Ever heard of the cryosphere? Well, neither had we. Apparently its all the frozen water in the world: glaciers, polar caps that sort of thing. Enjoy it while you can, because it may not be around for much longer, reports the Guardian
With stories like the following it is easy to fall into laddish prurience or puritanical dismay. But the whole point of this blog is that we confront data with our feelings suspended and it is in that spirit we offer the following story from the eminently respectable El País
“When the facts change I change my mind” so said the great Economist JM Keynes But actually, this is the distinguishing thought process of Science, as this piece A triumph of scientific self correction” from Nature Briefing shows
In his new book The Ends of Race, humanities scholar Geoffrey Galt Harpham chronicles how people attempted touse science to justify racism in the nineteenth century — and the scientific pushback. “Ultimately, the discrediting of the concept of biological race emerged as a triumph of scientific self-correction,” writes journalist David Silverberg in his review.
If you really want to control a disease, strike at the cause not the symptoms we say So this new work on the origins of the cancer promoting protein KRAS and the enzymes that facilitate it seems to offer another avenue of hope as this excellent report from Technology Networks makes clear
Are we really a happy bunch of co-operative happy monkeys, or a nasty gang of ultra violent killer apes locked in a nihilistic struggle for food and mates? Today we throw the blog open to two articles from impeccable journals, both adducing works of impeccable scholarship, And then you make your own minds up, gentle readers: you’re a pretty bright lot. One is Nature, revisiting the work of the indefatigable Richard Dawkins, whose The Selfish Gene has now hit 50, incredible as that may seem. The other, by David Kaposi for the Conversation on the famous Stanford Prison experiment, coupled with the obedience studies of Stanley Milgram.
Not knowing the answers ourselves, we fell back on a few things we do know. Both Dawkins and the Psychologists(is that a band?-ed) were incredible controversial in their day-and have remained so. But that is the mark of original thinking. Both changed the way we look at the world. But that only proves the truth of Keynes’ doctrine. “when the facts change I change my mind!” That the questions both sets of work raised are actually very ancient, and still seem utterly incapable of resolution. If we dared to hint at an opinion, it might be this: are words an adequate tool to understand human behaviour anyway? Might it be time to create entirely new tools based on the mathematics of something Complexity Theory and statistics? That’s us done:over to you
50 years on, go beyond the Selfish Gene
The idea set out in Richard Dawkins’s 1976 book The Selfish Gene — that bodies are just genes’ way of making more of themselves — “seemed pretty harmless”, writes historian of science Nathaniel Comfort. Today, “the determinism baked into the ‘gene’s-eye view’ in the book troubles me, as does the passivity of the organism in Dawkins’s telling”. Comfort dives into modern efforts to synthesize ecology, evolution, genetics and developmental biology to create “a less gene-centred view” that “is more accurate — and infinitely more satisfying”.
October has rolled around, and once again it is time to cover the Nobel Prizes, those ne plus ultra epitomes of what members of the rational, evidence-based community can achieve when given a modicum of time and freedom to do so. Sorry we couldn’t cover this story when it broke (personal reasons) but here is a working summary:[1]
Physiology or Medicine
We remember studying the single-celled alga Chlamydomonas in school around 1971 Unfortunately it never crossed our mind to not only identify the proteins which let it swim towards light, but also insert the genes for them into nerve cells, thereby founding the entire science of optogenetics. But Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel did, to cut a long story short, thereby scooping the Nobel, fame and fortune. Oh well, we’ll just carry on humbly blogging, which leads us to:
Physics
What would you do if you were wandering through the Antarctic and saw a huge block of ultra clear ice? Most of us would probably apply it to the nearest Gin and Tonic. Not so Francis Halzen, who tuned it into the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory allowing the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources. The work has opened a new window on some of the most energetic and mysterious processes in the universe, from black holes to cosmic particle accelerators. We will stick to making cocktails, which leads us straight to
Chemistry
Back to schooldays: just when you thought you’d learned everything there was to know about chemistry (or at least enough to pass the exam) along comes that pesky world of enantiomers, all those right handed and left handed molecules, to complicate things even more. But why? Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai explain how chemistry can favour one molecular “handedness” over another, So a deserved Nobel for uncovering non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. Of fundamental question with important implications for biology and pharmaceuticals, the sorts of things we write about a lot on this blog. Talking of writing:
Literature Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson was recognised for a body of work that brings classical traditions into inventive dialogue with contemporary writing. The Nobel Committee praised her bold and original literary voice, which moves freely between poetry, prose, scholarship and translation. There’s nothing like a good novelist or playwright to give you real insights into human nature. And considering how stormy that can be, isn’t it nice that someone has come up with a
Peace Prize Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the South African jurist and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, received the Peace Prize for her longstanding efforts to advance peace, human rights and international law. Her career has been marked by a commitment to accountability and justice in some of the world’s most challenging conflicts. If ever a story justified our continual advocacy for the Emancipation of Women, well this must be it. And last but not least
Economic Sciences
Governments, Keynesians and classic free market liberals always end up baffled when their favourite prescriptions turn out to have unexpected consequences. Help arrives in the form of Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford who were recognised for developing the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation. Their work has shaped modern thinking on how governments and central banks can respond to economic downturns and maintain stability. And their prize, which will have personal economic consequences is incredibly well-deserved.
