Friday Night: Three Cocktails from Spain

Back in the far-off days before global warming, we often chose Spain in September or October. Think of it: the kids were back at school, so the hotel was peaceful and the pool usable. The worse of the summer heat was over (we said this was the olden days) and the very peak of the hordes had long since passed through Gatwick. Oh, the delight of that first cocktail at the old bar, especially if you were regulars, with a whole two weeks to kick your heels and hope you had enough towels to combat the breeze on the autumn beaches. So what better way to remember those golden days than these three tasty Spanish Cocktails, which should be enough to help the most recalcitrant learner master the imperfecto de subjunctivo mood of a tricky irregular verb.

Rebujito

The Andalusian feria classic — the toast of Seville’s spring fairs and Cádiz’s summer nights. Light, minty, dangerously drinkable.

Ingredients: Manzanilla or Fino sherry + lemon‑lime soda + mint.

Our Take: The Rebujito is Andalusia’s answer to heat: sherry made mischievously refreshing.”

Agua de Valencia

Properly Valencian; invented in the 1950s at Café Madrid. Bright, citrusy, celebratory — Spain in its sunniest mood.

Ingredients: Cava, orange juice, gin, vodka.

Our Take: “Many of the early novels of Blasco Ibáñez are set in the Huerta Valenciana.”

This line appeared around chapter three of our very first beginners’ Spanish textbook. It was such a magnificent non sequitur — who on earth was Blasco Ibáñez, and how many years would pass before we could read him? — that it became a running joke. Any time the word “Valencia” surfaced, we’d solemnly intone it. And we’ve been doing so ever since.

Granada Sunset

Modern bar invention; Spanish by colour palette and name rather than history. Fruity, layered, sunset‑in‑a‑glass-and, hang on, isn’t Granada supposed to be the home of the pomegranate or something?

Ingredients: Vodka or rum, pomegranate syrup (granada), orange juice, splash of soda.

Move over, Eagles and take your Tequila with you. This is the one to sip while tapping your feet to Rosalía and Aitana at the pool‑side bar, quietly hoping that the hotel’s Thursday‑night “flamenco spectacular” has been miraculously cancelled.

#spain #granada #valencia #sherry #cava #gin #cocktails #holidays #travel

Round up: Wildfires, vaccines, double starts, Junk no more-and how to spot a psychopath

Fiery Doom? Prof Gustaf Hugelius warns that intensifying wildfires and heatwaves are accelerating the release of methane and carbon from permafrost regions, some of which are already approaching — or have crossed — irreversible thaw thresholds, as reported by The Guardian.”

The threatening thaw: climate professor on heatwave risks to tipping point of permafrost | Environment | The Guardian

Vaccine crossover Getting vaccinated against shingles could cut the risk of developing not only dementia but heart disease, heart failure and stroke, according to a major study. We like this as it reinforces our old doctrine “research in one area fuels progress somewhere else. Anyway, the Mail explains all:

Simple vaccine could slash risk of dementia, stroke AND heart disease, study finds – experts urge Britons to get their shingles jab | Daily Mail Online

Life on earth may have started twice This one was so counter-intuitive we’ll just hand you over to Nature Briefing and say no more:they’re much cleverer than us anyway.

Researchers have gathered more evidence for the idea that the first spark that spawned us all — the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) — was a part-organic, part-rock chemical system that formed in the energetically and chemically rich environment of hydrothermal vents. New findings also suggest that the two oldest single-celled domains of life, bacteria and archaea, sprang independently from this first source.

Scientific American | 12 min read
Reference: Science Advances paper

Psycho vibes Could you spot a psychopath if one walked in to a pub near you? The Guardian explains how.

How to spot a psychopath: ‘It’s like the difference between a domestic cat and a wild cat’ | Psychology | The Guardian

Junk no more

DNA sequences once dismissed as junk may act like barcodes that help matching chromosomes find each other. Another shaker for those of us for whom “junk DNA” was a sine qua non. Until now!

https://www.technologynetworks.com/genomics/news/junk-dna-helps-chromosomes-find-their-partners-415920?fbclid=IwY2xjawT9QhBwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMFU1SjR6Q2hsamtwamFOMUxz

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I will do such things,— What they are yet I know not; but they shall be The terrors of the earth.”

