stories that might make it past the week
Bank Of England Independence Reports that Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss may end 25 years of independence for the Bank of England raise more than one eyebrow. If she does it, it suggests that every important financial and monetary decision will first have to be run through the editorial offices of the Daily Mail. Let’s hope they’re as good at economics as they are at winning elections! Here’s the Indy, one of the Mail‘s Bete Noirs:
Source for the goose, source for the gander Except the poor old geese won’t be swimming in the Thames any time soon. Not in it’s upper reaches anyway. Many, many years ago an inveterate climate change denier told us “I’ll believe in global warming when the river dries up (OK, he meant the Avon) However we suggest he reads this , sourced from the Guardian
Levelling Up in California Economic inequality is a colossal drag on economic efficiency, partly because it engenders poor health outcomes. Nature offers a truly thoughtful analysis: Can Science confront inequality’s deadly toll?
| In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the people who work in the fields, orchards and meat-packing plants are among the hardest hit by COVID-19. Food and agricultural workers in California had an almost 40% increased risk of dying last year, compared with the risk for the state’s general population. Tragically, this inequality is no surprise: a century of research has shown that social determinants drive disease. The question is, what is science going to do about it? “We know what the impact is of a lack of employment, a lack of fair wages, a lack of transport, of poor education and racism,” says public-health historian Graham Mooney. “So, if public health has no power to influence these issues, then public health becomes nothing.”Nature | 23 min read This in-depth feature from April 2021 was a finalist for this years’ National Institute for Health Care Management Trade Journalism Award. |
Quantum Confusion Ever had ten minutes to spare and though to yourself “I’ll master quantum physics today?” We tried it once, and collapsed into a sea of hundreds of different particles all with different names. Protons, muons, neutrons, leptons, gluons, quarks… you might as well try to learn the names of all the different types of animals and plants in a museum of natural history. Now the Conversation describes a new naming scheme which tries to make sense of this vast pool of data
It’s reality that makes the world go round Because it really, really is round, like a giant football, as María Belén Muñoz García proves for El País. (anglophones-translators at the ready)
And Finally…..Is LSS too anglocentric? We don’t want to start navel gazing, but one or two overseas readers have suggested we focus a little too much on Old Blighty and its myriad problems. Well, we sit in England and speak the language, so our news and comment feeds are going to be heavily biased towards those on offer in that country.. And remember this…..other countries have rivers, quantum particles, social problems…..you name it. England is indeed just another country, which means your problems won’t go away either. But all feedback is welcomed and we will try as hard as ever to represent the problems and views of the wider world as far as our resources will allow it.
#quantum physics #global warming #inequality #liz truss #conspiract theories
Learning, Science and Society 