What do people really want? One answer is to live as long as possible-and to have that time free of pain and illness. Alright, it won’t please every philosopher and wannabe theologian, but it’s a good rule of thumb for practical people. And is it achievable? Sometimes yes-if we follow the following rules. 1 Find evidence. 2 Analyse it logically. 3 Spend money on #1 and #2, and apply the results. Our researchers have come up with two examples for you this week.

Diabetes is a terrifying disorder that keeps its sufferers only a few hours from death-at all times. Think about that one. The advent of insulin was certainly a game changer, but that was over 100 years ago. Now sufferers are to be offered an artificial pancreas which not only monitors blood sugar levels, but delivers just the right amount of insulin exactly when needed. In the UK it should soon be available on the NHS, and we hope it will be coming soon to your country, gentle reader. Don’t take our word for it- try the thoughts of Stephen Matthews of the Daily Mail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12721521/Get-artificial-pancreas-NHS-150-000-type-1-diabetes-sufferers-set-gadget-hailed-biggest-breakthrough-discovery-insulin.htm

Nothing is worse than seeing a woman’s life torn apart by breast cancer. Years of research have been poured in, and at last we are seeing results. Anastrozole is not only to be used as treatment, it is about to take its place in the UK as a preventative drug, which could avoid the condition in thousands of women. Emily Stearn of the Mail gets the credit for this one

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12719713/61-year-old-watched-mother-battle-breast-cancer-hails-gift-breakthrough-4p-day-pill-HALVES-risk-getting-disease-major-step-forward-300-000-women-given-prevention-drug.html

Lets pause to thank all the scientists, IT experts, health workers and charity donors who made this possible. What would have happened instead if we had told them they hated each other, put them in uniform, and sent them off to war?

Will they read this in the Middle East?

diabetes #insulin #pancreas #breast cancer #anastrozole

Old hands on the LSS website will recall our constant advocacy of bacteriophages as a complement to the development of new chemical antibiotics. Just one of our little hobbyhorses, and like all hobbyhorses, it comes with limitations. One of which is that many diseases, both of humans and other living things, aren’t caused by bacteria. They’re caused by viruses.(Remember Covid-19, anyone?)

Up to now the best way to deal with viruses is by vaccination. But what if we could open a second front, as t’were? If viruses can attack bacteria and take them out for us, could they do the same job on other viruses? Fortunately the answer seems to be “yes”. We have two pieces for you today, gentle readers. One from the indefatigable Stacey Liberatore of the Mail, and one from National Geographic, which more than hint at the possibility of developing virus hunter killers, “virophages”, if you will, that will provide a true 21st century addition to our pharmacoepia.[1] [2]

One thing is certain; very little progress on this will come from the Middle East, where they spend all their time and money on ancient intractable feuds. The rest of us will have to take up the slack.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12721303/vampire-viruses-bacteria-cells-biting.html

[2]https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-virophage-a-virus-that-infects-other-viruses

#bacteriophage #virophage #health #medicine #virus #disesase

Whisper it, but the United States is closer to collapse than you think. News that Joe Biden is now polling behind the execrable Trump in five key states suggests that by 2025 that nation will experience a series of political and constitutional convulsions unequalled since their Civil War. We might regret this bitterly for our many American friends, and for the loss to humanity of its “last, best, hope.” But we here must look to out own interest. Frankly, the outlook is bleak.

Since 1940 (many would argue 1917), the UK has looked to the USA as the ultimate guarantor of both its frontiers and economic sufficiency. The comfortable classes quietly traded their sovereignty for the possession of their fine lawns and houses. The lower orders enjoyed a continuous supply of cheap hamburgers, garish films and narcotics. For the governing classes, the illusion of importance afforded by participation in military enterprises and things like Five Eyes. Yet it would be insane to get into bed with an authoritarian Trump regime, which in any case might soon find itself embroiled in a nuclear war with Iran and its backers. So-what to do?

The UK is now a small, rather insignificant island, in a world of giants. Yet for the first time since 1940 it would be truly able to consult its own interest. Our governing classes(by which we mean politicians, civil servants, academics, and maybe even a few journalists) must now think the unthinkable. They must answer, at least in theory, these questions. Who are our best possible allies? Where are our best trade routes, and how might these be secured? Which nations or religious groups offer the principle threats, both internally and abroad? How might the UK economy be best tuned to ensure maximum chances of survival? Let us hope that they can rise to the challenge

#biden #trump #usa #uk #foreign policy

A huge mass grave in Alava, Spain appears to mark the site of one of the first great battles. Not in History, but Prehistory. For this was the Neolithic, 5400 years ago when there were no books or Youtubers. According to Miguel Criado of El Pais,[1] there are hundreds of jumbled skeletons many bearing trauma wounds; many others probably died of bleed wounds which left no mark on the bones, according to the experts. No monument marks their passing. The Cause for which they died remains unknown.

