacteria then?

https://www.newsweek.com/deadly-fungus-kills-thousands-every-year-scientists-found-where-it-hides-12297119?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY

Is all this heat doing in your brain? A few years ago we published a blog speculating that extra carbon dioxide from global warming may be affecting our health (LSS 2 11 20) Well that may or may not be the case: but all that extra heat may well be affecting our brains, as this article from The Conversation makes clear indeed

https://theconversation.com/too-hot-to-think-why-extreme-heat-can-affect-how-well-our-brain-works-289170?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20

Yet more quantum complexity As if quantum physics wasn’t already difficult enough to follow, what with all those bosons, muons hadrons and quarks, Nature Briefing has just made our life a little more difficult with this piece about the Gluon How are we meant to remember all this?

A team of physicists says it has observed strong evidence of a mysterious ‘glueball’, a particle made up of force-carrying gluons. The team says that a particle known as X (2370) is mostly made up of these glueballs — clusters of the gluons that bind quarks to form protons and neutrons and hold them inside the nucleus of an atom. There is no single smoking gun that proves that this particle is made of glueballs, says particle physicist Bruce Yabsley. But the findings are “quite persuasive”, he says. The group presented their results at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Natal, Brazil, last week.

Nature | 5 min read

Why won’t ET phone us? Normally our Friday purpose is to bring you short snappy pieces before Cocktail Hour. But this Guardian Long Read on why those pesky aliens have never shown up is so very good that we felt it our duty to bring it to you nevertheless

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/aug/11/the-great-silence-why-havent-we-found-any-aliens-yet

India’s day in the Sun If there’s one nation that is making huge leaps-commercial, technological, scientific- it is India. Proof if you want more comes from this admirable solar mission Aditya L1, admirably reported by the BBC

Aditya-L1: Indian solar mission’s new findings throw light on enduring Sun mysteries – BBC News

Quote of the week

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” — Psalm 133:1

#india #space #solar #global warming #antibiotic resistance #birth order #physics #climate #psychology #family #health #medicine

Incurable cancers-don’t pick and choose your Science

Over the years we’ve enjoyed bringing you good‑news cancer stories. Only a fraction of what’s available in the wider media, of course, but we try to showcase the ones that matter. And we think you will agree, gentle readers, that the overall direction of travel has been encouraging. Immunotherapy, CAR‑T, genomic sequencing — these are just a few of the leaps and bounds of the last decade. Compared with the situation in 1996, or even 1966 when tobacco was almost de rigueur, you might reasonably feel a measure of satisfaction.

Except, of course, for the truly intractable and life‑wasting tumours that still hover over all our lives. Poised and ready to strike, like a swarm of sinister angels from hell.

Our personal list might include Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), pancreatic adenocarcinoma, glioblastoma, and certain forms of ovarian and liver cancer. This handy list from ScienceDirect offers an excellent jumping‑off point for anyone who wants to learn more. [1] At which point the Reflective Reader might conclude: “More research to be done.” And there’s the rub, as Shakespeare would have it.

For over those same ten years we have drifted into an age when Science, Research and Investigation are increasingly at a discount rather than a premium. Attacks on climate science, vaccination, and epidemiology are nothing new — but they have increased in fury and frequency, and have afforded licence to dispute the findings of any reasonable and learned experts. Recall the vitriol poured on economists who challenged the latest popular fads in constitutional or economic matters, or sociologists who advocate a more rational approach to any number of issues around crime, the family and poverty. For a broader survey of these attacks on the physical sciences in general, see this link to The Skeptical Inquirer.[2], although for the sociological and economic tropes we have alluded to you’ll have to look elsewhere.

But it is not the specific assaults on rationality that matter so much as the intellectual climate they create. Facts are selected, conclusions jumped to, and the passion is for triumph rather than knowledge. Research is a human, social phenomenon, and it is as sensitive to the social trends around it as winds are to a warming climate. Some people may feel they gain by refusing to reason. But they will pay a long price in untreatable cancers, incurable epidemics, and broken economies.

How to remind them they still have time to make a choice?

