Obelisks: remarkable new life form shows there’s always an unexpected discovery around the corner

These days new life forms are like buses. Nothing happens for a long time. Then several come along at once. Plasmids, Viroids, Phages, Rickettsiae, prions…..now another discovery has been added to this strange quasi- bestiary of entities of varying complexity that seem to straddle the border lines between what is alive and what is not. These new ones are called Obelisks, and they have only been found (so far!) in types of bacteria that live in the human digestive system.

We have two links for you today, For a quick scan you won’t beat this one [1] from Ellyn Lapointe of the Mail. If you want a bit more detail. here’s Elizabeth Pennisi for Science[2] Anyway, they agree on the details. Obelisks are tiny bits of RNA, just enough to encode one or two genes, that seem to arrange themselves into tiny rod-like forms. Where they come from and why they persist are still unknown. But for us, whom readers will recall started our digital lives as an antibiotics blog, they offer one advantage. They exist as colonists in bacterial cells. Anything like that, made of nucleic acid, can in theory be tweaked. One more potential tool then to try to vitiate the effects of antibiotic resistant microbes.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14207419/scientists-new-lifeform-hiding-inside-human-bodies.html

[2]https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-insane-new-viruslike-entities-found-human-gut-microbes

#antibiotic resistance #microoganisms #microbiology #obelisks #biology #medicine #health

Southern States make the same old mistake: pity them in the long run

Pity the poor people of the Southern United States! Because they are making the same mistake as their ancestors did long, long ago. For much the same reasons, we suspect. Have a look at this from Nature Briefings, Southern Scientists Face Political Problems

A survey of faculty members working in US southern states suggests that the political climate is hitting morale among academics and driving a brain drain away from the region. Nearly 3,000 self-selected participants cited diminished academic freedom, restrictions on reproductive healthcare, harassment and the erosion of support for diversity, equity and inclusion programmes. “Multiple faculty members at my institution have been doxxed and harassed, including by elected officials,” wrote one female instructor in Texas. “This makes it difficult for me to do my job or feel safe on campus or at home and honestly just live my life.”Nature | 6 min read

Teaching of certain ideas is to be restricted or banned, The Ten Commandments displayed in every University Classroom……why the fear of words, the loathing of discussion? Because the dominant group (largely white, male and fundamentally Christian) is profoundly insecure. A siege mentality is setting in. The key questions in academe: (“Is this Beautiful?” ” Is this True”) are now too dangerous to ask. There is to be one question only-“does this build up the defences of an ethno-nationalist society?”

The same attitude to learning bedevilled the Old Plantation-and-Slave south before 1861. As Hugh Brogan observes[1]

….a strange barbarous culture grew up which quickly annihilated …Jefferson’s Dream that the University of Virginia, which he founded in 1819, would be a great light of civilisation. The colleges of the South remained jokes until into the twentieth century pp294-295

And now their descendants are playing the same sad game. Why the fear of ideas, the need to snuff out questions?

America is fast becoming an ethno-nationalist society, where different groups jostle for power and status. Now there are good reasons to suspect that this is the natural state of human society. We have argued this before on this blog, citing authors such as Chua and Kaufman(LSS Passim) It may well be understandable, natural even, to defend a state of affairs where your group is the top dog. But happens when someone else has been concentrating on more profitable things, and then comes to get you? The South first learned the answer to that in 1865. Will it have to do so again?

[1] Hugh Brogan The Pelican History of the United States Penguin 1986 see especially ch 14

##ethno-nationalism #slavery #The South #Evangelical #republican

Cocktails for all those Christmas parties

Christmas is nearly upon us, and with it, all those parties, get-togethers, at-home drinks mornings and soirées which crowd in on us like….er,…..um……. several crowding things in a narrow place. Good. Which can lead to problems for the busy host or hostess-how to keep all those thirsty punters happy, because they’ll keep coming back at you for more, as sure as Santa’s got a sleigh. So may we, humbly suggest a couple of ideas to get you through?

Themes: First and foremost, keep ’em simple. You don’t want to spend all your party hours running up complicated concoctions like a Singapore Sling or Long Island Iced Tea (LSS Passim) Pick ones with three or four ingredients at most, which you can knock out faster than it takes for the Three Wise Men to hand over the presents. There you, go mate: bish, bash, bosh and a Merry Christmas to you all! Next?