King Lear, Act II, Scene IV

#cliamte change #global warming #wildfires #Junk DNA #origin of life #evolution #psychopath #vaccines #shingles #dementia

Nano particles offer ever more hope on antibiotics(we update an old blog)

Veteran readers will immediately recall our 2024 offering (LSS 17 2 24) in which we hailed the use of silica nanoparticles to deliver the antibiotic ceftadizine to patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD). Well, the world of nanoparticles and antibiotic resistance has not let the grass grow under its feet since that early date. For today we are proud to present no less than four(count ‘em, folks-four!) new developments which will bring a glimmer of hope to all of us interested in avoiding a catastrophic hyperpandemic unleashed by drug resistant microorganisms. Obviously we can’t go into exquisite detail gentle readers, but humbly hope that the following will whet your appetite for further reading along the lise we have indicated:

1. Nanoparticles delivering CRISPR

Nano particles are used to deliver CRISPR Cas engineered entities to knock out resistance generating genes in the target bacterium, such as blaNDM (New Delhi metallo‑β‑lactamase) as well as…..no, that’ll be more than enough gene names for today. But you get the picture.

Reference: Innovative approaches to combat antibiotic resistance: integrating CRISPR/Cas9 and nanoparticles against biofilm‑driven infections. BMC Medicine, Springer Nature.

2. Nanoparticles as Catalytic killers In effect the nanoparticles act as “nanozymes”, artificial enzymes in effect which release reactive species of oxygen molecules and knock out the bacteria directly. From delivery system to weapon system in one fell swoop!

Reference: Antimicrobial Nanozymes: Structure–Activity‑Guided Design, Synergy, and Applications. Research, Volume 9 (2026), ScienceDirect.

3. Biofilm‑penetrating LNPs

Fans of the COVID 19 pandemic will recall the development of Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to help the mRNA vaccines penetrate biofilm and deliver their loads at the point of maximum effect. Now it is being adapted for the world of antibiotic resistance. Another crossover where progress in one area helps in another, we think!

Reference: CRISPR‑based antimicrobials and nanomotor technologies for drug‑resistant biofilms. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, March 2026, ScienceDirect.

4. Hybrid nanoparticles (metal + polymer) overcoming efflux and membrane barriers

Always and forever, those pesky gram negative bacteria and their sturdy drug resistant membranes, what a fight they have put up! But now researchers have astutely combined membrane‑disrupting metals such as silver and copper with controlled‑release polymer shells, allowing antibiotics to slip past Gram‑negative outer membranes that previously blocked them

Reference: Antimicrobial Nanozymes: Structure–Activity‑Guided Design, Synergy, and Applications. Research, Volume 9 (2026), ScienceDirect.

We know you like us to keep you updated, good readers, Surelyb this is enough for one day?

#nanoparicles #COPD #antibiotic resistance #genes #CRISPR #health #medicine #metals #lipids #membranes

Another nudge for Nuclear Fusion

We have always been keen advocates of Nuclear Fusion, hoping for the ultimate in utterly clean utterly abundant power it represents (LSS passim) Until recently, our hopes seemed grounded more in faith than reason; perhaps our mistake was to expect a single, all-changing breakthrough to solve the problem at once. But the last few years have witnessed a series of small but steady advances-nudges, if you like- which suggest this ultimate goal of applied physics is getting nearer and nearer to becoming a practicable method. This item A new Billion dollar bet on Fusion Energy from Nature Briefing is another example of the substantive progress now being made

A company called Pacific Fusion has started to build a fusion machine that it hopes will be the first to generate more energy than it consumes, thanks to the use of immense pulses of electricity to squeeze capsules of hydrogen fuel. The billion-dollar facility, which will sit down the road from a major US nuclear-weapons laboratory, could also be used for research on the country’s ageing stockpile of nuclear warheads. It is one of dozens of start-ups flush with investment, all fuelling the dream of a fusion power plant that supplies virtually limitless clean energy.

Nature | 9 min read

Pacific Fusion – Powering a prosperous planet

#nuclear fusion #energy #sustainability #physics #greenhouse gases #hydrogen

Farewell Dolly Parton: you were truly a member of the Great and the Good

We at LSS have a confession: we never much cared for the Country and Western genre of music. Perhaps it was certain political and — er — philosophical associations it evoked, perhaps just the sound. But for those of us whose genre is the Baroque and whose Main Man is JS Bach, the good ol’ C&W was something we ignored at best. Until along came Dolly Parton, whose quip “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap” suddenly gave us a moment like those dismayed physicists who first confronted the Michelson–Morley experiment and realised everything you had previously believed was wrong.

