And only man is vile, take 2

Last week's Science in Action had a short piece about a plastic-eating caterpillar (following another piece about plastic pollution of the sea – which explains the wording at the beginning of the Science in Action blurb):

It seems to me that this is BIG NEWS. As Silver Bullets go, this is pretty silvern (which, incidentally, isn't a typo, though heaven knows you might be forgiven for expecting one given my past performance: think of Golden: it's an adjective). But why has nobody made more of this?

The Science in Action website, which purportedly brings you all the week's science news  claims that a researcher at the University of Cantabria "has identified enzymes responsible for munching [sic – I don't think the enzymes do that; but still, that's not the point...] through resilient polymers..." This suggests a new discovery has been made.

But more than five years ago I reported  (here) on a not dissimilar piece of research:

<pre-script>

...a piece in the University of Cambridge's Research review.

This very hungry caterpillar produces "something that breaks the chemical bond, perhaps in its salivary glands or a symbiotic bacteria in its gut", says Paulo Bombelli, a Cambridge researcher and co-author of the article.

...the degradation rate is extremely fast compared to other recent discoveries, such as bacteria reported last year to biodegrade some plastics at a rate of just 0.13mg a day. Polyethylene takes between 100 and 400 years to degrade in landfill sites.  "If a single enzyme is responsible for this chemical process, its reproduction on a large scale using biotechnological methods should be achievable," said Cambridge's Paolo Bombelli...

...As the molecular details of the process become known, the researchers say it could be used to devise a biotechnological solution on an industrial scale for managing polyethylene waste.

<2022-afterthought>
Oh I get it. The 2017 discovery was the basis for the discovery of the enzyme, which was previously only suspected: "something that breaks the chemical bond... If a single enzyme is responsible...". Don't mind me. Carry on please. (I'm used to forensic findings becoming available in a matter of days [if not hours if the cop has a back-story involving the researcher]. But real science progresses at a more leisurely pace.) 

<after-afterthought> 

Hang on though, the researcher interviewed in that Science in Action programme told of a discovery she had just happened to make by chance. Maybe this is a different critter after all. 

</after-afterthought> 

</2022-afterthought>

Then, in update, I added a PPPS

PPPS – Three months after this original post, Scientific American has caught up, with quotes from Spain's Institute of Biomedicine & Biotechnology of Cantabria (a happy echo of Universitas Cantabrigiensis) and the University of Tennessee.

</pre-script>

I wonder what the relationship (if any) between "the University of Cantabria" (cited in that Science in Action programme) and "Spain's Institute of Biomedicine & Biotechnology of Cantabria", which knew about this process more than five years ago. Perhaps the programme should be called Science Inaction (a title that might, unfairly in most cases, be thought to apply to all the years wasted since global warming was first detected towards the end of last century, as documented in Big Oil v. the World a mini-series which, unaccountably, I missed earlier this year).

<further-reading>
Radio 4 are reading extracts from The Climate Book this week at 09.45. I just mention it; it's not as though it mattered (NB: Irony [when you say something you don't m... Hold on, don't most people know that?]).
</further-reading>

Musical trouvailles 

I've mentioned before some of the musical associations I make. My latest is a sort of conditional ear-worm. Three examples spring to mind:

• Whenever I hear the closing bars of Mozart's clarinet concerto I think of this: 
  Here We Go Looby Loo.
• Whenever the news mentions Keir Starmer I think of this chorus from The Mikado.
• My metronome app has the down beat distinguished by a pitch a minor third higher than other beats. So I can't set it to 4:4 without thinking of the Siamese cats in The Lady and the Tramp.

The other trivium I have to report is that my electric shaver can be made to play the accompaniment to the Dr Who theme. I may post a recording (if I can get it up to performance standard).

Bye for now.

b

Bear-baiting and de-nazification

In  George Kennan's Op-Ed article in the New York Times shortly after Bill Clinton's second inauguration (25 years ago), he wrote (prophetically) that

...expanding NATO would be 'most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era;' ...[and] that such  would inflame nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion and have adverse effect on development of Russian democracy 

I first mentioned this article on 27 February, in this post, writing:

<pre-script>
His opening paragraph argues:

Later in the same article he writes:

Such a decision [expanding NATO] may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking. And, last but not least, it might make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to secure the Russian Duma's ratification of the Start II agreement and to achieve further reductions of nuclear weaponry

Nobody in their right mind... [HD October 2022: I've omitted a predictable sideswipe at the once and future King of Trumpery] ...could defend the fiendish excesses of Putin, but one couldn't say NATO  hasn't been coat-trailing for the last 30-odd years. Well, now the wounded and caged bear has lashed out, just as Kennan predicted. And the West looks on in horror mixed with shocked fascination, just as the crowds did in former times at many another bear-baiting. (In that case the smart money was on the dogs, but this time I'm not so sure....) 
</pre-script>

Two days later, according to this timeline (though other sources put it a few days earlier [to say nothing of Crimea, which brings it forward a few years]) Putin started his Special Military Operation...

<tangent>
Incidentally, Google reports for me (your mileage may vary) 

About 117,000,000 results (0.44 seconds) 

           for special military operation and peace.

You heard it here for the 17 million and oneth time, folks.

</tangent>

...which has stirred two memories in what passes in my case for a mind: 

• A BBC TV programme now available (for those who in the lottery of life have the Golden Ticket, otherwise known as a Blue UK Passport [..."without let, hindrance, or paywall"?]) on iPlayer, called The Rise of the Nazis
• A discussion on the radio (maybe on Start the Week; it'd be good to give chapter and verse) that mentioned the interesting (and disturbing) fact that political predisposition affects what you see. (Come to think of it, last week's Americast is a more likely source.)

The TV programme (a less-than-brilliant three-parter, that I'm not sure I'll stick with) showed Hitler in his bunker with less and less grasp on reality and increasingly hell-bent on vandalism for vandalism's sake, and the Nazi faithful encouraging and facilitating his excesses. This is what real Naziism looks like, and Putin seems to be in its thrall.

But why? That radio (or podcast) discussion gives a clue. It cited a peaceful demonstration (documented and filmed as peaceful), and the holders of the opposing view, shown the same footage, reported seeing broken windows and burning cars. Perhaps Putin believes his psychopathic misconceptions.

Amuse souris

I saw this recently. 

The source claimed it came from a 1920s ad. I'd prefer an actual publication date, but Tweet-consumers can't be choosers I do like "linguistry" though.

By the '50s, language learning had come on apache (excuse my spellchecker). My oldest brother, in the '50s, prepared for a trip to Spain with the help of records (perhaps an early LP, perhaps 78s in a real album) featuring an American voice that kept saying "Do not be embarrassed if you make errors." (I wonder how the user was supposed to know they had.)

Recording was the answer, and 20 years later, in a language lab on  the Sidgwick Site.... [HD: stay tuned]

That's all for today. Time for choir.

b

Update: 2022.10.16.17:30 – Added PS

PS: My "Recording was the answer" was somewhere bertween naive and over-optimistic. I've written elsewhere (not sure where) that acquiring a mother tongue involves suppressing the ability to distinguish between speech sounds that don't make a difference in that language. So the amount a learner of a second language can glean from a recording of their own voice is limited.

And that memory of the language lab at the Sidgwick site is not worth recalling (or recording).