Does your immune system remember? An intriguing study reproduced in Nature suggests your previous exposure to pathogens influences your response to current ones. Which in turn raises questions about what we mean by “memory-and is it molecular? How childhood colds affect Covid

Evidence is building that people’s immune responses to COVID-19 could be affected by previous infections with common-cold coronaviruses. The phenomenon, evocatively dubbed original antigenic sin, has been documented for influenza: some people are better at fighting off seasonal flu when the strain of virus is similar to the first one they encountered in childhood. However, to what extent it affects people with COVID-19 — and whether it provides enhanced protection or hampers the immune response — is still unclear.Nature | 7 min read

Brexit Bounce LSS promised readers that we would be resolutely neutral on Brexit. So when some negative news on the subject emerges, such as the recent statistics from the Office of National Statistics, we’ll try to balance with some positive! Here’s one such from the Financial Times by George Parker and Jude Webber: Northern Ireland’s Post-Brexit trading advantage lures packing giant.

https://www.ft.com/content/0b6f751d-363b-424d-a452-7a235e13eb00

Wild at heart Everyone would love to see iconic large predators, such as wolves or lynx, re-introduced. Unless it’s near where they live. Hannah Petterson in the Conversation has a thought-provoking piece on the social, economic and ecological problems of trying this out with wolves in Spain.

https://theconversation.com/how-to-live-with-large-predators-lessons-from-spanish-wolf-country-167326?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%

It’s a junk yard up there As early as the 1960’s far-seers like Arthur C Clarke worried that Earth might end up with rings like Saturn’s, only made entirely of junk, like bits of old spacecraft, missing tools and unspeakable piles of the remains of spacefarer’s lunches. But it’s not funny if a bit of this slams into you at 28000 km per hour. Fortunately, someone wants to clean it up, and make a bit of cash as they do. Thanks Tory Shepherd of the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/nov/20/gas-station-in-space-new-plan-to-make-rocket-fuel-from-junk-in-earths-orbit

Well, there’s four to choose from. Have a happy weekend

#rewilding #immunity #covid-19 #brexit #space

Our choice for cocktails tonight is that old favourite Campari. This cheeky refreshing drink has been a barman’s standby by for centuries. Well, decades anyway. It’s another one of those bottled mixers we have alluded to in the past like Martini, Cinzano or Dubonnet. They mix so well and fit to so many occasions, from birthday parties, pre dinner drinks, diplomatic receptions to baby’s christening.

So we can do no better than link you to their colourful, picture-packed lively web site. Pick one to enjoy, Because we will.

https://www.campari.com/our-cocktails

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A few months ago (LSS 18August 2021) we published a piece entitled Nuclear Fusion: Is this a case of jam tomorrow? It was a bit sniffy and pessimistic. We noted current progress and astute readers will have sensed that we were still less than carried away by the whole thing. Nuclear fusion offers the promise of cheap abundant green energy which will transform the world. But people have been making these promises for more than sixty years. We remember the rocket of cold fusion soaring and falling back to earth in 1989. And anyway-isn’t there a free fusion reactor called the Sun handily close? All you need is a few photovoltaic panels.

But greater minds than our own think differently. We refer to that superb publication Nature Briefings, and will always pay attention to what they say. Today they run a review of latest commercial progress on the various efforts to tame the power of colliding nuclei. Nature puts its faith in advances in both materials and the supporting information technologies which should allow better designs of the reaction technologies, and hopes that these finally get researchers over the line.

It’s not that we’re against fusion, goos readers. We hope that our pessimism is unfounded. Read the article in that light, and keep your fingers crossed

The start-ups chasing fusion energy

Long derided as a prospect that is forever 30 years away, nuclear fusion seems finally to be approaching commercial viability. There are now more than 30 private fusion firms globally, attracting billions in private investments. Advances in materials research and computing are enabling technologies other than the standard designs that national and international agencies have pursued for so long. “Sooner or later this will be cracked,” says Chris Kelsall, chief executive of the fusion firm Tokamak Energy in Culham, UK. “And it will be transformative.”Nature | 15 min read

#fusion #energy #climatechange #nuclear fusion #power

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Even if we somehow survive global warming there’s another threat almost certain to get us. Once again LSS returns to the theme of antibiotic resistance, when organisms like E. coli become so resistant to our drugs that they multiply as they like and kill us all. Horribly.

