Round Up: Trumponomics, Wind Farms, AIDS and Depeche Mode. Among other things

Donald Ducks out of the Free Market Any questions you might have about the leftward drift of Mr Trump’s economic policies are only confirmed as he starts trying to take control of interest rates and large companies like Lockheed Martin. We’ve two pieces here: the Guardian and NSBC which riff on both themes. Watch the video in the latter: it features economist Gillan Tett, as formidable an intellect as any currently offering their thoughts in the serious media at the moment .

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/25/trump-federal-reserve-lisa-cook-explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85N6X5jvK9g

Contemplating, Celebrating New Life #1 Creating entirely new life forms was once a dream of the more outre writers of Science Fiction. Now it seems very real indeed as this piece from the Mail, which has enormous implications for many fields from Medicine to astrobiologyBreakthrough as scientists create a new form life | Daily Mail Online

New pill aids HIV sufferers Once again our researchers have put up a piece from the Mail . But bloggers can’t be choosers, so we ran with it. This is no cure: but it keeps the virus at bay and so help thousands lead healthier and more productive lives Monthly pill brings hope in fight against world’s deadliest STI

The Heat is on An unexpected side effect of global warming is that it may be making us age faster. There’s an irony here: as most of the deniers fall into the -erm- ahem- more senior- sections of the population this may only impede efforts to control this runaway catastrophe Heatwaves make a Biological Clock Run Fast from Nature Briefing

Repeated exposure to extreme heat events can accelerate the body’s ageing process. A long-term study of almost 25,000 people in Taiwan found that, for every extra 1.3 ℃ a person was exposed to, around 0.023–0.031 years was added to their biological clock on average — an extent comparable to that caused by regular smoking or alcohol consumption. The effect looks small, but cumulatively “can have meaningful public-health implications”, says environmental epidemiologist and study co-author Cui Guo. “Heatwave is not a personal risk factor, but a global concern,” she says. Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature Climate Change paper

Fearing the winds of change Peoples’ stated beliefs and opinions are often a guide to their deeper anxieties. A world view based on hyperconsumption and fossil fuels is now seriously archaic. This explains the deep angst ridden controversies that swirls around wind farms: they are huge visible reminder that we’ve been getting things seriously wrong for over one hundred years Here’s The Conversation

https://theconversation.com/why-wind-farms-attract-so-much-misinformation-and-conspiracy-theory-262192?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversati

Contemplating Celebrating New Life-#2 You knew we were going to chose this one, didn’t you? Yes- Depeche Mode it is

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=depeche+mode+new+life&&mid=69CC976ED9B5100BA5C669CC976ED9B5100BA5C6&&FORM=VRDGA

#gillian #tett #economics #federal reserve #socialism #capitalism #biology #dna #HIV #AIDS #renewables #global warming #climate change

Gut Health/Mental health: the evidence is slowly accumulating

No it wasn’t us who thought of this first. It was a piece in that brilliant mag New Scientist which first gave us this jaw-dropping moment. There may be a link between the digestive system-what we eat, how we prepare it and what else lives in it-and mental health. Maybe, just may be the researchers in this frontier field may be on the edge of finding causal mechanisms for some mental disorders. Some at least. We have started to cover this topos (don’t you love that word?)in several blogs since 2022, with growing enthusiasm. In this spirit we present this latest from Nature Briefing A gut feeling about mental health

Preliminary evidence suggests that nurturing the gut microbiota could help to resolve depression and anxiety, whether through faecal transplant, probiotics or diet. Two 2016 studies showed that transferring faecal matter from someone with depression into rodents gave the animals depression-like behaviors. “This is not how we’d thought about mental illness, as something that can be transferred the way you could catch measles,” says psychiatrist Valerie Taylor. Now researchers are working to untangle how the microbiota influence various human illnesses throughout the gut-brain axis — including effects on the immune system, the vagus nerve and the enteric nervous system.Nature Outlook | 12 min read
This editorially independent article is part of Nature Outlook: The human microbiome, a supplement produced with financial support from Yakult.

But we stress several things. Firstly, it’s early days. All too often people get carried away by excitement, and lose their grip on evidence and reason. But LSS staff and readers are above the level of mental level of conspiracy theory enthusiasts! Correlation does not prove causation, we say gentle readers. That said, the earnest and thorough research around things like neural super highways, neurotransmitter production, microbiome and mood and faecal microbiota transplants has excited our curiosity to the utmost. Next time you see one of those poor devils on the street, their life wrecked by mental disorder, think this: is their hope that one day, at least, this may never happen again?