Our showcase today comes from Nature Briefing, that indispensable chronicle of all that is new in discovery and innovation. They call it Atlas reveals Mitochondria in detail, and they bring out the implications for parasite diseases and evolution, but today we just want to riff a little further on the implications in the broader style of this blog. First, here’s their usual summary:
Scientists have mapped in unprecedented detail the proteins that make up the mitochondria in six organisms spanning the tree of life — five single-celled parasites and one plant. In a suite of nine papers, researchers reveal dozens of proteins that are shared among parasites, such as those that cause malaria and sleeping sickness, but not found in humans. The findings could help scientists devise new treatments for these illnesses. The work might also support the hypothesis that mitochondria emerged late in eukaryotic evolution, stoking the long-running debate over the organelles’ origins.
We say: Let’s start with parasite diseases, for they still create a great deal of havoc in the world : Shared parasite‑specific proteins are obvious drug targets. But the deeper implication is strategic: If several parasites rely on the same ancient mitochondrial assemblies, then one drug could hit multiple diseases — malaria, sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, giardiasis, babesiosis, you name it, by “cutting the power” i.e., taking out the mitochondria of the parasite, in the same way. More generally, any understanding of mitochondrial design and structure offers exciting new possibilities in areas such as cancer therapy-which despite all that has been done in the last 25 years or so, still has as many patients needing help as ever. Better still, the research seems to offer a chance to develop new toolkits for synthetic biology If parasites can run mitochondria with radically different protein sets, then synthetic biologists may eventually be able to engineer and design mitochondria for specific metabolic tasks and perhaps even create hybrid organelles for industrial bioprocessing.
All in all a good day, for that old LSS doctrine: Research in one place nearly always has implications in many others.
One of the things about reading Nature Briefing: they always seem put you au fait with the cutting-edge medical techniques, and the science that drives them, a little way ahead of the mainstream. Which is why we are showcasing their story First for Gene Targeting RNA therapy, not just because it’s interesting in itself, but because it is a beautiful illustration of the progress in RNA based medicine, even since we started this humble little blog six years ago. First, here’s their snippet
An RNA therapy for rare forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has shown promising results in the first person to receive it. He experienced improved symptoms and continued to work as a physician a year after starting treatment. Antisense oligonucleotide therapy uses short strands of genetic material to target RNA produced by a faulty gene calledCHCHD10. Roughly 5–10% of people with ALS have a known genetic mutation, and antisense oligonucleotide therapies could someday benefit them and others with neurodegenerative diseases caused by rare mutations.
Now, we admit CHCHD10 is a rare mutation, apparently occurring in less than one per cent of ALS cases. There are many other genes involved among the different types of ALS, and, who knows, maybe some epigenetic and environmental factors as well. But to raise that is to be like a man who has won the lottery complaining that the prize didn’t come gift wrapped in Harvey Nicholls wrapping paper. Because, gentle readers-this is a start and a magnificent one. Better still, it’s part of a much bigger story of RNA based medicine advancing on many fronts. Readers will recall how the sudden arrival of RNA vaccines suddenly lifted the world from its COVID-19 based Slough of Despond in 2021. But astute readers will recall that even before COVID, RNA‑based drugs were quietly succeeding: briefly, we will cite Patisiran , ansiRNA therapy for hereditary amyloidosis;Nusinersen — antisense therapy for spinal muscular atrophy; and Givosiran, and inclisiran — RNA drugs for metabolic and cardiovascular conditions; and then let you go off to do your own reading. Yet this in turn is but part of an even bigger picture, a new frontier if you like, of therapies which we hope might deliver RNA constructs to reduce toxic proteins in motor neurons, use antisense or siRNA to knock down mutant SOD1, C9orf72, or other ALS‑linked genes, and even exploit improved delivery systems (lipid nanoparticles, viral vectors) that can finally reach neural tissue. But time will answer many of these questions
And our takeaway? It’s our usual . Using science, and its simple but effective tools of evidence and reason will always make you feel better. So if you start tinkering with basic research and its funding, you do so at your peril.