[1] The 10 deadliest cancers, and why there’s no cure | Live Science

[2] The Disturbing Attacks on Science | Skeptical Inquirer

# Triple Negative Breast Cancer # glioblastoma # CAR-T # alcohol # cannabis #health #medicine #Climate Science

More good news on designer phages-and why we think they’ll work

Last week, with the help of our doughty researchers, we published a small piece describing how Artificial Intelligence is being employed to design new generations of bacteriophages, some of which might be used to target antibiotic‑resistant bacteria (LSS 8.8.26). Hopeful, certainly — but intelligent readers will ask the old question: what’s the chance any of this will work anytime soon?

Well, you’ll be glad to know that human‑modified bacteriophages have already been in action, and successfully too, since the far‑off days of 2024. They weren’t using AI to design the phages then, merely modifying them using another LSS favourite: CRISPR‑Cas9 gene editing.

Our first trope concerns a report in The Lancet Microbe, a long but reasonably readable paper describing a safety and tolerability trial of SNIPR001 — a combination of four CRISPR–Cas‑equipped bacteriophages — in healthy human volunteers. Results were encouraging:

“SNIPR001 was safe and well tolerated in healthy participants, with signals suggesting targeted activity against E. coli, despite the absence of a statistically significant effect.”

Our second trope comes from the excellent Michael Le Page of New Scientist, who reports on the clinical use of the same SNIPR technology — not a trial in healthy volunteers, but in an actual patient. His piece, CRISPR‑armed phages help treat severe superbug infection, is unfortunately behind a paywall, but worth crossing. It tells the story of a 65‑year‑old man in California with a severe, antibiotic‑resistant E. coli infection whose condition markedly improved after receiving these engineered phages. The lesson is clear: artificially-modified phages can work.

Now, nobody is claiming miracle cures — not the authors of the paper, nor Michael, nor ourselves. But all of us, in our different ways, are pointing to extremely encouraging signs. And remember our original point: all of the above took place, before our famous AI‑designed bacteriophages have even gone into trial. What possibilities might open up when they are fully deployed?

[1] Safety, recovery, and pharmacodynamics of CRISPR–Cas therapeutic SNIPR001: a phase 1, randomised, double-blind, first-in-human, dose-escalation study – The Lancet Microbe

[2] CRISPR-armed phages help treat severe superbug infection | New Scientist

# Artificial Intelligence # bacteriophages # SNIPR001 # CRISPR‑Cas9 #antibiotic resistance #bacteria #microbiology #medicine #health

AI designed Bacteriophages: Synthetic Life-or synthetic Evolution?

Ever attentive to our readers’ clamour for more good news on antibiotic resistance we bear yet another story on the synthesis of Artificial Intelligence with the frontiers of cellular biology to produce yet another remarkable advance. Yet we think, gentle readers, that this story may have far deeper significance for the evolution of life on this planet and who knows, several of the neighbouring ones in our Solar System, and today we will tell you why.

First the story, showcasing the work of the assiduous James Gallagher of the BBC.[1] Researchers at Stanford University[2] have used the AI systems Evo 1 and Evo 2 to design a new generation of entirely synthetic bacteriophages which have already proved effective against certain strains of E.coli. We will let our links tell the story of the ingenious Brian Hie and Samuel King and what their teams have accomplished: but regular readers will realise what a valuable new therapeutic technique this could be. Good journalist that he is, Gallager covers certain warnings too: but that is the BBC for you: balanced, nuanced and still true to its Reithian principles 100 years on.

But if you will forgive us, we think this is our opportunity to record why we think all this AI-meets-biology trope we have been covering for some years is truly significant. And it is this. For millions of years, organisms under attack-by parasites, predators, whatever- have relied on the slow, wasteful grind of Darwinian natural selection to stumble toward defence. Now, for the first time, a host species has stepped outside that blind process. With AI‑designed bacteriophages, the human brain—admittedly an organ shaped by old school evolution—is beginning to direct its own evolutionary responses by compressing what once took thousands of generations into deliberate, rapid invention. Not synthetic life, exactly, but something stranger: synthetic evolution. And, if human attempts to colonise the moon and nearby planetary systems are successful, these may be the new sorts of life forms that come to inhabit those worlds. Not sad old Darwinian selected eucaryotes like ourselves and our pet cats. Just a thought.

