It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, January 01, 2024
NASA is on a mission to 'touch the Sun' in milestone moment for space exploration Nathan Rennolds Sun, 31 December 2023
DrPixel
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to pass the Sun on 24 December 2024.
It's due to fly past the sun at 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph.
"We are basically almost landing on a star," a scientist on the project said.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to pass the Sun next year in a milestone moment for space exploration.
The probe, launched on Aug 12, 2018, is due to fly past the sun at 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph on 24 December 2024, the BBC reported.
NASA describes it as a mission to ""touch the Sun" on its website, aiming to get our "first-ever sampling of a star's atmosphere."
"We are basically almost landing on a star," Nour Raouafi, a scientist on the project, told the BBC.
"This will be a monumental achievement for all humanity. This is equivalent to the Moon landing of 1969," he said.
The mission aims to help us gain a deeper understanding of the Sun, with the probe orbiting closer to the Sun's surface than any has before and within Mercury's orbit, NASA says.
The probe gathers measurements and images to help scientists learn more about where solar wind comes from and how it is evolving. It also makes "critical contributions to forecasting changes in the space environment that affect life and technology on Earth."
The probe will face extreme heat and radiation on its journey, flying "more than seven times closer to the Sun than any spacecraft."
Dr Nicky Fox, NASA's head of science, told the BBC that they "don't know" what they'll find in the mission, "but we'll be looking for waves in the solar wind associated with the heating."
"I suspect we'll sense lots of different types of waves which would point to a mix of processes that people have been arguing over for years," she added.
Huge waves to hit California coast for third day, bringing flooding and life-threatening conditions
Elizabeth Wolfe and Robert Shackelford, CNN Sat, 30 December 2023
Massive waves and coastal flooding are wreaking havoc for a third day in many of California’s coastal communities, where extreme conditions have forced water rescues, washed away cars and injured a handful of enthralled onlookers.
The unusually large surf – often towering over 20 feet – has prompted beach closures along the California coast and sent damaging deluges of water into several beachside streets, homes and businesses.
In hard-hit Ventura County, waves have surged over seawalls and carried parked cars down the street and into significant intersections, blocking first responders’ paths, fire captain Brian McGrath told CNN affiliate TNLA. Flooding in a local hotel also caused damage in all of its ground-floor rooms, he said.
High water and dangerous rip currents have been besieging much of the West coast from southern California to Oregon since Thursday, caused by a series of powerful storms that have been making their way ashore from the Pacific Ocean.
Though hazards will lessen for Northern Californians on Saturday, coastal areas of central and Southern California will keep being battered by extreme surf, which could reach about 25 feet in impacted areas.
Some waves slamming into California’s Bay Area may peak at 40 feet – about the size of a telephone pole – and others are expected to hit 28 to 33 feet.
Southern Oregon’s coast is also set to be buffeted with strong surf and high winds early Saturday. High surf warnings are in effect in the region through Saturday morning as waves between 20 and 25 feet are expected.
Curious onlookers and excited surfers have been enthralled by the spectacular surf, but local officials are urging people to stay out of the water and away from the beaches due to potentially life-threatening conditions. Beachgoers watch as huge surf pounds the coast in Manhattan Beach, California, on December 28, 2023. - Richard Vogel/AP
“Beaches, piers, vulnerable harbors should NOT be considered safe,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles said.
Ventura County officials have closed all beaches through New Years Eve due to the 15- to 20-foot waves set to slam into the coast through Saturday evening. The county, along with Hermosa, Manhattan and Palos Verdes beaches, face the most extreme surf on Saturday and are at risk for significant coastal flooding.
“We know the waves look impressive and we understand the drive to want to come here,” McGrath told TNLA Friday. “But we’re asking people to stay away and stay out of the area for their safety and for ours.”
An evacuation warning was issued earlier for some residents in areas around the Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County due to high surf, the fire department announced Saturday. The warning was lifted Saturday afternoon.
Ventura first responders rescued about 10 people on Friday “who thought they were able to navigate that high surf,” the fire captain said. Two beachgoers also helped pull a struggling lifeguard out of the water as the lifeguard was trying to get back to shore after rescuing a person near the pier, firefighter Andy VanSciver told CNN.
During the first round of severe surf on Thursday, nearly 20 people were swept away by a wave that slammed into a beach barrier lined with onlookers in Ventura Beach’s Pierpont area, officials said. Eight injured people were taken to the hospital.
“It was terrifying and apocalyptic,” said Colin Hoag, who captured a video of people scrambling to escape as the towering wave crashed over the barrier. Quickly moving seawater swept some people off their feet and pummeled cars as drivers tried to speed away.
“People were yelling and screaming. I ran as fast as I could,” Hoag said.
One of the storms fueling the waves will also bring rain and wind to California through Saturday.
By Saturday morning, the rain will shift inland and across Southern California before weakening over the Rocky Mountains on Sunday.
Further inland, a wintry mix will fall on areas of central and eastern California. More than a foot of snow is possible over high elevation crests and peaks and between 6 to 12 inches is expected in lower elevation mountain areas.
