Heroes of Learning: The Master Kong (that’s “Confucius ” to you and me)

The most grievous defect of our Heroes of Learning series is that up to now, it has focussed almost entirely on subjects and thinkers from the Western Tradition. Which defect grows from our immersion in a cultural and educational system which has assumed that only Westerners ( and those being, largely, white men) have anything worthwhile to say on matters of philosophy and governance. A conceit cruelly exposed by current developments, especially in nations which have long nurtured independent traditions. Time then, with our world readership to look at other systems and thinkers. And we can think of no better place to start than The Master Kong(“Confucius” in the western tradition) who lived in the China’s Spring and Autumn Period probably between about 551 and 479 BC, making him a near predecessor of such western sages as Plato and Aristotle.[1]

Unlike those refined thinkers, Kong spent a lifetime in the dangerous hurly burly of government service, experiencing wars, coups and even a period of exile. It made him ask above all ”what is the basis for a stable social order? How can the state be made harmonious with the people?” To westerners all the way from Plato through Enlightenment philosophers to moderns such as Rawls, the answer has always been: “ reform the laws; and: institute a just constitution.” But for Master Kong, no set of laws, no constitution can long survive the actions of a venal and unstable ruler. For centuries, westerners seemed to have the answers. But recent experience of leaders who mistake authority for wisdom, bureaucracies that reward compliance over candour, and publics that lose trust when officials and private corporations behave without integrity, have shown this arrogance to be profoundly mistaken. Confucius inverts all: he insists that the State cannot exist without ethical leadership, truthful counsel and restraint. His Analects[2] [3] (actually compiled by his followers after his death exalt character, duty and wisdom as the basis for this stable State. And that these virtues must first of all be prized and cultivated by the leader and his counsel, before any other men will follow them

These teachings have been rediscovered and re-invented many times, becoming interwoven into the warp and weft of Chinese civilisation. They still inform the actions and thinking of leading statesmen to this day. The world has need of harmony and just order now. The prizes of attaining them are almost within grasp. The penalty of failing to do so will be lethal indeed. Has the world still time to learn from The Master Kong?

[1] Confucius – Wikipedia

[2]Confucio – Analectas, trad. Anne‑Hélène Suárez Girard, Editorial Trotta, Madrid, 2012.

[3]Edward Slingerland – Analects of Confucius: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, Hackett Publishing, 2003.

#master kong #confucius #china #civilisation #order #law #governance #state #anarchy #politics

More on why everyone hates Keir (but this time we’ve got serious back up)

A few months ago(LSS 5 2 26) we offered a short piece called Everyone hates Keir-here’s why, in which we pondered the troubles of Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s soon-to-be-former Prime Minister. And why this essentially dull, technocratic and overwhelmingly honest man seemed to inspire such depths of visceral hatred from so many of our fellow citizens. We tried to place it in the context of Britain’s economic decline. And our only conclusion was to liken poor Sir Keir to the sort of sensible family lawyer who tells a family of rakehell aristocrats that the family funds have finally run out. He’s not going to be welcome is he?

But today we are glad to bring you an explanation which we think goes far further, and has far more explanatory power than our own humble offering. For it comes from the sagacious Professor Ben Anderson of Durham University, in the Conversation, who places his own analysis in the context the post 2008 crash economic wasteland we all now inhabit. You should read the article for yourself; but to dare our own take, he argues that the politics of feeling have replaced the politics of coherent ideology. Poor Starmer offers reason, rationality and evidence in a world that longs for feelings of certainty, belonging and attachment.

And, we ask,what stronger feeling can there be than hatred? In some of the most memorable words we have read for some time, Professor Anderson tells us:

Hatred is intense, and that intensity is central to today’s politics of feeling. And so an apparent hatred of Starmer is about the experience of feeling something intensely – and the difference this makes to people’s everyday lives. Intense feeling interrupts boredom, loneliness and other kinds of ordinary malaise. And in uncertain and anxious times, hate offers the illusion of reassurance. It establishes an unequivocal position against something.