With thanks to Mr G Herbert and our in-house team of researchers who implored us to break our weekend embargo to bring you this story

[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y3j3ngevmo

[2] AI designs a novel E. coli killer | Stanford Report

#AI #bacteriophages #genomes #health #medicine #antibiotic resistance #evolution #biology #future

Cocktails from America: The Manhattan

In Cocktail homage to the United States, until recently the greatest nation on the planet, we have chosen the Manhattan. That ne plus ultra of the 1920s when America set out to rule the world through Modernity and Finance: and the island of Manhattan was the very centre of that rule. No, not Rhapsody in Blue, not Wall Street, not Macey’s, not even the New Yorker;-we firmly showcase the Manhattan because it is the city distilled: dark, glossy, slightly dangerous, and absolutely convinced of its own importance.

Prohibition didn’t kill the Manhattan, it made it forbidden and therefore mythic. It was the one they served in a joint off Times Square where you went in with a nod and password, and the man who served it was one of those Damon Runyon types who wore a waistcoat and knew how to keep his mouth shut. Because the clientele included not just flappers, journalists, gangsters and politicians, but also more than a few cops who did not carry the principles of their Office uncomfortably into private life. So as you mix one tomorrow night, you’ll have Manhattan, maybe even the Bronx and Staten Island too: but a fleeting taste of those brief decades when Democracy and Hyperconsumption looked like they would be the future of the world. How time trumps all of our illusions!

Method Freely adapted with thanks from the Hamlyn Ultimate Cocktail Book, that Bible of Style for sophisticated readers of all lands. Put five ice cubes into a mixing glass and add one measure of sweet vermouth and three measures of rye or bourbon whiskey. Stir them well and then strain sin hielo into a chilled cocktail glass. If you must decorate, a cherry on a stick might do: but you would have got some very old fashioned looks whether you were in Queens, Broadway, or any of the other choice locations across the length and breadth of old Gotham City in its Jazz age peak.

Enjoy a pleasant weekend,

#Manhattan #cocktails #New York #Jazz Age #prohibition #damon runyon #george gershwin

Round up: Wildfires, Craniums, Parkinsons disease, and a eulogy to the humble woodlouse

Photo by Rafael Minguet Delgado on Pexels.com

Extremely scary findings’ show climate crisis is supercharging Europe’s wildfire weather Beat that for a tag! Here’s The Guardian

‘Extremely scary findings’ show climate crisis is supercharging Europe’s wildfire weather | Wildfires | The Guardian

More on the muddle in the middle One of the most fascinating areas of human evolution is the last million years , a desperately confusing period when about five types of big brained hominins were running around: but which one was the true human ancestor? Now a new cranium from Spain sheds even more dark on the lightness, as El País explains

https://elpais.com/ciencia/2026-07-30/un-enigmatico-craneo-de-hace-200000-anos-hallado-en-ciudad-real-complica-aun-mas-el-lio-en-el-medio-de-la-evolucion-humana.

Climate: the debate heats up The question is not whether climate change caused the heatwave, but how much hotter and more dangerous heatwaves have become because greenhouse gases, primarily from burning fossil fuels, have accumulated in the atmosphere. Another thought provoking one from The Conversation

https://theconversation.com/was-this-heatwave-caused-by-climate-change-were-asking-the-wrong-question-288637?utm_medium=email&utm_cam

Lets hear it for the humble woodlouse Definitely one of the most valued and useful members of our garden’s flora, these industrious little animals have a surprisingly long pedigree, Nice gentle article from the Guardian

‘They are such neat, busy little folk’: the unexpected superpowers of the common woodlouse | Insects | The Guardian

More on digestion and disease It was New Scientist who first pointed us in this direction to be fair. But five years on the whole intriguing question of the relationship between the gut and the brain is now firmly on the agenda. However, today we showcase this excellent Technology Networks article which discusses it from a Parkinson’s therapies point of view

https://www.technologynetworks.com/immunology/articles/parkinsons-link-to-the-gutbrain-axis-presents-new-treatment-options-414048?spl=f28e4747276f437485

Where is the next pandemic coming from? The great Spanish biologist Ana Fernández-Sesma discusses hantavirus ebola respiratory viruses, vaccinations and much more in this wide ranging interview from El País

Ana Fernández-Sesma, bióloga: “Hay muchos chulitos que van de antivacunas, pero sí se inmunizan, y se lo callan” | Ciencia | EL PAÍS

Quote of the Week

“A fool despiseth wisdom and instruction.” — Proverbs 1:7

#climate change #vaccination #parkinsons disease #woodlouse #human evolution

Carbon Brief: What a website for all things Global Warming!