CNN’s Mary Gilbert and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this report.
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The genius animator who created Mickey Mouse – then fell out with Walt Disney
Alexander Larman Mon, 1 January 2024
In this article: Ub Iwerks American animator and special effects pioneer The 1928 Steamboat Willie incarnation of Mickey Mouse - LMPC
It has been suggested that Mickey Mouse was, along with the Coca-Cola label and the swastika, once the most recognisable symbol in the world. The indefatigable rodent made his first on-screen appearance in the 1928 animated short film Steamboat Willie which, thanks to a quirk of copyright law, enters the public domain on January 1 2024. Still, good luck to those who now believe that they will be able to profit from the Mickey character.
Walt Disney, whose company owns (and indeed exploits) the mouse, long ago trademarked him as well as ensuring his copyright. So while the original, black-and-white Mickey Mouse may now pop up in a variety of forms, the best-known version of him will, in the words of a no doubt testy Disney spokesman, “continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company.”
Those of us who rejoice at a multi-billion-dollar company being able to continue to make money hand over fist thanks to their most popular character will no doubt breathe a sigh of relief at this news. Yet the appearance of Steamboat Willie in the public domain should draw attention back to one of the great unsung figures of 20th century animation. Ubbe ‘Ub’ Iwerks not only worked alongside Disney in the early days of his empire, but was responsible for designing the character of Mickey Mouse.
Although he has not exactly been airbrushed from history, Iwerks’s far lower profile compared to his colleague and employer shows how brutally skilled a mythmaker Disney truly was. The story we’re left with is a sanitised – Disneyfied, even – version of what really happened.
Iwerks, the son of an itinerant Dutch barber whom he loathed – upon hearing of his father’s death, he sneered “Throw him in a ditch” – first encountered Disney when the two men were teenagers, and working at the Kansas City company the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. Already, the central differences in their personalities could be discerned. Iwerks was a hugely talented workaholic who could, if necessary, do two months’ work in two weeks, illustrating hundreds of animation cells by hand per night. Disney, although also a skilled animator himself, excelled at the corporate side of the business.
The two collaborated throughout the 1920s, with Disney very much the senior partner. But by the time they moved to Los Angeles in 1923, their careers hit a snag when the first cartoon character that they co-created, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was snatched away from them by Universal Studios, the production company that owned the rights to him. An incensed Disney vowed not only to retain all the rights to the characters that he was responsible for, but also to come up with a figure who would be considerably more successful – and iconic – than Oswald ever was.
The story of how Mickey Mouse was created was one that Disney often liked to tell in later life, in folksy, exaggerated detail. He either claimed that he had come up with the idea of an anthropomorphic mouse on a long train journey from New York to California, or that he was inspired by a pet that he kept during his Kansas City days. Both, or neither, might be true. Mickey Mouse co-creator Ub Iwerks - Mary Evans Picture Library
But what is incontrovertibly the case is that Iwerks came to Disney’s rescue when he was left without a character that he could monetise, and that, between the two of them, they came up with a figure who was originally named Mortimer Mouse. Until Disney’s wife Lillian, disliking what she saw as an overly pompous name, suggested changing Mortimer to Mickey.
There is no doubt that Disney was heavily invested in the character, not least because he voiced him for years, and he was responsible for coming up with Mickey’s quirks of personality that largely led to him becoming the much-beloved character that he still remains today. Yet the rush to claim credit meant that Disney, inadvertently or deliberately, sidelined Iwerks’ work in coming up with the iconic design for Mickey Mouse.
For a long time, Disney assumed ownership of the character, and today the accepted party line is that, in the words of one Disney employee, “Ub designed Mickey’s physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul.” Yet this is an inaccuracy. As Iwerks’ biographer Jeff Ryan has commented: “[Iwerks] was the person who was doing most of the behind-the-scenes work. And when Walt was taking credit, Ub was the one who was denied credit. Walt, because he was never satisfied with anything, kept on making up bigger and bigger whoppers to stretch the Mickey Mouse creation story. And the biggest whopper at first was that Walt was the one who did it. He didn’t do it.” A 1935 Sinbad short animated by Ub Iwerks - Alamy
The reasons for this are more complex than they might appear, and, as Ryan has suggested, “When you put Walt and Ub together, they were able to do just about anything.” Yet Iwerks swiftly tired of Disney’s showmanship and of being treated as the junior partner. Their working relationship came to an end in 1930, when – apocryphally – Disney, upon being asked by a young admirer at a party to draw him a sketch of Micky Mouse, simply handed over paper and pen to Iwerks and said “Draw it”. Cue a furious Iwerks storming out of the party and starting his own animation studio, Iwerks Studio. (He was paid less than $3,000 for his 20 per cent share in the company, a stake that would be worth billions today.)