In such circumstances no rational centrist politician can thrive, nor even govern for long. Keynes noted that the whole world of Arts Sciences and Letters which he believed in were in mortal peril if the basic needs of ordinary people for security and food were not met. Thus he so accurately foresaw the raise of the dictators and the coming Second World War. Are we living through similar days again?

[1] https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-feeling-why-did-boring-prime-minister-keir-starmer-provoke-such-visceral-reactions-286491?utm_medium=email&utm_c

#sir keir starmer #politics #uk #economics #jm Keynes #labour party #psychology #emotion #reason #unreason

Round up: Orcas, Grandparents, Traffic nuisances, and another hidden cost of global warming

Biology of Grandparenting

This story from Nature Briefing suggests that ovaries take on a second, post‑fertility role — a reminder that life’s purpose isn’t exhausted by reproduction, and that the quiet power of grandparenting may be biologically deeper than we thought:

After the ovaries ramp down their reproductive role, releasing eggs and sex hormones, they might become more important to the immune system. Evidence from people and mice suggest that genes and proteins associated with immune activity are more active and prevalent in postreproductive ovaries — though it’s unclear whether it’s a beneficial change. “We really owe it to women’s health to study this period of time,” says reproductive biologist and study co-author Francesca Duncan. Science | 7 min read
Reference: Molecular Human Reproduction paper

Global Premium We’ve had concerns before here about how the rising costs of climate insurance could damage the economy. Of course no single story is conclusive, but this piece from the Guardian appears to be another straw in the wind

Rising cost of insuring against climate crisis will have wider knock-on effects for UK economy | Heather Stewart | The Guardian

Does Traffic drive street crime? As if all that pollution and accidents weren’t enough, a new study suggests that road traffic may be adding to vandalism, burglary and violence., according to this study in The Conversation

https://theconversation.com/does-traffic-drive-street-crime-our-study-investigated-284977?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Burnhams%2010-year%20plan%20for%20Britain%20-%2038355391

Orcas in Northumbria Recently we penned some pieces about dolphins and other cetaceans for various outlets in Sussex. But the lucky folks up in the North East seem to have something much, much bigger as their prime tourist attraction- actual real life Orcas, reports the Guardian Let’s hope they thrive and maybe a few volunteer to swim south!

‘Exploratory and curious animals’: mysterious rise in orca sightings off Northumberland coast | Marine life | The Guardian

For the record here is our own humble offering

https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/your-world/sussex-green-living-citizen-science-helps-dolphins-thrive-8646983?utm_source=Sussex+Green+Living&utm_campaign=89

AI isn’t quite ready to take over the world insisted our researchers when they put up this piece from the BBC about events at Ford Motors

Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks – BBC News

Quote of the week

Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.-Proverbs 25:14

#grandparent #insurance #economics #biology #climate change #orca #northumbria #Arificial Intelligence

We learn something new about cancer from a great website called The Scientist

One thing we value here is a well‑written science story that tells us something we didn’t know — and does so in a trustworthy, responsible way. Not the sensationalist, attention‑grabbing material that flashes across our screens all too often. So when our researchers came across Colorectal Cancer and Childhood Exposure to a Common Gut Bacterium by Laura Tran in The Scientist[1], we decided to look at the source itself, to see whether it deserves a place among the canon of science‑news providers we consider worthy of your attention, gentle readers.

As you might expect, The Scientist specialises in clear, sober reporting: across the biosciences, speaking very broadly. The style is terse and informative, closely aligned in spirit with the journals and institutions it covers. There’s a strong news section, a quarterly print magazine, topic‑based browsing, and a generous set of resources. Our test search — naturally, Antibiotics — produced several well‑illustrated, highly informative pieces.

If pressed, we’d say the ideal reader is intelligent, graduate or postgraduate, and probably working somewhere in the life sciences. But there is plenty here for teachers preparing a good science lesson too. Or even two.