Readers, contributors, even our downtrodden staff, we apologise wholly and unreservedly for not telling you before about Carbon Brief. Because what a website it is, ladies and gentlemen! For here you will find everything you need in what is rapidly becoming the only issue of our soi-disant times, clear and present climate breakdown due to human induced global warming. But do not despair For Carbon Brief [1] has in depth coverage of climate science, policy, newsletters analysis and a handy Fact Check custom made to refute all the hot air opinions you’ll hear in the Dog and Duck this weekend. Has Mr Trump got it entirely 100% right about the IPCC? Can you think of nine myths about oil in the North Sea? What is really keeping UK energy prices so high (if you’re a mum with a family you might find that last one especially poignant) Answers to these and many more canards are to be found in this excellent section of the website. But of course there is much, much more.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, once more we can only apologise. For we have tried our best, our level best here on Climate change. But to be frank, compared to this lot we “am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal”, as St Paul memorably observed in his notable e mail to the Corinthians. From now on we honestly and humbly advise you to check out Carbon Brief wherever and whenever you need facts and balanced reason on the whole catastrophic matter. Teachers in particular might find swarms of subjects for lesson plans. Those enduring social visits from cantankerous relatives, or who have to deal with the opinions of elderly neighbours over the garden fence will find even more. We will end with an even more relevant extract from that same e mail from theat same wily old scribe from Damascus:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” That’s 1 Corinthians 13:12, to you and me.

Even if you’re not a Corinthian, click on Carbon Brief now. What are you waiting for?

[1] Home – Carbon Brief

#carbon brief #global warming #climate change #fossil fuels #coal #oil #ecological collapse

Fascinating new mitochondrial discovery may help reverse ageing (one day)

It’s not the new stuff that comes up, it’s the unexpected stuff that gets us out of bed in the mornings. So when someone publishes an article like the one we’re showcasing today [1] Metabolic Signal From Dysfunctional Mitochondria Linked to Aging from the excellent Technology Networks website we sit up and take notice. Not only does the story drag the humble mitochondria[2] into the middle of the ageing process, it straddles the whole complex frontiers of genetics, epigenetics and cell physiology, long-loved favourites of ours, as veteran readers will recall.

Researchers have long known that the body slowly accumulates large populations of zombie cells, which pump out cocktails of inflammatory molecules leading to frailty, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other ailments. ( at this point the parallel with societies accumulating large populations of ageing citizens pumping out ill informed and socially damaging opinions into the body politic occurred to us, but it won’t go in the blog). Instead of removing these cells, the researchers asked, would it be possible to switch off their damaging signals? It was known that damaged mitochondia leaked DNA and RNA into cells, setting off an inflammatory response. Now detailed investigation has uncovered the key signalling mechanism, the epigenetic switch, that turns on the whole process. And it turns out to be our old friend Acetyl CoA, that standby of the biochemical textbooks of our youth. To quote the article

the researchers discovered that senescent cells increase production of acetyl-CoA, a molecule generated through mitochondrial metabolism. Acetyl-CoA enables epigenetic modifications – chemical changes that regulate whether genes are switched on or off without altering the DNA sequence itself. These modifications make inflammatory genes more accessible, allowing them to be robustly expressed.

See what we mean about straddling three fields at once? Theres good therapeutic news too in the form of a transporter molecule that goes by the snappy name of SLC25A1. Blocking this may slow down the whole process, or so the researchers hope.

Our takeaways? First, thanks to our researchers for discovering the excellent Technology networks A click on their website revealed a cornucopia of learned articles, links, communities and much else. We will be visiting them again. Secondly: epigenetics, epigenetics, epigenetics. [3] Thirdly, you never know what you don’t know, and this whole area of mitochondria in ageing has been a bit of revelation to us. We can only conclude that the more you learn, the more you discover. Or is it the other way round?

[1]Metabolic Signal From Dysfunctional Mitochondria Linked to Aging | Technology Networks

[2]Mitochondria – Wikipedia

[3]Carey, Nessa. The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance. London: Icon Books, 2012.

#genetics #epigenetics #cell biology #mitochndria #ageing #biochemistry #health #medicine