Second: Bright and bubbly, lots of colours and sparkle to bring out all your trees, baubles nad holly, so the filled glasses look like more decorations. Bubbly wines and ice (the latter will always be in there somewhere), will always help add to trompe l’oeuil. That said, ready?

French 75 gin, lemon juice and chilled fizzy over a tad of sugar in a champagne flute. Looks good and goes down with a recoil to get anyone in the festive mood.

Classic Champagne Cocktail Once more unto the flute dear friends! l Champagne, brandy and a tiny dash of angostura, over a sugar lump. Don’t worry about the cost of this one, because after the first two or three they won’t notice you’re slipping in prosecco. Nor will they care.

Harvey Wallbanger Vodka, Orange, juice and Galliano over plentiful ice This tall elegant classic makes a colour statement on any Christmas table.

Bellini Peach juice, champagne and a dash of grenadine For those who like their slurping sweet, the old Bellini’s hard to beat! Will partner mince pies tastily.

East India Curacao, pineapple juice brandy and angosturas, we threw this one in to match the blue lights on your Christmas tree.

Benedict Benedictine, whisky and dry ginger ale over ice. A classic chest warmer for the season, though we couldn’t find out which of the two eponymous saints, Nursia or Aniane, first invented this one.

All these and many more can be found in The Ultimate Cocktail Book by Hamlyn, our ever go-to stand-by for the Festive season. Happy Christmas

#cocktails #christmas #xmas #drinks

Mirror Bacteria: the Plague to end all Plagues?

As every schoolchild knows, just about all the molecules employed in living systems on this planet come in two forms. And these forms are mirror images of each other. [1] For example, all amino acids come in the so-called L Form, with their D form opposites almost unknown. And this is true from the simplest unicellular organisms right up to the highest form of life known, which is of course cats. (The situation with sugars is opposite; the D forms predominate)

Why this has occurred is not known. But it is a fact, which has several consequences, one of which is that all our medicines and drugs are finely tuned to the molecular situation as it is today, and has been for thousands of millions of years. So what happens if someone engineers organisms which are the exact opposite: they have D amino acids and L sugars? The result could be beyond catastrophic. It could result in pandemics of superorganisms which might wipe out not just humanity but also many of the organisms upon which we depend for our food. So we have two articles today, one by William Hunter of the Mail and one by Mark Lorch of the Conversation, Because we at LSS think that you our readers-parents, grandparents, citizens, be whomsoever ye may-need to take this one very seriously indeed.

And our thoughts? At first we dismissed it, idly thinking that “stereo-opposite” molecules could never function in human tissues. The we recalled the Thalidomide affair, where one mirror form had beneficial effects, and the other was highly toxic. Yes it functioned, alright-and with what awful consequences! Our second thought was that there is no shortage of malevolent actors, such as criminals, terrorists, or dictators of countries large and small ,who would hesitate to deploy superweapons of this sort, if they believed it would increase their power by one millimetre. We doubt that bans attempted by the intelligent and good willed(as advocated by the authors of this article) will have much effect. The only hope is research programmes to try to come up with antidotes. It seems we have about ten years.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality_(chemistry)

[2]https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/scientists-warn-over-mirror-bacteria-that-could-wipe-out-mankind/ar-AA1vNCP5?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=c0d56b47d8a64

[3]https://theconversation.com/mirror-life-forms-may-sound-like-science-fiction-but-scientists-warn-they-could-be-deadly-to-humans-and-destroy-the-environment-246013?utm_medium

#chiral molecules #stereoisomer #enantiomer #thalidomide #microbiology # biochemistry #pandemic

Argentina: Now it’s the Right’s turn to threaten Science

It was quite hard being on the Left in the nineteen seventies. The Right had all the best arguments. It was getting harder and harder to defend collective solutions to anything, while their idea of individual freedom was very attractive indeed. Above all, they said, the free market mechanism required and guaranteed freedom of enquiry. No market can work if you are not allowed to ask honest questions about the price of gold. While the Left’s reputation on free inquiry was appalling(think Lysenko-but it’s still in tatters today in many parts of academe)