For it revealed that we were in the presence of a formidably intelligent and accomplished mind. One that rose from a profoundly humble background to pen such world‑beating hits as Jolene, 9 to 5 and I Will Always Love You. Who worked with the greats in her own genre but also such luminaries as Paul McCartney, Miley Cyrus, Elton John and many more from the summits of world music. Who starred in successful films like Steel Magnolias and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And whose steely will and business acumen protected her from the fate of many female celebrities, trampled on by the men in their lives. Not Dolly. Don’t even think about it, boys.

But that is not, gentle readers, why Dolly Parton merits a very special place in our Blog’s Hall of Fame. It is her magnificent accomplishments in promoting the virtues of Learning and Science which earn her our highest accolade. Exhibit 1: her munificent donation to Vanderbilt University at the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic, which helped support early research contributing to the Moderna mRNA‑1273 vaccine. Exhibit 2: the breathtaking will to found the Imagination Library, which since 1995 has mailed over 300 million books to children across large stretches of the world. If that’s not creating readers for us, then what is?

A few years ago we ran a blog (LSS 9/2/24) in which we mocked a group we called the Great and the Good. We hoped we evoked a world of senior politicians, editors, orchestra conductors and other assorted ranks of la haute bourgeoisie who sit around drinking chianti and telling each other how much they have accomplished. Well, now we are going to evoke those words in their real sense to laud someone who was really Great and truly Good. Sleep well, Dolly — you have earned your rest.

[1]Dolly Parton obituary | Dolly Parton | The Guardian

[2]Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU

#library #mRNA vaccine #country and western music #philanthropy #music #entertainment #literacy #education #learning

Bond market worries: is America beginning to go the way of Spain and Britain?

Good morning gentle readers and welcome to another week in which we shall together learn even more about Science and Society. We’ll concentrate on the Society bit today, via economics. Because when two minds as acute as Katy Martin of the Financial Times[1] and Heather Stewart of the Guardian[2] coincide, we suspect that Society may be unravelling rather fast indeed.

WHAT KATY AND HEATHER SAY Both highlight disquieting instability in the US Bond Markets, particularly long term US Treasuries..Remember: this is the key metric by which foreigners judge a country’s future soundness and judgement, it filters out the short-term sound bites of spokespersons, and foxes the spins of friendly media. For US bonds, the outlook is becoming troubling. Yields are rising. And every intervention by Mr Bessent, however well intended, only seems to be making the markets ever more uneasy about US policy signals. What’s worse, all this worry seems to be bleeding into the dollar, the sheet anchor of the world financial system. We should be clear: Bessent is firefighting. The long‑term debt is not his creation, nor his remit. That belongs to Congress and the Presidency, and currently neither seems willing to confront the colossal $40 trillion IOU .Ok, financial ladies summarised :here follows our own gloss.

WHAT WE SAY Well, ever since the 1890s US Treasuries and the dollar have been the rock-solid anchors of the world economy. It’s like that when a superpower is at its peak. Everybody wants your currency: which in turn makes you strong because if you own the reserve currency, you can keep issuing in it long after everyone else runs out. Think the gold and silver backed currencies of Imperial Spain at its zenith, and the enormous role of Sterling and the Bank of England’s gold reserves before 1914. The first signs that these Empires were in decline was series of financial crises. Spain’s manifested themselves as a series of bankruptcies under Philip II and his successors. British readers will recall the interminable series of financial and balance of payments meltdowns -1914, 1931, 1940, 1947, 1956, 1967, 1976-are just the most outstanding as their own Empire declined from world hegemon to just another country in Europe.

Which begs the question: is America about to go the same way? Perhaps, but with some caveats. Firstly this is August and there are always some funny trades around in a quieter month. Secondly AI is competing mightily for funds in the capital markets, putting a squeeze on sovereign debt. And do not forget: this is still only a trend, America still has enormous economic potential. There is still time to elect a different Chief Executive and a different group of lawmakers to undo some of the damage of the last 20 months or so. But the warning from the ladies’ articles is clear: the margin for error is starting to narrow fast.

[1]Bossing the bond market around never works For once an FT article not behind a paywall, huzzah!