In an ideal world, this would have gone on to be a rival to Disney, perhaps even to supersede it. But Disney knew the importance of hiring talent and so surrounded himself with capable young animators. (Although Iwerks was responsible for discovering Chuck Jones, the man who would later go on to create the Looney Tunes cartoons.) Iwerks struggled to break through on his own terms throughout the 1930s, and in 1940 returned to Disney. Only this time he was not an animator, but as a visual effects supervisor: an acknowledgement that the only way that the working relationship between the two men could resume once again would be if Iwerks was doing something new and distinct from his previous endeavours. The 1930 Micky Mouse short Plane Crazy, animated by Ub Iwerks - Alamy
For the next 25 years, Iwerks worked tirelessly and fruitfully across many of the Disney enterprises. He was responsible for pioneering the integration of live action and animation on screen, which he first attempted in 1946’s much-maligned musical drama Song of the South and then, far more notably and successfully, he perfected in Disney’s epochal success, Mary Poppins.
He also worked on Disney theme park attractions, designing such shows as The Hall of Presidents and the It’s A Small World ride. Demonstrating his virtuosity, he moved away from Disney to design the terrifying-looking special effects for Hitchcock’s The Birds, for which he was nominated for an Oscar – having already received a special Academy Award in 1960 for “the design of an improved optical printer for special effects and matte shots”. Animation genius, special effects pioneer, theme park visionary: Ub Iwerks should, by rights, be as well remembered as Disney, Jones or any of the other leading figures in 20th century entertainment. That he is not may be down to Disney’s wish to exclude him from taking credit for his achievements – although he was named a Disney Legend in 1989, following his death in 1971 – but also because of his restlessness.
He loved to take a car apart and put it back together in a weekend, and was known to build cameras from parts he found lying around his garage. He took up archery, only to quit after getting bored of hitting bullseyes over and over again. And as Ryan said of Iwerks: “There is a famous story in animation circles about Ub Iwerks’ brief love of bowling. He got better and better and better until one day he bowled 13 strikes in a row. And as soon as he did that, he’s like, okay, I’ve solved bowling. And he never bowled again.” (Much the same could be said of his first career with Disney, in which he excelled at innovation and trendsetting animation alike, before leaving his unbroken strike record behind, never to return.
The treatment of Iwerks may be a near-forgotten incident in the House of Mouse, but it remains common knowledge in popular culture circles. The 1996 Simpsons episode The Day The Violence Died revolves around a homeless man, Chester J Lampwick – voiced by none other than Kirk Douglas – who tells Bart that he is responsible for the creation of the character Itchy the mouse from the Itchy and Scratchy show. He has been forced out and denied his royalties by Roger Meyers Sr, a none-too-subtle dig at Disney, even down to a joke about his being cryogenically frozen. Lampwick eventually triumphs, being awarded an $800 billion settlement that bankrupts Meyers’s son and results in the cessation of Itchy and Scratchy.
Yet the most telling moment in the episode comes when Meyers declares in court that “Animation is built on plagiarism! If it weren’t for someone plagiarizing The Honeymooners, we wouldn’t have The Flintstones. If someone hadn’t ripped off Sergeant Bilko, there’d be no Top Cat.” And, the episode might have added, if there had been no Ub Iwerks, there would have been no Mickey Mouse, and probably no Disney empire as we know it today. So if Steamboat Willie’s entry into the public domain leads to Iwerks’s name being better remembered, this can only be a good thing.
Defence company founded by Oculus creator plans to double UK presence
Howard Mustoe Mon, 1 January 2024 Palmer Luckey sold Oculus, his virtual reality headset startup, to Facebook in 2014 for more than $2bn (£1.6bn) - Dan Tuffs
A defence company founded by US entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, who sold his virtual reality business to Facebook at the age of 21, will double its UK presence in the next two years as it expects a boom in defence technology.
Anduril develops anti-drone technology, detection equipment and maritime security technology, all centred around its Lattice artificial intelligence-powered software.
The company recently developed a vertically launched jet engine powered drone named Roadrunner which is designed to intercept aircraft and other drones and gather intelligence.
“We have a strong belief that the UK is rife with engineering in defence and aerospace talent. We plan to continue to hire and grow in that market for the foreseeable future,” says Gregory Kausner, Head of Global Defence. “Our focus is on autonomous systems. Robots capable of acting independently based on conditions set by humans with humans.”
The company was founded in 2017 and entered the UK in 2019 as its first international market. It plans to double its 40-strong UK workforce to 80 and “plans to design, engineer and to manufacture products in the UK for the UK”, Mr Kausner said, opening test ranges and offices.
Founder Palmer Luckey sold Oculus, his virtual reality headset startup to Facebook in 2014 for more than $2bn (£1.6bn) and personally made an estimated $700m. He was let go in 2016, reportedly for making donations to an anti-Hillary Clinton group.
The following year, he set up Anduril, named after a legendary sword in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings books, which is meant to bring modern technology onto the battlefield.
The UK defence sector has seen a wave of investment and expansion since Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Relatively new technologies to defence, like drones, has meant militaries are trying to adapt quickly to counter them.
