Who was the last of the polymaths? By which we mean someone who is so clever and erudite that they may leap over the walls of specialisation and make a meaningful contribution in more than one field of learning? Some say it was Thomas Young (1773-1829). Others make the case for John von Neuman(1903-1957). Today our candidate is George Gamow (1904-1968) [1] whose awesome intellect ran the gamut of physics, cosmology and biology. With successful excursions into teaching and writing along the way. That’s quite a guy.

Gamow was born in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire. He was well educated in science, after which his career and CV reads like a resume of the absolute top gun institutes and minds of the twentieth century. Gottingen, Rutherford, the Cavendish at Cambridge, this rising star was making waves in quantum theory and nuclear physics before he was thirty. But seeing which way the wind was blowing(anyone intelligent in Russia ends up being imprisoned or murdered sooner or later) he fled to the freer atmosphere of the west in 1933. After completing his work on nuclear modelling, his attention shifted to cosmology. He it was who proffered the Big Bang theory, in the course of his studies on planetary and galactic formation.

But this wasn’t enough for Brainy George, as the lads down the pub used to call him. For his next trick, he palled up with Watson and Crick as they unpicked the mysteries of the DNA molecule. Which was surely they key advance of the last century, at least down here on Earth. And all the while he kept up a busy schedule of teaching and writing popular books. For George believed that everyone had the right and the ability to know about science and learning. It’s nostalgic now to reflect how nearly that became our prevailing philosophy, until people like Rupert Murdoch came along.

It’s probably impossible now to be a polymath. The depth of learning required in each field is too great, and the time needed for the work too long. But the qualities that he epitomises-intelligence, reasoning and learning- are needed more than ever. And in that sense, the work of George Gamow continues.

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

#george gamow #physics #big bang #quantum theory #nucleus #dna #watson and crick

We’ve noticed more than once how certain elderly journalists, writing for a largely elderly readership, are furious advocates of bans on substances which they deem o be “drugs”. Yet somehow drugs favoured by their readers-alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, usually-are always deemed to be “not drugs at all”.

Yet caffeine is very much a drug, by any consistent use of the word. As this article by Emma Beckett for the Conversation[1] makes clear, it’s just like any other stimulant. It acts on the same receptors in the nervous system as other stimulants. It affects the same sorts of neural pathways. Like any stimulant, it “borrows” energy for you now, to be paid back later with a deep “down” phase. What’s the difference?

You see, gentle reader, it’s this word “consistent” that we keep coming back to. It works in science, in law, in art. Even Philosophy. Because thinkers from St Augustine to John Rawls agree that a society is only stable if it’s based on justice. Treating everyone the same and all that. We’d be the last to deny that certain psychoactive substances such as heroin and cocaine are highly addictive. So are alcohol and nicotine. We are quite prepared to believe that all can effect profound physiological and psychological damage. If you want to be consistent, you have to ban them all.

But be prepared for the consequences.

[1]https://theconversation.com/nope-coffee-wont-give-you-extra-energy-itll-just-borrow-a-bit-that-youll-pay-for-later-197897?utm_source=Nature+Br

[2] St Augustine De Civitate Dei (On the City Of God) 413

[3]John Rawls A Theory of Justice 1971

#drugs #justice #prohibition

weekly stories of more than passing note

Striking Truth It’s always been a trope of the British Right that our decline was due to endless strikes. Hence the unions were ruthlessly crushed. But a surprisingly counter-intuitive piece from the The Conversation suggests that the truth may be more subtle and complex. There’s three concepts likely to cause problems in editorial meeting at The Sun!

https://theconversation.com/strikes-over-the-past-50-years-have-barely-made-a-dent-in-the-french-economy-198824?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=

Ice, Right? Scientists seem to have discovered a new form of ice, more akin to that found in such locations as the moons of Saturn and other exotic locations. Should we try some in our Friday Night Cocktail recipes? The Mail explains

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11709601/Scientists-create-entirely-new-type-ice-neither-floats-nor-sinks.html

Power Down Why go to all that trouble building fusion reactors on earth, when you canget for next to nothing from our nearby fusion reactor, i.e. the sun? The most likely way ahead would be to beam down microwaves, as Nature explains, Can a Solar Farm be built in Space?

