Stephen Hawking once said of his long-time friend and collaborator Roger Penrose: “although I’m regarded as a radical, I’m definitely a conservative compared to Roger”. Roger Penrose has made ground-breaking contributions to the fields of quantum gravity, general relativity, and cosmology. In this interview with filmmaker David Malone, Penrose looks back on his life’s work and shares new ideas on the subjects of logic and consciousness.

Anthont Dimaggio in Counterpunch:

There has been quite a bit of prophesizing among pundits in the news media, on the right and elsewhere, and even among some on the left with which I’ve spoken, in which critics confidently maintain that impeachment is a “gift” to Trump, dividing the nation, but mobilizing and energizing Trump’s base, thereby handing the election to Trump. These claims are almost entirely based on fear and conjecture, not on actual evidence. If we look back to the limited history of this country’s use of impeachment against presidents in modern times, there is little evidence to draw from one way or another, and certainly no cases that are equivalent to this one, in terms of telling us how impeachment will impact an election that is so far into the future – an entire year from now.

Conceding the uncertainty associated with the inquiry against Trump, available evidence suggests there is little reason to be engaging in fearmongering on impeachment. Going back to the looming impeachment of Richard Nixon following the emergence of the Watergate scandal, we see no evidence that the removal strategy harmed Democrats. Republicans lost 49 seats in the House in 1974, while losing another 5 in the Senate. Gerald Ford’s reputation – as measured by his job approval rating – quickly nosedived following his pardon of Nixon, and Jimmy Carter won the 1976 election, defeating Ford, while Democrats gained a seat in the House of Representatives, while losing one seat in the Senate. In other words, there were no observable repercussions for the Democrats for forcing Nixon from office.

More here.

Carl Zimmer in The New York Times:

As a microbiologist, Massimiliano Marvasi has spent years studying how microbes have defeated us. Many pathogens have evolved resistance to penicillin and other antimicrobial drugs, and now public health experts are warning of a global crisis in treating infectious diseases. These days, Dr. Marvasi, a senior researcher at the University of Florence in Italy, finds solace in studying ants. About 240 species of ants grow underground gardens of fungi. They protect their farms against pathogens using powerful chemicals secreted by bacteria on their bodies. Unlike humans, ants are not facing a crisis of antimicrobial resistance. Writing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Dr. Marvasi and his colleagues argue that fungus-farming ants could serve as a model for drug development. It’s not just that they have antimicrobials — it’s how they use their drugs.

Praying the Hours At Elkhorn Slough

God. Ocean. Sunrise.
Whatever I am sitting here between,
hello.

Sea otter profile:
backcurved, hooking the tide.

Nothing so distinctive
–so joyfully learned, wondrously greeted
every salt-gift sighting.

Lowtide wader talk.
Coyote brush sun-scented
and the seals hauled out.

My low tide too
but the breeze coming up says
wake. Pray

with one foot
steady-placed, and then
the other.

Something has died. And the pleasant smell
of chaparral cannot hope to cover it up.

The chaparral must die and so must I
–would we not also wish
to leave something behind?

At the last, four notes
ascending their purple staff:
marsh-water-dune-sky.

After the last
……… silent owl-rise.

by Tara K. Shepersky
from Echotheo Review
9/18/19