Which is why , fifty years on it so strange to see the Right throwing away this advantage. Now it is they who must deny climate change, as it threatens the sacred tenets of free market fundamentalism. They who, for indiscernible libertarian reasons of their own, must oppose vaccines and the hygienic treatment of water supplies. We suppose that desperation makes for bad choices. Perhaps that is why Nature Briefings has opted for this strange, sad story from Argentina, where, perhaps with good intentions, perhaps not, President Milei has embarked on a bizarre programme to try to abolish his country’s future, Researchers Fear end of science in Argentina:

One year into the term of libertarian president Javier Milei, his agenda to slash Argentina’s deficit has meant that, as his administration’s slogan says, “there is no money” for science. The country’s main funder of research projects has been forced to come to a virtual halt, despite most of its money coming from international agencies. Government-funded scientists have seen salaries fall and many have recoiled from Milei’s rejection of climate science. The result is that the country is facing a huge brain drain. “With six more months like this, there will be nothing left” of the scientific community, says Mariano Cantero, the director of an institute in Bariloche.Nature | 6 min read

We could declaim on cliches like cutting of noses to spite faces, right arm with left. or even cría cuervos y te sacarán las ojos.…but instead we’ll end on a personal note. We have always depended on the kindness of Argentinians, both in our professional visits to that distant country, and in personal friendships formed at various times over the years. It was once a very rich, progressive country, and still has a strong middle class yearning to be free. How sad then to witness them in another act of self-harm, burning the seed corn of future meals for the sake of an accounting theory. There is always a reaction in politics, and a Left wing Maduro style regime may prove to be even more terrible than a Millei style rightwing one. We hope that él sentido común may yet prevail.

#argentina #science #maduro #milei #science #research #r&d

Larry Elliott’s balanced view on immigration. A Must-read

Nothing releases passion like the subject of immigration. Nor is anything so certain to unleash binary thinking, with defenders and attackers of this essentially economic phenomenon dividing into mutually hostile camps, high on their own anger and righteousness. It’s time for some balanced nuanced thinking. As ever, Larry Elliott of the Guardian is here to provide it, [1] In an article titled It’s not bigotry to worry about immigration

We won’t steal his thunder. You should read it. No, really, this time. it applies to your country too. But we will dare to adduce the two essential points

1 Immigration isn’t all bad-it has serious economic advantages

2 Immigration isn’t all good- it has serious economic disadvantages

Our thoughts? Those who call themselves leftists should be passionately against immigration, as it’s a classic example of a free market mechanism disrupting society. Those who call themselves rightists should be passionately in favour of immigration as it’s a classic example of a free market mechanism disrupts society, which is always the price for economic efficiency. Can we go back to some science now?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/11/migration-figures-britain-economy-keir-starmer

#economics #immigration #migration #poverty #economic development

What is Truth? Professor David Spiegelhalter has some answers

Christ Crowned Thorns Gerrit van by J. Paul Getty Museum is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

“What is Truth?” Pilate is reputed to have asked Jesus at the latter’s trial in long-ago Jerusalem. Yet it is a question of neuralgic importance today. For we live in an era of angry competing claims, where everyone asserts that their particular fact-set is equal to anyone else’s. Opinions are simply hurled against each other, like children throwing stones. No learning, no judgement is possible at all. How can we, that tiny group of intelligent people who must somehow carry Civilisation forward find some sieve to winnow truth from opinion? Professor David Spiegelhalter may have some answers.

Spiegelhalter is a statistician. Fans of Covid-19 may recall him popping up on telly a lot during that pandemic. Look out for him during the next one. Yet his list of criteria (derived from the work of Bradford-Hill and Doll) may be applied to any scientific hypothesis. as a first step to get sort out wheat from chaff. . We decided to apply it to global warming today, so here goes:

Direct Evidence

1 The effect is so great that it cannot be explained by any random variable: The planet is undeniably heating up fast and this has become statistically significant

2 There is a close causal proximity between cause and effect We’ve been pumping out enormous quantities of fossil fuel gases since about 1840

3 The “dose” causes a response and it is reversible This comes from medical science, but if the “dose” is waste gas, then compare the fossil fuel emission pattern curve with that of temperature That it is indeed from coal, oil etc is demonstrated the well-known changes in C₁₂ C₁₃ and C₁₄ ratios in the atmosphere

Evidence of mechanism

4 There is a plausible mechanism, explicable from known science, which explains the effect Carbon dioxide and methane are known to trap heat. Quite a lot of it.