We’ve used these blogs often to discuss progress in antibiotic research, and also more outre ideas like the use of AI and bacteriophages (LSS passim) Now a new approach is being pioneered by Cesar de la Fuente of the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the University of Naples. Using AI algorithms they are scanning the body’s vast storehouse of proteins and peptides, and discovering many hitherto unsuspected properties. Most exciting for us, gentle readers, is that many of these naturally produced molecules seem to have strong antimicrobial functions. This raises the possibility of a third method of treatment to run alongside improvements to to conventional antibiotics,and improvements to the immune system like mRNA vaccines.

Raul Limon‘s article for El Pais is a useful summary of Cesar’s work, and on progress generally in this field. English readers, be warned: you’ll need your translation app.

https://elpais.com/ciencia/2021-11-16/identificadas-2603-moleculas-producidas-por-el-organismo-de-forma-natural-que-tienen-capacidades-antibioticas.html

#protein #peptide #antibiotic #nature #bioscience #antimicrobials

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“He was not for an age, but for all time.” said Ben Johnson of William Shakespeare. The general consensus about Shakespeare was that he was so marvellously fair. Goodies and baddies went out of the window and in their place came an examination of the deep psychological drives of what may be called the human soul. Now we at LSS are proud to offer you the works of a contemporary playwright who imitates Shakespeare at least in that insight and objectivity.

James Graham is now 39 and grew up in a village bitterly divided by the miners’ strike of the 1980s. Perhaps this is why his plays are ostensibly political-like Shakespeare’s best. He covers such diverse subjects as Brexit, Rupert Murdoch and the bitter feuding of Gore Vidal and William Buckley. Yet the plays are so balanced and funny that even some of their subjects go to see them twice, as Rupert Murdoch is rumoured to have done with Ink.

There is something engaging about a media and political titan who can view an honest portrayal of themselves on stage. We cannot conceive of any past or present rulers of China and Russia doing so, and would take great care not to members of the cast, crew or audience of any such production. Murdoch believes in giving people what they want, not what educated people say they ought to want. He thinks the simple choices of the marketplace are more effectively democratic than a ballot. Perhaps this is a fallacy. But to sneer at Murdoch and his tribe of followers as so many do is to go down to massive political and economic defeat again and again and again.

What James Graham does is to open a space where we can discuss the oldest political question of all: do we construct on the way people actually are? Or do we aspire to something different and better? And be grateful-under Murdoch you are still free to ask that question. People in certain other places are not.

our link today from Dorian Lynskey of the Guardian covers the above issues in a refreshingly easy style

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/nov/15/james-graham-dominic-cummings-rupert-murdoch-gore-vidal-william-buckley-best-of-enemies

#freedom #humannature #theatre #rupert murdoch #gore vidal #william buckley #shakespeare

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some stories which go beyond the daily swirl

Tabloids heal thyself A peculiar feature of British life is the immense impact that our popular newspapers have on everything from politics and economics to our viewing habits. Simply because so many trust them as impeccable sources. Perhaps the following piece from Joe will show how perilous this trust may be. If they can’t get things right on a story about pubs and chips, what hope is there for their thoughts on macro-economic policy?

https://www.joe.co.uk/news/the-old-man-collecting-chips-from-every-single-wetherspoon-isnt-who-you-think-he-is-298912

_{we thank Mr Peter Seymour of Hertfordshire for this story}

At last, a European Capital Market? The irony is that Brexit has probably benefited the European Union more than the UK, leaving them free to speed up their plans for integration on everything from defence to law. Nowhere is this clearer than renewed attempts to form a single Capital Market for equities, sovereign debt and securities clearances, a Philip Stafford of the Financial Times makes clear. The point is not whether the particular enterprise of Mr Boujnah fails or not; it is the overall direction of travel. If London is not careful it could find itself isolated from the main stream of commerce, and dwindle to something the size of Geneva. Or Liechtenstein?

https://www.ft.com/content/baf47da8-e02d-4295-b22b-55f885cc65a1

Language and motor skills One of the great puzzles in science is where language came from. Perhaps we will never know. But one clue is the close association of regions of the brain which deal with fine motor skills, such as tool-handling, and language functions. Claudio Brozzoli and Simon Thibault explain their fascinating findings for The Conversation

https://theconversation.com/tool-use-and-language-skills-are-linked-in-the-brain-and-practising-one-improves-the-other-171464?