[2]Jumpy bond markets make it clear: Trump risks driving US into debt crisis | Heather Stewart | The Guardian

[3] Decline of Spain – Wikipedia

[4] British Empire – Wikipedia

#Scott bessent #US treasury bonds #financial crisis #dollar #imerial spain #imperial Britain #economics #finance #geopolitics

Roundup: Human fathers are best , mystery gold intrigues , climate mythologises, oppressed women suffer and sorry about the lack of 3D printers in this blog

Daddy knows best It seems that among mammals, human fathers are just about the best you can get. Is this our key evolutionary advantage, making the old narrative of the roaming, hyper‑masculinised killer‑ape into myth? Here’s El País

La evolución del padre: la mayoría de los mamíferos machos apenas se ocupan de sus crías | Ciencia | EL PAÍS

No peace for women The Taliban may have brought peace to Afghanistan; but not plenty yet, certainly not for the women of that ill-starred land. Here’s the Conversation on why and what next

https://theconversation.com/taliban-claims-five-years-of-peace-in-afghanistan-but-women-and-girls-face-oppression-289722?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Europes%20Ukraine%2

Green growth you can’t choose between climate and ecology says Larry Elliott for the Guardian, pointing out that changing climate is already inflicting serious economic damage

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/19/reform-says-we-need-to-choose-between-climate-and-economy-its-wrong

Hold that gold The discovery of a huge hidden gold hoard in Belgium raises more questions than it answers. Who hid it there? Why? Will anyone come to claim it? El País has more:

En busca del dueño perdido: Bélgica investiga el origen de un millonario tesoro descubierto por un obrero | Internacional | EL PAÍS

Tools in 3D Sorry, we don’t think we have covered 3D printers as much as we should have done. Potentially they could be just as history-making as AI or genetic engineering. So here is an excellent story from Nature Briefing Five ways 3D printing is improving Lab work to try to make up a bit

Scientists are using ever-cheaper and -simpler 3D printers to create their own tools. The results can cost much less than store-bought tools: one scientist estimates he’s saved more than £1 million by building his own flow reactors. It can also make research more accessible, when scientists share their designs. “You don’t need to buy it,” notes chemical engineer Magda Barecka of the 3D-printed flow cells she uses in her lab. “You just download this paper and you can print it on your own.”

Nature | 10 min read

Quote of the week

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” Proverbs 26 5

#3D printers #cliamte change #ecology #economics #woen #afghanistan #evolution #parenting #fathers #gold hoard

Intismeran:First successful Phase 3 trial for Personalised Vaccines

A 200X photomicrograph magnification of a direct by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Vaccines have been the most successful tool in public health for over 150 years. But up to now they have been generic: each one is raised and designed against a specific disease-such as rabies, smallpox and more recently malaria. A new class of vaccine changes that logic entirely. These are individualised neoantigen vaccines, built from the unique mutations in each patient’s tumour. Today we highlight the first positive Phase 3 results for one of these, as reported by the BBC’s Joe McFadden. [1]

Intismeran is constructed from the mutational “fingerprint” of each patient’s melanoma — a bespoke mRNA vaccine rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all jab. In the Phase 3 INTerpath‑001 trial, jointly run by Merck and Moderna, 1,137 patients with completely resected stage IIB–IV melanoma were randomised to receive either Keytruda (Merck’s anti‑PD‑1 therapy) alone or Keytruda plus Intismeran.[2] [3] This is how Joe summarises the early results:

Early results show this new jab extended the length of time these patients were cancer free, but it’s unclear for how long, according to an announcement by the two firms.

Encouraging, we say: hats off to the companies and scientists involved. As for the wider reaction from the scientific community, it is positive indeed, but we’ll leave it to Joe to tell you about that

At this point we invoke our two favourite LSS tropes: caution and caveat. This is an early-days report: the work must now jump all the usual hoops of peer review, regulatory approval scaling and much more before any kind of routine clinical applications are possible. But there are many reasons to be optimistic, not just about Intismeran, but also certain wider preoccupations of ours. Firstly: some of the best research is done by that happy, hard to define network of companies, research institutes and académe, which has done so much to transform the human condition since the nineteenth century. Secondly, genetic engineering, which we follow avidly here, is in its infancy-this is quite different to our regular antibiotics theme, isn’t it? But most of all, if you want life to really get better, stop believing in what you want to believe and start believing in the scientific method.

[1] Vaccine breakthrough stops cancer returning in trial – BBC News

[2] Merck and Moderna Announce Phase 3 INTerpath-001 Trial of Intismeran Autogene Plus KEYTRUDA® Met Endpoints of Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS) and Distant Metastasis-Free Survival (DMFS) in Patients With Completely Resected Stage IIB-IV Melanoma

[3] Merck-Moderna cancer vax slows recurrence in ph. 3 trial

# Intismeran # Keytruda #melanoma #vaccine #mRNA #health #medicine #cancer #reseach #peer review

ULEZ success suggests progress works-sometimes

Remember the waves of fury and anger that swept over certain sections of the population when the London ULEZ zone was introduced.? Among many acts of lawlessness, cameras and signs were smashed and street calming flower planters torn up, all to a cascade of spittle-flecked rage online and in certain popular news outlets. For those not au fait with every aspect of London news, ULEZ is a set of mayoral restrictions on the more lethal forms of traffic pollution, such as nitrous oxides and PM _2.5 particles which was introduced in part in 2019 before subsequent extensions in 2021 and 2023.

