Ancient DNA just became older

Most science news in recent days have been focused on the Perseverance Mars Rover and its landing on Mars. However, that is not the only major science news in recent days. We have also had the publication of the news about million years old mammoth DNA being sequenced.

The Guardian reports on this: Million-year-old mammoth genomes set record for ancient DNA

Teeth from mammoths buried in the Siberian permafrost for more than a million years have led to the world’s oldest known DNA being sequenced, according to a study that shines a genetic searchlight on the deep past.

Researchers said the three teeth specimens, one roughly 800,000 years old and two more than a million years old, provided important insights into the giant ice age mammals, including into the ancient heritage of, specifically, the woolly mammoth.

This is really exciting, and will help create a more accurate picture of the lineage of mammoths, as well as expand the possible range for future sequencing. As the Guardian states:

Dalén said new technologies could allow the sequencing of even older DNA from remains found in the permafrost, which dates back 2.6m years.

For a good look behind the science, Patrícia Pečnerová, the Postdoc involved in the research, has written a great write-up: Pushing the limits with million-year-old DNA

The write-up gives an interesting and humorous look behind the scenes, as the starting paragraph clearly shows:

I had low expectations when we went into the lab to extract DNA from samples that based on geological evidence were 600 thousand to 1.2 million years old. At that point of my PhD, I already knew better than to put faith in high-risk/high-gain projects. And attempting to extract DNA older than has ever been done before topped the list of some pretty funky projects that I have been involved in, like trying to retrieve DNA from rocks from the ocean floor. Such efforts rarely yield results and end up in the invisible section of the CV where dreams go to die. My supervisor, Love Dalén, calls it character building.

The article is unfortunately behind a paywall at Nature: Million-year-old DNA sheds light on the genomic history of mammoths

Further reading: Million-year-old DNA provides a glimpse of mammoth evolution (news write-up in Nature)

 

 

Lisa showing her moves

For anyone who follows Blackpink, it is no secret that Lisa is an incredible dancer. She frequently demonstrates her skills during solo dance acts at concerts, and through releasing small dance clips on her own YouTube channel. Two days ago, she released her newest dance clip, this time in the form of a mini movie. Like her other clips, it is choreographed by Cheshir Ha, who really knows how to show case Lisa’s skills.

Cheshir Ha is one of the backup dancers in the clip, but all four of them are choreographers as well as dancers, which probably explains the amazing quality.

Over at her Instagram, Cheshir Ha explains the reasons for the choice of music

I chose this song “Tomboy” because the meaning behind it really spoke to me. Through dance I wanted to express that girls can do what boys can in the 1st half, similarly to general meaning of the word “Tomboy”. Then switch it up for the 2nd half by doing heels to show we can do both. Regardless of gender however, you should feel free to dance and express yourself however you want.

Oh, and if you wonder what impact it would have for a fairly unknown artist to get her song picked for a dance clip like this, then it is massive, if the dancer is Lisa

Judging from Destiny Rogers’ twitter stream, she wasn’t aware that her song was going to be used, so this must have been a mind-blowing experience.

Justin Timberlake facing backlash, apologizes

I am not a particular big fan of Justin Timberlake, to put it mildly. His music is frequently misogynist, and his career has to some degree been at the cost of career of women, such as Janet Jackson.

Now, the documentary Framing Britney Spears has led to a backlash against him, and he has come out and apologized for some of his past behavior.

Justin Timberlake Apologizes to Britney Spears, Janet Jackson: ‘I Know I Failed’

The apology has been long in coming, and seems to be mostly caused by him actually getting some push-back, rather than him reaching the need for apologizing on his own. Having said that, his apology is quite good:

“I’ve seen the messages, tags, comments, and concerns and I want to respond. I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right,” Timberlake wrote in his Instagram statement. “I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.”

Unlike many non-pologies, this is actually a clear admission of guilt – both for actions and inaction. A lot people could learn from this. Still, even the apology is pretty good, the timing shows that it was forced out by the reaction to the documentary about Britney Spears which obviously makes it seem less genuine.

Lazy linking

One of the clear signs that US society doesn’t work probably, is the fact that people have to do fundraisers to cover medical costs and increasingly, to cover basic costs of living. One of the big platforms for these fundraisers, is GoFundMe. Now, the CEO of GoFundMe is speaking out, pointing out that this is wrong

GoFundMe CEO: Hello Congress, Americans need help and we can’t do your job for you

Coronavirus surge of fundraisers on GoFundMe shows why Congress must pass emergency aid for monthly bills, restaurants, small businesses and food.