Our verdict: not as bite‑sized as Nature Briefing, nor as magazine‑like as New Scientist, The Scientist nevertheless earns a worthy place alongside them as a provider of news and ideas for the educated and reasonable community (that’s us, gentle readers). And in an age when so much content is shaped for attention rather than understanding, that’s a very important thing indeed.

And having satisfied ourselves that The Scientist is indeed a sober and reliable chronicler of the biosciences, we can turn to the story that brought us there in the first place. It is a quietly important one: evidence that early‑life exposure to certain strains of that perfectly ordinary gut bacterium — Escherichia coli carrying a particular genetic island — may leave a mutational fingerprint that shows up years later in colorectal tumours. No melodrama, no scare‑stories, just the steady accumulation of data: mutational signatures, epidemiology, and the slow, careful work of linking mechanism to disease. This is exactly the sort of thing the scientific enterprise does well, and exactly the sort of thing we like to bring to your attention.

[1] https://www.the-scientist.com/childhood-exposure-to-bacterial-toxin-tied-to-early-onset-colorectal-cancer-72952?fbclid=IwY2xjawSxsvNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBVNUo0ekNo

#cancer #medicine #science #life science #research #laboratory #start up #biotechnology

Alternatives to a World Government: Part #1 of a new series

All the thinkers we admire say the same thing really: what is your alternative explanation? Bayes insists on always balancing two probabilities. Russell on always looking at the opposite point of view, Keynes on first establishing if your pet idea is general or just a special case. And Daniel Kahneman on checking which bit of your brain you’re thinking with anyway. Which brings us round to our universal panacea, a World Government. We’ve made the case for it a number of times here(LSS passim) so veteran readers will know our diagnosis: most of the problems of the world appear intractable because nation states can never work together with sufficient speed and co-operation to resolve them. Hence economic stagnation, growing xenophobia and a rapid breakdown of the ecological systems upon which we all depend for Life.

Hang on: because aren’t we muddling diagnosis with solution? In which case abolishing the nation state becomes a futile quest, and our World Government a mare’s nest. Are there other diagnoses of our ills which, if correc.t could address all these ills while safely retaining our systems of Governance.? We ought look at them : we owe our readers that much. And so we drew up a list of other possible root causes, which we cheerfully present below. We shall examine them in the coming weeks. Our candidates include Economic inequality. Institutional decay, Technological acceleration, and its concomitant, cognitive overload., Economic model exhaustion, Tribalism and Media systems and collapse of a common narrative

None of them are mutually exclusive and we will find overlapping themes, read similar authorities and consider facts more than once as we move through the series. So bear with us. But one thing we do know: one of you out there, maybe more than one, will have an idea we haven’t thought of. So if you want to put a candidate on the list let us know. In any case we look forward to all of you accompanying us on this next journey.

# bayes #jm keynes # bertrand russell #daniel kahneman #history #economics #politics #governance #technology

CRISPR meets Epigenetics: a marriage made in Heaven

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is a natural defence system found in bacteria, which scientists have turned into a programmable way to edit genes with extraordinary precision. In practice, it comprises two parts: a guide RNA that acts like a GPS to find the exact spot in DNA, and a Cas9 enzyme that acts like molecular scissors to cut the DNA. Once the DNA is cut, scientists can delete, fix, or replace genetic sequences inside a living cell. Our first Cover seems to have been over six years ago (LSS 23 11 20), since when we have noted a startling range practical applications from areas as diverse as horse breeding, and sickle cell medicine, to its relationship with blue sky techniques such as Base Pair editing, CART and programmable therapeutics (LSS passim).

