TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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The glyphosate safety issue is clouded by the lack of clarity in the news media when discussing any associated hazard. In news reports there is often no distinction made between occupational hazard for agricultural workers, danger to domestic garden users and food safety issues due to residues in plants.
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On a more upbeat note, this looks like a good way to get young folk interested in science...LINK
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"The glyphosate safety issue is clouded by the lack of clarity in the news media" Sad, but this is true about almost all media reports on scientific matters.......
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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No-deal Brexit 'worse than thought' for science LINK
"The campaign group Scientists for EU has studied the Brexit technical notes released by the government on Thursday. It finds that the UK would no longer be eligible for three of the EU's major funding programmes. Those streams of research cash are estimated to provide up to 45% of the total of EU science funding coming Britain's way."

That's a loss of just over 2000 million euros on the basis of today's funding figures.
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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Welcome back to 19C science or the equivalent, not by lack of knowledge but the means to carry it out. I noticed at hospital during my visits to Radiology that all the scanners used for my diagnosis were manufactured by Siemens. I have no doubt that if they break down they can be fixed but I bet it will cost more after Brexit. I think the ultrasound and doppler scanners used on my arteries and heart valves were Fujitsu a lot of the transportable kit is so.
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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I picked that report up as well Tiz. Another one is a UN facility, I think it's called the Marine Organisation. Based in UK but its future is in doubt.
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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See THIS BBC report about the results of a large Chinese study of the effects of air pollution. Equally valid for anyone in polluted conditions. There are some startling results about the effects on 'cognitive intelligence' (is there any other sort?) and particularly after the age of 65 when many complicated decisions have to be made. Not very reassuring.....
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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BBC report...'Many pollutants are thought to directly affect brain chemistry in a variety of ways - for instance, particulate matter can carry toxins through small passageways and directly enter the brain.' But a glass of red wine which probably does the same thing is OK??
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P. I think the point is that drinking red wine is an individual choice. A new born baby forced to breathe polluted air all its life because of our mismanagement of air quality is a different matter.
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I was just drawing a parallel, albeit rather cynically, that anything that alters the brains function has to be viewed with suspicion. It took years to get rid of the lead in petrol leaving being millions of brain damaged thickos like us. We know that excess alcohol and smoking doesn't help the brains function. Saying it is a personal choice is only valid if you know all the risks and are happy to live with them.
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I agree P. I think I realised at the time I replied that I was rising to the bait of your irony but didn't worry because I know that you give me latitude when I start pontificating. :biggrin2:
What has always struck me as funny is that we ban 'drugs' and open up a market for criminality and huge profits and at the same time allow the brewing and distilling industries to wreak havoc. Of course the difference is that we tax them. Why don't we do the same for what at present are 'illegal substances', regulate the quality and get some very useful revenue. At the same time closing down the criminal trade. This same point is made of course by many police officers who have to tidy up the consequences of the trade. Barlick is a quiet town but I often wonder what the level of drug taking is even here.....
Incidentally, not often I agree with Cressida Dick but her recent attack on middle-class cocaine snorters was spot on!
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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Stanley wrote: 30 Aug 2018, 03:04 What has always struck me as funny is that we ban 'drugs' and open up a market for criminality and huge profits and at the same time allow the brewing and distilling industries to wreak havoc. Of course the difference is that we tax them. Why don't we do the same for what at present are 'illegal substances', regulate the quality and get some very useful revenue. At the same time closing down the criminal trade.
Because you couldn't regulate quality with thousands of street-corner sellers so you'd have to have the drugs made and sold the same way as legal ones, through the big pharma companies. But just think how clever and powerful they are at promoting their products - we'd end up with many more people on even more drugs than now, whether they needed them or not. And here we are discussing whether to let big business sell strong drugs when at the same time we are welcoming a proposal to ban high-caffeine/sugar drinks.
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But what if the profit for street corner dealers was cut by low pricing through official channels? I don't think organisation of this is an insuperable problem.
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I still think we shouldn't be `unbanning' drugs like cocaine whilst banning high-caffeine drinks. It doesn't make sense! :smile:
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You have a point........
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`The tree that bleeds... metal?' LINK
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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Fascinating. I have heard of plants being used to remove contaminants from soil, they pick them up and concentrate them and so they are removed from the soil if the plant is harvested and taken off the land.
Did you see THIS news yesterday about a successful stem cell therapy for rare types of blood cancer that has been approved for use in the NHS by NICE at record speed?
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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For a while geologists have been debating whether our present era should be renamed, the Anthropocene to denote the influence of humanity.
On R4 this morning there was an interesting contribution by a man who studies sediments. At a conference being held at his University of Hull he made a speech suggesting that our input of plastic to the oceans is now at a level high enough to mean that the sediments at the bottom of the ocean are being suffused with plastic and in ten million years when these have been incorporated in a new layer of rock there will be an identifiable boundary formed by plastic. John Humphrys suggested that it should be called the plasticine boundary. I thought that was pretty good!
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It's unfortunate that the word plastic has been kidnapped and used as shorthand for plastic polymer material. We know that Dr Bradford is referring to waste materials made of plastic polymers but the original meaning of plastic was `capable of being formed, shaped' (Greek, plastikos). In 1914 J. Barrell, a geophysicist, proposed in the Journal of Ecology that the rigid crust of Earth floats on a plastic layer in the upper mantle. He was referring to a layer that was not rigid, that had plastic properties allowing it to flow under pressure. This was part of the basis for our later understanding of plate tectonics. Bradford's `plastic' is very different to Barrell's `plastic.

I expect that Bradford's layer of plastic polymer material will be very thin but enough to act as a clue in the future to what happened now. Rather like the iridium-rich layer which resulted from the asteroid impact 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs. Or the radionuclide-rich layer that will result from our nuclear bomb testing. (Or perhaps a digital record of obnoxious social media posts from the present time of Brexit and Trump!)
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Re: TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

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Or a disposable nappy boundary......
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See THIS Guardian article on the first hard evidence that particles from air pollution are reaching the placenta a pregnant women and therefore exposing the foetus to possible harm. We have some of the most polluted air in Europe. It is now attacking unborn children. When do we start to take notice?
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Must say I had a small smile here - this from a man who put out more emissions in his working life than most, is now deeply concerned about air pollution. :smile:
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At least he's in fashion, Tripps. The bosses and founders of the California tech companies are telling us to cut down our use of smartphones. There's the boss of the big pharma company that made a fortune selling the opioid drug that caused a massive addiction problem in the US who is now about to make another fortune by selling a cure for it.
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That always makes me take pause as well David, I've burned more fossil fuel than most!
On the first Ford Thames 6D diesel wagons the excess fuel control for cold starts was a red knob on the engine housing on your left hand side. If you ever needed more than design power you cold hold it out and the exhaust produced solid black smoke. I note that the modern vehicles used in tractor-pulling competitions in the states all use excess fuel...... My excuse is that we were not aware then and in my defence, my aim was always to avoid smoke.
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Stanley wrote: 18 Sep 2018, 02:58 my aim was always to avoid smoke.
Except the St Bruno variety. :laugh5:
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Tripps wrote: 17 Sep 2018, 09:31 ...this from a man who put out more emissions in his working life than most,
Thank god we are talking about smoke!
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