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Were you ever at school, or university, with one of those super clever people? You know, the ones who came top in nearly every subject? And outside class they could draw, play the guitar, drink everyone under the table, crack the best jokes, and still manage to be amazingly popular and well liked? Years later you run across them on the internet and they are multimillionaires running large companies. Or you find their books cramming the science section in your local Waterstones, and you can’t even understand the blurb on the back.

But is there another class of person even beyond your average, run of the mill genius, a person so clever that they have changed the world forever? We think we have found a possible candidate. Ladies and Gentleman, may we introduce Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban Kt PC QC (1561-1626)or Lord Verulam as he was known to his friends. In our age, where it seems impossible to get anything done without intense specialisation, Bacon managed to be Attorney General, Lord Chancellor, Master Librarian, Counsellor to Monarchs, and inventor of the scientific method. And that was where he counted. Bacon it was who more or less invented inductive reasoning. That is, you come up with an idea, gather all the evidence you can, assess and test it, then make a final judgement, which can only ever be a probability statement. That’s why we have vaccines, space travel, electric lights, powered flight, and understand so much about the depths of space and time.

If you want to read more about Bacon, his friends and enemies, his sexual proclivities, and his achievements in general, the Wikipedia article below is a good place to start. He was born in the last days of the Renaissance, and paved the way for the Enlightenment, whose early thinkers such as Spinoza, Hobbes and Descartes were just over the horizon. That’s quite a guy.

Francis Bacon – Wikipedia

#francisbacon #renaissance #enlightenment #inductivereasoning #science #philosophy

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News that infection with a rhinovirus such as common cold, can protect you from Coronavirus infections may yet turn out to be very significant indeed. Let’s start with the story; today we’ll use the BBC but most outlets are covering it. According to James Gallagher, * researchers at the University of Glasgow Virus Research Unit have found :

If rhinovirus and Sars-CoV-2 were released at the same time, only rhinovirus is successful. If rhinovirus had a 24-hour head start then Sars-CoV-2 does not get a look in. And even when Sars-CoV-2 had 24-hours to get started, rhinovirus boots it out.

What impresses us at LSS is the surprising, counter-intuitive nature of the discovery. When that happens, you usually find that you’re on to something bigger. Older readers will probably recall the furore1887, when the strange results of the Michelson-Morley experiment showed that the speed of light was the same in all directions. It eventually opened the way to the Theory of Relativity. Darwin and Wallace‘s observations of anomolous patterns in animal distribution eventually led to the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. And so we at LSS think the University of Glasgow researchers could be onto something very deep in the ways that cells and viruses control the processing of RNA and DNA, and with it the flow of information. If so, it could save many more lives indeed.

Coronavirus: How the common cold can boot out Covid – BBC News

Human rhinovirus infection blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication within the respiratory epithelium: implications for COVID-19 epidemiology | The Journal of Infectious Diseases | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

#rna #dna #rhinovirus #coronavirus #sars-cov-2 #commoncold #universityglasgow #interferon

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Courageous. Indomitable. Erudite. Intelligent. Humane. These are only a few of the adjectives we could apply to Nawal El Saadawi. It’s one thing to be a feminist on a western university campus. Try your faith in somewhere like Egypt if you want to see what its application is really like. Because she did.

Born in a family of nine children, in a culture whose prevailing ethos was summed up by her own grandmother as “one boy is worth fifteen girls” she managed to qualify as a doctor before setting out on a lifetime of writing, political activism and public health. On the way she managed to upset just about every ruler of Egypt. Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak, Morzi- secular or Islaamist, she rubbed them up the wrong way with equal gusto. Read her obituary by Sarah A Smith in the Guardian * below, but do see that as a place to begin, not end, this remarkable life.

Those who have lived comfortable lives, where beliefs can more more like hobbies or career vehicles, or who imagine their lives ruined by a failure to acquire the very latest Armani suit, should take heart. Because there are people who surpass us in intelligence,bravery and imagination, and it will be them who save all our lives.

Nawal El Saadawi obituary | Feminism | The Guardian

#feminism #womensrights #egypt

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Ask the average man in the street “Oi-mate-what’s the antimatter?” and he’d probably tell you that antimatter is a particulate wave-particle phenomenon, obeying the laws of quantum mechanics exactly as matter does, except it’s negative. If pushed, and he had time to spare from, say, putting up a bit of scaffold or clearing your rubbish bins, he would probably quote the well known Schrodinger equation, which says it all as far as we’re concerned:

or to put it layman’s terms:

_{reproduced courtesy of wikipedia}

Now that’s cleared up, let’s get to the point. Which is that anti matter is the direct opposite of matter. When they meet they mutually annihilate. With a huge bang. Which could be an enormous source of energy. Or a great new weapon to fight baddy aliens. The problem is finding it. Because to make even a tiny sample is incredibly tricky and expensive, and it only lasts for about one million billionth of a microsecond.