One of the most fascinating questions in biology is how multicellular life — all plants, fungi and animals — first arose. Single‑celled organisms had been around for thousands of millions of years, at least from about 3.5 billion years ago, just ~1 billion years after the Earth formed at 4.5 billion years. Bacteria and archaea were already present over 4 billion years ago, quietly running the planet’s chemistry long before anything with limbs or leaves appeared. There are hints of multicellular organisms at around 1.4 billion years – red algae are a possible candidate- but that’s still quite late considering the time available. The brutal truth is that wasn’t until about 600 million years ago that truly multicellular organisms begin to show up in the rocks. How, why and when the Great Organising took place is a mystery still buried deep in time.
One possible clue lies in the kingdom of the archaea — those bacteria‑like beings that are not actually bacteria. A particular branch, the Asgard archaea, may hold the key to how complex cells — and eventually multicellular life — emerged. Today’s Nature Briefing has a short, elegant piece called Meet the Parents on the latest findings, and it offers some intriguing hints about how a bunch of free swimming cells learned to co-operate and thereby sparked the great leap to complexity. Is there a lesson for today in there somewhere perhaps?
Microorganisms from which all complex life might be descended — the Asgard archaea — were discovered in 2015 from DNA in sediments plucked from the bottom of the North Atlantic. Since then, researchers have been painstakingly culturing these exotic organisms and finding lots of surprises along the way.Nature | 11 min read
Our showcase today is an article by Shivali Best of the Mail, who reports that this September has seen a disquietingly fast opening of the ozone “hole” over the Antarctic. [1] It’s disturbing for two reasons. One, obviously: the ozone layer is what protects us all from ultra-violet radiation, which would otherwise cause skin cancers and many other inconvenient forms of disease. Secondly, closing the hole in the ozone layer since is one of the few successful examples of collective action we can point to . So what’s going on?
Shivali adduces two statements which art first sight seem to contradict each other. Firstly, the sudden depletion of ozone is probably due to a sudden cooling at high altitude over the extreme Antarctic. The increase in stratospheric clouds begins to thin the ozone which overlies them, by processes which you can read about in the article. The second, quite rightly, is that August 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded. To quote Shivali
The average temperature last month was 16.96°C….. even higher than the previous record holder, July 2023, which had an average temperature of 16.95°C …..
So: is it getting hotter, or colder? Depends where. Essentially, greenhouse gases heat up the Troposphere, that thick dense lower layer of the atmosphere where we all live. This actually acts like a blanket, wrapping in the heat on the surface, while stopping it rising up into the stratosphere. The result is a cooling at higher altitudes-which would exactly cause the Ozone effects which have been observed.[2] [3]
Somewhere this week some of you will meet a strongly opinionated person who has skimmed the headlines, absorbed them uncritically, bounded to conclusions, and declared to you: “ De Antartic is gettin’ cooler, mate! That PROVES there’s no such fing as global warmin!” Now you know why they’re wrong.
[2]Chabrillat et al. (2025), Modelling stratospheric composition for the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Geoscientific Model Development (Copernicus Publications
[3]WMO Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion (2022
We’ve always been big fans of primates large and small. So we hope you’ll be as cheered as we were by this piece Can AI help stop the next pandemic disease? from that redoubtable site Nature Briefing. Because we couldn’t help thinking-if can work for gorillas it can work for humans too. It’s an interesting story in itself: but it made us think much deeper about the true transforming power of AI, upon which we shall riff a little below-after you have read it, gentle readers:
Researchers are harnessing the ability of AI tools to identify patterns in large data sets to try to predict spillovers — the transfer of pathogens between species — before they happen. In Uganda, the approach is showing early promise in protecting endangered mountain gorillas, as well as the livestock and people who interact with them. Other researchers are trawling through databases to identify new zoonotic viruses in samples that were not necessarily collected for that purpose.