#mental health #gut #microbiome #digestive system #schizophrenia #blood brain barrier

Conversation Article gets to the heart of why people get things wrong

You know a piece of writing is good when it explains many things, not just the ostensible subject the writer has before them. Such is the case with Edward White of the prestigious Kingston University in the UK whose article in the Conversation forms the basis for today’s blog [1] Ostensibly, the subject is Evolution. Now, we’ve always liked a bit of Evolution here. But only as abit of light relief, following it the way people follow the fortunes of Leicester City FC or the doings of celebrities.

Not so in the United states of America where the subject is of neuralgic importance as Edward points out. Huge numbers of the citizens of that country still hold that God created Man exactly according to the schemata laid out the in the early chapters of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. And he has a barrage of statistics to explain how and why. But the point for us, gentle readers is why these people think as they do. For it explains a much wider truth, which is: no species as so supremely adapted to self delusion and to believing the lies, deceits and threats of charlatans as is Homo sapiens. And this is true in all fields-politics, religion, economics, even science and medicine(remember the MMR controversy?) The fault according to Edward is motivated Reasoning, where you start with a conclusion and work back to justify it. This ensures a high chance of error, whatever cognitive powers you may possess, as astute readers will have spotted. Why do people do this? Get this killer quote from Ed:

Brain imaging studies show that people with fundamentalist beliefs seem to have reduced activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex — the brain region responsible for cognitive flexibility and analytical thinking. When this area is damaged or less active, people become more prone to accepting claims without sufficient evidence and show increased resistance to changing their beliefs when presented with contradictory information. Studies of brain-injured patients show damage to prefrontal networks that normally help us question information may lead to increased fundamentalist beliefs and reduced scepticism.

As Edward concludes: for most people learning is about who gets to define truth, and own the power that flows from it thereby

And our conclusion? We seem to be drilling down to the bedrock at last and knowing why people make and hold errors, From here at last the Progressive Community may find a way forward

[1]https://theconversation.com/why-many-americans-still-think-darwin-was-wrong-yet-the-british-dont-260709?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversa

More on the deadly dangers of stress (sorry, but you need to know this)

Photo by Michael Willinger on Pexels.com

A few decades ago, a friend remarked how his brother had left a stable happy marriage for a much younger woman at work. It didn’t last long- the man in question died a few years later of Crohn’s disease. The new relationship didn’t turn out very happily, as I learned from passing gossip. “Going over the side” they used to call it, back in the day. It seemed unremarkable enough -until a few years later a work acquaintance of about the same age and circumstances suffered a similar fate. Raising the question: was the knowledge of the awful decisions they had both made eating away inside, burning with stress, until their poor immune systems broke down altogether? This was the start of a trope we have followed ever since. We have alluded to it several times on these pages(LSS 2210 24; 23 8 20} to name but a few. Now we are glad to see our concerns addressed by altogether more weighty and learned persons (surely not?-ed)

For Nature and its brilliant Briefing arm have put the matter at the forefront of their latest editions Read this, Time to Take Stress seriously, if you don’t believe us:

When George Slavich’s father died suddenly, the clinical psychologist was well aware of how the stress could affect his health, but his health-care providers weren’t as interested. “The experience highlighted a paradox between what I know stress is doing to the brain and body, and how little attention it gets in clinical care,” says Slavich. He is among the researchers investigating how the body reacts to stress and how it contributes to deadly diseases.Nature | 11 min read

You see George isn’t any old George. He is a clinical psychologist at UCLA, no less. And he has launched a project with many other eminent scholars to research the link between stress and many disorders that plague us all, from heart and respiratory disorders to all kinds of psychological and psychiatric ones. Is there good stress? Is there bad? What causes each, and how to cure them? All these questions are now front and centre of George’s research. You can read more here[1] and here[2]

For the last fifty years or so, the whole psychological imperative has been to make people work ever faster for longer for ever lower wages. it is supposed to make us all more prosperous and happy, or something. What if it is doing the opposite?

