Where did wines come from? The answer is several places, as new genetic techniques make clear. This story from Scientific American (via Nature Briefings) points to an origin in the earliest Neolithic, although the first ones were probably table grapes rather than booze grapes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wines-true-origins-are-finally-revealed/

Where are all the birds going? The answer is probably to extinction, if you read this excellent link from the RSPB. Silent spring indeed.

The Diet of Worms Any gardener will know of the amazing work done by our humble earthworm chums-digging, aerating, recycling, to name but a few- but now it seems they are pretty largely responsible for putting the food on our plate. Nature Briefings, Earthworms add big slice of global grain

Earthworms boost crop yields by more than 140 million metric tons annually — equivalent to one slice of bread in every loaf, for wheat alone. The creatures churn and aerate the soil, help the land to hold on to water and release nutrients, and trigger plants to grow and defend themselves against pathogens. Farmers and policymakers should consider ways to make agriculture more worm-friendly, such as by plowing (sic) less often, suggests ecologist Steven Fonte, who led the first-of-its-kind estimate of wormy goodness. “They don’t respond well to tractors chopping them in half,” says Fonte. “Despite popular belief, you don’t get two earthworms.”Science | 5 min read
Reference: Nature Communications paper

Nasty narcissists pick on women Whenever anyone from any political party comes to our door, we treat them with studious respect. They are giving up their time, and doubtlessmuch income so that we have the privilege of living in a democracy. So the news that people so engaged, especially women, fills us with despair at the mindset of people who spend their time churning out narcissistic abuse and petulant threats. Here’s The Conversation

https://theconversation.com/online-abuse-could-drive-women-out-of-political-life-the-time-to-act-is-now-214301?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20fr

Just Relax! We love this sequence from the Aviator wherein Howard Hughes (Leonardo Di Caprio) and Katherine Hepburn(Cate Blanchett) take a late night tour of the skies of Los Angeles, to the gentle music of Benny Goodman. Five great names in one paragraph!

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=moonglow+aviator&&mid=699593E6B0B8567650CF699593E6B0B8567650CF&&FORM=VRDGAR

#extinction #wine #dna #trolls #the aviator

True to our promise, we’ve got two blogs today. Because this one, thrown up thanks to the work of our assiduous researchers, returns Learning, Science and Society to where it began; an antibiotics blog.

First, the good news: It’s possible that antibiotics could reduce the crippling harm caused by endomentriosis. [1] According to Japanese researchers, a nasty little organism called Fusobacterium may be the guilty party. And a course of common antibiotics like metronidazole may be the answer. Read our link to Thea Jourdan of the Mail. And after you’ve finished: what happens to all those women with endometriosis when the antibiotics run out?

Second, the not so good news According to Emily Stearn, also of the Mail, antibiotic prescriptions may cause mood changes so profound that they could even lead to suicidal thoughts. Apparently a certain Dr Robert Stephenson, a cardiologist with no previous history of mental disorders took a course of ciprofloxacin and then, unfortunately, committed suicide. Our sympathies to those whom he left behind. Now, we are always loathe to infer general conclusions from one data point, however moving. On the other hand, we never imagined such an outcome was even possible. And there does seem to be well-attested evidence that, yes, antibiotics can have effects on the nervous system in some cases [3] So from now on, we’ll watch this space, as they say.

And finally-The Daily Mail. Certain readers, high on the scale of both erudition and emotional enlightenment, have asked us: why do consult articles from that (expletive deleted) publication? To which we reply: we are only following our great Whig mentor, Bertrand Russell. Who strongly counselled obtaining your data from as many sources as possible, and reading even from journals in the enemy camp, You never know who is going to save your life. A bit like antibiotics, really.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12559011/Eye-antibiotics-ease-pain-endometriosis.html

[2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12570531/Warning-suicide-risk-patients-taking-common-antibiotics-following-death-newly-retired-doctor.html

[3] https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychiatric-adverse-effects-antibiotics

#endometriosis #nervous system #antibiotics #medicine

You’d have hoped that things like cell biology and medical administration
would be pretty gender neutral by now. But no, as the first of today’s two
quick blogs reveals, you have a much higher chance of dying from cancer if you
are a woman. Wherever you live.

Ever true to our multilingual raison d’etre we’ve two links for
you, one in Spanish by the admirable Enrique Alpañés of El
País and one in English by Andrew Gregory of The
Guardian [2] Both refer to an original study from The Lancet, but
you being such an ingenious lot, gentle readers, can track that down for
yourselves. Meanwhile, the two articles are packed full of statistics; but for
us, two killer points emerged:

A The sex differential is 800 000 deaths a year. If that
isn’t blatant injustice, we don’t know what is.

B (From Enrique) “Men lack the knowledge and ability to make informed
decisions on medical treatment” (hope our translation does your words
justice, amigo)

Does B explain A? Sadly, it probably does. The average chap is often
desperately short of emotional intelligence when compared to
the average gal. And the moral? When you’re doing any intervention-social,
infrastructural, medical, whatever-try and let the people you want to help take
over and do it for themselves.

