TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Tizer]

He's more concerned about upsetting the Tory right wing than upsetting Britain's scientists and engineering research programmes. Did you listen to Paul Nurse on Radio 4's `Inside Science' yesterday?...

Science superpower?
The government has launched a new 10-point plan designed, it said to “cement the UK’s place as a global science and technology superpower”. We speak with Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, for his take on the government's plan and the findings of his own review of the UK’s research landscape. LINK

[Stanley]

Yes Peter, that was what triggered the post in the first place. Paul Nurse was so emphatic about it being essential we were partners and saying he thought the government had got this on board and then hearing that the woman who was speaking for them had said we couldn't contribute unless it was 'good value for money'.
I am now thoroughly confused and am wondering whether, like HS2, any projected expenditure is being blocked because the National Debt is too high!

[Tizer]

`Scientists track iceberg the size of London' LINK
`British scientists are tracking two of the world's biggest icebergs as they drift towards areas where they could affect shipping, fishing and wildlife. These city-sized frozen blocks which have broken away from Antarctica can take decades to melt and wither away. A group of researchers photographed one named A81 as they were flying off the UK's Halley base for the season. This berg is as large as Greater London. Another team sailed around A76a, an even bigger one the size of Cornwall.'...

[Stanley]

I was expecting you to say 'The size of Wales' Peter!

[Tizer]

By now we've all heard about neonicotinoid pesticides (`neonics') and their danger to bees but yesterday I got a shock to find that they are widely sold in the UK in garden centres and other shops for spraying on garden plants to kill insects. We have five large Pyrocantha shrubs that I've spent ages training onto trellis but they've now got severe leaf miner infection that makes all the leaves turn silver and the flowers and berries shrivel. Off I went to the local garden centres hoping to find something to get rid of the leaf miners.

I read the label information on a lot of products for treating such problems but left without buying any of them. None of them mention neonicotinoids on the labels but I was suspicious because they did say the products could be `harmful to aquatic life'. I noted the active components mentioned on the labels and looked them up on google when I got home. They are all in the class neonicotinoids but hiding behind product names that buyers would not recognise. These chemicals are deadly to insect life even at extremely low concentrations - by analogy, a bit like the fentanyl opioid which can kill humans at the level of a few milligrams. They affect the central nervous system of insects, leading to eventual paralysis and death. They are probably dangerous for amphibians too. Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides, meaning they spread throughout all the plant tissues. When insects and birds eat the leaves, roots, berries, nectar and pollen of treated plants they too will suffer.

These are the names to avoid: clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, acetamiprid and thiacloprid. I saw imidacloprid and acetamiprid on the labels in the garden centres.

It's shocking that gardeners are spraying these on their plants without realising how dangerous they are for wildlife. The products are piled high in garden centres, in attractive bright shiny packages. All such products should be forced to state `Contains neonicotinoids' in large, bold red letters on the front of the box or bottle. I now realise why there is such a serious decline in wildlife in and around town and suburban gardens. We're heading for another `Silent Spring'.

[Stanley]

That's shocking Peter. Shocking that the firms are allowed to get away with disguising their products by renaming them.

[Tizer]

The agrochemicals industry has copied the pharmaceutical industry's practice for naming their products. This is how the pharmaceutical industry does it...

Drug nomenclature is the systematic naming of drugs, especially pharmaceutical drugs. In the majority of circumstances, drugs have 3 types of names:
1. Chemical names, the most important of which is the IUPAC name;
2. Generic or nonproprietary names, the most important of which are international nonproprietary names (INNs); and
3. Trade names, which are brand names.

The chemical names are the scientific names, based on the molecular structure of the drug. There are various systems of chemical nomenclature and thus various chemical names for any one substance. The most important is the IUPAC name but these names are often very long and not suitable for everyday use.

Nonproprietary (generic) names are used for a variety of reasons. They are short and provide a clear and unique identifier for active chemical substances.

Trade names are brand names used by pharmaceutical companies. Many drugs have multiple trade names, reflecting marketing in different countries, manufacture by different companies, or both.

For example the cholesterol-reducing drug Lipitor (trade name of Pfizer) has the generic name atorvastatin and the chemical (IUPAC) name 7-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-phenyl-4-(phenylcarbamoyl)-5-(propan-2-yl)-1H-pyrrol-1-yl]-3,5-dihydroxyheptanoate. Wikipedia

[Stanley]

Thanks for that explanation Peter. At least it's clear now why we don't understand the names!

[Tizer]

This must have been frustrating for the Swift team whose Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a satellite telescope designed to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from space, was initially unable to observe the burst because the Earth was obstructing its view. However, 55 minutes later, the satellite's orbit allowed it to have a clear view of the GRB.
`Space scientists reveal brightest gamma explosion ever' LINK

[Stanley]

It's an incredibly violent place out there isn't it! I'm glad we weren't any closer.