[1]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02066-z?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=5e2c1eb595-nature-briefing-daily-20250708&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-

[2]https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1471084/full

#immune system #stress #coronary disease #psychology #chronic illness #overwork #health

The terror of the male Time for a Lively debate

Every so often something comes along that plugs like a mains cable into the heart of our thinking. That articulates what we have been groping to articulate for years. That explains not just the problem it addresses, but much else besides. Professor Harper on why the Roman Empire fell, or Amy Chua on the intractable nature of tribal hatreds were two such, as our readers recall. Now we think Sophie Lively of the University of Newcastle may have done the same for the neuralgic topic of Masculine Identity.[1] Far from being some idle construct of the Sociology schools, we think that masculinity and the toxic psychological flows around it are at the heart of the problems which this blog has been discussing for years, with such remarkable lack of success. Things like climate change, inequality, hostility to learning(and thereby scientific research) hyper-consumption and even health and traffic management (that’s enough problems-ed)

Let’s start with Sophie . She has been avidly researching social conditions in the city of Newcastle in North east England. Formerly a region of heavy industry it is undergoing profound economic change. English people will recognise the stereotype of its characteristic inhabitant:- a hard-working no-nonsense Geordie who loves his beer and football and has no time for fancy intellectuals. He can be glimpsed in TV shows like Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, as Biffa Bacon in the Viz comic strip or in songs like Lindisfarne’s Meet me on the Corner. He is proud, he is brave, he is tough he can be kindly and amusing. And like working men across the world, he is in deep, deep crisis As Sophie explains

“Traditional” views of masculinity were particularly prevalent during the height of industry in the area. These views centred around ideas of men as providers and ideas of toughness. Value was placed on a willingness (or need) to do physical and often hazardous labour.

And now that’s needed less and less. Are we surprised they find themselves bewildered, alienated, anxious? In need of quick easy assurances that everything about them is still alright. How would you feel, gentle reader, if you were told that University graduates are not needed any more?

And so we come to the light this sheds on the big problems this blog poses but has never satisfactorily answered. Why have progressive parties so utterly and completely lost the support of working men? Why do so many poor people vote for people whose aim is to make the rich richer and the poor work harder? Why are so many young men drawn to the cults of rap music, football hooliganism and religious terrorism? Why all the cults of nostalgia around Spitfires, country houses and the urge to go back down horrid coal mines? (LSS 8 12 22) Why do men in lorries feel impelled to chop down trees, flowerbeds and every other measure designed to curb pollution? Why do simple lies trump complex truths? In the next few weeks we will be running a series of blogs designed to look at these issues We hope all of you, whatever your age, class, sex and preferred form of relaxation will enjoy it and feed back in what we hope will be a lively debate. Thanks to Sophie for at last getting us started.

[1]https://theconversation.com/class-and-masculinity-are-connected-when-industry-changes-so-does-what-it-means-to-be-a-man-258857?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=

#climate change #sociology #feminism #masculinity #populism

What is Autism, anyway?

“Everyone is a little bit autistic”. A view you hear quite often. And for us, rather comprehensively dealt with by Dr Aimee Grant of The Conversation [1] The phrase means that all of us show some behaviours(a liking for routine, for example) which are present to a much higher degree in neurodivergent people. Ergo, we don’t have to put in the hard yards of research and thinking which this fascinating condition really invites. Wrong says Dr Grant. Autism is a defined neurological condition with clinical boundaries. Herself autistic, we think she knows what she’s talking about.

The idea of not pontificating on something you know nothing about (autism; and other things) is precious to us here. A few years ago there was a rather hysterical fuss among certain journalists that Autism was caused by the MMR vaccine. Cool heads and reasoned minds showed this idea to be incorrect. What we didn’t know then was that some of the cases that the advocates of the MMR theory cited in support of their cause may not have been autism at all. One of the cases may have been something called Rett syndrome as the acute mind of Professor Nessa Carey pointed out [2] No, we hadn’t heard of it either. So to help you, gentle readers to wade through this minefield of definitions, syndromes and human suffering, we thought we’d offer this brief guide to some of the other things that are out there, and manifest some symptoms which overlap strongly with autism. If only to show the utter, mind boggling complexity of what clinicians and others have to deal with.

