Stories that caught our eye

Does evolution really happen? The gene that makes mice care for their young makes sheepdogs care for their flocks. Yet the common ancestor of both lived more than 75 million years ago. It’s the same with the FOXP-2 gene, so beloved of human evolutionary buffs. Actually it pops up all over the place, in lots of different creatures. Of course there are variations, which one would expect over long periods of time. Which raises the question: if the genes don’t really change, can evolution be said to have happened at the most basic level? Nature, Study uncovers dogs’ squirrel genes

A study that combined behavioural data from 46,000 dogs with 4,000 dogs’ DNA sequences has pinpointed genetic variants linked to nervousness and predatory behaviour, such as chasing squirrels. The researchers scrapped the conventional breed categories — which had been found to be a poor predictor for behaviour — and sorted dogs into ten genetic lineages. Herding sheepdogs, for example, had genes that, in mice, had been associated with mothers’ instinct to protect their pups.Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Cell paper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOXP2

A course in coarse language Sometimes the pressure in our offices gets so much, you’d think everyone had developed Tourette’s syndrome-in several languages! But is the actual sound of bad words random, or is there a deeper meaning? The Conversation investigates

https://theconversation.com/swear-words-we-studied-speakers-of-languages-from-hindi-to-hungarian-to-find-out-why-obscenities-sound-the-way-they-do-192473?utm_m

Boom-or crash? November 9th 2022 was the day we all watched the thrilling Argentina-Netherlands game. But will historians of the future remember it as the day the UK government unlearned the lessons of 2007 and paved the way to the next financial crash? The Guardian looks at both sides

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/09/jeremy-hunt-sets-out-sweeping-reforms-to-financial-sector

Life on Earth Despite the valiant efforts of the COP 15 delegates, some say we are heading for a mass extinction as bad as the one that culled all the dinosaurs. So it’s important to know exactly what we’re talking about; the BBC makes a stab at it here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63875331

Musical number

Sorry for all the oldies, but this one illustrates a truism in music “keep it simple” Shocking Blue were a bit of a one hit wonder( well we don’t remember anything else they did!) but this was one of the most catchy ever. Maybe Holland are out of the world cup, but they’ll always have Venus

#evolution #genes #obscenities #swearing #finance #economics

We’re interrupting the production line of cocktail recipes this week to bring you something we saw on safe usage.Because we at LSS believe that alcohol is wonderful stuff, if it’s managed responsibly. And this little piece will help you to find where that point lies. What with Christmas approaching, office party season upon us and all that, it’s probably high time to do so. Well, Joe Davies and Victoria Allen of the Mail have a lovely piece which gives you all the advice you need to enjoy the festive season and still avoid a hangover.

According to the authors most people make two mistakes. They underestimate the size and number of units an any given drink, They also underestimate how many units they take in every week. In the UK that is now only fourteen for men and women. Nothing like the world we remember from our youth! So there’s an excellent quiz to see how much you know.

And which countries are the worst offenders? Surprisingly, it’s not the Brits, which may surprise anyone who has more than a passing acqaintance with the town of Magaluf in Mallorca. It seems that countries such as Latvia and certain other east European countries enjoy a tipple more. Anyway the league table will show your national standing.

Finally-do you have a problem, or does someone that you know? They include a rule-of-thumb but handy little guide to keep you safe and on the straight and narrow, this Christmas and every Christmas. Now go and enjoy all those parties, Normal service will resume next week.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11507123/Alcohol-units-units-favourite-drink.html

Overseas readers may not know whether to weep or laugh at the atavistic decision of the English government to open a new coal mine in Cumbria. The arguments adduced in its favour are largely specious[1]. But, before you condemn, we beg you to at least try to understand the real motivations of our countrymen, and the state of despair this reveals.

For England was once an industrial country. A land of shipyards, furnaces, docks and mines. True, the work in them was usually harsh, badly paid and perilous. But membership of such communities gave people some income, some purpose (England was once a world power)- a way of life. Cumbria was the first region to de-industrialise. Now the wind blows over empty ports and yards. Fragmented, cruelly exploited labour in warehouses and call centres can never be a substitute for the tales of the grandfather and great-grandfather.

And those who lose hope in the future will look for it in the past. A mindset that has played out disastrously since 2016, and not just in England. There are many opportunities to build a future in Cumbria (think wind and tidal power for example). But the poor people who live there were never given the education nor the mentality to suspect that these exist. They demand to be put back under the ground, where the life is dirty, damp and dangerous. And even this sacrifice will be for little gain, as elsewhere cleverer people move on to other things.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/07/what-is-the-cumbrian-coalmine-and-why-does-it-matter-woodhouse-colliery

#cumbria #coal mine #climate change #global warming #coal #fossil fuels #cop27 #england

Whenever we see images of hungry, starving children (and they’re all over the news right now), our first reaction is “what a waste of human capital!” Somewhere in that crowd is a future Einstein, Marie Curie, or JS Bach. Whose potential will never be available to the rest of us. Their life has been ruined by the starvation and violence all around them. Contrary to the assertions of certain right-wing news outlets, the effects of poverty are well documented.[1] They show up in things like learning, fine motor control, growth, social skills, and health. Which brings us back to yesterday’s blog, and a reader’s response to it.