[Tizer]

This is a fascinating new way of `viewing' the universe...
`Milky Way: Icy observatory reveals 'ghost particles'' LINK

[Stanley]

Fascinating stuff Peter... I have an idea that the facility near Ripon that had tanks made out of steel from the wrecks in Scapa Flow that we delivered water to in our sterile tankers was connected with detecting Neutrinos. How the hell I know that has slipped me but that's what we believed.....

[Tizer]

The Oppenheimer film has triggered more interest in the British scientists involved...
`James Chadwick: The Brit chief who worked on the nuclear bomb' LINK

[Tripps]

I never heard of this chap until today, but I'd say this Nobel Laureate was worth listening to.

"I can confidently say there is no real climate crisis and that climate change does not cause extreme weather events".

Dr John F. Clauser

[Tizer]

I'm happy to accept all he says in that article except the last bit, which happens to be the part that you quoted:
I can confidently say there is no real climate crisis and that climate change does not cause extreme weather events.
Anyone can claim there is `no real climate crisis', as Terry Pratchett would have said it depends on your definition of crisis. And climate scientists don't claim that climate change causes extreme weather events, but they do claim that it is making the events worse.

[Stanley]

I think the millions of people who are suffering from the heat at the moment might be more open to accepting that there is a crisis of some sort!

[Tizer]

This is a big piece of the human jigsaw and will explain many so far unexplained aspects of early human history in Europe...
`Big freeze drove early humans out of Europe' BBC

[Stanley]

Interesting research. Amazing how much we can learn from microscopic examination of ocean sediment!

[Tripps]

Meghan Markle (the Duchess over the water, and forecast to be a future presidential candidate) has been seen and photographed wearing an anti stress patch which it seems must be used on the inside of the left wrist (never the right wrist). Lucky the photographer that had the good fortune to capture the quite unscheduled moment.

The science behind it all (which I believe is settled) is set out in the press article , and seems quite straightforward and credible. There was a follow up item on a morning TV show so it must be true.

The disc, which retails in the US at $80 (£63) for a pack of 20 claims to work by acting as a shortcut to the parasympathetic nervous system, a part of the brain that puts the brakes on an anxiety attack.
According to its makers, it simplifies the process of activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms us down, by 'tapping into the body’s Pericardium Meridian with particular electromagnetic (EM) frequencies.'
The patches are thought to easily be able to change the nervous system from 'sympathetic' mode - which is what we associate with fight or flight - to 'parasympathetic' - or 'rest and digest' mode.
The discs, which can be worn for 24 hours at a time, essentially act as shortcut to the feel better part of our brain.
At the support centre on the brand's website, they advise wearers to think of the patch as if it's a 'battery', saying: 'A battery contains a charge; once it touches a metal contact, that device begins pulling energy from it.

It's as well to remember that, as I was only saying to my Head Gardener last week, "remember that 80 - 90 % of the population are fairly stupid. I rest my case.

[Stanley]

"Fairly stupid" Sounds like a lenient judgement......
Why does Kardashian spring to mind every time I see a mention of this woman?

[Tizer]

Perhaps the `anti stress patch' is made and marketed by that clever Yeovil man who sold the world an empty box which he said was a bomb detector.

[Stanley]

I see that despite reports of our PM's enthusiasm for UK participation in the Horizon Project we are still shilly-shallying and arguing with the EU about costs. Are we being taken for a ride by Sunak?

[Tizer]

Remember my warnings about the dangers of the giant dams collapsing in China and SE Asia and the floods killing millions of people downstream? Well this is the precursor, the beginning - damaging floods high up in the Himalayas. All this water and debris has to go somewhere and as the floods become greater the effects will be felt further away. When the big dams collapse there will be torrents of water, mud and debris (and bodies) gathering pace over a thousand miles on the way to the sea, sweeping away towns and cities as it goes. When it happens we'll hear the cries of `Why did they let this happen? Why didn't they stop climate change?'
`Himachal Pradesh floods: More rain, less snow are turning Himalayas dangerous' LINK

In the meantime, closer to home, this has been happening in Frankfurt and other European cities...
`Flood waters hit Frankfurt airport and underground station' LINK

[Stanley]

This caught my eye in the text.....
"However, a weather station installed at the base camp of Mount Everest showed that 75% of the 245.5mm precipitation on the mountain between 1 June and 10 August this year had fallen as rain. The remaining was snow or a combination of rain and snow. This is a huge jump from the 32% of rain recorded between June and September in 2022, 43% in 2021 and 41% in 2020. "
That one fact should be triggering alarms all the way across India.....

[Tripps]

India is landing a vehicle on the surface of the moon very shortly - watch it live here. Indian Moon landing

They've done it. Perfect landing. Remarkable, and brave for it to be broadcast live.

This event probably explains today's Government spin about a trade agreement with India. India Trade (maybe)

Narendra Modhi Gi (that's what he was called in the commentary) is speaking now - it has to be said he looks like and speaks a lot like Rangi Ram. I enjoyed seeing him waving a small paper Indian flag. I doubt any British politician would ever do that.