TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Stanley]

I saw THIS BBC report on the latest Trump inanity.
The Trump administration has announced a plan to scrap a landmark finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to the environment, severely curbing the federal government's ability to combat climate change. Known as the "Endangerment Finding", the 2009 order from then-President Barack Obama allowed the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create rules to limit pollution by setting emissions standards. The US is a major contributor to global climate change, and ranks second only to China which emits more planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide – and the US still emits more per person. Experts have warned that the move could have a devastating impact on the environment. President Donald Trump has long argued that climate regulations stifle US economic growth, and on his first day back in office in January ordered that the EPA submit recommendations "on the legality and continuing applicability" of the Endangerment Finding.
Yet more dangerous nonsense from this moron.

[Whyperion]

Apparently now there is some reconcilation between Inertia and Gravitation (I think it means the strong gravitational force of large bodies and not weak of nuclear materials ( though maybe same principles apply ) (Have I got Strong and Weak the right way round ?

[Stanley]

?

[Tizer]

The Trump administration has announced a plan to scrap a landmark finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to the environment...

I wonder how you can `scrap a landmark finding'?

[Stanley]

Quite Peter.... But in Trumps Alice in wonderland world all things are possible....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the Alan Turing Institute....
Staff at the UK's national institute for artificial intelligence (AI) have warned the charity is at risk of collapse, after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle threatened to withdraw its funding. Workers at the Alan Turing Institute raised a series of "serious and escalating concerns" in a whistleblowing complaint submitted to the Charity Commission. The complaint, seen by the BBC, accuses the institute's leadership of misusing public funds, overseeing a "toxic internal culture", and failing to deliver on the charity's mission. A government spokesperson said Kyle "has been clear he wants [the Turing Institute] to deliver real value for money for taxpayers". The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) spokesperson said the institute "is an independent organisation and has been consulting on changes to refocus its work under its Turing 2.0 strategy". "The changes set out in his letter would do exactly that, giving the Institute a key role in safeguarding our national security and positioning it where the British public expects it to be," they said. It comes after Kyle urged the Turing Institute to focus on defence research and suggested funding would be pulled unless it changed. Kyle also wants an overhaul of its leadership. Any shift to focusing on defence would be a significant pivot for the publicly funded organisation, which was given a grant of £100m by the previous Conservative government last year. Founded in 2015 as the UK's leading centre of AI research, the Turing Institute has been rocked by internal discontent and criticism of its research activities.

[Tizer]

This is good news for bees - and Panbiker will be especially pleased!
`Scientists make 'superfood' that could save honeybees' BBC
Scientists have developed a honeybee "superfood" that could protect the animals against the threats of climate change and habitat loss. Bee colonies that ate the supplement during trials had up to 15 times more baby bees that grew to adulthood....
....Honeybees feed on pollen and nectar from flowers that contain the nutrients, including lipids called sterols that are necessary for their development. They make honey in hives, which becomes their food source over winter when flowers have stopped producing pollen. When beekeepers take out honey to sell, or, increasingly, when there isn't enough pollen available, they give the insects supplementary food. But that food is made up of protein flour, sugar and water, and has always lacked the nutrients bees require. It is like humans eating a diet without carbohydrates, amino acids, or other vital nutrients. Sterol has always proved very difficult to manufacture, but Prof Wright has led a group of scientists for 15 years to identify which exact sterols bees need and how to engineer them....

This brought back memories for me because my PhD research was on sterols. The BBC article has a link to the Oxford University research paper in the journal Nature and all the sterol names and molecular structures took me back 50 years! If only I'd had the analytical equipment then that researchers have now...

`Engineered yeast provides rare but essential pollen sterols for honeybees' Nature

Coincidentally, after my PhD I almost got involved with yeast sterols but was deflected into studies of sterols in ancient ocean sediments for a brief time before moving into food lipids. When I look back on my career it seems rather complicated!

[Stanley]

But very impressive to ordinary mortals Peter!

[Tizer]

This is bad news. The CDC leads the world in disease control and prevention. It's disruption will affect every country because it provides the coordination of disease control worldwide. When I was involved in food safety it was my first port of call for new information and I was registered with them to receive their daily email alerts. They could rightfully claim `You heard it here first'. Staff are already leaving and it will take a very long time to get the CDC back to its previous effectiveness and status, especially if Kennedy and Trump remain in place. Trump has already devastated the National Institutes of Health and now this....

`CDC director refuses to leave after White House order' LINK
The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still in her position despite an announcement by the White House that she had been fired, one of her lawyers has said. According to them, Susan Monarez - who has only been in the job for a month - had refused "to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives" and has accused Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr of "weaponising public health". The reason for her removal was that she was "not aligned with the president's agenda", the White House said in a statement. But her lawyer said only President Donald Trump could remove her. At least three senior CDC leaders resigned from the agency, some citing frustration over vaccine policy and the leadership of Kennedy, also known as RFK...

[Stanley]

I saw the report and agree with you Peter. Regardless of the current argument, this administration's handling of vital agencies is vandalism and can only result in an increase in disease and death. The impression I get is that they are simply driven by the desire to spend less money on what they judge to be non-essentials.... America is rapidly losing credibility in world opinion.
Remember that we are no better, we have cut Overseas Aid to save money and are spending what is left on housing asylum seekers instead of direct aid.
These trends are direct evidence of the harm the political doctrine of disruption is causing. The problem is that far from improving governance it is leading to chaos....

[Stanley]

Is THIS incompetence or deliberate mis-reading?
Beddington incinerator, which serves four south London councils, faces enforcement from the Environment Agency after exceeding air pollution limits on 916 occasions. The offences, which occurred between 2022 and 2024 at the energy-from-waste plant, were revealed last week after the operator Viridor admitted it had been collecting pollution data incorrectly. Sutton Council, who sends waste to the site, has written to the Environment Secretary Steve Reed urging him to take enforcement action and say it was only told about the breaches 16 months after they were discovered. A Viridor spokesperson said it takes environmental responsibility seriously and the under-reporting was "human error".