Did they march to battle singing tribal songs, marking the rhythm of that last journey? Were there elite units of spearmen and bowmen, eager to win glory? Were there reluctant recruits, thinking of families and the girl they left behind? Were the words of the tribal elders still echoing in their minds, with tales of the enemy’s iniquity, and of their own righteousness and good? Let’s hope the tales were worth dying for, so it wasn’t all in vain.

That war is over now, Whatever it was about-land rights, grazing, religious practices- must have been forgotten thousands of years ago. By the time the Iberians of the Iron age arrived, the graves were long overgrown, and they never knew what had happened. And so it was with Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Castillians, and moderns who passed over the land in utter ignorance of that day of fear and savagery so long before. Gone. Forgotten. Blown away in the dust of history. Actually, it doesn’t seem to have mattered much at all in the bigger scheme of things.

Will anyone in the Middle East read this?

[1]https://elpais.com/ciencia/2023-11-02/la-primera-gran-guerra-europea-tuvo-lugar-en-el-norte-de-la-peninsula-hace-mas-de-5000-anos.html

here’s miguel’s link to the original paper

[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-43026-9

#neolithic #war #archaeology

Bankman Unfreed A very experienced fund manager once told us “Cryptocurrencies are more like a special type of derivative than another sort of money” If his advice had been followed, maybe investors would have approached this new market in very different ways, and a whole lot of trouble like the FTX Sam Bankman-Fried imbroglio could have been avoided. We don’t give investment advice, but one long-held theory of ours seems to have been born out: dressing down like the kids does not automatically confirm that you are a disruptive genius

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/02/sam-bankman-fried-trial-key-takeaways

Four Stunning Birds A good news story for once. According to the UK Rare Birds Breeding Panel, four iconic species are making a comeback. They are Ospreys, White Tailed Eagles, marsh harriers and goshawks. A rare boost in a country whose natural environment is so shamefully depleted

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12699899/Rare-birds-prey-thrive-record-levels-UK-ospreys-soar-brink-extinction.html

I’m Free to do what I want, any old time sang the Soup Dragons in their memorable 1988 hit. But-how free are you really? An interesting question for Robert Sapolsky in the Atlantic If you doubt the authors Bona fides, just remember what you said last time someone offered you a chocolate biscuit.(warning: you may have to jump a couple of those free trial hurdles to get at the whole of this one)

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/11/robert-sapolsky-determined/675885/?utm_source=apple_news

Ghost Planet We have always been fascinated by the hypothesis that the moon is the result of a cataclysmic collision between Earth and another large planet. Further support comes from reports that bits of the intruder are lying deep in our mantle. Real George Pal stuff! Strange Mantle Blobs are relics of our collision

Two mysterious blobs of rock in Earth’s mantle could be remnants of the planetary smash-up that formed the Moon. The formations sit in the layer between the crust and the core, are thousands of kilometres long and are slightly denser than their surroundings. Computer simulations suggest that they are from the protoplanet Theia, which smashed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago. Some of Theia’s remnants were flung into orbit, where they coalesced into the Moon.Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature paper

Winds of Change Thirty years ago and more, climate experts predicted that we would see a growing frequency of ever more severe storms. That’s the thing about science-it makes predictions that you can test. Sadly, they were right:

https://theconversation.com/storm-ciaran-is-breaking-records-and-research-suggests-more-severe-weather-in-future-216842?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversa

Two from the Zoo AI isn’t all bad, as it may help the Zoological Society of London in its efforts to conserve a few fragments of our planet’s heritage. Here’s how:

https://www.zsl.org/news-and-events/news/ai-safety-summit-2023-new-tech-transforming-conservation?utm_source=zsl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=

Meanwhile, ZSL’s decision to set up Whipsnade in 1931 was one of the most humane and progressive in Science. So we thought we’d give them a free plug. If you live anywhere within 200 miles of that magnificent park on the Chilterns, read this:

https://www.whipsnadezoo.org/plan-your-visit/zoo-experiences?utm_s

#zsl london #zsl whipsnade #cryptocurrency #global warming #climate change #philosophy

Talk to young people today (sometimes we have to) and the first thing out of their mouths is “Cool it, Daddy-oh! CRISPR Cas-9 is so, like, square! These days, all the Real Cats are heppin’ to Base Pair Editing!”