Parallel Evidence

5 The effect fits in with what we know from other studies Consider what has happened in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus by comparison to Earth.

6 The same effect is found when the study is repeated Many peer reviewed papers have validated the early evidence; none have found against.

7 The effect is observable in very different studies and phenomena Studies as diverse as ice core samples, temperature measurements in oceans, land and atmosphere and the rising intensity of weather patterns only confirm the predictions of the first discoveries

The above list could be applied to any study of economics, social science, marketing or politics as well as the hard sciences, In fact Bradford Hill and Doll derived it from their pioneering work on the link between cigarettes and cancer. Any fairground huckster or well-funded corporate journalist can make claims. We hope the above will help you, gentle reader, to be a little more confident as to the veracity of those.

[1] Spiegelhalter, D: The Art Of Statistics Penguin 2019

#truth #science #global warming #statistics #evidence #reason #cancer #climate change #jesus #pontius pilate

Pandemic and Storms: Two bad news stories suggest our escape window just got smaller

“It’ll be alright.” Somehow, we still cannot admit the the enormity of what we have brought upon ourselves. That clever scientists will still find a way to save us from the mass pandemics and climate change caused by our endless greed for stuff-cheap food, bright shiny junk, empty experiences-that most people persist with, like drunks dancing blindfold on the edge of a precipice. Well here are two stories which indicate that salvation may already be too late.

Winds wreck renewable energy plant. Two things we have always known. That renewable energies offer the only practicable salvation from runaway climate change. And that extreme weather events, caused by all the global warming we’ve already had, are growing worse. So where’s the way out, if those self-same hurricanes and things start tearing down the solar farms which might save us? Proof that this is already happening comes from this article by Richard Marsden of the Daily Mail. Apparently the Porth Wen solar Farm at Llanbadrig in Wales has been ripped apart by the recent Storm Darragh. Wind turbines were torn down too. It’s one plant in one location-so far. But to us it feels like being in a car where the act of going faster weakens the brakes. How scary is that?

Next Pandemic waiting in the wings. The desire for cheap greasy chicken has led to the mass incarceration of birds in crowded unhealthy conditions which make ideal breeding grounds for new viruses. We’ve warned before about the dangers of the H₅N₁virus on these pages (LSS 25 11 24. 25 4 24) Now a new study, reported by Kai Kupfer in Science suggests the virus is frighteningly close to jumping the barrier into our species Get this:

If the world finds itself amid a flu pandemic in a few months, it won’t be a big surprise. Birds have been spreading a new clade of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, 2.3.4.4b, around the world since 2021. That virus spilled over to cattle in Texas about a year ago and spread to hundreds of farms across the United States since. There have been dozens of human infections in North America. And in some of those cases the virus has shown exactly the kinds of mutations known to make it better suited to infect human cells and replicate in them.

There’s more, much more. It’s a fantastic article, we’d recommend it to anyone who wants to learn a bit of basic virology. But the writing is not just in the articles. It’s now very clearly on the wall.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14175033/Storm-Darragh-UKs-Biggest-solar-farm-pieces.html

[2] https://www.science.org/content/article/why-hasn-t-bird-flu-pandemic-started?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=8caf16c576-nature-briefing-daily-20241209&utm_mediu link via Nature Briefings

#pandemic #virology #global warming #extreme weather events #renewables

Syria: One more round in an ongoing struggle

As Hemingway once wrote of bankruptcy, the collapse of autocratic regimes tends to happen gradually and then suddenly—slowly, and then all at once

So writes Anne Applebaum in her unflinchingly honest reflection on the fall of Syrian Dictator Bashar Assad and his tribe of hangers-on. No one can deny the people who live in Syria their brief moment of joy at the departure of the kleptocrat. But whether the inhabitants of that ravaged land can whack up the wherewithal to sustain their new freedom remains moot. Especially in this dark sombre world where “ignorant armies clash by night!*

Which is why we’re channelling the thoughts of Anne and Sir Alex Younger, because they are two of the sharpest tools in the current box. They saw all this coming. And Anne is quick to situate the Syrian upset where it belongs-inside the strategic game plan of Vladimir Putin. The current spate of rail delays, snapped cables, health system freezes and curious election outcomes are part of one essential gameplan which she defines as

When Putin talks about a new world order or a “multipolar world,” as he did again last month, this is what he means: He wants to build a world in which his cruelty cannot be limited, in which he and his fellow dictators enjoy impunity, and in which no universal values exist, not even as aspirations.