China US accord-what’s it worth? An intelligent follower of this blog wisely counselled that “you won’t do anything about global warming unless you get China on board.” We agree, but we think this is true for the US too, who were distinctly foot-dragging until the arrival of the more enlightened Biden Administration. Nature, surely the most intelligent of publications, gives a first take on the two countries’ Cop-side agreement , linking to the admirable Washington Post. At least it means the two superpowers are not fighting each other-yet.

The world’s two biggest greenhouse-gas emitters have issued a surprise joint declaration at COP26. The statement reiterates the countries’ commitment to the 2015 Paris agreement and promises “enhanced climate actions” to make it happen. “We both see that the challenge of climate change is an existential and severe one,” said Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua at an unannounced news conference. “In the area of climate change, there is more agreement between China and the US than there is disagreement.” The declaration was met with cautious optimism by observers, who note that it is short on firm deadlines or specific commitments, and partly restates a shared statement made in April.The Washington Post | 9 min read Reference: US-China joint Glasgow declaration

Exhibitions at Olympia Now we have all this fantastic AI lying around, what are we going to do with it? One use might be to make fantastic reconstructions of past glories, such as the original home of the Olympic games in Greece. Ian Randall has a charming article for the Mail about researchers who have done just that. LSS confession: we used to live near the eponymous area of West London, but it was nothing like this!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10186537/Archeology-Microsoft-uses-AI-digitally-recreate-site-Olympic-Games.html

#greece #olympia #earls court #capital markets #global warming #climate change #china #USA #tabloids

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Our American readers have been known to complain-“LSS is a bit Anglo Centric, there’s a lot more to the world than one part of one small island in the Eastern Atlantic!” True, very true, and point taken. So as the United States of America (and certain other countries) have their Thanksgiving Dinners coming up soon, we mark the occasion with a cocktail homage to the humble cranberry.

Why the cranberry? Well, on 25th November many Americans will be complementing their traditional turkeys made from the juice of this humble but exceedingly worthy red berry. Many readers of LSS will know that the American-deployed cranberry will most likely be Vaccinium macrocarpyn as opposed to the more British V. oxycoccus. But let’s not be cranberry purists! The juice of the little red fruit is packed with any number of vitamins and minerals, especially manganese, so moderate amounts will do you good. So without further ado, let’s look at three possibilities from Hamlyn’s Ultimate Cocktail Book which bring out the cranberry to its best.

Sea Breeze Put one measure of vodka, 1.5 measures of grapefruit juice, and 1.5 measures of cranberry juice into a hurricane glass. Crush 5 ice cubes and stir but don’t spill. Decorate with lemon and lime slices and serve with a straw. Dead simple, and a perfect opener for party guests, we say.

Sex on the Beach To be honest neither sex nor beaches seem to rank especially high on anyone’s agenda in freezing November, but this one’s got cranberries, so it makes the cut. Take a cocktail shaker and add 1/2 measure vodka, 1/2 measure peach schnapps, 1 measure cranberry juice, 1 measure fresh orange juice, and one of pineapple juice. Add 4-5 ice cubes and shake ’til they break. Pour to a tall glass, decorate with a cherry or two and serve with an environmentally-friendly straw Perhaps certain staid Puritan circles may disapprove of the name-but, hell, even Puritans have to come from somewhere, same as the rest of us.

,This one’s non alcoholic for the drivers. Put 600ml of cranberry juice and 600ml of fresh orange juice in a saucepan together with 150ml of pure water. Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice. Bring gently to boil and add sugar to taste. Simmer for about 8 minutes and serve to punch cups. Hamlyn recommend decorating with cherries mint sprigs, kumquats and a few cranberries. If you live some where near a fully stocked supermarket that is!

Well, there’s a few curtain raisers for any cranberry-themed dinner party. We hope you enjoy your day, whenever that is, and look forward to weekly round up tomorrow, where we have some great ideas for you

#cranberry #thanksgiving #USA #turkey

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The problem is not that so many lies are told, but that even more people believe them. So wrote someone far more intelligent than ourselves, but we can’t remember who it was. But we believe them, as should you. For the internet (and public sphere generally for that matter) is awash with lies, half truths and fake news.