Rett Syndrome Cause: Mutations on MECP2 gene Normal early development followed by regression. Mostly affects girls

Fragile X syndrome Mutation on FMR 1 Gene Not all fragile X persons are autistic. Not all autistic persons are fragile X

Phelan McDermaid Syndrome Deletion on chromosome 22, often in SHANK 3 gene

Social Communication Disorder Communication problems Does not involve repetitive behaviours typical of autism

Intellectual Disability(ID) with behavioural challenges cognitive delay is global; but many autistic people have above average intellectual ability

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) extreme sensitivity to stimuli e.g. light, touch, etc this is the closest to autism and it’s true many experts don’t differentiate it from autism

This is a tip of the iceberg, superficial treatment, as the bounds of our blog dictate. But it’s enough to make you pause and think “There are more things in heaven and earth than you have thought of in your philosophy, Horatio” as Hamlet once remarked. The real point is not what we know, but how much there still is to discover. And how those discoveries may yet be organised. But that’s a job for another day.

thanks to P Seymour

[1]https://theconversation.com/everyone-isnt-a-little-bit-autistic-heres-why-this-notion-is-harmful-256129?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Co

[2] Nessa Carey La Revolution Epigenetica Biblioteca Buridan 2011 amazon completion point 19%

#autism #nessa carey #diagnosis #mmr vaccine #neurology #brain #genetics #behaviour #medicine #health

Yes, the brain can erase unpleasant memories-but what does that say about who we are?

An old friend once told us about his experiences as a child evacuee during the Second World War. Or rather, he didn’t: because those memories did not exist. Like those of millions of others, his experiences were agonisingly traumatic. And he had blotted them out altogether. News of how the brain achieves this erasure of painful memories comes in this story from the inimitable Nature Briefing called Dopamine hit overwrites memories of fear

In mice, dopamine acts on neurons in a brain region called the basolateral amygdala (BLA) to kick-start fear extinction — the overwriting of fearful memories when danger has passed. Researchers found that this dopamine is produced in a separate part of the brain called the ventral tegmental area. Humans have “the same evolutionarily conserved parts of the brain that regulate these fear responses” as mice, says neuroscientist Larry Zweifel, which hints that neurons in the BLA could be a target for drugs to help to treat fear-related conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder.Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper

Normally we would riff enthusiastically on the hopes of a cure for PTSD, or admire the ingenuity of the scientists who have made these discoveries. But today, if you’ll forgive us, we want to go in a different direction.

For if unconscious and automatic healing processes of the brain can so affect our memories, what does that say about our consciousness? Are you really in charge of the way you remember, feel, and think? At first glance this may seem to be the abstract playground of a lot of philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists. The trouble for us is that many religious and economic systems depend on the assumption that each of us is an autonomous individual. Who freely chooses between good and evil or cheap and expensive. And these doctrines affect the real lives of millions. As Keynes observed, every politician who prides himself on being an entirely pragmatic individual is always the intellectual slave of some long dead economist. The writers of many religious books are much older still: but millions still kill and die for their words. We freely admit to being utterly baffled by all this, and are unlikely to return to anything quite so intricate again any time soon. But next time we hear anyone declaiming confidently on things like politics or religion, we will wonder deeply about what is happening in their mind,

As promised above we will endeavour to keep away from all this philosophical stuff. But if you want to know more, the works of Timothy O’Connor, Ben G Yacobi, Benjamin Libet, Daniel Dennet and Sigmund Freud provide useful starting points.

#free will #neurology #unconscious #conscious mind #economics #religion #politics #philosophy

Neural Maps show American Science at its best. But for how much longer?

If you want to explore the potential of a vast unknown region, first make a map of it. This why many of the finest minds from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century were cartographers. The human brain, with its astronomical numbers of circuits and connections, is our century’s equivalent of an unknown continent. Where the prizes( in medical research, pharmaceuticals and lucrative spin off disciplines) will go to those who have the best idea of the layout of the territory they are exploring. Which is why it came as no surprise to find that a multi-university team of American researchers have emerged as some of the foremost neurological cartographers of the year

Hannah Devlin of the Guardian reports the work of the teams from Baylor College, The Allen Institute and Princeton who have combined different techniques to create a 3-D circuit diagram of the neurons in a mouse brain. Now, there are some riders to note: this is only a tiny portion of the brain, comprising 84 000 neurons, half a billion synapses and about 5.4 km of the neuronal equivalent of wiring. Tiny numbers compared to the colossal sizes of a human brain, or that of an elephant or a dolphin. But it’s a start. Hannah quotes experts who honestly compare this work to the human genome project around the turn of the century. We need not remind readers as intelligent as ours of all the potential which that unlocked.