How gratifying then to see CRISPR-based tools now partnered with epigenetics, that other old favourite of these humble pages! Once again the lead is taken by the indispensable Nature Briefing, now our go-to for all new things Scientific Their summary CRISPR’s next act: editing the epigenome tells you most of what you need to know. But some readers may well wish to click on the handy link too

A handful of start-up firms are testing therapies that target specific epigenetic markers — essentially chemical groups that sit on DNA and the proteins that it is wound around — to treat everything from high cholesterol to a rare muscular disorder. Changing these chemical markers can switch genes on or off. Some existing medications influence epigenetic markers, but these drugs act broadly and lack specificity. A new cadre of scientists has found ways to precisely alter the epigenetic signals that influence specific genes.

Nature | 15 min read

There is much here to gladden the hearts of all who believe in Reason and Learning. The technique seemingly so radical a few short years ago is not only becoming routine, it is embedding itself into the wider corpus of medical and scientific practice. Practicable applications are multiplying and the opportunities to reduce human and animal suffering are thereby multiplying. If anyone asks us “why do you take such an interest in the progress of the Arts, Sciences and Letters?” one answer we give is: because of things like this.

If you want to know more about epigenetics, or molecular biology in general, then we cannot do better than recommend the works of the great Professor Carey:

Carey, Nessa. The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance.London: Icon Books, 2011. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781848312920 (Icon Books); 9780231530712 (Columbia UP).

Carey, Nessa. Hacking the Code of Life: How Gene Editing Will Rewrite Our Futures.London: Icon Books, 2019. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781785784972 (Icon Books); 9780231549769 (Columbia UP).

#molecular biology #genetics #epigenetics #CRISPR Cas 9 #medicine #health #DNA #RNA

Gene Megacluster: a really big moment in antibiotic research

The idea of whole and unexpected possibilities in antibiotic research excites our highest hopes-and those of readers who have accompanied us on this journey for years. None more so than this report from Nature Briefing Gene Megacluster boosts antibiotic arsenal. We’ve set up their usual summary, plus links: and then we’ll try to answer a few of your questions as best we are able

A newly discovered gene ‘megacluster’ in Streptomyces bacteria enables them to produce a variety of potent antibiotic compounds. These compounds act as a multi-pronged offensive weapon against other species, with each targeting different stages of the bacterial metabolic process. It’s more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance to attacks that hit several targets, so the discovery could lead to the development of new antibiotics, experts say. The research has “discovered something new in a system so extensively studied — hidden in plain sight,” says medicinal chemist Mark Blaskovich

Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature paper

So, what is this gene megacluster? An unusual stretch of DNA in Streptomyces that encodes four distinct families of natural-product antibiotics, including: one compound entirely new to science, another never previously recognised as an antibiotic, and two known families deployed in a new coordinated fashion. Not a bad haul for one discovery, we think.

What does it do in Streptomyces? All four molecules target biotin (vitamin B7)—a universal cofactor required for growth, cell division, and metabolic enzyme function in most bacteria. They attack different points in the biotin pathway: production, uptake, use, and availability, aided by flanking streptavidin genes that bind up free biotin.

Why is this discovery genuinely new? Well , all sorts of reasons: here are a few of the best

–Co-location is unheard of: Antibiotic biosynthetic pathways are usually scattered across the genome. Here, four unrelated antibiotic families sit side-by-side, implying intentional evolutionary selection.

–Coordinated multi-antibiotic strategy: Natural antibiotics typically act alone. This cluster encodes a team of molecules that hit the same vulnerability from different angles—something not previously documented.

–Hidden in plain sight :Streptomyces genomes have been mined for decades, yet this megacluster was overlooked because genome-mining tools historically focused on single-product clusters. We love this bit, as regular readers will have already discerned

–It appears to be widespread. The megacluster is present across multiple Streptomyces species, suggesting an ancient, conserved strategy rather than a rare curiosity.

Could similar clusters exist in other organisms? Likely, yes. The discovery provides a road map for genome mining that looks for coordinated multi-pathway clusters, not just single biosynthetic islands Early research might do better to focus on procaryotes rather than eucaryotes-but who knows?