Every ruler a Bashar Assad, in fact.

For those who do not know Britain’s Security Services still recruit and even promote some of the cleverest people in our system. None more so than Sir Alex Younger until recently head of MI6, our foreign facing arm of the undercover service. He has made it his mission to pop up in corners of the infosphere to warn us of the imminent perils we confront. The mere fact they have let him out should be alarm enough in in itself-normally these people stay deep undercover even far into retirement. This outing for Sky News is pretty representative of his thought, which is always lucid [2]

Gentle readers, the way ahead will be long and extremely arduous. Nor can we clearly see its end. But the people of Syria have shown the possibility of overthrowing even the most tyrannical of despots. They have demonstrated that Putin is not infallible, as the Mediterranean Province of his empire crumbles. And that his Iranian allies have suffered a major defeat. The greatest weapon a bully has is his reputation for being unbeatable. That has just been lost.

*arnold

[1]https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/12/sudden-collapse-bashar-assad/680917/?utm_source=apple_news_{thanks to P Seymour}

[2]https://news.sky.com/story/former-mi6-chief-sir-alex-younger-on-russia-syria-and-cyberwarfare-13266524

#vladimir putin #totalitarianism #kleptocracy #democracy #syria #anne applebaum #MI6

Are YOU a cause of deforestation?

What could be more innocent this weekend than a brisk stroll through your local shopping mall? All air-conditioned and centrally-heated, antiseptically clean, and crammed full of shops with must-have frocks and trainers and clothes and make-up and jewellery and mobile phones and shirts and trousers and computers and chocolates and more clothes and shoes and cosmetics and toys and even more clothes and accessories and skirts and furniture and even more cosmetics…..might you, have you, contributed to the tearing-down of trees in some far-away rain forest?

According to Global Canopy, you probably have.[1] They are a non-profit company that tries to monitor the role of the world’s largest corporations in the sustainability of the planet, looking at production, supply chains transport- all the aspects of a modern operating firm, in fact. What impressed us was the way that they try to work with companies by providing data and feasible strategies instead of just standing outside in the rain with placards. But they are no patsies, either. Get this from their website

The 10th edition of the Forest 500( their regular survey-LSS) reveals that almost a quarter (23%) of the companies and financial institutions that have featured in each of the 10 annual assessments have still not published a single commitment on addressing deforestation…….Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds (63%) of companies that have set commitments are failing to publish adequate evidence of their implementation

They go on to name names, which we dare not here, for lack of a proper legal department. But you’ll see them tomorrow during the course of your excursion. And that’s before you stop off in the Food Concessions on level four………

Why is all this important? Well we at LSS think that deforestation if one of the major causes of the worlds ills. It not only contributes humongously to global warming, it interferes catastrophically with hydrological cycles, driving desertification and land degradation. (ever wondered where all those migrants come from?) It may even be releasing new pathogens such as respiratory viruses into the human ecosphere, as we have alluded to before in these pages (LSS Passim) The World Counts has a nifty little website here to bring you somewhat up to speed [2].

Now we at LSS are not urging you to give up the accoutrements of civilised life today. We are Whigs, not Cistercian Monks, and certain member of the Editorial Board might find immediate changes to their lifestyles very uncomfortable indeed. But look again at the way Global Canopy work; with the grain of corporate life (weak pun intended) Can you ,should you find ways to bring pressure on companies by investing differently? By purchasing a little more slowly, and perhaps a little more judiciously? By getting just one item a week from a charity shop? If you want to donate to, or help these people in some other way, we would applaud that, too. As Tesco used to say back in the 1990s; every little helps.

Thanks to G Herbert for this story

[1]https://globalcanopy.org/press/10-years-of-data-reveals-the-major-companies-persistently-ignoring-their-role-in-driving-deforestation/

[2] https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/forests-and-deserts/why-is-deforestation-a-problem

#deforestation #supply chains #palm oil #global warming #shopping malls #consumer