So: American researchers at the cutting edge. Princeton. Big research teams. “Yawn,” they said in the newsroom, “Where’s the story?” Well the story lies in the context of the consistent cuts in science funding by a certain Donald J Trump and his Administration. [2] It’s not just the money, it’s the attacks on the confidence and independence of the institutions themselves which stunt the development of a healthy research sector. And ultimately kill the goose which has laid so many eggs.(please-no more cliches!-ed) From the 1930s onwards America thrived by taking in the best researchers, and letting them work at what they excelled. Every science magazine you picked up, every episode of the old Horizon series on BBC, had an American somewhere in it. They even got to the Moon. Now there is a real danger that all that talent, all that potential will flow elsewhere. So far the EU and UK have not really go their act together. But they are waking up to the opportunity. Perhaps the first whole-brain maps will be made in Cambridge. The English one, that is.

with thanks to J Read

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/09/us-scientists-create-most-comprehensive-circuit-diagram-of-mammalian-brain

[2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-administration-attacks-on-science-trigger-backlash-from-researchers/

#neurology #princeton #research #donald j trump #science #biology #brain

More good news on dementias

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Dementia is our own internal pollution. Clear that pollution away, and the brain may start to function well again. If the systems which clear it slow down with age, then of course you won’t think so well. That is the startling new research reported today in the Mail by the admirable Syeeda Saad. [1] According to Syeeda and the rather clever scientists whom she channels, the brain is well equipped with these clearance systems when we are born. [2] They go by such recondite names as microglia, glymphatic and lymphatic systems. They clean up all the horrible waste we produce as we think-bits of cells, proteins, toxins, what have you. If they don’t, you accumulate all this detritus and your brain slows down, exactly like a sewage system blocked with fatbergs (yuck!-ed) [3]

Essentially the ingenious researchers target lymphatic networks outside of the brain in order to boost the clean-up systems within it. And get this-they have found new pathways called T Cell gateways which let them overcome the blood brain barrier, a wall that has bedevilled researchers for decades. [3]

All in all rather hopeful. Though as everyone admits these discoveries are at the early, tentative stage. Meanwhile there are lots of proven methods we can apply in order to reduce the risk of developing dementias. Including unpleasant ones like eating less junk food, drinking less booze and getting more exercise. There’s a thought. And here’s another to close. The team of scientists who did all this useful, public spirited, and one day profitable research are based at Washington University in the United States of America, What will become of them and their University in the financial and intellectual climate currently prevailing in that fallen country?

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14560527/neuroscientist-remove-brain-waste-prevent-dementia-age.html

[2]https://www.vice.com/en/article/clearing-brain-waste-could-prevent-dementia-in-the-future/

[3]https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14432

#alzheimers #dementia #brain #t cells #lymphatic #medicine #health

Let’s put children ahead of cars

An epidemic of childhood obesity. Lonely, de-socialised children spending endless hours on their phones and computers. Anxiety, depression, anorexia…….it’s every parent’s nightmare scenario and for once everyone agrees it’s true. The solution seems obvious. Let them out to play! To have real fun, burn off a few calories and above all learn the social skills which will last them for life. Sadly it’s not that simple, as every responsible mum knows. Leave aside all the perverts and gangsters( we’ll come to those another day). There is another more terrible monster out there. It’s far more common, far more dangerous and it hasn’t even got the decency to hide in plain sight. It’s called The Car. It runs down children, maiming or killing them. It fills the air with toxic gases and noxious particles both of which represent colossal hazards to childrens’ health and mental development.

Now an exciting new movement called Playing Out [1] has taken the initiative. Incredibly, they hope to reclaim the streets as safe spaces for children to play in Read their mission satement here

Our aim is for playing out near home to be a normal, everyday part of life for all children, as it once was. This means safer, less traffic-dominated streets and more connected communities. It means children having clear permission to play out in the spaces around their homes. It means no ‘No Ball Games’ signs. It means putting children first and protecting their right to play.

It’s already being tried in Leeds, a City in the north of England, and you can read about it here [2]

It is comforting to imagine that children of the future might be saner and healthier than they are now. But it’s also rather hopeful. You see, gentle readers, we at LSS get a bit melancholy about the fact that people are losing faith in their ability to shape their own lives. Which is why they turn from rational progressive parties to charlatans out on the fringes. Yet this movement is not only grass roots, it directly addresses a major issue in everyday lives. Above all it offers agency again, that magic elixir of hope that is essential to a sustainable society. Now, the stories we’ve retold today are about places in England. That’s because we’re based there. But hope can travel. What if you went out and tried something like this for your kids?

[1]https://playingout.net/about/

[2]https://cfl.leeds.gov.uk/play/play-streets

#childhood obesity #chidrens health #cars #pollution #particulates