As good children of the Enlightenment we assumed that this couldn’t be Reason and the findings of science, it was confidently asseverated, would slowly wash away at all misconception error, facilitating a world of abundance and wisdom for all.

You may have noticed this hasn’t happened.

So once again, what is it that drives so many people to believe the stories of chancers, grifters, con artists, boiler room boosters and the rest of the mendacious melange who have done so much damage over the last fifteen years or so? What we have done today is to offer you an assortment of writers and researchers who consider this trope from a variety of angles and perspectives in the hope that you have time to consider this most pressing of issues.

Janice Wood of Psych Central looks at why people continue to believe lies even after they have been proved wrong

https://psychcentral.com/news/2018/09/23/why-do-we-believe-lies-even-after-they-are-proven-wrong#1

Bill Gates and Yuval Noah Harari (great duo!) have a podcast and a bit of test. Our advice is-when you come across people who are this bright, listen to what they say

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Podcast/Why-do-we-believe-lies

It’s not only other people who believe lies- you have probably done it too. An nice exercise in humility for us all from Michael Austin of Psychology Today:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ethics-everyone/202106/why-we-believe-lies-and-how-resist

Well there’s some jumping off points, but these tips of the iceberg which we have shown you are filled with good links and jumping-off points. We hope that you’ll take them, because this is the biggest issue of our times.

#lies #fakenews #deception #fraud #massdelusion #conspiracy theories

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Tonight in England is Bonfire Night, Firework Night, call it what you will. It’s when we remember the Gunpowder plot of 1605 when blundering toff Guy Fawkes and chums tried to bring down Parliament and the constitution by blowing the entire building up with high explosives. Maybe if he’d just asked help from Boris Johnson, he could have saved a whole lot of money on gunpowder.

Tonight we will be out in the dark as fireworks flash and crash overhead, while the rich smell of burning wood pervades the air. Wrapped up against the early winter cold (this is the night winter really comes, not Halloween) and eager for some warming refreshment to kill the chill, in keeping with the occasion.

So what better drink to warm the inner man and woman than a nice hot punch? We’ve taken our recipe from a site called Delicious. Which is well worth a visit for all matters food, but on to the task:

Their mix is marvellously simple, but full of good flavours. Basically it’s golden rum, fino sherry, cognac sugar syrup and lemon juice. We’ll let you click to their site to find measures and method, but basically you mix them up in a warmed jug, add hot water, then pour into cups and stir with a stick of cinnamon. It’s the sorts of ingredients that would have been lying in the holds of wooden ships in the Thames on the night of the plot, and would have been well-known to seventeenth century drinkers.

And while you’re at it, why not try another November 5th treat-hot potatoes, baked in their jackets, then cut and filled with lashings of butter and sprinkled with salt and pepper? A quick and nutritious way to feed any number of guests at your firework party, or upon return from the one at the municipal park.

But wherever you are tonight, north or south, enjoy and stay safe. For professional reasons there can be no round up tomorrow, but we’ll see you next week with more scintillating stories and epoch-making exclusives.

The Editors

Hot rum punch

#guy fawkes #boris johnson #fireworks #bonfire #parliament #potatoes #hot punch #winter

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Once the antibiotics run out, modern medicine disappears with them. We need to develop new antibiotics, but we need other approaches as well. thinking outside the current box, if you will. One approach has been the revival of our old friends bacteriophages (LSS passim). But a rather exciting new line comes from the new world of nanomedicine.

Yanping Long and his colleagues have developed artificial macrophages, which will assist the capture and kill process of the body’s natural defences. By mimicking the irregular “hedgehog” like properties of natural macrophages, the researchers have structured their artificial ones to attain similar efficiencies in capturing the pathogens and delivering the “killer” molecules. Results with MRSA infections on rabbit skin look promising.  Alongside new conventional antibiotics other approaches, such as bacteriophages, we may yet be able to wriggle out of this particular threat.

Our link is a rather heavy real scientific paper from Nature Communications,[1]But do not be dismayed, gentle reader! The trick with scientific papers is to read the abstract. Plus this one has some really good diagrams, which by definition are easier to follow.

[1]https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26456-9

#antibiotic resistance #macrophages #nanomedicine