[1]https://elpais.com/salud-y-bienestar/2023-09-27/las-desigualdades-de-genero-empeoran-el-acceso-de-las-mujeres-a-la-prevencion-deteccion-y-atencion-del-cancer.html

[2]
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/26/feminist-approach-cancer-save-lives-800000-women?ref=upstract.com

#cancer #public health #inequality #prevention #medicine

Georgio Parisi is a reasonable sort of chap, you might think. Educated. Intelligent. Which is why they made him President of Italy’s foremost scientific institute, the famous Accademia dei Lincei. Which is why he might be worth at least listening to when he goes on the telly and warns people that unless they had their vaccines, there would be 500 deaths per day. [1] Instead, he received a barrage of of abuse, invective and threats. And of course, 500 people died per day.

As Georgio himself muses-why all this hostility to science? Especially from people who use its benefits, such as evidence based medicine, computers and jet transport. Parisi speculates that the short attention span required for modern things like Tik Tok and face book demand instant reaction rather than careful consideration. We suspect that he is being too kind.

For us the great dividing line is between those of us who think (readers of LSS are a good example here) and those who do not. Those who assess and check their evidence, and those who take a single data point, no context, and screech it for all they’re worth. We’ve seen them do it in climate science, vaccination, economics……….exactly the way that rival football supporters grunt at each other until a fight breaks out. The same mindset that leads to murderous ethnic conflicts across the world. Because they are ignorant of one simple truth: knowledge and belief are two entirely different things. How much longer can we pander to ignorance?

#reason #education #learning #vaccination #science #knowledge

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/25/tiktok-global-crisis-world-trust-scientists-online-attack

And so Rupert Murdoch retires, or at least claims to have done so. He leaves behind a fatally divided America, a world burning with climate change, and a media empire that may be past its best. Before all of us who try to hold educated and reasonable opinions rejoice, we need to answer these questions

1 If Rupert Murdoch is to blame for the rise of populism, why are there similar movements in countries where his empire has small or negligible influence?

2 Why do so many people hate the educated, and define them as “hostile elites” ?

3 Why was his greatest commercial success to be found among manual labourers, especially white ones?

4 Starting with “masculinity”, what is the relationship between political beliefs and the construction of identities?

5 Why are their no similar populist movements on the Left?

6 If the Murdoch Empire collapsed tomorrow, would something even worse replace it?

7(for investors) who is running the show-Lachlan or Rupert?

 8 Why was Rupert Murdoch, an heir to a fortune and a billionaire so able to pose as an “anti elite outsider”?

9 Is right wing populism the natural default state for the human mind?

10 How can progressives of all stripes counter the influence of Murdoch’s successors while at the same time ensuring a free media and flow of information?

Summary Was Rupert Murdoch a cause-or just a symptom?

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/22/rupert-murdoch-legacy-power-blame-elite-fox-donald-trump-russell-brand

in July 20222 we published the following:

…………… But the BBC contains another hidden gem. One that is free, easy to access, and which you may not have heard of. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to present Melvyn Bragg and In Our Time. [1]

………… a golden trove of learning on every conceivable subject and every intelligent man or woman who has ever lived(except for the ones they haven’t covered yet) Aeschylus, the Artheshastra, Booth, the Bacchae……Shakespeare, Schopenhauer……we could go on. All presented in the same easily-assimilable 48 minute format where Melvyn gets in three of the top academics in any chosen field and lets them talk. ………… And every show since 1998 has been collected and archived so you can dip in to as many or as few as you wish.

Well, today Melvyn’s show hits 1000 editions. Right now, they’re talking about the old film The Magnificent Deadly Seventh Seal. Or something like that. No matter! What counts is that you tune in and absorb another dose of free, high level learning. We recommend

[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qykl?page=3

#bbc #melvyn bragg #learning #science #art #philosophy

Gentle readers, we cannot help but express a tear of schadenfreude at the reported falling out of those two Titans of the Right, Rupert Murdoch and Donald J Trump. At least according to prolific author Michael Wolff they have. [1]  Among his more lurid claims is that Rupert’s loathing for The Donald is now so visceral, that he “often wishes for his death”. The question is: how seriously should we take all this?

Like any good detective, we look for a motive. Money? Well, back in 2020, various employees of Rupert’s Fox News outfit hurled allegations that the recent election of President Biden had been due to fraudulent use of election machines supplied by the Dominion Corporation. For many on the Right, words are not carefully defined units of meaning to be arranged into  logical structures. For them, they are mere sounds, emotional bricks to be hurled at anyone according to the immediate needs of the moment. It was just Fox being Foxy. Unfortunately, Dominion took the former view, and sued. Rupert calculated on a $50 million hit; instead he got $785 million. [2] [3]

And this matters. Murdoch needed that money, because his empire is no longer the all-conquering behemoth it was back in the 1980s. For one thing, the rival Daily Mail Online has seized the zeitgeist as the go-to news site for right wingers across the globe. According to insiders, he is also anxious to buy right wing newsmag The Spectator, as well as holding the line for his various new TV and Radio outlets against hungry rivals like GB News. All of which requires a fair amount of spare change. Which Trump and his pals have just cost him. And don’t expect The Donald to pay any of it back any time soon.

