Peter Sarkies @PSarkies@qoto.org

#literature #philosophy Is it worth reading #AynRand today? I am curious as to whether her ideas were selectively employed by the right and might actually be more complex, just as how #Nietzsche has been massively misunderstood and misused. Love to hear any thoughts on this before I search for one of her books

Bats and #heavymetal singers have some unexpected similarities according to this New Scientist article. Well, you are what you eat (in the case of #blacksabbath singer #Ozzyosbourne)
https://institutions.newscientist.com/article/2348901-bats-and-death-metal-singers-use-the-same-throat-structure-to-growl/

@mikemaddenwx Stop recording GDP and quarterly growth at all in the developed world.

This is undoubtedly exciting new tech but there is no easy "technological fix" for the #climatecrisis . I think that we have to realise that developed countries need to scale back our consumption drastically, even if that means less growth and reduced standard of living (hopefully only for the richer members of society).

@WanderingGaia well-deserved recognition: great book.

On the basis of the theory that the worse something tastes the better it is for your health, those ginger shot things they are handing out manically in #oxford over the last few days must be some kind of miracle cure for all ailments.

@santolini merci pour l'explication

@santolini comment ces chiffres ont été calculés? Pourquoi est la france la plus haute? [pardon pour mon francais mauvais]

Great new preprint on #mirna #evolution
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.517662v1

Research on toxoplasma in wolf populations: "The effect of TOXO[toxoplasma positive test] was positive ...With an odds ratio of 46.06 (exp[3.83]), the odds that a seropositive wolf becomes a pack leader is more than 46 times higher than a seronegative wolf becoming a pack leader."

Extraordinary result. I think one would need to do an experimental infection to be sure that this is not due to some complex confounder. But super-interesting idea.
Paper here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-04122-0#Sec2

Tooted a while back about #WGSebald Vertigo. Now reading his second, The Rings of Saturn. Suddenly I get what he is about. An astonishing work using a long walk around the Suffolk coast as a springboard for wide-ranging discussions on history, literature and the environment. In that regard it is also prescient, lamenting on the #climatecrisis and how it was affecting the Suffolk countryside even when the book was written in the early 90s. Strongly recommended.

Shortlisted for "word of the year 2022" in UK is apparently "goblin mode". I misread it initially as globin mode which would have been much more exciting.

Eugenics- a cautionary tale of how science can be misused- and in some ways is still influencing thought today. Gripping and urgent account from Adam Rutherford on this BBC radio4 program:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fd36

Looks like citizens in the developed world will have to do more than their governments if #globalheating is to be kept to 1.5C. I think it's possible- but it's going to be very difficult.

#TransposableElements in #evolution . New paper from Hanne De Kort and others. Increased heterozygosity in #Arabidopsis lyrata is found near to TEs, and is hypothesised to play an important role in maintaining diversity despite inbreeding. Curiously the SNPs downstream of transposon start sites are enriched in genes with roles in stress resistance but not upstream. Interesting idea that this represents a selective advantage to maintaining TEs but, as authors acknowledge, might not be a direct relationship (i.e. TE spreading may result in increased mutation rate, which selection could then act on, even if TEs themselves are neutral or deleterious). Interesting to see if this is found in other species.
Link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34795-4