How could it help us to develop new antibiotics? This is the Big One for us , isn’t it? Lots of ways potentially, but as of late June 2026 three practical routes suggest themselves:

1. Direct development of the four biotin-targeting molecules. Because they attack different steps in the same essential pathway, they could be: used individually, combined as a cocktail, or engineered into hybrid molecules. Multi-target antibiotics are inherently harder for pathogens to resist. So that will teach them we’re serious this time.

2. Synthetic biology reconstruction. The megacluster’s architecture can be transplanted into: Streptomyces strains, E. coli or yeast expression systems, or modular cell-free platforms, permitting all sorts of scaling and production advantages

3. Drug discovery by analogy The discovery provides a template: look for clusters that coordinate attacks on other essential pathways (e.g., folate, isoprenoid synthesis, lipid II). Genome mining guided by this logic could uncover dozens of new multi-pronged antibiotic families.

4. Biotin-pathway inhibitors as a new class Biotin metabolism is conserved across many pathogens, including Gram-negatives—historically hard to target. These molecules could seed a new class of antibiotics that bypass existing resistance mechanisms

At this blog we tend to rate discoveries by the possibilities they open rather than the questions they answer. By that metric, this one is big indeed-and we think you’ll al agree with that.

#antibiotic research #antibiotic resistance #health #medicine #biotechnology #genetic engineering #research #bacteria

Friday Night: Canadian Cocktails

“Canada : it’s a country where scale, sanity, and scenery all conspire in the traveller’s favour. You get cities that hum without overwhelming you — Vancouver’s ocean‑and‑mountain glamour, Montréal’s café‑soaked charm, Toronto’s multicultural thrum — and then, ten minutes later, you’re in a forest so vast it feels like a thought experiment. Lakes the size of small nations, wildlife that treats humans as mildly interesting background noise, and a national temperament that is unfailingly polite without being saccharine. For the holidaymaker, it’s the rare place where you can have adventure without chaos, wilderness without hardship, and culture without crowds.”

All of the preceding has been recently confirmed by first hand reports which have just reached us. In fact, the two travellers concerned (plus wives) so very much enjoyed the place that we thought we’d salute their achievements by penning a hymn of praise to Canadian cocktails. And to save time we are going to link you directly to some brilliant experts called My Bartender [1] who have compiled a list of no less than eight (count ‘em- eight!) delicious recipes, including how to make them, how to serve them, and above all how to enjoy them, whether you are touring the Maple Leaf Land itself, or sitting somewhere altogether more cramped like these sweaty offices in Croydon. Read their outpourings now to learn more about the eponymous Canadian Cocktail, the Maple Leaf (how Canadian is that?),the Canadian Maple Leaf old fashioned(answer: even more so) The White Canadian (must be good up on the snows of Baffin Island) The French Canadian (we say “oui” to that), JP Wisers Apple Jam’n (sounds as if it could soothe the savagest sasquatch) The Strawberry Sour(ditto a bear) and finally the Canadian Caesar( not to be confused with the American Caesar-he is become so tiresome lately)

And we hope that by sipping just one of the above you you will get some taste of this glorious country which our correspondents enjoyed so very much

By the way: do not really attempt to soothe actual bears with cocktails. They have their own views on mixology and tend to become prickly and stand offish at even small frustrations

_{Thanks to P Seymour and G Herbert}

[1] 8 Best Canadian Cocktails to Drink

#cocktails #canada #travel #rocky mountains #holidays

Round up : Bird Flu hits Australia. Ancient comet, Free hydrogen, Who gets the last laugh?