Before Russia’s invasion, the focus of most weapons makers was to outperform enemy hardware, building equipment that was increasingly fast, stealthy or deadly.
Military drones however, can cost as little as $10,000 apiece, while adapted civilian models can come in under $1,000
Development of domestic jet-powered drones in the UK is also gaining pace. BAE Systems began developing a jet-powered stealth drone called Taranis about a decade ago.
QinetiQ, the defence technology firm spun out of the Ministry of Defence nearly two decades ago, is developing a disposable drone with top British arms contractor BAE Systems called Jackdaw.
Based on the design of the Banshee target, which looks like a mini warplane and is made to be shot out of the sky during missile tests, the jet-powered Jackdaw will help lure rockets away from nearby jets, snoop on targets and jam radio transmissions. This can all be achieved more cheaply than a manned plane.
Junior doctors’ strikes put NHS on ‘thin ice’ in busiest week of year
Telegraph reporters Sun, 31 December 2023 The strike amounts to 144 consecutive hours of industrial action – the longest in the 75-year history of the health service - Paul Grover for the Telegraph
Six days of strikes by junior doctors in England starting from Wednesday will leave the NHS on “thin ice” during the busiest week of the year, NHS leaders have said.
The NHS Confederation also repeated its call for the walkouts to be cancelled and said that trust bosses should not be “forced into this position again”.
It said that the industrial action will leave hospitals, GP surgeries and other services “skating on very thin ice” and in a “highly vulnerable position” because it coincides with what is traditionally the busiest week of year for the NHS.
The Government and the British Medical Association (BMA) union must resume talks to find a lasting compromise “for the sake of the patients”, the confederation added.
Junior doctors are set to walk out from 7am on Wednesday until 7am on Jan 9.
The strike amounts to 144 consecutive hours of industrial action – the longest in the 75-year history of the health service.
The union wants junior doctors to get a 35 per cent pay rise, which it says would restore their real earnings to 2008 levels, but the Government says that this is unaffordable.
An agreement allows striking junior doctors to be recalled for major incidents and in extreme circumstances.
The confederation is urging the BMA to respond quickly to requests for junior doctors to be recalled and for the judgement of senior medics to be “trusted” when they say they need cover from those on strike.
Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “Many NHS trusts will have thin rotas and will be in a highly vulnerable position as they enter what is widely regarded as the busiest week of the year for local NHS services.
“Parts of the NHS will be skating on very thin ice, and they will need the BMA to back any recall requests for junior doctors when services find themselves under extreme pressure.
“With the chances of the strikes being called off all but over, the focus of every NHS leader and their staff is now on mitigating as many of the considerable risks that they face as possible.
“But they shouldn’t have to be forced into this position again, especially at such a busy time for local services.
“To face almost 150 hours of continuous stoppages is a serious and unprecedented risk – and one that NHS leaders and their staff have never experienced before.
“The good news is that the NHS has again prepared extensively and has had to become adept at planning for strikes.
“While they will again do all they can to mitigate the risks, especially for patients needing emergency care, they have again been left with no choice but to schedule in less activity in anticipation of the strikes.
“That means more delays for patients who have faced lengthy waits for routine treatment.”
Figures released last month showed more than 1.2 million appointments have had to be postponed because of industrial action in the NHS since it began in December 2022.
Strikes by junior doctors last month caused about 86,000 appointments to be put back.
Both strikes are expected to add to a growing post-pandemic backlog and make it harder for key waiting time targets to be hit.
Reams of secret poetry by pioneering British scientist finally come to light Donna Ferguson Sat, 30 December 2023 Photograph: Alamy
He is famous for discovering elements of the periodic table, for inventing a lamp in 1815 that would save the lives of hundreds of thousands of miners and as an electrochemical pioneer.
But it is the unpublished poetry of the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy – and the intriguing connections between his poems and scientific breakthroughs – that is now electrifying academics.
Researchers at Lancaster University have discovered that Davy secretly penned hundreds of poems in the same notebooks he used to record his groundbreaking electrochemical experiments, discoveries and revelations.
Almost all of these poems – including the one published on Sunday in the Observer for the first time – have never been read before and offer fascinating insights into the inner workings of one of the most extraordinary scientific minds of the 19th century.
“The poetry is just everywhere,” said Sharon Ruston, an English professor at Lancaster University, who, with the help of nine other academics and nearly 3,500 volunteers worldwide, has spent the last four years transcribing 11,417 pages of Davy’s numerous 200-year-old notebooks.
“You do get a real sense of the man himself and his thought processes as he’s working his way through things.”
A friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the poet laureate Robert Southey, Davy was born, said Ruston, “before we had this idea that there was a dividing line between the arts and science”, and only published a few poems in his lifetime, for which he was praised by his famous friends.
But the notebooks reveal that his commitment to his craft was so strong that lines of poetry “jostle for space, sometimes, with accounts of chemical discoveries”, and are found on “pages where you can tell, from the state of the page, that he’s doing chemical experiments”.