The first orbiting solar power station could be operational by 2040. Until then, huge technical hurdles remain. The arrays would need to be more than one square kilometre in size, and would have to be assembled in space — an incredibly complex engineering challenge. Arguably the biggest problem: beaming the power generated in space back to Earth. The most promising option is to convert energy into microwaves that will be captured by receiving stations that are even larger than the solar-panel arrays.Nature | 6 min read

Green growth, the rushes show Back in about 2015 climate change deniers were fond of saying that the economy could not afford the change-over to to renewable technologies. It’s early days yet, but the indications are that a green switch will be good for jobs and growth. This is the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64440827

Batteries Flattened The price of not adopting green technology may be high indeed While the EU and USA forge ahead with state crafted schemes for green transport factories, the UK has started to fall terminally behind. In thrall to right wing think tanks who were ever-hostile to state intervention and evidence of climate change, UK Ministers seem to have been blindsided. And now it may be too late to save our automotive industry

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/26/britishvolt-collapsed-owing-120m-as-uk-car-industry-reports-dismal-year

And this week’s music It’s always good when two of the Greats manage to put aside their egos and work together, although it probably helps when one of them has been dead for seventy years. That’s why this Shakespeare-Purcell jam session, The Fairy Queen has survived the test of time. Although it got lost after the 1690s and only resurfaced in in 1910! here’s a brief but delightful extract, showcasing Baroque harmonies and singing at their enlightened best!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=purcell+fairy+queen&&view=detail&mid=DF2CEA478B24C65DB4DADF2CEA4

#british decline #economics #ice #solar power #nuclear fusion #renewables #growth #henry purcell #william shakespeare

Mention the word “rum” and you conjure up a world of tropical islands with evocative names like Leeward, Windward, Antilles and Keys. Of blue seas, white beaches, and warm sunny days under tropical skies. Of famous pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Morgan, who presumably liked nothing better than to drop into a beach bar for quick Daiquiri after a hard day’s cruising.

The origins of the drink and the word itself are highly disputed [1] But as early as 1651 it had a acquired a dubious reputation, as this observation upon the Island of St Nevis shows

“The chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil, and this is made of sugar canes distilled, a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor.”

Rum soon went on to make its way into cocktail recipes the world around. A quick glance at a recipe book revealed over fifty such, including some of the most evocative: Cuba Libre, Havana Beach, Pina Colada and Blue Hawaiian. There isn’t time to make (or drink) even a fraction of them all this evening. But we would like to offer instead this link to the BBC Good Food Guide. It’s like a handy guide for the beginner, but with juicy mixes like the Zombie and the Long Island Iced Tea, which anyone can soon learn to run up to a professional standard. So for tonight, why not mix up a special? And and imagine yourself to be on a Friday night on Port of Spain in 1722, when the taverns were alive with music and laughter, the fleet was in town, and the streets were full of excitement and discharged seamen. Happy days!

We thank Gary Herbert for the inspiration for tonight’s entry to the blog

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

[2]https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-ever-rum-cocktail-recipes

#rum #cocktails #pirates

February is a wonderful time up here in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Yes, it’s still cold, but the skies are bright for longer and the “cold, goblin spring of the crocuses” as Kurt Vonnegut [1] would have it, is already upon us.

It’s been a busy time here at LSS. Lots of likes from regulars, quite a lot of sign-ups, and the odd comment, which we more than welcome. There’s also the strong possibility that this is our eight hundredth blog! We’ll check that after we press the “send” button. We do chronicle the odd bad thing here;after all, there’s a lot of them about. But we also do a of of good stuff. January was full of hopeful stories on antibiotics progress, ending in fact with two strong ones back to back. It’s nice to see such movement on our original raison d’etre. Which shows, moreover-if we keep on plugging research, and the education that supports it, things can only get better.

[1]Kurt Vonnegut The Sirens of Titan 1959

It was a peaceful Sunday morning, gentle readers. And we should have been scouring the media to bring you more stories of advances in the struggle against microbial antibiotic resistance. We even read the Observer, which is kind of like the Guardian‘s Sunday sister. So how did we miss this one by Robin McKie, their estimable and most learned science supremo?

It’s all about a bacteria called Xanthomonas albinecus, which can cause havoc to the growers of sugar cane. But the little creature carries a secret which could be of incalculable benefit: Albicidin[1] A substance which killes bacteria with deadly force by acting as a DNA gyrase inhibitor. Alright, we know tht last phrase doesn’t trip off everyone’s tongue. But get this from your labroots link: [2]

this plant pathogen inhibits DNA gyrase and prevents bacterial DNA replication, since DNA gyrase enzymes are present in bacteria but not humans.^1,3 

Yes, unlike Brexit, this time it really does look as if we can have our cake and eat it. The potential to develop this method as it is, then augment it with genetic engineering, could be enormous.

When we started our original Facebook page back in far off 2015, with the sole aim of promoting antibiotics research, the situation looked bleak indeed. But as avid readers, who had the public-spiritedness to follow us into this blog will have observed, things now look much much better. Thanks to the efforts of people like Professor Colin Garner and his doughty champions at antibiotics research UK[3],journalists like Robin and many others around the world, there has been real progress. We could spend lines on hackneyed metaphors about lights, tunnels, woods, trees, cups and lips. But we’ll spare you that. Provided that you promise to keep donating, pushing your politicos and spreading the word in every conversation in the pub/supermarket/cafe/waiting room and wherever else you can. How’s that for a deal?