Now news comes, from Smitha Mundasad of the BBC,[1] of the remarkable health benefits which have already accrued in the short time since the new scheme’s introduction. A five year study of 3400 children(that’s good numbers, folks) comparing London to Luton(less polluted, but with same mix) revealed

Scientists say they have been “stunned” by how quickly young children’s lungs began to recover and grow after …….. after the introduction of an Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) in 2019 reduced emissions

Being good journalism, based on good science, Smitha points out that other factors must be considered as well. Of course: coping with complexity is what marks out this blog and its readers. But we know the ULEZ achievement to be remarkable nevertheless. And how much cleaner central London is looking these days![2]

Which brings us back to those on the other side who do not really do complexity. Their thought is fast, their opinion quickly formed, their conclusions firm. In this they reminded us of opponents of other episodes of social change: smoking bans in pubs leap to mind. But then we also recalled the angry opposition to seat belts; drink driving laws; clean air acts, child labour restrictions, slavery eradication…..all the way back to the same sort of people who opposed the abolition of gladiatorial games and beast hunting in Ancient Rome. Someone always sees the downside, don’t they?

Perhaps the common thread linking our opponents is not lack of education or indeed intelligence. Perhaps it is that they have made a bet that terrible things only happen to other people : so why should they care? This attitude may work for a while until it is applied to dealing with truly all encompassing phenomena such as antibiotic resistance , disease pandemics and global warming. At which point terrible things will happen to them too.

[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l1r1zne1ro?at_link_origin=BBCNews&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_link_type=web_link&at_campaign_type=owned

[2]Health risks related to air pollution by transport categories and vehicle types: Comparison by mortality indicators – ScienceDirect

#ULEZ #clean air #traffic pollution #health #london #diesel #particulates #lung #slavery #gladiators #smoking #antibiotic resistance #global warming #pandemics

Are you missing out on red light? A lightbulb moment for Graham Lawton and the New Scientist

It’s a funny thing to be a progressive. We ‘re always prey to the Law of Unintended Consequences. For example, we rack our brains to replace all those nasty energy intensive incandescent bulbs with lovely low energy LEDs . And suddenly there’s a new problem. Is the new light from the LEDs missing something the old incandescents were giving us for free? Something that might, just might, have been good us?

Now we take this problem seriously because it is brought to us by no less than Graham Lawton of the New Scientist, a sure guarantee of intellectual probity. Quite rightly the magazine keeps Graham and all its top writers behind a pay wall, so once again we beg you to either take a sub, or buy the magazine. But the essence of Graham’s article is that the old incandescent lights, for all their dreadful shortcomings. were throwing out long wavelength infrared light, a bit more like the natural light you find when you go outdoors. Graham presents intriguing evidence that these wavelengths stimulate mitochondria to produce energy-carrying ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which production facilitates any number of health benefits, But you’ll have to read his article to find out what those are! Not only do the new LEDs chop out most of that infrared; but the new types of window glass actually reduce its natural ingress further. If you are sitting indoors under the dominance of blue‑weighted indoor light (from computer screens for example) you may be missing out on something rather good.

So how do we as Whigs, progressives, rationalists or whatever you want to call us, take all this? Intelligent readers will already see the other side jumping up and down with glee “See-orl dem (expletive deleted) sointissstss tryin ter cure (expletive deleted) global warmin’ wiv dem crap new bulbs, only making fings worse etc etc” In the same spirit as they disparage initiatives such as renewable energy technologies or health initiatives such as the London ULEZ zone (see next blog) Well, let’s concentrate on the rationalist word Rationalists know the world to be infinitely complex, not reducible to tabloid newspaper soundbites. Naturally every new initiative will have a cost benefit ratio(only children believe in pure unalloyed good) The new LED’s have undoubtedly brought immense benefits Only a pub philosopher would be dim enough to throw them away. But we know the tools of reason and evidence will deal with this problem as it did with the other one. That is what differentiates us.

[1] The shock revelation that light bulbs are wrecking your metabolism | New Scientist

#incandescent bulbs #LED #energy #sustainability #red light #infra red #health #medicine #lighting #ATP