Category Archives: News

Top Science Podcasts: A New Antibiotic From Nematodes, “Grants” Thru Lotteries (Nature)

Nature PodcastBenjamin Thompson brings you the latest science news. This week, an antibiotic that targets difficult to treat bacteria, and a roundup of the latest science news.

In this episode:

00:49 Discovering darobactin

Researchers looked inside nematode guts and have identified a new antibiotic with some useful properties. Research Article: Imai et al.

05:45 Research Highlights

Using urine as a health metric, and sniffing out book decay with an electronic nose. Research Article: Miller et al.Research Article: Veríssimo et al.

07:54 News Chat

Adding an element of chance to grant funding, a continental butterfly-sequencing project, and tracking endangered animals via traces of their DNA. News: Science funders gamble on grant lotteriesNews: Every butterfly in the United States and Canada now has a genome sequenceNews: Rare bird’s detection highlights promise of ‘environmental DNA’

To read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03588-z

International News: Boris Johnson And Jeremy Corbin In “Testy” Debate Over Brexit (Video)

From a Reuters online article:

Polls looking to gauge how the public intends to vote put Johnson’s Conservatives as much as 18 percentage points ahead of Labour, but the numbers can vary widely.

To try to land a decisive blow in an election campaign which few voters relish, both leaders went on the attack, with Johnson trying to portray his rival as indecisive, while Corbyn questioned whether the prime minister could be trusted.

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson doubled down on his Brexit promises on Tuesday, saying only he could take Britain out of the European Union quickly in a testy leadership debate with opposition Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.

After the hour-long debate, polls showed the public were split over who was the victor: 51% said it was Johnson while 49% backed Corbyn – a result that analysts said reflected better on the Labour leader, who is trailing in opinion polls.

To read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-election-debate/in-testy-leadership-debate-uk-pm-johnson-promises-to-deliver-brexit-idUSKBN1XT2O0

Global Economics: “The Trade War Explained” (The Economist Video)

America and China are edging closer to signing a deal in the trade war. But that won’t mark the end—the issues at the heart of the conflict will be very difficult to resolve.

The world’s leading superpowers are locking horns. Over the past 16 months America and China have been trading blows through tariffs on goods. The impact is being felt on industries worldwide. But what is the story behind the America-China trade war? So the trade war, what have you guys been looking at? The US doesn’t like that China is growing so fast and set to overtake America as the biggest economy in the world if it hasn’t already by certain measures. Basically China and the US are caught in this race of imposing tariffs on each other so the US slaps a high tariff on certain products then China retaliates.

Read more here: https://econ.st/2qQItl6

Top Political Podcasts: Tamara Keith And Amy Walter Discuss 2020 Election (PBS Newshour)

Tamara Keith and Amy Walter Political Podcast Nov 18 2019NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report join Amna Nawaz to discuss the latest political news, including Pete Buttigieg’s surge in Iowa, former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead in South Carolina polls, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s health care plan update and what another Democratic gubernatorial upset in Louisiana means for President Trump in 2020.

Art Of Food: 99-Year Old Painter Wayne Thiebaud Creates Thanksgiving Cover For New Yorker

From New Yorker article:

CoverStory-story_thiebaud_turkeySince all of my paintings—almost every single one except for the figure paintings—are done from memory, I rely specifically on the memory of working in restaurants, or of visiting farms on which I worked as a young person. I try to recall the look and feel and love of what I have experienced.

At ninety-nine, Wayne Thiebaud—one of America’s greatest painters, and certainly its premier painter of food—is still going strong. This is Thiebaud’s ninth cover for the magazine, and it riffs on one of his previous paintings, an image of a turkey that he started in 2009. A sharp viewer might pick out the added details and embellishments, but more striking, perhaps, are the Thiebaud hallmarks that remain the same: soft light, clear color, a blue shadow pooling around a plate. We recently called Thiebaud at his home, in Sacramento, to talk about his work.