All of which raises a problem. If antimatter and matter are completely equal and symmetrical they must have been present when the Big Bang went off, right? Which must must have left equal amounts of both scattered around the universe, like old chips from a carelessly-discarded take away meal. Except it isn’t like that. Everywhere you look, it’s about 99.99999% matter. So have we got it wrong about antimatter? Or the big bang? Or what? That excellent web site Live Science has a great take on this at number #5 on the link below-and there’s a few more headbreakers as well. Enjoy.

The Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics | Live Science

Antimatter – Wikipedia

#antimatter #matter #bigbang #quantumphysics #unsolvedproblems #space #time

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Welcome to our weekly collection of things we thought were good, but didn’t have the space to cover in bigger pieces.

Greening the cities If we are going to survive at all, we need to make our cities much much greener. There are enormous ecological bonuses in refurbishment, if it’s done correctly. Here Phineas Harper of the Guardian discusses exciting new ideas from those prize winning Parisiens Anne Lacaton and Jean-Phillipe Vassal

There’s a simple way to make our cities greener – without a wrecking ball | Architecture | The Guardian

Immunity-don’t follow the herd About a year ago there was an enormous buzz around herd immunity, and how it would protect us from Covid-19 wihout the need for lock downs and vaccines. We at LSS always had our doubts. However Nature seems to have shot that fox once and for all. Read this,if you dare

Even with vaccination efforts in full force, the theoretical threshold for vanquishing COVID-19 looks out of reach, say scientists who are modelling the pandemic’s progress. Most estimates had placed the threshold at 60–70% of the population, but several factors seem to be pushing it up:

• Authorized vaccines can prevent people from getting sick with COVID-19. But it is still unclear to what extent they block infection and transmission. If vaccines don’t prevent SARS-CoV-2 from spreading, then many more people must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
• A perfectly coordinated global vaccination campaign might have wiped out COVID-19, but the roll-out is wildly uneven. For example, Israel is closing in on the theoretical herd-immunity threshold, but its neighbours Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt have yet to vaccinate even 1% of their respective populations. This leaves pockets of vulnerability where the disease can surge and then spread.
• There are no authorized vaccines for children, so most adults would need to be immunized to achieve herd immunity.
• We’re in a race with new variants of SARS-CoV-2 that might be more transmissible and resistant to vaccines. A new variant could undo our progress.
• It’s not yet clear how long naturally acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection lasts, but it’s probably not forever. As immunity wanes, people become susceptible to reinfection and no longer contribute to herd immunity.
• The herd-immunity threshold gets higher when people relax their vigilance. “The vaccine is not bulletproof,” says biomedical data scientist Dvir Aran. Imagine that a vaccine offers 90% protection: “If before the vaccine you met at most one person, and now with vaccines you meet 10 people, you’re back to square one.”

So what does the future look like without herd immunity? The spectacularly speedy development of vaccines that reduce hospitalizations and deaths still implies a hopeful outcome. But in the long term, scientists think COVID-19 might become an endemic disease, much like influenza.Nature | 10 min read
Read more: The coronavirus is here to stay — here’s what that means (Nature | 11 min read)

Lightning never strikes twice Lots of planets moons and asteroids seem to have some of the conditions for life-but why did seem to have kicked off only on earth? One theory is that lightning strikes gave our ancestral molecules the necessary push. Seems a bit like those old Frankenstein films, doesn’t it? Here’s The Conversation with Benn Hess and his pals.

https://theconversation.com/origin-of-life-lightning-strikes-may-have-provided-missing-ingredient-for-earths-first-o

We too have an enormous reading programme this weekend, gentle readers. It’s the sign of an open mind. So let’s all get on with it-now!

#originoflife #astrobiology #sars-cov-2 #covid-19 #herdimmunity #greencities #environment #pollution #globalwarming

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Let’s get in a time machine and fly back exactly fifty years. It’s Friday 19th March 1971. The year that Britain will vote to join the fledgling EEC. Decimal money has arrived. Most people are relieved to get their letters and parcels back after a six week postal strike. Imagine you had just bought your brand new executive home on the outskirts of London, and were about to receive guests for a housewarming party, where doubtless you would discuss the above, and many other issues. But what would you have served?

If you hadn’t lined one up, you could rely on one of your guests to show up with a Watneys Party Seven. This was a large can which held seven pints of cheap beer and was designed to slake thirsts all night. Watneys , brewers of the famous red barrel were incredibly succesful at this time. Yet the real ale boom of the1970s was about to cover their brand names in obloquy and by 1979 they were no more.

