A recently published paper

An experiment found that selfing” monkeyflower plants lost 13 percent to 24 percent of their genetic variation compared to another group that were propagated by bumble bees. 

Genetic variation is important to respond to changes in nature or the overall environment. The good news is that they used bumblebees and though they claim they are in decline, evidence does not show that, so the plants are not at short term risk. Even better, pollination is not done by bumblebees alone, there are over 25,000 species of just bees, and lots of other insects pollinate. An experiment outside a closed greenhouse would show that.

In March 2020, a few days before lockdown was introduced, the UK government launched the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, widely referred to as “furlough”. This scheme provided employees who were unable to work due to the pandemic with 80% of their pay (capped at £2,500 per month).

WNBA star Brittney Griner is in a Russian jail because the laws of the country you enter no matter what country you live in. A visitor to the US with banned substances is going to jail the same way. Yet to many Americans, what she had is no problem. She was not smuggling drugs, she had cannabis oil used for vaping.

In that, she is hardy alone. Much like medical marijuana prescriptions were overwhelmingly obtained by young men while pain prescriptions are overwhelmingly for older women, there is a clear demographic who take up vaping for the cannabis, not to quit smoking or reduce harm by replacing carcinogenic smoke with nicotine vapor.

Obesity is correlated to risk for breast cancer after menopause and new study suggests that this adiposity is related to the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).

It is only an observational study, in the exploratory section and not causal, but the authors say their examination of  hormone levels from samples stored in a Women’s Health Initiative biobank is the largest study of its kind in older women.

A hormone released by the pituitary gland, FSH plays an important role in female development and reproduction by stimulating growth of the ovarian follicle before ovulation.

The first f

The researchers confirmed there is a system in place that is working to limit the amount of water being lost from the leaf, but what’s causing it is not settled. They believe that water conduits, called aquaporins, located in the cell membranes are responsible. 

California is primarily a desert and with no way to generate enough of its own electricity, the state must run power lines from other states through dry areas to keep a growing population in air conditioning. When wildfires occur the state routinely blames utilities and since utilities are created and managed by government fiat, utilities rarely note that they are not allowed to own power lines in many cases, and environmental laws restrict clearing trees and brush near them. The state instead sues, gets a win in a politically sympathetic court, the utility goes into bankruptcy and then emerges and the whole process starts over.

“We got rich fast here,” a man in Beijing told me, “and we’re fast getting richer. Those lazy Taiwanese aren’t getting richer at all.” It is fashionable on the mainland to diss Taiwan, but – as I was too polite to inform my interlocutor – Taiwan residents have created a fine civil society and have learned to get along well with each other, tasks that are much harder than just getting rich.

Our planet’s origins and its ancient history has fascinated human beings since the dawn of civilization.