S(c)i(l)ence Is Golden.

CheesecakeHypothesis
FiveYearPlanFactoryTestingVille


Trofim Lysenko was Joseph Stalin's 'Biology Dictator'.

Despite this impressive moniker, Mr. Lysenko did not believe in genetics.

Instead, he believed that a regimen of bizarre environmental conditioning would generate traits in plants that would ring in a new golden age of Soviet agriculture.

As you might expect, this was an approach that was fully approved by the dear leader because it fit the ideology of bended will and all that.

It was also an approach that resulted in massive crop failures and widespread famine.

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Much attention has been paid to the Trump Administration's assault on American science.

And that includes the continuing assault on expertly peer reviewed science being carried out at places like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and many of the United States' most impactful research universities.

Why is this happening?

Well, according to a former White House aide named May Mailman:

"...(T)he (Trump)administration wasn’t overly concerned about the effects on research. Funds taken away from one university could eventually make their way to other schools whose behavior and ideology the White House approved ..."

Hmmmmm.

Ideology.

These fine authoritarians keep on using that word.

I do not think that word means what they think it means.

At least when it comes to science.

What could possibly go wrong?



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Image at the top of the post?...The cover of a July 2026 Trump administration report trumpeting their New 'Golden Age of Science' that will require researchers seeking funds to "commit to complying with (Trump) administration policies"...As opposed to, for example, complying to the review of peers who actually understand the actual science....
This post was initially inspired by an excellent omnibus piece in today's New York Times by C. Flavelle, I. Hwang, A. Sella, A Blinder, S. Gay Stolber, B. Mueller and M.C. Bender.

Ms. Mailman, whose comments were captured in said NYT piece, is not a scientist...Instead, she is a Harvard-trained lawyer who did her best to force that institution to submit to the will of the Trump administration...She is also a former close associate of another very fine White House staffer named Stephen Miller...Interestingly, these are facts, among many others of a distinctly ideological bent, that were not mentioned in today's NYT piece (this despite the Times' own previous reporting - imagine that!).
Obscure-ish (but excellent) ear worm in the post's header?...This!

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BC Election: The Race Is Run... What Will The Winners Actually Do Now?

AroundTheOldOak
TreeVille

 

All of today's pro-media coverage is about how Mr. Eby lost the race before it even got to the clubhouse turn.

Some, like the estimable Mr. Palmer, from the safety of Postmedia's innermost of harbours, reckon it was lost before the horses even got to the gate. Although, to be fair, the Dean of the Legislative Press Gallery, did use a different metaphor.

But nevermind all that.

Because I've been looking for an analysis of what the BC Conservatives will actually do in government.

You know, the stuff that actually matters to how lives here in British Columbia will be lived for the next four years or so.

Of course, there has been very little of that in the public prints.

But, luckily for us, Norm Farrell has been paying very close attention.

Here is Norm's recent analysis:

Housing: Cut construction taxes and charges, accelerate approvals, and reduce energy-efficiency requirements. End provincial density requirements. Support infrastructure needed by growth. Provide tax credits for creating self-contained accommodation for senior relatives.

Education:Accelerate pathways into trades. Further restrict phones, and enable school police liaison programs.

Environment/Climate: Repeal CleanBC, expand fossil fuel production, and support pipelines.

Healthcare: Fund treatment by private practictioners. Recruit and train more staff.

Reconciliation: Repeal DRIPA. Seek constitutional changes to eliminate Indigenous rights.

In my opinion there is some very scary reactionary stuff in there, even if the regressive 'open for extractive business' approach actually gives a short term boost to the economy. 

But my opinion isn't worth a hill of beans to the 48% of the British Columbia electorate who wanted either one of those two things, or both

But here's something to consider.

Aren't both of those things what a similar percentage of our neighbours to the South got bamboozled into voting for a couple of years ago?
 

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Image at the top of the post?...End of the backstretch at the old Sandown Park, circa 1977, in North Saanich.
So..What should provincial progressives do now?...Well, what if, as reader Graham has suggested, we had an actual Orange/Green supergroup that worked together in opposition and even took heed of what the progressive parties in Vancouver did come election time...And yes, I am thinking of making deals about where it makes the most sense for one party or the other to stand down in strategic ridings to ensure that the splitting of votes, like what just lost them Saanich South (Con 39%, Dipper 35%, Green 26%), doesn't happen again in 2030...


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BC Election: Sunday Morning Coming Down?

DidHeListenToTheSongsThatThey
WereSingingVille


Last Saturday night seems so long ago now.

Here in Vancouver it was the night of the progressive greening.

But here's the thing...

When you look hard at the numbers above, it's pretty easy to see why right-sider Ken Sim's mayoral numbers dropped so precipitously compared to the last civic election in 2022.

It's those three rightish-siders below Mr. Sim on the list above, all of whom either worked with or worked for Sim in the past.

And, so, if you give the numbers garnered by that trio back to Mr. Sim the totality of the Greening (and the Copeing) would likely not have happened given that the split on the right was even more significant in the councillors' race. 

In contrast, the numbers suggest that David Eby will not receive such a split-driven assist in tomorrow's provincial election.
 

Importantly, that Leger poll, above, which was published in Thursday's Vancouver Sun, is not a one-off. 

As such, it really and truly appears that the right-sided split that Mr. Eby was betting on is gone.

And, to add insult to injury, that bit of a late game bounce for the provincial Greens could be a double-whammy in close metropolitan Dipper/Con ridings.

Which means that we will very likely see a big change of government Sunday morning coming down. 

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Earworm in the header?...Of course...This!
The best, I think, we of a progressive bent who are not in the 'burn it all down camp because Eby is so bad' camp can hope for is that the advances were orange enough that there is another NDP/Green coalition...But that really looks like a longshot at this point, especially given that the Green bump does not appear to be translating into seat gains.


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About That Breakthrough Pancreatic Cancer Drug (Again)...

GTPase
JammingVille


Recently, I wrote (quite a lot) about the development of a new drug that has shown efficacy against hard-to-treat pancreatic cancers.

The initial findings with 'daraxonrasib', an innovative inhibitor against the virulent Ras oncoprotein, were so positive that it has been deemed a breakthrough wonder drug.

Except, as so often happens with new anti-cancer treatments, it is turning out that a significant percentage of the treated tumours rapidly evolve and become resistant to the drug.

As a result, clinicians have ramped up follow-up studies in which the tumours of treated patients are being longitudinally biopsied/sampled before and during treatment in an effort to identify ways that the tumors can be better treated for more long lasting responses.

So far, preliminary findings, which were presented at a conference of the American Association for Cancer Research last week, suggest two not necessarily mutually exclusive possibilities:

1) The fraction of tumor cells that survive the initial treatment may be more susceptible to classical chemotherapy which suggests that a combinatorial treatment strategy may be effective.

2) The surviving tumor cells also appear to start producing increased amounts of the Ras oncoprotein. This suggests that whacking the cells with multiple Ras inhibitors (there are a bunch more of them in the pipeline) might also be effective.

It's important to reiterate that these findings are still preliminary. They are also correlative and have not been functionally tested yet. Additionally, the work has  not yet been rigorously peer-reviewed. 

Having said all that, it sure is interesting to see the science being reported,pretty much in real time, given that the initial FDA approval of daraxonrasib was only granted in August of this year in response to the initial breakthrough clinical trial results.

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