So, yes, Murdoch has a motive. And do not underestimate this intelligent, cunning man, even if he is alleged to be in his sunset years(his mother lived to 103) Watch your back, Donald-and listen to the Wolff.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/20/rupert-murdoch-wished-donald-trump-dead-michael-wolff-book

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/19/rupert-murdoch-dominion-suit-trump-fox-michael-wolff-book

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Voting_Systems_v._Fox_News_Network

us elections #murdoch #trump #2024 #fox news #dominion

Overheard in a cafe: a woman talking in quiet, bleak despair about her husband’s drinking. His Doctor had banned him from the addiction for six months (minimum). Instead of learning from the admonition, he simply saw it as something to count down, and from midnight on the last day he had resumed with glee. Now his stomach was so ravaged that the only way he could carry on was by taking malibu in milk. But it kept him topped up.

Because every addict we’ve ever known is like that. The booze, the fags-they’re not a bolt on, they are what the addict is-culturally, socially, personally. Of course they see every attempt to oppose reason and common and sense as an imposition from them, the others, the grown ups. They learned their addictions when very young. And in the pub, with their mates and booze and fags, is where they’re young again. And somewhere in that group is the worse mate of all. The facilitator. The one who offers another drink with a knowing leer. Or a cigarette with the ancient line “have a fag, Dave-one won’t kill yer mate” (every danger carries half a truth)

And so we come to Rishi Sunak, and his weasel proposals to water down the UK attempt to wean ourselves off our addiction to fossil fuels.[1] Anyone who’s had a habit, or knows someone who has, will recognise what he is doing. He’s that one in the Dog and Duck with the ever ready packet of fags and one more for the road. Only this time it’s not the life of one foolish individual, it’s all of us.

the sub-editors would like to point out that Rishi Sunak is a good boy who neither smokes nor drinks. WE think they’ve missed the point!

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/rishi-sunak-planning-drop-net-zero-policies-pre-election-challenge-labour

#addiction #climate change #fossil fuels #net zero

Old hands on this blog will recall our interest in clean aviation (LSS 28 11 2022; 24 11 21) We like aviation, especially the civil kind, for its role in making the world smaller and bringing peoples and cultures closer. So it’s nice to see another group of brave entrepreneurs and engineers making a serious attempt not just at the technology, but thinking about the logistics of how it might be implemented

Based at Kemble in Gloucestershire UK pioneers ZeroAvia are staking their all on Hydrogen Electric technology. [1] It’s clean, it’s green, and as you might expect, their website waxes lyrical about all the advantages. Two points catch our eye. Firstly, they are trying to set up a carefully designed refuelling system so the hydrogen is generated by renewable energy right next to the plane as it sits on the runway. Secondly, they seem to be building up slowly, testing the technology first on small planes on short hop feeder flights, then slowly extending to short haul and medium haul with bigger power systems. No one is claiming to take over the Atlantic until about 2040, which to us seems eminently reasonable, yet sanguine.

And the moral of the story? Where you put enough intelligent people together, and give them enough working capital, there is hope that some of your problems might be solved. See our occasional blogs on medical science if you don’t believe us. But when you divide yourselves into warring tribes and fight viciously over dwindling resources (aided by entities like Fox News, for example) you will have no hope at all. Choose.

We saw this story on Channel 4 News in the UK, who are about as diametrically opposite to Fox News as one may wish for

[1]https://zeroavia.com/

#ZeroAvia #aviation #green fuel #transport #climate change

Warning: the contents of this article may offend all those journalists and politicians who make their careers denigrating experts and anyone who is educated

Autumn is on us again, and pretty soon we’ll be covering the annual round of Nobel Prizes. But before we do, here’s another set of awards[1], brought to us by the pen of the excellent Linda Geddes of the Guardian. They are the Breakthrough Prizes,[2] and like the Nobels, seek to reward the very best in intellectual accomplishment. If you don’t believe us click, and discover the work of John Cardy and Alexander Zamolodchikov, whose mathematical reasoning has not only given us a new theory of matter, it might also help with Quantum Computing. Or how about the medical insights of Michel Sadelein, who has been training up T Cells to go after some of the most intractable diseases? There’s more like this in Linda’a article-so give it a click.

The world is full of well paid people like politicians and journalists who like to denigrate expertise like this. People who dispense half truths and insinuations about climate change. Or declare generally that “we have no need of experts” But you cant choose truth only when it suits you. We knew a few people who did that on the matter of cigarettes and lung cancer. We don’t know them now.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/14/breakthrough-prize-winners-2023-science

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Prize#:~:text=The%20Breakthrough%20Prizes%20are%20a%20set%20of%20international,Breakthrough%20Prize%20Board%20in%20recogniti

#science #breakthrough prize #nobel prize #climate science #quantum computing