The opinion piece in USA Today doesn’t tell us anything that most of us didn’t already know, but it is good that a CEO of a company, which is benefiting greatly from the current situation, is speaking out.

The Burger Flipper Who Became a World Expert on the Minimum Wage

As a 16-year-old kid flipping burgers at a Seattle McDonald’s in 1989, Arindrajit Dube was earning the state minimum wage of $3.85 an hour. “I remember feeling privileged that I was going to go on to college, while there were many older workers working at that wage,” he recalls.

He still thinks about the minimum wage, only now it’s from his perch at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he’s possibly the world’s leading authority on its economic effects. Dube’s research is guaranteed to get a bigger audience as Democrats in Congress attempt to make good on President Biden’s pledge to raise the federal wage floor to $15 an hour by 2025.

Intuitively, it makes sense that increasing the minimum wage, would force companies to increase prices, drive down sales, reduce company profit, and will even force companies into closing. Fortunately, as with many things, intuition is wrong in this.

This is for a few reasons:

  • Wages only form a portion of the costs, and the costs can be spread over many items. E.g. in the classic example of a burger joint, the employer sells many burgers per hour, meaning that the price increase per burger will be minimal.
  • Increasing minimum wages will allow people to work fewer hours, and not e.g. two jobs as we see all too often now, thus opening the job market up for more people.
  • It will give minimum wage employees more money to spend, thus increasing the demand on goods.

Yes, there might be companies surviving on the very margins, which can’t increase their sales, which will close, but my guess is that many of those companies already have closed during this pandemic.

Further reading: Home Articles Making the Case for a Higher M… SHARE: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call Making the Case for a Higher Minimum Wage by Arindrajit Dube

Big Tech as an Unnatural Monopoly

Interesting piece by Tim Brennan in the Milken Institute Review, where he takes a look on Big Tech as monopolies, why they defy the current anti-trust laws, and what can actually be done about Big Tech.

Further reading: Rethinking Antitrust by Lawrence J. White (also in the Milken Institute Review)

This COVID-vaccine designer is tackling vaccine hesitancy — in churches and on Twitter

Immunologist Kizzmekia Corbett helped to design the Moderna vaccine. Now she volunteers her time talking about vaccine science with people of colour.

Kizzmekia Corbett’s twitter feed can be found here.

It is a low bar that President Biden has to clear, but I find it so nice that the US now has a president who is willing to thank people for their hard work

 

Tove Ditlevsen

It is always interesting when a local author is discovered by the rest of the world – which appears to be the case of the Danish author Tove Ditlevsen, who has been published to rave reviews in both the UK and USA.

Tove Ditlevsen is not a new author, but is one of those authors in Denmark, that everyone knows, and have read while in school. She committed suicide back in 1976, so it is interesting what has caused her work to suddenly be discovered outside the Nordic countries.

Anyway, here are some of the reviews about her works:

This notorious poet is required reading in Denmark. Her masterpiece is now out in the US. (VOX)

‘The Copenhagen Trilogy,’ a Sublime Set of Memoirs About Growing Up, Writing and Addiction (NY Times)

Tove Ditlevsen: Why it’s time to discover Denmark’s most famous literary outsider (Penguin)

In the Green Rooms excerpt from Dependency (The Paris Review)

Reality Under My Skin (Harper’s)

 

Most of the reviews talk about Tove Ditlevsen’s status in Denmark, but as with all such things, things are not quite as simple as presented. For a more nuanced view of how Tove Ditlevsen’s literary reputation in Denmark, see this twitter thread by Olga Ravn, who is someone who can talk about the subject with authority

I suggest reading the whole thread.

As someone who has grown up in Copenhagen, I have read Tove Ditlevsen’s works in both primary school and in high school. Though I was born around the same time as she died, I could recognize many things from her writing in the city I was a kid in. Now, living in the same neighborhood as she lived in her whole life, there is very little left to recognize. The area has been entirely gentrified over the last 25 years, and while (most of) the buildings are still here, the population and shops are nothing alike to back when she was living here.

This means that Tove Ditlevsen’s works are, for me, a glimpse into the city’s past, reminding me of a time where the population of Copenhagen was less well off, and where well-off families tended to leave the city. Do note that I am not glorifying those times – Copenhagen in the eighties was a long way from being the busy cultural hub that it is today. It was poor, schools and the infrastructure was falling apart, and there was an unhealthy level of pollution – and don’t get me started on how much the quality of food has increased since then.

A side note: Back when I went to school, Tove Ditlevsen was usually referred to working class literature. I wonder if this category is still used, given the fact that the classic working class has to a large degree disappeared.