So what do we really think? Ostensibly its another good news science story (especially of you’re a gorilla) And it obviously has hopeful implications for when the next pandemic strikes-another LSS old favourite. But-we hope you will indulge us with our own take, because we think there’s something deeper going on. Look at the gap in technique compared with COVID -wracked 2021, the last real pre-AI year. Back then, researchers would only have been able to compare one data set at a time: logs on gorilla movements, human settlements, genomes, weather, livestock………you name it. Now our invisible chums do the lot for us simultaneously, in real time. And to make predictive ecological models, construct counterfactuals and many other things, all based on real time integration of field data. Quite a step change, isn’t it?
Five years is a short time for a new world to be born. But it is such, for it carries the true characteristic of a new world-there’s no going back. And somehow its this story that has finally brought it home, at least to this Editorial Board: this AI thing is as big as the advent of metals, or the Industrial Revolution. What do you think? We’d love to know.
Vaccines have been the most successful tool in public health for over 150 years. But up to now they have been generic: each one is raised and designed against a specific disease-such as rabies, smallpox and more recently malaria. A new class of vaccine changes that logic entirely. These are individualised neoantigen vaccines, built from the unique mutations in each patient’s tumour. Today we highlight the first positive Phase 3 results for one of these, as reported by the BBC’s Joe McFadden. [1]
Intismeran is constructed from the mutational “fingerprint” of each patient’s melanoma — a bespoke mRNA vaccine rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all jab. In the Phase 3 INTerpath‑001 trial, jointly run by Merck and Moderna, 1,137 patients with completely resected stage IIB–IV melanoma were randomised to receive either Keytruda (Merck’s anti‑PD‑1 therapy) alone or Keytruda plus Intismeran.[2] [3] This is how Joe summarises the early results:
Early results show this new jab extended the length of time these patients were cancer free, but it’s unclear for how long, according to an announcement by the two firms.
Encouraging, we say: hats off to the companies and scientists involved. As for the wider reaction from the scientific community, it is positive indeed, but we’ll leave it to Joe to tell you about that
At this point we invoke our two favourite LSS tropes: caution and caveat. This is an early-days report: the work must now jump all the usual hoops of peer review, regulatory approval scaling and much more before any kind of routine clinical applications are possible. But there are many reasons to be optimistic, not just about Intismeran, but also certain wider preoccupations of ours. Firstly: some of the best research is done by that happy, hard to define network of companies, research institutes and académe, which has done so much to transform the human condition since the nineteenth century. Secondly, genetic engineering, which we follow avidly here, is in its infancy-this is quite different to our regular antibiotics theme, isn’t it? But most of all, if you want life to really get better, stop believing in what you want to believe and start believing in the scientific method.
Is Birth order Destiny? We’ve long been intrigued by the thought that your birth order-whether you’re a sibling or an older child, older brother, younger sister,etc-affects your personality and life chances. Latest twist in the saga is this piece about disease from the Independent:Study suggests first-born children are more likely to develop neurological conditions and second-born are more prone to substance abuse
Recalcitrant Fungus “A drug-resistant fungus that kills thousands of hospital patients in the U.S. every year survives on human skin by hijacking the body’s immune response, scientists have just discovered.” declares Newsweek. So it’s not just bacteria then?
Is all this heat doing in your brain? A few years ago we published a blog speculating that extra carbon dioxide from global warming may be affecting our health (LSS 2 11 20) Well that may or may not be the case: but all that extra heat may well be affecting our brains, as this article from The Conversation makes clear indeed
Yet more quantum complexity As if quantum physics wasn’t already difficult enough to follow, what with all those bosons, muons hadrons and quarks, Nature Briefing has just made our life a little more difficult with this piece about the Gluon How are we meant to remember all this?
A team of physicists says it has observed strong evidence of a mysterious ‘glueball’, a particle made up of force-carrying gluons. The team says that a particle known as X(2370) is mostly made up of these glueballs — clusters of the gluons that bind quarks to form protons and neutrons and hold them inside the nucleus of an atom. There is no single smoking gun that proves that this particle is made of glueballs, says particle physicist Bruce Yabsley. But the findings are “quite persuasive”, he says. The group presented their results at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Natal, Brazil, last week.
Why won’t ET phone us? Normally our Friday purpose is to bring you short snappy pieces before Cocktail Hour. But this Guardian Long Read on why those pesky aliens have never shown up is so very good that we felt it our duty to bring it to you nevertheless
India’s day in the Sun If there’s one nation that is making huge leaps-commercial, technological, scientific- it is India. Proof if you want more comes from this admirable solar mission Aditya L1, admirably reported by the BBC