In the blog (LSS 5 Dec 22),we stated that the streptococcus A crisis in the UK was yet another reason to speed development of new antibiotics. But as regular reader Gaynor Lynch pointed out, this is essentially a reactive response to the crisis. It ignored the causal factors. In particular, Gaynor stated

“Prevention is much better than cure“…..adding that  “good nutrition is essential to support the immune system.”

And how right she was we found when we did a little digging. There seems to be a clear and unequivocal link between childhood deprivation and sub-development of the immune system. The literature is rather vast, but this link to the HuffPost gives a good, journalistic level jumping off point [2] For those who like their details detailed, we include a review study from Plos One, but be warned-it’ll take more than one cup of strong black coffee to get through this one.

You can read all of Gaynor’s thoughts in the comments section to yesterday’s blog. But we couldn’t help thinking: it’s going to take years and lots of money to develop a new generation of antibiotics. In the meantime, how about a little spend on food for hungry children? It could be a long-term investment.

[1] https://www.childfund.org.au/stories/how-does-poverty-impact-child-development/

[2] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/4-ways-that-poor-childhood-nourishment-can-affect-lifelong-health_n_587d0102e4b09281d0ebcc52

[3] https://www.bing.com/search?q=effects+poor+nutrition+children+immune+system&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=effects+poor+nutrition+children+immune+system&sc=

#childood health #antibiotics #poverty #deprivation #preventive medicine

We don’t know about you, gentle readers of foreign lands, but here in the UK we’re witnessing an uptick in Streptococcus A infections. And this is worrying. It’s already killed six children and has hospitalised more. Why? Who? Where What? and all those other questions they try to teach you on management training courses. Michelle Roberts has a good go at answering these for the BBC [1]. But since her article, it’s got worse, and the Prime Minister is now involved as Kevin Rawlinson explains in the Guardian.

There are two things that worry us a little. Firstly, although this bacterium is normally benign, it can cause some truly terrifying cases, as you’ll see if you click on our links. We note particularly the iGAS syndrome, which is what happens when it gets behind your immune defences.

But what concerns us most of all here is the following sentence. which we confess to have lifted lock, stock and barrel from Michelle’s article

“……..strep A is treated with antibiotics”

Except when it isn’t. Because as well-established readers of this little blog will know, there won’t be any antibiotics soon, unless we really and truly pull our fingers out. And anyway, what if a new antibiotic resistant form evolves? The rate at which humanity is squandering its current antibiotic reserves suggests that day will be sooner rather and later. So how many children will die then?

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63836093

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/05/higher-levels-of-strep-a-in-uk-could-be-due-to-covid-pandemic-says-health-chief

#Streptococcocus #antibiotic resistance #health

these caught our eye

This is a big one Quantum computing is so very new and so very powerful (confession: and difficult to understand) that we assumed no one could do anything useful with it for years. Wrong, wrong and wrong again as this story from Nature Briefings explains. This will change the world, sooner than we know. Wormhole inside a quantum computer

Physicists have sent quantum information through a simulated wormhole in a ‘toy’ universe that exists only inside a quantum computer. The tunnel is analogous to passages through space-time that might connect the centres of black holes in the real Universe. “The surprise is not that the message made it across in some form, but that it made it across unscrambled,” write the authors of an analysis published alongside the study in Nature. Some scientists think that such experiments could help to unite the theories of quantum mechanics and gravity in the simplified realm of toy universes, leading ultimately to the answer to one of the biggest problems in physics: a real-world quantum theory of gravity.Nature | 5 min read Go deeper with an expert analysis by theoretical physicists Adam Brown and Leonard Susskind in the Nature News & Views article (7 min read, Nature paywall) Reference: Nature paper

Online Addictions Someone once told us of a casino in Las Vegas where, if you won too much, they sent the heavies round to your room and took the money back by force. How true this story is we’ll never know. But the gambling industry will certainly go to great lengths to part people from their money, as this story from Bloomberg shows. What will they do with quantum computing when it finally arrives on your smartphone?