Not so fast, young friends! For news reaches us the the Food And Drug Administration of the United States may soon give the go ahead to the first treatment using CRISPR Cas-9. We follow the story from Iker Seisdedos of El País,[1] and it’s a good one. For what the creators are offering us is nothing less than a potential, once and for all cure for sickle anaemia, that painful and debilitating disease which has afflicted so many of us for thousands of years. The companies, Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics put their case yesterday and it looks as if the FDA will give the go ahead for the next stage of trials. Possibly as early as December.

The technique is both simple and ingenious. As every school child knows, sickle cell is caused by a defect in gene BCL11A which controls the production of vital haemoglobin proteins. The trick is to extract stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow and edit the gene using standard CRISPR Cas-9 techniques, so they can now produce the correct form. The edited cells are returned to the patient where they will take over in the marrow, and start producing the good protein. And get this-once set up, it ought to stay established for life.

How well we achieve when we use the tools of observation and reason! Compare that with the destruction and waste effected in certain parts of the world by ancient religions and emotionally driven behaviours. And ask yourself “where will my true interested best be served?”

_{Our link today is in Spanish. so you’ll need a translator. But if you really are a lazy monoglot old anglophone, well, here’s one just for you. [2]}

[1]https://elpais.com/ciencia/2023-10-31/la-agencia-del-medicamento-de-ee-uu-abre-la-puerta-al-primer-tratamiento-con-edicion-genetica-crispr.html

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/fda-considers-first-crispr-gene-editing-treatment-that-may-cure-sickle-cell/ar-AA1jaVCD

#crispr cas 9 #gene editing #sickle cell anaemia #

More progress on cancer #1: How can you stop a cancer cell? Turn off its swich, according to this uber-hopeful article from the Mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12669817/Scientists-identify-cancer-kill-switch-destroys-tumours-inside-out.html

More Progress on Cancer#2 Progress on the Prostate. The Mail again, bless ’em!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12656583/New-drugs-combo-brings-hope-cure-men-terminal-prostate-cancer-Seve

High Streets: A death foretold? We’ve done a couple of pieces about the slow decline of High Streets, as shops give way to the Internet. But all is not doom and gloom-maybe these places can rediscover their mojo as community centres, which we think is the really important bit. Here’s the Conversation:

https://theconversation.com/shops-cant-save-uk-high-streets-but-a-dose-of-local-character-could-help-them-thrive-again-215621?utm

Red is not dead We kind of took it for granted that Mars was devoid of geological activity, which explained the feckless way they lost their atmosphere. Not So! cries Nature Briefings. Planetary Science always has a surprise in store, as does everything else. Unfortunately!

In the interior of Mars, a layer of molten rock envelops the liquid-metal core, which is smaller than previously thought. Scientists discovered the unique layer by analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after a meteorite impact. The seismic waves’ speed depends on the types of material that they are travelling through. The molten-rock layer might be left over from a magma ocean that once covered the planet.Nature | 5 min read
References: Nature paper 1 & paper 2

Two steps forward, one back…. Remember all those scare stories that renewables were never going to be a practicable proposition, and we would be stuck with filthy mineral oil forever? It was all rubbish, and at last renewables seem to be getting the edge. Just not fast enough, according to this story from the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67198206

Only the Lonely Spare a last thought for this poor Scottish sheep, apparently marooned without a flock of fellow creatures, or humans. Will anyone claim her? The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/27/britains-loneliest-sheep-marooned-at-foot-of-scottish-cliff-for-two-years

#cancer #prostate #mars #shops #high streets #sheep

“Did he have a good war?” It was a question you heard a lot growing up in 1960s England. It meant someone had passed honourably through the perils of bombs, cold, heat, rations bullets and disease that were the lot of servicemen and women (and many who stayed on the Home Front) in that world crisis. Well, we’d like to update it to ask “did he/she have a good pandemic?” And one person who passes that test with flying colours is Professor Devi Sridhar of Edinburgh University. [1]