Ladies (it was a less equal and enlightened age, remember) might have preferred Babycham. This was a cool light sparkling perry which had taken the 1960s by storm, and would not go into decline until the late seventies, when it looked to be going the same way as Ben Truman, cheap aftershave, and the British Motor Industry. Luckily for mankind, die hard enthusiasts kept this one on life support, and recently modest increases in sales have been reported.

Elsewhere in the room a new beast was stirring. Before the 1970s, the further you went down the social scale in Britain, the stronger was the regrettable assumption that drinking wine was somehow foreign, an unusual practice associated with those whose jobs were considered to be slightly -er-unmanly. Yet the sophisticated crowd (those who had been on a 10 day package holiday to Alicante) were bringing back exciting tales of wicked foreigners and their strange goings on-and wanted more. Up sprang a whole range of bottles with funny names like Hirondelle, Blue Nun, Black Tower, Mateus Rose– to cater to the tastes of this elite segment who knew, in the words of the old song “the future belongs to me!”

No seventies evening was complete without nibbles. (canapes were something you put over the patio when it rained) First there was The Snack with No Name. This comprised a single cocktail stick bearing a square lump of cheese and another of pineapple. Ubiquitous throughout the 1970s, they were abolished by Act of Parliament as one of the first actions of the Thatcher Government in 1979, and were never seen again. Peanuts came in one form only-salted. Of crisps, there were but three-salted, cheese and onion and prawn cocktail. Talking of which, it was the height of sophistication to put real prawn cocktail into hollowed out advocados-and assure doubtful guests that you did not own a cat.

So now lets drop the diamond stylus of our new Decca stereo on the first of tonights selection from the Hit Parade. It’s Resurrection Shuffle by Ashton Garner and Dyke. Coming up are Bridget the Midget by Ray Stevens and My Sweet Lord by George Harrison. But best of all, the number one sound. Hot Love by T Rex. We feel sure the publishers will not mind if we quote a line from its sophisticated, almost Wildean lyrics, and leave you to enjoy the weekend

She ain’t no witch and I love the way she twitch, oh ho ho (there’s a link below)

Happy 1971

Watney Combe & Reid – Wikipedia We understand the party seven is making a come back-wow!)

Worthington Brewery – Wikipedia

Products | Babycham

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hirondelle+wine+advert&qpvt=hirondelle+wine+advert&form=IGRE&first=1&t

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=T+Rex+hot+love+&&view=detail&mid=9863CFCB0D78680F27B69863CFCB0D

#cocktailnight #watneys #babycham #hirondelle #1971

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Even before the release of Frank Sinatra‘s immortal classic Come Fly With Me, we at LSS have always been staunch fans of aviation. It’s not just the hackneyed cliches about business and pleasure, important though these may well be. It’s the way that planes have made the word smaller, forcing even the most inveterate xenophobes to at least admit that other people may actually exist-which is a lot.

The trouble is that old skool planes are noisy, intrusive and unbelievably polluting. Yes the industry is trying to work with governments to clean up its act. But it’s proving really tricky and we would hate to find a juncture where one had to choose between giving up the connectedness of flying in order to save the planet. Now a company called Faradair thinks it may have found a way around the dilemma. Writng in the Guardian, * Colin Tennant expounds on a genuinely exciting plane development called the BEHA (bio electric hybrid aircraft). It’s a lovely coffee break read.

For those with only time for an espresso, the facts are these. It’s got three wings, takes off on electric motors, cruises on biofuels at 230 mph (370km). It can take people or cargo, and can get in to all those pesky short runway inner city airports without waking all the residents. Colin’s piece has lots,lots more including lots of good pictures.

For us at LSS there are several learning points. Firstly really good imaginative thinking can solve problems. Secondly, it’s always a good idea to use transitional technologies like hybrids when you make a change. As in automotives, it’s much easier to go from petrol to electrics via hybrids, rather than trying to make it in a single jump. And from an English point of view-why, oh why, does yet another manufacturer with a good idea still have to complainn about lack of Government support? We bet the story would have been very different in South Korea.

But let’s end on a high, not a low. Hats off to Faradair and its brave chief exec Neil Cloughley. We wish them happy flying and a fuel order book.

Will a British bioelectric hybrid plane really take off? | Environment | The Guardian

#faradair #neilcloughley #biofuels #greenaviation #hybridplanes #climatechange #globalwarming #airports #transport

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Well no, he couldn’t, as all the pictures of him prove. But could a Neanderthal have been Leonardo da Vinci? Ah, that’s a different story. Up to now, the general consensus is that only modern humans, Homo Sapiens, created art. Now a new book by Professor Tom Higham of the University of Oxford, suggests that Neanderthals and other early types of human may have been artistically minded as well. At least, they could learn art from modern humans, even if they didnt invent it. We link to Dalya Alberge in The Guardian below. * But we want to go further.

