How to think about… scientific thinking
In the introduction to your piece on how to consider various tricky issues in science, such as consciousness, you mention that new evidence and fresh ways of thinking both add to the evolution of our understanding (13 May, p 36).
Some of our frustration with tackling the major challenges that confront science might be due to a failure to refresh the conceptual architectures we use in our thinking. One example of the difference this can make is that using a both/and logic opens up a different and larger space of possibilities than using an either/or logic, whatever the subject.
Another relevant example might be an approach that includes context, versus one that doesn’t, to make sense of any complex issue. Having only a keyhole view of the problem leads to significant drawbacks, as we are seeing with artificial intelligence.
The time may be right to focus on this hidden substructure to thinking. This could create a fruitful new horizon, enabling us to break out of constraints we are unaware of.
Lab-grown meat can be environmentally sound
快猫短视频s developing cultivated meat agree that R&D-scale methods won’t work for large-scale production. The non-peer-reviewed environmental impact study you reported on assumed commercial production of cultivated meat would rely on pharmaceutical-grade media to feed the cells 鈥� which food manufacturers won’t need to use (13 May, p 11).
Its findings deviate from other published research and don’t reflect current or anticipated practices. Recent peer-reviewed data demonstrates that food-grade ingredients can support animal cell growth, and producers are actively developing the supply chain for these ingredients.
A , based on input from many cultivated meat companies and media suppliers, showed that producing cultivated meat at scale using renewable energy could lower climate emissions by 92 per cent and use 90 per cent less land than conventional beef.
Just as we wouldn’t assess the environmental impact of solar panels based on 1980s prototype production methods, we shouldn’t assess cultivated meat’s potential impact using R&D-scale processes. To deliver on cultivated meat’s potential to help satisfy growing demand for meat, reduce climate impacts and create space for more sustainable farming, governments must develop sustainable, large-scale production.
Altogether now, fandom really is rather splendid (1)
Michael Bond’s article on fandom really struck a chord with me. A decade ago, as a reasonably intelligent man drawing his state pension, I became a fan of a television singing contestant (James Arthur). For the first time in my life, I joined a fan club (13 May, p 25).
Since then, I have become online friends with a socially diverse group of people from all over the world, some of whom I have met. Many of these people have, in Bond’s words, “been transformed by their fandoms”. It is easy to mock fans; we do get a bad rap. But the act of coming together in mutual support can be immensely rewarding and a powerful force for good.
Altogether now, fandom really is rather splendid (2)
Few fandoms can be more inclusive than devotion to a sports team. A commentator once said that few other interests allow, for example, a professor and a cleaner to talk with the same level of expertise.
On the strange lights that seem to precede quakes
While I applaud the work of those aiming to predict earthquakes, the “mysterious” phenomena you report can perhaps be explained by well-known processes (6 May, p 43).
Triboluminescence (light generated by mechanical friction) is known. Native Americans were early users of the effect, shaking bags of quartz crystals to produce flashes of light in ceremonies. If this can produce luminescence, surely huge plates of rock sliding against each other could too?
As to animals being scared before a quake, infrasound (sound below the audible range) creates fright, even in us. . But we tend to live in places where it is drowned out. The early rumblings of an earthquake would produce such sounds and perhaps these scare horses and other animals.
What we really need is more inner goblin time
Jonathan R. Goodman’s article lamenting a stay-at-home culture, or “goblin mode”, that arose due to the pandemic is typical of what I call the extrovert’s narrative. It reads like an almost evangelical piece on how we have all been corrupted by lockdowns and need to rediscover the social norms of old in order to save our souls (6 May, p 27).
The truth is that many people learned to value their own time more. Rather than spend personal and unpaid time with colleagues, while consuming awful coffee and supermarket biscuits, lots of people decided they had better things to do. Perhaps the problem was that, in the before times, there was too little “inner goblin” time.
Cats' hunting abilities may yet be in demand
Author Jonathan B. Losos’s idea to breed domestic cats to be less interested in hunting would indeed reduce the carnage on wildlife (6 May, p 34).
However, it is suggested that one of the reasons we first encouraged cats to cohabit with us was as pest controllers around granaries and the like. Those who still use them as such might be a little annoyed.
France takes a different line over ADHD drugs
France, which is more resistant to the influence of pharmaceutical companies, tells a different story on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. don’t use the DSM 鈥� a US psychiatric diagnostic manual 鈥� and adopt a more holistic approach to ADHD, including, for example diet, drug treatments are much less used. As of 2019, 7.77 per cent of children in the US take stimulant medications, while in France the figure is only 0.46 per cent (6 May, p 38).
For the record
Atorvastatin is used for high blood cholesterol (6 May, p 10).