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/29/plant-toxin-new-weapon-antibiotic-war-against-bacteria-albicidin?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[2]https://www.labroots.com/trending/drug-discovery-and-development/24547/introducing-plant-toxin-antibiotic-albicidin#:~:text=Albicidin%20is%20a%20peptide%20antibio

[3]https://www.antibioticresearch.org.uk/

#robin mckie #antibiotics #albicidin #bacteria #antibiotic resistance #medicine

Brexit is over. It’s done. We may not have agreed with it, but there was a democratic vote, and we agree with that. What’s more we think it both inadvisable and impossible for the United Kingdom to join the European Union now. Brexit must be made to work. And the problems of the UK are far more deep rooted and chronic than the sudden irruption of 2016. So much so that EU membership is largely irrelevant to them.

But did it have to be done quite so incompetently? So much so that even many of its erstwhile supporters are beginning to doubt its relevance or wisdom?[1] How did a nation manage its affairs so badly in the crucial years 2016-2020? The reappearance of Michel Barnier on British television prompts memories of that question, and many others. His book My Secret Brexit Diary is excoriating about successive British negotiating teams. He and the EU ran rings around them from the start. [2] In this tiny space we can offer but one extract, but it says it all

When negotiations opened, the media made much of a photo of Barnier sitting with a file full of papers on the table in front of him while David Davis had nothing at all. The reality was far worse. Barnier was astounded by Davis’s “nonchalant” approach: “As is always the case with him we rarely get into the substance of things

How did intelligent, educated men like Davis, Boris Johnson and David Frost play their hand so very badly? They were backed by an superb diplomatic machine, the support of most of the nation, and an overwhelmingly, almost obsessively compliant media. Or is the clue to their downfall in that last?

You see, foreign readers, the British Ruling Class does not need to negotiate. Never had to. Never learned it. Every enemy they come across-miners, europeans, immigrants, teachers- can at once be screamed down, demonised and demolished by a hopelessly partisan, hysterical press and media. So effectively that they are deprived of all legitimate agency. No case they can present is worthy of consideration. To consider their point of view, to empathise(a key skill in negotiation) is to become a Traitor. This works well in Britain, where all opposition has been successfully flattened for decades . But in wider lands, where the writ of the Daily Mail does not run, this attitude causes problems. And so our rulers, so accustomed to getting their way at home, became hopelessly out of their depth when faced with a real world intellectual challenge, which less cossetted statesmen take in their stride.

Now Britain sits isolated from any trading bloc of significance, and the consequences mount by the day. Brexit has to be made to work, their is no other option. But before it can, we must learn about why it has started so badly for us.

[1]https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/changing-attitudes-to-brexit-three-years-on/ar-AA16TgQu?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=542f3870a6014399a69cc70d19d9641

[2]https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/25/my-secret-brexit-diary-by-michel-barnier-review-a-british-roasting

#brexit uk #eu

We’ve said it before-we started this blog to highlight the dangers of antibiotic resistance. It’ still what we’re really all about, despite the odd excursion into other matters. So when something comes up that really offers hope, we quickly revert to type. And so we think we have something good for you today, or rather Ethan Ennals of the Daily Mail does. [1]

It’s called Gepotidacin. It’s been developed for UTIs, and is still in its early stages. But we’ll let Ethan and Wikipedia[2] riff on that for you. The key learning points for us are more general, and we hope not too discursive, for our busy readership.

Firstly: it’s a new antibiotic, developed in a rigorous programme of research. After all the doom and gloom we throw at you here, that has to be something to cheer about. Secondly, there’s a clever new methodology, carefully targeting the gene sequence of the offending organism. As the researchers point out, this may give the new medicine a longer shelf life. Don’t forget; resistance to he first generation of antibiotics was springing up after only a few years. Thirdly (admittedly a bit speculative): research successes tend to be like buses. There’s nothing for a long time, and suddenly three come along at once. And so we offer congratulations to the researchers who pioneered this success, and to the journalists who are spreading the Good News. Where’s there’s thought, there’s hope.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11687755/Relief-1-7million-Britons-suffering-urinary-tract-infections.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gepotidacin#antibiotic resistance #superbugs #medicine #dna

stories of note from this week

Does Alzheimer’s start in the gut? One of the advantages of being an independent blog is that we can consider all points of view. Recently, we’ve followed the trope of viruses and neurogenerative diseases. But there is another out there. Changes in the gut, and its associated biome, may also be implicated. Here’s the Conversation

https://theconversation.com/possible-link-between-alzheimers-disease-and-gut-microbiome-found-in-mice-new-study-197945?utm_me