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-gambling-addiction-stories-how-uk-got-hooked-on-online-casino-betting/?leadSource=uverify%20wall

thanks to P Seymour for this story

Losing my Religion Is the UK becoming a secular society? The decline in adherence to the Christian Religion shown by these figures would seem to indicate so. It seems to be a trend across many societies. But fans of religion should not despair. The prosperous centuries from up to about 200AD saw a decline in faith in the old Gods like Jupiter and so on. But this was followed by an enormous revival, first in Christianity then Islaam. The names of the Gods change, faith in them does not.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63792408

thanks to P Semour for this story

Can’t do right for doing wrong We at LSS tend to think that Mr Xi was trying to do his best to protect his people from COVID-19. Albeit in a way different to western countries. But even his best efforts have reached an impasse. If he stays in lockdown, the economy tanks and the people get restless. If he opens up, the virus (and many others) will spread like wildfire. Tricky balancing act needed as this one from The Conversation shows:

https://theconversation.com/chinas-white-paper-protest-movement-echoes-freedom-struggles-across-asia-and-the-world-195487?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Late

Touchy Feely Tyrannosaurs Did Hitler like dogs? Dis Jack the ripper buy flowers for his mum? Now there’s news that Tyrannosaurus rex, the world’s most fearsome dinosaur, may have been a big softie at heart. Wekll, perhaps as this story from The Guardian makes clear

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/nov/29/another-slice-of-triceratops-barbara-did-the-fearsome-t-rexes-take-care-of-their-sick

Irish Spirit The Irish never gave up their culture and independent spirit despite centuries of foreign oppression. It’s produced a great feisty culture, especially in literature and music. To end this week, we’ve chosen one of our old favourites, where the Pogues and the Dubliners combined in an incredibly spirited rendition of The Irish Rover

#quantum computing #wormholes #gambling #addiction #religion #dinosaur #tyrannosaurus rex #china #covid-19 #dubliners #pogues

One thing about evolution-it keeps happening. However inconvenient that may seem to some who lead comfortable lives. Up to know, LSS has tended to emphasise what happened in the past. Slime moulds, Dinosaurs, Fox News viewers, that sort of thing. But what will our evolution look like in the future? Anders Sandberg, writing in the Conversation offers some fascinating clues. [1]

He thinks our future belongs to cyborgs- human machine hybrids, running on AI computer implants. With physical and mental powers far beyond those of Homo sapiens. While the planet itself can be returned to the wild, its devastated ecological and meteorological systems painfully rebuilt. And maybe even some of the mess cleared up, we pray?

And what of actual flesh and blood humans? Chances are that a few may survive as “holdouts”, a bit like the Amish or other groups on reservations, preserved by the tolerance of the more advanced societies around them. True minorities. And maybe that’s no bad thing. Maybe we should all learn a little humility right now.

https://theconversation.com/cyborgs-v-holdout-humans-what-the-world-might-be-like-if-our-species-survives-for-a-million-years-195051?utm_medium=email&utm_campaig

#evolution #AI #robotics #cyborg #terminator #replicant

Poor old aviation! it’s had a bit of a kicking from all those groups who want to save the planet, and rightly so. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature[1] the number of passengers globally is expected to go from 2.4 billion (2010) to 8.3 billion by 2030. That’s an enormous rise in CO₂, plus all the other pollutants caused by jet aircraft, such as nitrates, particulates and of course all that noise! Do you really need to make that business trip to Frankfurt in the age of zoom and what’s app? Or a boozy week in Benidorm? We understand why people ask these questions. But we fear that cutting back on mass travel runs a severe danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

We at LSS have sometimes been accused of putting the cart before the horse. It has even been alleged that we have been guilty of crossing bridges before we come to them. But we would never, under any circumstances run the risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Especially on questions of aviation. For it is our settled belief that there is nothing so conducive to breaking down the barriers between peoples as mass cheap travel. Take it away, and the masses will sink into isolated, mutually hostile groups, except now they have nuclear weapons.

Alternatives are needed. We have already noted the possibilities offered by airships (LSS 26 5 21), and we also offer a quick guide here to solar powered flight [2]. Now it’s just possible that a third way exists: hydrogen fuel. Which, as every schoolchild knows, burns clean and green to leave nothing more than water. Jasper Jolly has a piece in the Guardian which describes the efforts of Rolls Royce to power aeroengines with hydrogen fuel. [3] The answer? Well, at the moment it only seems to work for turbo prop engines (the type you get on short haul domestic routes) Yet a start has been made, and by one of the best engineering companies in the world. Maybe we can still keep that baby intact, even as all the nasty dirty bathwater is thrown out for good. [4]

Declaration of interest: Rolls Royce once gave us a magnificent pair of cufflinks and an attaché folder, both of which we still treasure to this day

[1]https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/cutting-aviation-pollution

[2] ttps://www.oxfordsaudia.com/en/blog/solar-powered-airplanes-the-history-and-future-of-solar-flights/

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/28/rolls-royce-easyjet-test-aero-engine-hydrogen

[4] https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/net-zero/decarbonising-complex-critical-systems/hydrogen.aspx