To read more: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2019-11-25

Retirement Planning: Nobel Prize Economist William Sharpe Offers Free E-Book For Retirees

Feom a Barron’s online interview article:

William Sharpe Nobel Prize Winning EconomistRight now, you tend to have investment advisors for retirees, and insurance advisors or salespersons for retirees, and it’s fairly rare to go to somebody who can sell you annuities or invest your money and has no financial incentive to tilt one way or the other. Ultimately, what I’d like to see are people who have knowledge of both annuities and investments, and who are compensated in a way that doesn’t influence the decision.

The idea is that you segment your money. It’s similar to using “buckets” but with a time component. A retiree might have a box for 2020 and a box for 2021, and 2022, etc.

Retirement Income Analysis by William SharpeNobel Prize–winning economist William Sharpe has spent most of his career thinking about risk. He’s behind the Capital Asset Pricing Model for gauging systemic risk and the eponymous Sharpe ratio, which captures risk-adjusted return.

A few decades ago, Sharpe turned his attention to what may be the biggest risk of all for most Americans—running out of money in retirement. The professor of finance, emeritus, at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business created a computer program that eventually covered 100,000 retirement-income scenarios based on different combinations of life spans and investment returns for a retired couple. Sharpe has made this program available in a free ebook, Retirement Income Scenario Matrices.

To read more: https://www.barrons.com/articles/william-sharpe-how-to-secure-lasting-retirement-income-51573837934

Top Political Podcasts: Mark Shields And David Brooks On The Latest In Washington (PBS)

Shields and Brooks Political podcast Nov 15 2019Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including whether public impeachment hearings are making President Trump more or less vulnerable, what stood out about the witnesses who testified so far, whether Trump’s Ukraine dealings are surprising or “in character” and the latest dynamics among 2020 Democrats.

Museum Events: The Huntington Library Builds Centennial Float For 2020 Rose Parade (Timelapse Video)

For the first time in 50 years, The Huntington will join Pasadena’s world-famous Rose Parade® with a spectacular float, themed “Cultivating Curiosity,” to capture the spirit of The Huntington’s Centennial Celebration and highlight the institution’s rare research materials, inspiring art collections, and enchanting botanical gardens that have made it a beloved destination that welcomes 750,000 visitors each year.

Website: https://www.huntington.org/centennial

Top Science Podcasts: Researchers “Locked In Arctic Ice Flow”, “Spikes Of Plasma” Heating The Sun’s Corona (ScienceMag)

The Polarstern research vessel will spend 1 year locked in an Arctic ice floe. Aboard the ship and on the nearby ice, researchers will take measurements of the ice, air, water, and more in an effort to understand this pristine place. Science journalist Shannon Hall joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about her time aboard the Polarstern and how difficult these measurements are, when the researchers’ temporary Arctic home is the noisiest, smokiest, brightest thing around.

After that icy start, Sarah talks also with Tanmoy Samanta, a postdoctoral researcher at Peking University in Beijing, about the source of the extreme temperature of the Sun’s corona, which can be up to 1 million K hotter than the surface of the Sun. His team’s careful measurements of spicules—small, plentiful, short-lived spikes of plasma that constantly ruffle the Sun’s surface—and the magnetic networks that seem to generate these spikes, suggest a solution to the long-standing problem of how spicules arise and, at the same time, their likely role in the heating of the corona.

To read more: https://www.sciencemag.org/podcast/how-make-arctic-ship-vanish-and-how-fast-moving-spikes-are-heating-sun-s-atmosphere

World Affairs Podcasts: Impeachment, Middle East Conflict And Aircraft Carriers (The Economist)

Economist RadioA selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Democrats want impeachment hearings to change the public’s view of Donald Trump. That will be difficult. (10:50) The tangled politics surrounding a killing and its aftermath in Gaza. (16:30) And, for aircraft-carriers, bigger isn’t better.