There’s been hints and suggestions about this idea floating around for years . So to throw you all some more red meat, we link to a piece in National Geographic which gives some fine leads on the artistic accompishments of our much-disparaged cousins. * And New Scientist think that the mysterious Denisovans might have warmed to the Royal Academy Summer Show-assuming you could bring them back to life and safeguard them from Covid. All well and good, we hear you say- these were very modern types of humans, with brains as big as our own. Why, we even bred with them. But can we go back further. Evidence is scant, tantalising and of course open to interpretation. But there are intriguing hints that even Homo erectus may just, might, maybe have been making symbolic sketches on things as much as 500 000 years ago. See wikipedia link * below.

In which case, we think it is all rather moving. Art is sometimes produced in desperate circumstances. But the lives of early prehuman ancestors must have been desperately nasty, brutish and short. To think of one of them producing anything symbolic, and meant to last, is fascinating indeed.

Neanderthals helped create early human art, researcher says | Archaeology | The Guardian

Cave Paintings Found in Spain Are First Known Neanderthal Art (nationalgeographic.com)

Prehistoric art – Wikipedia

#homoerectus #homosapiens #neanderthals #denisovans #art #cavepaintings #paleolithic

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At present, the most succesful club in the English Premier League is Manchester City. Of their 30 matches, so far they have won 22, scored 64 goals, conceded 21 and have accumulated 71 points. They lead their group in the European Champions League. They are feared and respected by all their rivals for the persistent quality and efficiency of their play. In the last twelve years they have becoame a world brand, attracting a wide following and major sponsorship.

Who are the people behind such success? If you want to know more you could google the owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Ali Nahyan,who is from the United Arab Emirates. The manager Pep Guardiola, a Spanish citizen who self identifies as Catalan, seems also to have had something to do with it. There seem to be quite a lot of players too, who hail from places as diverse as Brazil, Spain, France, the USA, Portugal, Belgium,Germany, Argentina and England. And this is nothing unique. Their nearest rivals, Manchester United, have similarly diverse make up,and are themselves no strangers to the pursuit of excellence. We could name others from both England and other countries, but you’d stop reading. But you could ask this-would Manchester City have done quite so well if they had only English players?

The other day we were reading about the top discoveries in Science in the last ten years. * and one of the things that struck us was how like football it is. We won’t go through all ten, you can see the link below. But all of these breakthroughs came from international collaboration. Lee Berger‘s work on Australopithecus sediba had collaborators from the USA, South Africa, Switzerland and Austria. The work to produce an Ebola vaccine * took the best part of three continents* Probably the biggest thing on the list to affect our lives is CRISPR. You can read about the amazing efforts to develop this in our third link. * There are some really good graphics too. This is all the tip of the iceberg: most university science departments and research institutes are multinational and multicultural, because the best scientists, like the best footballers, can come from anywhere.

We at LSS understand the current trends towards group defence and national isolation. The need to belong to your own is a deep and primary human instinct. It is a natural reaction to the unjust and unequal ways in which globalisation has played out in recent decades. As a political idea, the new tribalism is sweeping all before it. But science has a way of leading to material and economic advance. In the medium to long term there may be a premium for those who somehow maintain the best scientific teams. And inevitably, that will mean the most diverse.

The Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the Decade | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

The Heroes of CRISPR (broadinstitute.org)

The inside story of how scientists produced an Ebola vaccine (statnews.com)

#crispr #leeberger #ebolavaccine #premierleague #championsleague #multinational #multicultural #knowledge #science #football #futbol #ciencia

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Diptheria was the terror of the slums of Victorian Britain. Stealthy, silent and deadly it crept through crowded insanitary tenements taking a horrifying mortality among the poor, especially their children. It started with a sore throat, but then temperature soared; as the bacterium Corynebacterium diptheriae ravaged its defenceless victim, dead tissue built up in an impenetrable membrane in the throat, leading to a painful death by asphxyation.

The years after 1945 saw a gradual control of the disease, through things like vaccines, antibiotics and the enforcement of housing standards. The move to a more low tax free market model after 1979 saw these advances go gradually into reverse, as investment in things like antibiotics tailed off and people were forced back into overcrowded flats and slums. Now there is good evidence that diptheria is back-and it’s hungry. Writing in The Conversation, Robert C Will and Ankur Mutreja of the University of Cambridge no less,descibe the alarming rise in antibiotic resistant strains of C diptheriae and the rising case numbers which are starting to cause alarm in many countries. We post links to both their piece and the Wikipedia pst. Warning: some of the medical descriptions and images in these links are not for the faint hearted.

https://theconversation.com/diphtheria-could-become-a-problem-again-thanks-to-new-variants-and-antimicrobial-r

Diphtheria – Wikipedia

#diptheria #antibioticresistance #vaccines #poverty #inequality #disease