#aviation #hydrogen #short haul #rolls royce #global warming #climate change

stories that intrigued this week

Lost Coin? The Crisis of the Third Century AD was one of the inflection points of world history. War, invasion, currency collapse, pandemic…these fifty-odd years were when the world moved decisively from the humanistic Classical to the religious Middle Ages. Whether the ephemeral Emperor Sporian existed or not, his story sheds light on a terrible period. Here’s the detective work which may have uncovered him:

https://theconversation.com/how-we-used-ancient-coins-to-show-a-fake-roman-emperor-was-real-195272?utm_mediu

Lost Money? We don’t know about cryptocurrencies at the moment, but investors at the conservative end of the financial market also have their woes. Glorifi Bank was started to address the concerns of depositors who were concerned that the banks of Wall Street were becoming too woke, liberal and lefty (surely some mistake?-ed). How this noble aim panned out is summarised rather aptly here:

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/anti-woke-bank-closes-3-months-peter-thiel-toby-neugebauer_n_638006b4e4b06ef4a542ab6d?ncid=A

thanks to P Seymour for this story

Bones and bias Science is supposed to be objective, free of bias and equal to all. That’s the idea, anyway. However, it isn’t long before someone starts presenting their interpretations as incontrovertible truth, with all the social implications that flow from it. Today we present how this happened in Paleoanthropology. But it wasn’t the first place, nor will it be the last.

In Bones and Bodies, forensic anthropologist Alan Morris takes us on a journey to the past, revealing racist interpretations of historically important fossils and artefacts related to the origin of humanity. “The tour is fascinating, demoralizing and insightful,” writes reviewer Fatimah Jackson, a biological anthropologist. “Combing through more than 100 years of scholarship, Morris lays bare how anthropologists built a ‘scientific’ justification for the low status they afforded peoples of African descent, particularly in South Africa, and how this justification became part of a systematic effort to ensure African peoples’ disenfranchisement.”Nature | 6 min read

Dirty Old River We don’t know about your country, but for the last 12 years the rivers and seas of England have slowly transformed into open sewers, filled with toxins and detritus. And it has become a lot worse since the lifting of EU protections after 2020. That admirable organisation Surfers against Sewage is fighting a lonely battle for so many-anglers, boaters, swimmers and anyone who might think that not getting typhoid is part of a quality life. Today we link to their latest report. But surely even readers of The Sun can grasp that clean water is good for the tourism industry?

ttps://sas.org.uk/waterquality2022

The virus wakes As if Russia hadn’t caused enough trouble, news of a dormant virus waking from the melting tundra is the stuff of science fiction

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11461367/Ancient-virus-lain-frozen-Siberian-permafrost-48-

A Little Dance Number The old art deco films of the 1930’s breathed and elegance and charm uncatchable in the uncouth, disco ordinated gyrations observed in modern “clubs” and other places of entertainment. To show you how it was done, here’s Fred and Ginger at their best from Swing Time (1936) It’s worth a lot, lot more than 50 cents.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fred+astaaire+ginger+rogers&&view=detail&mid=5B1AFF22AE129FA367CA5B1AFF22AE129FA

#romans #sewage #bank #pandemic #dance

Well, the talking and the build-up are nearly over. In less than two hours from writing this, the teams will walk out and we will see how special the Special Relationship really is. (Most Americans have never heard of it). So-how does a cocktail column cope with such an important clash of the nations? By recourse to that first-rate website Tasteatlas, of course. They have provided us with handy lists of the ten most popular English Cocktails, and the ten most popular American ones. What is more, every entry has a picture, a brief history and handy instructions on how to make one.

If you’re watching the match in England, they recommend that you mix up from one of the following: Corpse Reviver, Pink Gin, Tom Collins, Black Velvet, Boilermaker, Bramble, Vesper, Espresso Martini, Gimlet and the Black and Tan. [1]

But if you tune in from the USA, you could try: Zombie, Screwdriver, Moscow Mule, Mai Tai, Sex On the Beach, Cosmopolitan, Tequila Sunrise, Piña Colada, Old-Fashioned, and Bloody Mary [2]

Whatever you choose, we wish football fans everywhere an enjoyable evening (afternoon in the United States) and may the best team win, as they say in the true sporting spirit.

But before we go, a brief note on terminology. The word “football” means just that-football. The clue’s in the name. You use your feet. There is a trend in some parts of America to use the word “soccer”. We’ve never heard it used, and we doubt that anyone in the rest of the world has either. Meanwhile Americans use the word to describe a curious “sport” which would be better termed “Rugby with hats”. Why anyone would wear a hat to play rugby is beyond our powers of explanation. It’s like that other game we saw one night in Santa Barbara-Cricket with no stumps.

The things some people do!

[1]https://www.tasteatlas.com/most-popular-cocktails-in-england

[2] https://www.tasteatlas.com/most-popular-cocktails-in-usa

#world cup #football #cocktails #england #usa