These pages, which are torn, burned or have “various stains on them from what he’s working on”, suggest that Davy even wrote poetry in his laboratory, where he pioneered the field of electrolysis.
Ruston said: “He’s writing about nitrous oxide or galvanism. But then there are lines of poetry as well. These two things are happening simultaneously for him. He is trying to figure out what the world is and how to understand the world.”
One of the most exciting finds is a poem Davy wrote about the ruins he saw in Greece and Rome while on a continental tour between 1813 and 1815, which is interspersed with scientific notes about the materials used in the ruins and sculptures.
“This tour is quite an important moment in Davy’s life,” said Ruston.
It was during this tour of Europe with his protege Michael Faraday, who would go on to invent the first electrical generator, that Davy proved the elemental nature of iodine and that diamonds are made of carbon.
She said: “It blew their minds because you start to realise that one substance can have very different forms. So Davy has this real worldview, that there’s nothing in the world that can be created or destroyed. All the matter that we have is all around us, but it’s continually, very slowly changing into new forms.” Ruston sees a “symbiotic relationship” between Davy’s science and his poetry. “They work with each other.”
For example, he would write about the chemical reasons why leaves change colour and then a few pages later compose a poem about the colour of leaves. He was thinking and writing about his ideas, said Ruston, “in both ways: poetry and science. And in his poetry, you can see his scientific knowledge, and in his science you can see poetic language and persuasive rhetoric, and his facility for expressing himself.”
Mark Miodownik, professor of materials and society at University College London, said the discovery of Davy’s poems was significant because it demonstrates that “you can’t be a great scientist and not be a creative person. The idea that the creative industries are solely for the arts and humanities is a modern fallacy.”
Poetry was a private part of Davy’s creative process. “I think he couldn’t help himself. He’s so full of wonder and amazement that he had to do it – things were running around and around in his head and he had to get them out,” said Miodownik.
The notebooks also contain doodle-like sketches of landscapes and faces, and notes about buying candlesticks and other mundane matters. “We’ve got the pages where he actually isolates potassium using electrolysis. But in the middle of that, he mentioned this person and their address,” said Ruston.
Her team discovered it was a reference to a tailor. “We think he was thinking about how he’s going to announce his amazing discovery at the Royal Society and he would need a new suit in order to do that,” she said. One of the poems found in Davy’s notebooks, published for the first time
Ye grand memorials of the fate of Man;
That rise a moral lesson to our eyes
More strong and more impressive than the lore
Which Sages teach and ponderous tomes enfold.
To raise a temple and to gratify
Imperial pride and luxury. The world
Was ravaged as a million slaves were taught to raise the pole
Fitted for barbarous sports. In which the blood
Of Man was shed. The master of the globe
The image of eternal majesty
Torn by the fangs of the relentless beast
The rack was brought from Egypt.
Ancient Greece was robbed of all her gods
Her temples spoiled.
And the divinities which Phidias framed
Were brought in bondage to the capital
What now remains, pillars & broken shafts
A heap of ruins. Witness those massy walls
Where once a hundred thousand voices hailed
The dying gladiator; silence reigns
And awful solitude – yet a spirit dwells
Within these ruins.
Sexism in science has roots in Victorian whispering campaigns, claims new book
Jealous rivals’ rumours about the supposed effeminacy of popular figures such as Humphry Davy left an enduring legacy, says Dr Heather Ellis
Jealous rivals’ attempts to destroy 19th-century chemist Sir Humphry Davy’s popularity by insinuating he was gay have left a legacy that means the so-called hard sciences remain a bastion of sexism, a new book claims.
Evidence unearthed by Dr Heather Ellis for her book Masculinity and Science, published by Palgrave, from the archives of the British Science Association, shows that Davy’s popularity created enemies who tried to destroy his reputation. Popular magazines, like the John Bull, launched vicious personal attacks on the chemist’s flamboyant dress and the charismatic delivery at lectures that had brought him a wide female following.
Describing him as the “Professor Brian Cox of his day”, the Sheffield-based academic said: “[Davy’s] lectures were very popular, especially with women and that enhanced his public reputation.”
Rivals also spread rumours of closet homosexuality, speculating on not only his dress, but also his close association with the Romantic poets, especially Southey and Coleridge, with the latter once declaring of Davy: “Had he not been the first chemist, he would have been the first poet of his age.”
“There was a definite attempt to ruin Davy’s career,” Ellis said. “The charges against him tended to reflect his foppish dress, association with aristocrats and that he wrote poetry about the natural world, as well as murmurs that he didn’t have a sexual relationship with his wife.”
One incident in particular was alighted upon as proof of “unmanliness”, Ellis said. On a visit to the Louvre, rivals noted his “apathy” and “total want of feeling” to the Venus de’ Medici, describing his behaviour as “against nature”. They also noted that a statue of Antinous, the male lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian, drew his admiration. “What a strange – what a discordant anomaly in the construction of the human mind do these anecdotes unfold,” the physician John Ayrton Paris declared in a biography of the scientist.