Sridhar’s CV is the epitome of the modern Enlightenment woman. She’s also a classic citizen of the world, born of Indian stock in Florida and migrating to Oxford where she took a whole slew of second, third and further postgraduate degrees. before settling as Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh. Need we ever do another blog on the importance of educating women? In among all this science, there’s been time for a shipload of journalism and books, from which we have extracted this spookily prescient killer quote, courtesy of Wikipedia

_{At a 2018 Hay Festival event, Sridhar warned of the risk of infectious disease from animal-to-human transmission travelling to the UK from China, saying “Our biggest health challenges are interconnected.“}

Now she has a real treat for us, in the shape of this article for The Guardian [2] She thinks the battle for malaria is far closer to being won, due to a cheap, easily produced vaccine called R21. Any of those 1940s warriors whom we referenced in paragraph one, especially those who served in the Far East, knew that malaria was by far the biggest enemy they faced, killing infinitely more of them than the enemy ever did. Since when its plague effect, in terms of both human suffering and economic retardation has been immense. Now there’s progress for you. All in all, a bit more fruitful than murdering each other in the name of ancient texts and artificial lines in dirty, oil stained sand.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Sridhar

[2]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/26/malaria-mosquito-vaccine-disease

#professor devi sridhar #malaria #vaccine #public health

We don’t like to say: “told you so!” and point triumphantly to our own prescience. But we do recall a little piece we penned not long after the war began(LSS 22 3 22) wherein we suggested the possibility that Russia would become a satellite to China. There’s an irony here. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Russian and Ukrainian causes, the attempt to bolster the power of the Russian Federation ends in a total loss of political and economic independence!

It’s happened in the past to other powers, and not so long ago. In 1914 Britain was a proud and wholly independent empire. By 1945 it had been reduced to total economic and political subservience to the United States. While its true that the US bailed out the UK with war loans such as Lend Lease, the price extracted in terms of territories and commercial agreements was crippling. The final nail came in 1956 when Britain was stripped of its influence in the Middle East, and America scooped the pot of the world’s oil resources. The loss of the Singapore Naval Base in 1942 had already been the kiss of death for Britain’s eastern empire.

Which is why it is interesting to record eerie parallels with contemporary Russia. Both are from The Conversation. The first[1] by Martin Kaczmarski and Natasha Kurht explains how deep Russia’s dependence on Beijing has become. The second, by Basil Germond, suggests that the great naval base at Sevastopol, a jewel in the crown since Tsarist times, may now be abandoned. [2]

Putin has always hated western countries , and Britain in particular. How ironic if he has lead his own country down the same shameful path to loss of independence and junior status!

[1]https://theconversation.com/putin-and-xi-beijing-belt-and-road-meeting-highlighted-russias-role-as-chinas-junior-partner-216187?

[2]https://theconversation.com/russias-plan-to-relocate-its-black-sea-naval-base-from-crimea-is-priceless-for-ukraines-morale-216381?utm_medium=email&utm

#china #russia #britain #united states #second world war #ukraine war

We at LSS have never enjoyed a happy relationship with youth. Mention the word-“yoof” as it is properly pronounced- and the images conjured up include skateboarding, graffiti, unlistenable music, gangs, raves, computer games, flimsy fashion, tattoos and people who put their feet on seats. Add the fact that many of them are better than us at University Challenge,* and the fact that we had to helped by a six year old with the water machine in a Spanish hotel recently, and you can sense where our resentment comes from.

Which is why it is so gratifying to learn that one youth, 14 year old Heman Bekele of Annandale , Virginia has turned his back on the culture of vicious dissipation, devoting his hours to learning and the Betterment of Humankind. For Heman has created a new type of soap which may well alleviate the sufferings of those with skin cancer. Deservedly he has been named America’s Top Young Scientist, ahead of a pack of other young geniuses who also represent our best hopes. We’ve two links for you today, one from the inimitable Stacy Liberatore of the Mail, and one from MSN with slightly more detail {1] [2]

What can we at the more reflective and philosophical end of humankind learn from all this? Firstly, don’t write ’em all off-there may be a few good ones in any group of people. Even youths. Secondly, soap is good, and it just got better. Thirdly, and most importantly, those Spanish water dispensers are like mobile phones-make sure there’s someone young around when you get into trouble.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12663163/virginia-student-wins-americas-young-scientist-competition-soap-treats-skin-cancer.html

[2]https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/14-year-old-prodigy-invents-revolutionary-cancer-fighting-soap/ar-AA1iGU5c

*Monday Night BBC2 20.30 UK time