Wye did this happen? The UK suffers from a Government addicted to a deranged philosophy of deregulation and growth at all costs. Which is how the once beautiful River Wye was destroyed by uncontrolled farming paractices up in its catchment area. Our main man George Monbiot has been banging on about this for years, but now his message is getting through as this piece from the I shows

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/river-wye-why-the-impending-death-of-one-of-the-uk-s-longest-and-best-loved-rivers-should-worry-us-all/ar-AA16PEuc?oc

Antibiotic resistance: it’s depressing Oh, that pesky Law of Unintended Consequences! Looks like all those antidepressant pills could be fomenting increased antibiotic resistance, as if we didn’t have enough problems along these lines already. Here’s Nature Briefings

Antidepressants might contribute to antibiotic resistance, alongside antibiotics overuse. In a laboratory study, five common antidepressants increased the mutation rate of Escherichia coli and triggered cellular defence mechanisms that make the bacteria better able to survive subsequent antibiotic treatment. Researchers now need to assess whether these mechanisms drive resistance in disease-causing bacteria in a real-world scenario.Nature | 5 min read
Reference: PNAS paper

Go wild in the countries There’s nothing better for the soul than a nice long walk in the country of by the sea. Except it gets a bit depressing when someone has gone and built houses all over it. But can this trend be reversed? Can we open up our wild spaces again, and let the planet breathe? The BBC considers:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63955526

Who’s writing this blog? Can you tell whether it’s us or Chat GPT? There’s a distinct queasiness going on here, as it seems inevitable that computers may replace every useful human activity. Writing and journalism are just one more victim. Try this from the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/26/science-journals-ban-listing-of-chatgpt-as-co-author-on-papers

Fry and Laurie Before they were famous for many other things, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie used to put out a droll series of sketches mocking those shows and about hard talking, hard talking business folk. We thought you might want to see one for old times. Yes, overseas readers-Doctor House is really English

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fry+and+laurie+businessmen+sketch&&view=detail&mid=9CBEBE2A445713F1CD549CBEBE

#ecocide #george monbiot #alzheimer’s #gut microbiome #antibiotic resistance #depression #rewilding #ai #chat gpt

The word “gin” can be found in one form or another in many languages. All are referencing the humble, exceedingly abundant Juniper plant Juniperus communis, whose berries give this drink its distinctive quality, setting it apart from competitors such as vodka, whiskey and brandy, to name but a few. [1] Since the age of Hogarth, via the teetotal antics of Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen, down to the louche pleasures of the jazz age, it has always retained that naughty glamour beloved of true epicureans in all lands and cultures.

The most cursory glance at a cocktail users manual reveals a bewildering variety of gin based numbers, as this gregarious spirit will mix with vermouths, fruits, blenders, and other spirits of all classes. An immense read! And a worse morning after, if you tried them all in one sitting! Forcing us thereby to make a simple choice on these grounds: we like ’em. Nevertheless we have tried to include at least a “tall” and a “short”; and if these please you, we can always return to theme at a later date.

Classic Short: The Dry Martini The pre-dinner aperitif for sophisticates from the Bronx to old Bombay, the secret is to stir, not to shake. Thank you, Mr Bond! Put five ice cubes in a mixing glass and add a half measure of dry vermouth. Then three measures of dry London gin. (none of yer poncey modern ones here, squire) Stir firmly but slowly and pour into a chilled cocktail glass, losing the ice on the way. Add one Andalucian olive on a stick, and decorate with a a perfectly-cut strip pf lemon peel. We won’t tell you how to dress, gentle readers; but somehow full evening dress, black tie, white shirt, etc, really enhances the flavour of this one.

Fruity Mix :The Luigi Like a Bach fugue, we will now expand a little on our basic themes. Again put your cubes into a mixing glass. add three measures of gin, one of Cointreau, one of dry vermouth and one of grenadine. Finally, one of best fresh orange juice. Stir and pour, sin hielo, into a different clean cocktail glass. Decorate with a slice of blood orange. Again, best drunk in evening attire, but with your light summer jacket.

Cool and Languid: The Singapore Sling For us, this still beats all the other long summer cocktails, even Pimms. You’ll need your best mixer. Into which add 8 ice cubes, three measures of gin, 1 measure of cherry brandy, and the juices of both half a lemon and half an orange. For the piece de resistance, add a dash of angostura bitters, just to pull the whole thing back to a more grown up taste, and shake vigorously. Pour with the ice into a long glass and add a little ice cold sparkling water to top up. Decoration: give it a tropical theme: slices of lemon or orange help, or even a discrete cherry on a stick. Who said something about your five-a day? Dress notes Best taken in a Hawaiian shirt after a long day on the beach.

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

#gin #cocktails #katherine hepburn #william hogath