Ellis believes the accusations reflected both Davy’s humble origins as an apothecary’s apprentice in Cornwall and wider social change taking place as the 18th century folded into the 19th. “Davy was a transitional figure,” she added. The rise of a lower-middle-class chemist to the presidency of the aristocratic Royal Society was seen as a threat. “People talked about his elocution and that he ‘smelled of the shop’,” Ellis said.
The backlash against the scientist, who invented the Davy Lamp that saved the lives of miners, was not the only driver for turning science into a stereotypically masculine pursuit during the 19th century. As the century progressed, women were forced out of the laboratory, and eventually the lecture theatre, to fill supportive roles for so-called “men of science”, the historian noted, reflecting a hardening of gender roles throughout wider society.
As well as accusations against Davy, Ellis’s book reveals that rumours swirled around Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin, although in both cases fingers pointed at their retreat from society and apparent enjoyment of domesticity rather than homosexuality. “Huxley was not helped by the fact that he described science as an escape from the world of men, a world where men cut each other’s throats,” she said.
Ellis believes the move from Enlightenment thinking and social inclusivity in science in the 19th century has had an impact on women in science that resonates today. “We still have the image of the scientist as a male geek or nerd,” she said. “Also, if you look at the scientists who were accused of effeminacy in the 19th century, they were working in the hard sciences, physics and chemistry, in which women remain under-represented. It is a cultural legacy you can link back to then.”
In researching her new book, about the therapeutic applications of MDMA, author Rachel Nuwer dove into MAPS. She discovered the group was supported by some surprising benefactors.
This includes Elizabeth Koch, the daughter of Charles Koch of Koch Industries, which is one of the largest private American companies. Besides their massive fortune, Charles Koch and his brother David are known for funding conservative movements, like the Tea Party.
Nuwer explained in her book that though it may be counterintuitive, many public figures with conservative ties, like Elizabeth Koch, invest in socially liberal groups like MAPS.
Read below for the story of how Elizabeth Koch came to support psychedelic therapy in an excerpt from Rachel Nuwer's new book "I Feel Love."
When it's sold on the street, MDMA is sometimes distributed in pills like these.Reuters/ DEA
The moment I walked through the door of the loftlike space, the slender forty-five-year-old greeted me with a hug, a blanket, and not one but two very LA-appropriate canned drinks ("energy booster" and "prebiotic popping soda") from the office's meticulously organized fridge. Elizabeth's bubbly enthusiasm and disarming warmth immediately put me at ease, and within minutes I felt as though I were chatting with an old friend.
Elizabeth's uncanny ability to endear herself to others is a skill she has been cultivating nearly her entire life, and it's actually a symptom of her trauma. In hearing her story, I would learn that MAPS's fundraising success doesn't just boil down to Doblin's prowess as a salesman, or to wealthy people simply loving MDMA, but to the fact that trauma and suffering are universal.
Not even the most privileged individuals in the world are immune to mental anguish, and they can face the same limitations as the rest of us in finding relief for that pain. Elizabeth's "fall from Eden," as she described her index trauma, occurred when she was five years old.
After a close friend of her parents severed his spine by diving into a shallow pond, the family went over to pay their respects to the now wheelchair-bound man. The atmosphere in the house was oppressively somber, so to lighten the mood for her little brother, Elizabeth began singing the Humpty Dumpty song.
In one refrain, though, she absentmindedly replaced "Humpty Dumpty" with the name of the paralyzed man. Suddenly, all the tension in the room was directed at her. "I see my dad looking over his shoulder and giving me this death stare," she recalled.
Charles Koch, Elizabeth Koch's father, who owns Koch industries. At the time of writing, his estimated net worth is $62.5 billion USD.Wichita Eagle / Contributor / Getty Images
When the family got home, Elizabeth's father sat her down. "You kids don't get it," she recalled him saying. "You have everything that everyone wants, and you'll be hated for it your entire life. Your job, always, is to be the nicest person in the room, and the hardest worker in the room — the one who picks up garbage that everyone leaves behind. You have to be aboveboard because if you aren't, you'll not only be hated by everyone else but also by yourself."
Looking back on this incident with an adult's perspective, Elizabeth now understands that her father was trying to protect her. "He was absolutely terrified that my brother and I would grow up to be spoiled, piece-of-shit monsters," she said. As a five-year-old, however, she interpreted his lecture to mean that she could only be loved if she were good.
That pivotal message came to hold sway over nearly every facet of her personality and life.
It started with a nightly ritual: before bed, she would review everything she had said and done that day to make sure she had been the nicest person and the hardest worker, and that she hadn't accidentally hurt anyone's feelings. If something bad happened to her — say, she tripped and skinned her knee — she would tell herself that it was because the universe was punishing her for not being good enough.
In classrooms, during extracurricular activities, or on sports teams, she would always beeline for whichever kid she thought would hate her the most — usually the one who appeared to have the least money, or the one who looked the least like her — and try to win them over by telling them funny stories about her family's dysfunction.
