And another coverage of the deplorable Trump administration dismantling the biodefense and pandemic preparedness branches of the US NIAID, presumably a late under-the-belt jab at the national institute Anthony Fauci directed for 38 years. Meaning one of the forefronts for pandemic research and vaccine development has been dismantled. Plus the US EPA revoking the 2009 statement that climate change is endangering the US population and removing greenhouse-gas emission rules. In tune with the Drill, baby, drill! motto of the Trump supporters more interested in their short-term profits than in the long-term (no-)future of the country. Paradoxically sitting in the same issue as a comment calling for a policy-making assessment of avoidable climate-change risks. Illustrated by London’s drownin’ below
And a summary of their conclusions from 23 of the 27 members (from 27 countries) of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origin of Novel Pathogens for the WHO. After 3.5 years of debate on the origin of COVID-19! Four hypotheses are examined and other hoaxes and conspiracies are debunked.
Another political entry about the EU and its Horizon Europe programme (that is funding my ERC Synergy grant) baring (researchers from) Chinese research organisations from applying for its grants in sensitive methodologies, in order to prevent “the undesired transfer of IP”. Following similar and earlier actions in the US with the (newspeak!) China Initiative launched by Trump 1.0 that turned into a witch hunt.
An exciting 228 metres of rock and mud providing a window on the past 23 million year weather. Obtained from the West Antarctica Ice Sheet.
In-between two weeks in Venice, I cooked a veg curry with (old) butternut, leeks, (new) onions and a yellow species of beetroot I had never seen before, Eaten with my freshly made kimlchi that was somewhat too fresh. The second pot is still burping! And had the worst ramen dish in my culinary experience, in Strasbourg, obviously not the centre of the ramen universe!, where half the ingredients were freezer cold (and the other half just marginaly warmer). (But tasted a new and nice category of curly pasta while in Venice (2), 
3), which led to a lengthy security check at the CDG airport!
Read the most recent Rankin’s Rebus (#25), 
Cooked a sweet potatoes and cocoa cake in preparation for my trail race on La Sainte-Baume, near Marseille. With cocoa made from the beans I had brought back from 