Photo by Frans van Heerden on Pexels.com

Bird flu has reached every continent reports Nature Briefing. Maybe H₅N₁ may never cause a human pandemic — but avian influenza viruses will keep trying, so tracking H₅N_{1 ‘s} march to Australia matters. Because when the Big One hits, we will need every bit of data we can get

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has been detected in two wild birds in Australia — the first cases of the disease on the continent. There’s no evidence that the virus has killed large groups of birds or mammals, but at least 58 sick or dead birds have been reported on an emergency hotline. Mainland Australia had previously been a stronghold against the virus, but “we all knew we couldn’t be bird flu-free forever”, says Julie Collins, the country’s agricultural minister. BBC | 4 min read & ABC News | 6 min read

Older than the stars? The detection of interstellar comets, true visitors to our solar system from far away, has been one of the recent achievements of Astronomy. The Guardian has this story about the latest, from the true depths of time:

Interstellar comet may be oldest object seen in our solar system, scientists say | Comets | The Guardian

There’s hydrogen in them there hills Imagine what a clean natural source of hydrogen could do for sustainable lifestyles. It may be lurking out there in the tectonic folds of the Alps reports the Guardian

Could mountains be key to unlocking hydrogen’s potential? | Science | The Guardian

Apes are good for a laugh It seems humans have two types of laugh, neurologically speaking One shared with out great ape relatives, and one more particularly our own according to El País. As Nature Briefing has more on the fascinating theme of primate humour, we decided to throw in their take on it as well.

Una risa ancestral y otra puramente humana nacen en distintas regiones del cerebro | Ciencia | EL PAÍS

Humans and apes share a laugh

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and children laugh in similar rhythms when tickled. Researchers found that kids and apes left evenly spaced intervals between laughing sounds during a tickle attack, though children had a faster laughter rhythm compared with apes. Laughter might have picked up pace during the course of human evolution, the team suggests, which could reveal “something about laughter itself, but also, in a way, about the evolution of human speech”, says primatologist and study co-author Chiara De Gregorio. Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Communications Biology paper

Quote of the week He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. John Stuart Mill On Liberty

# H₅N₁#avian influenza #interstellar comets#astronomy #primatology #evolution #sustainable energy #hydrogen

Rechargeable liquid battery-one of the best news stories for a long time

One of the great pleasures of writing this blog is the opportunity to riff on really good news stories. Especially when they come from trustworthy and erudite sources like Nature Briefing. Even more when they fit so clearly with our own ideas on how humanity might survive this interminable polycrisis. Let’s begin with the story, New Liquid acts like rechargeable battery which they are basing on Science and Chem (their links below)

A new type of liquid can harvest and store energy from light to act as a rechargeable power source. The liquid contains a molecule that absorbs electrons from light, which prompts a restructure into a jelly-like substance. This gel remains stable for months at a time and can release the stored electrons upon contact with oxygen to power chemical reactions. The research is still in very early stages, but such a metal-free energy storage system could one day be useful to power small devices such as smartwatches. Science | 4 min read
Reference: Chem paper

And our thoughts? They are both particular and general, gentle readers. In particular; it’s early days yet but if it works, we are looking at a metal free battery replacement. Think of how much dirty, energy intensive mining that could save. No more batteries to throw away. Even the complex panels and wires of modern panels suddenly look a tad passé, don’t they? Putting the new technology firmly on the same road as other new imaginative third-generation systems such as organic solar cells and self-charging polymers. The portfolio of ever more imaginative and ever more ecologically sound generation systems just grows and grows. Which leads us to our general points. Firstly: to preserve such archaic technologies as oil and gas is as mistaken as wanting to go back to typewriters in offices or using huge stone circles such as the one at Stonehenge to tell the time. Any nation that chooses fossil fuels will soon be at a hopeless technological disadvantage. But secondly: get this from the Science article, because we think it’s a killer point about everything we do here

The new material draws inspiration from the behaviour of the cytoskeleton, the constantly self-assembling and disassembling network of protein filaments within a cell that enables it to move and divide.

Yes, you guessed it, That same oft-repeated truism we’re always trotting out “basic research in one area will produce unexpected dividends elsewhere” has been proved again. That’s something our readers all around the world will agree with.

#energy #technology #sustainability #solar power #batteries carbon emissions #renewables