Over the years Elizabeth rose to the top of her class, won competitions for her writing, and made many friends, but she lacked joy. "I have to do this to prove that I deserve to be alive," she would tell herself each time she accomplished something.
"I have to earn my existence."
Her paranoia about what others thought of her intensified, as did her unhappiness. She realized she needed help and began trying various mental health solutions, including yoga, silent meditation retreats, and, briefly, medications.
She read books about Buddhism and neuroscience and gained glimpses of insight. But no amount of knowledge, learning, or practice brought genuine relief.
MDMA, also known as ecstasy, initially became popular as a club drug.luckakcul / Shutterstock
When a friend suggested in 2016 that she try psychedelic-assisted therapy with a "consciousness cowboy" he knew — an ex-military man who called himself Doug the Lovebunny — she agreed. Doug filled a silver balloon full with "some kind of vapor smoke," Elizabeth recalled, and instructed her to breathe in and hold it.
She had no idea what she was in for: he had given her 5-MeO-DMT, a short-acting but incredibly potent tryptamine. The ego-abolishing drug dissolved Elizabeth in totality. It was terrifying.
Doug the Lovebunny hadn't prepared Elizabeth for this harrowing and destabilizing experience, and he did not provide any support or integration for her afterward. For weeks, she would wake up in the middle of the night, she said, "scrambling to try to grab hold of my body."
She wanted to know more about what she was going through, and research led her to MAPS. She attended a psychedelics conference in Los Angeles, where she was moved and inspired by the firsthand accounts shared by war veterans who had taken part in the MDMA-assisted clinical trials for PTSD.
"I Feel Love" by Rachel Nuwer was published in June and describes the fascinating transformation of how we've come to use the psychedelic drug MDMA.Bloomsbury Publishing
MDMA sounded a lot more user friendly than 5-MeO-DMT — and perhaps, Elizabeth thought, it could help her, too. So in spring 2018, she found "someone off grid" who agreed to give her MDMA-assisted therapy following the MAPS protocol.
Elizabeth wound up doing three sessions, and through that process, she saw the vast amount of pain she had been harboring throughout her life.
"I had been terrified of joy," she said. "The medicine showed me the degree to which all this buried stuff that I hadn't even been able to see was causing me to be reactive and feel constantly trapped, overwhelmed, and miserable."
The MDMA sessions (one of which she also paired with psilocybin) helped Elizabeth let go of the "intense self-hatred" she had been burdened with since she was five years old, she said, and to feel sympathy and love for herself. She's since become one of MAPS's top five donors.
"MDMA is not going to save the world," Elizabeth said. "But together with conversations and experiences of going inward and self-investigating, I think it can help."
Following that thread, in 2018, Elizabeth founded a company, Unlikely Collaborators, that aims to bring people together who seem like they're on opposite sides of an issue, and then work with them to reveal their shared humanity and commonalities.
If and when MDMA-assisted therapy gains FDA approval, Elizabeth also envisions Unlikely Collaborators providing community-oriented group integration services.
"We each have our own relative hell realms that we have to learn to crawl out of," she said. "The only way to bridge divides out there are to bridge the divides within."
TOKYO (Reuters) — A massive earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 hit central Japan on Monday, triggering a tsunami warning and advisories for residents to evacuate.
A tsunami around 1 meter high struck parts of the coast along the Sea of Japan with a larger wave expected, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued tsunami warnings for the coastal prefectures of Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama.
Hokuriku Electric Power said it is checking for any irregularities at its nuclear power plants, NHK reported.
Japan has issued a tsunami warning after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 hit the western coastline toward the centre of the country
An estimated 36,000 homes were left without power as the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning along western coastal regions of Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama prefecture.
There are fears hundreds may be trapped in collapsed buildings.
A tsunami of up to three metres high is thought to be reaching Noto in Ishikawa Prefecture, according to the weather agency.
Officials on Monday afternoon downgraded the previous "major tsunami warning" for the region to a lower level "tsunami warning".
Waves more than 1 metre high hit the coast of Wajima City in Ishikawa Prefecture, NHK reported.
At least six homes were damaged by the quakes, with people trapped inside, government officials said.
A car is trapped under a collapsed house following an earthquake, in Shika town, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan (via REUTERS)
A spokesperson said no reports of deaths or injuries had been confirmed, but added the situation was still unclear.
The Japanese government has set up a special emergency center to gather information on the quakes and tsunami and relay them speedily to residents to ensure safety, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.
Japanese news footage showed a crumbled house in Wajima city, Ishikawa Prefecture, and a search was underway to see if people were trapped in the rubble.
Bullet trains in the area were halted. Parts of the highway were also closed, and water pipes burst.
Japanese media reports showed a crowd of people, including a woman with a baby on her back, standing by huge cracks that had ripped through the pavement.
A tsunami nearly 10ft high (3m) was expected to hit Niigata and other prefectures on the western coast of Japan.
Smaller tsunami waves were already confirmed to have reached the coastline, according to NHK. A collapsed house following an earthquake is seen in Ishikawa prefecture, Japan (via REUTERS)
In Kanazawa, a popular tourist destination in Ishikawa, images showed the remnants of a collapsed gate strewn at the entrance of a shrine as anxious worshippers looked on.
Kanazawa resident Ayako Daikai said she had evacuated to a nearby elementary school with her husband and two children soon after the earthquake hit. Classrooms, stairwells, hallways and the gymnasium were all packed with evacuees, she said.
"I also experienced the Great Hanshin Earthquake, so I thought it would be safest to evacuate," she said.
"We haven't decided when to return home yet."
The area includes a nuclear plant but government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said: "It has been confirmed that there are no abnormalities at Shika nuclear power plant (in Ishikawa) and other stations as of now."
Meanwhile, Russia's emergencies ministry said that parts of the western coast Sakhalin island, situated close to Japan on Russia's Pacific seaboard, were under threat of tsunami.
The local population was being evacuated as a result, state news agency TASS reported on Monday. People sit on the floor inside a store as an earthquake hits, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan (INSTAGRAM @HSU.TW via REUTERS)
In March 2011, a huge earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people, devastating towns and triggering nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima.
South Korea also said the sea level in some parts of its east coast may rise between 18:29 to 19:17 local time (09:29 to 10:17 GMT) after the earthquake.
Japan is bracing for a tsunami with waves as high as 10 feet after more than 20 earthquakes hit in just over 90 minutes
Marianne Guenot Updated Mon, 1 January 2024 Road cracks caused by an earthquake are seen in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan on January, 1, 2024.KYODO/Reuters
Japan issued tsunami alerts after a series of powerful earthquakes.
Quakes hit from 2 a.m. ET Monday off the coast of Ishikawa, one of them with a magnitude of 7.6.
Japanese officials warned torrents of water could reach as high as 10 feet.
Japan has issued tsunami warnings and evacuation orders after a series of powerful earthquakes hit the country overnight, destroying buildings and disrupting electricity and cellphone services.
Waves could reach up to about 10 feet (five meters), according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, which urged people to flee to high land.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK TV had previously reported waves were expected to reach up to 16.5 feet (five meters), but the predictions have now been downgraded. Evacuation orders are still in effect, per NHK TV.
"We realize your home, your belongings are all precious to you, but your lives are important above everything else. Run to the highest ground possible," an NHK presenter said, according to the BBC.
It comes after the Japan Meteorological Agency reported 21 earthquakes registering 4.0 magnitude or stronger struck central Japan in just over 90 minutes on Monday. One of them had an estimated magnitude of 7.6.
Videos broadcast on Japanese TV appear to show cracks in roads, subway trains shaking and buildings collapsing.
The agency added there is a 10 to 20% chance more earthquakes of similar magnitude could hit within the next few days.
A map shows areas under tsunami warning as of January 1, 8:30 p.m. local time.
Japanese Meteorological Agency
Japan has a history of devastating tsunamis. A tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the death of more than 18,000 people.
Waves during that tsunami reached heights up to almost 130 feet.
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said that nuclear plants in the area had not yet reported any problems. He added that it was critical for people in coastal areas to get away from the oncoming tsunami.
"Every minute counts. Please evacuate to a safe area immediately," he said.
The city of Wajima in Ishikawa prefecture has already reported tsunami waves of almost four feet, according to NHK. Toyama prefecture, and Kashiwazaki, Niigata prefecture, also reported smaller tsunami waves.
Warnings of waves up to a meter three feet high were also issued for parts of North Korea and Russia. Russian officials issued a tsunami alert for the island of Sakhalin.
Officials of Ishikawa Prefecture's Suzu City have confirmed that several houses and power poles have been brought down by a local earthquake, which registered at 7.4 in magnitude, per NKH TV. A tsunami warning is shown on TV in Yokohama, near Tokyo Monday, January 1, 2024
Eugene Hoshiko
Around 33,000 households are without power with temperatures forecast to drop to 33 degrees Fahrenheit, NKH TV reported.
Six people are thought to be stuck under rubble in collapsed houses on the Noto Peninsula, and no information has been released on their condition, per The Guardian. Multiple people were also reported to be trapped in collapsed houses in Suzu, Ishikawa, per NHK TV.
Meanwhile, a fire has broken out in Wajima City, per The Guardian.
Small tsunami waves are common and cause little damage, but any waves with runups over one meter (3.28 feet) can be particularly dangerous to people living near coastal areas, per the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website.
The force of the waves themselves can cause substantial damage, but tsunamis are also dangerous because they cause flooding, erosion, and strong currents that can drag people out to sea. They can also bring in floating debris like trees and cars, that can act like battering rams, per NOAA.
The Japan Meteorological Agency had previously issued a "major tsunami warning" for Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, warning of waves as high as 16 feet. This has since been downgraded to a "tsunami warning." Update January 1, 2023: The story has been updated to reflect the latest advisory from the Japanese Meteorological Agency. Tsunami waves are now expected to hit 10 feet (3 meters) in height, rather than 16 feet.
