K. Lee Lerner
"Recognized for his balanced presentation, accuracy, and use of language, K. Lee Lerner's extensive dossier contains multiple award-winning books and media projects. Across more than three decades and from every continent, Lerner's writing and thought-provoking 'Taking Bearings' essays have ranged the human intellectual enterprise to offer evidence-based insights on science, technology, and global issues. A member of the National Press Club in Washington, Lerner's influential Academia site consistently ranks among those most frequently accessed by students, scholars, and decision makers around the world."
A CV, bibliography, and additional biograpahical information are available at scholar.harvard.edu/kleelerner
Photo: K. Lee Lerner working on assignment in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. May, 2012. Copyright and reuse policy: Unless otherwise attributed, all writing and photos on this site are © K. Lee Lerner or ©LMG. All commercial rights reserved. The content is, however, CC BY-NC-ND for scholarly non-commercial use.
Address: LMG London: [email protected] Phone: UK +44.(0) 141.416.0408; Paris: +33 0870.469.221; Cambridge (U.S.) +01 251.377.3564
A CV, bibliography, and additional biograpahical information are available at scholar.harvard.edu/kleelerner
Photo: K. Lee Lerner working on assignment in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. May, 2012. Copyright and reuse policy: Unless otherwise attributed, all writing and photos on this site are © K. Lee Lerner or ©LMG. All commercial rights reserved. The content is, however, CC BY-NC-ND for scholarly non-commercial use.
Address: LMG London: [email protected] Phone: UK +44.(0) 141.416.0408; Paris: +33 0870.469.221; Cambridge (U.S.) +01 251.377.3564
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The excitement in the air was palpable, but so too was the pollution that at times tortured the lungs and brought both real and symbolic tears to the eyes.
Walking along a road one day, we watched as a small piece of paper, no larger than a gum wrapper, flew off the backpack of a young man speeding along on his bicycle to work or school. The young man never saw the litter and soon turned a corner. The small piece of paper, something that would be inconspicuous among the debris routinely encountered along streets in most of the other great capitals of the world, stood in stark contrast to the meticulously clean street and generous bike path. Less than a minute later, however, a woman peddling by in the opposite direction spotted the paper, turned, stopped, dismounted from her bicycle, picked up the paper and put in her own backpack before resuming her journey. // The incident contrasted a people meticulous and caring of their environment with inhabitants of a city sometimes choked with smog, and in an instant crystallized our understanding that it is simply not the case that the Chinese do not care about pollution in Beijing or other cities. Rather it is the case that modern China and other developing economies now face the very same tests of balancing economic growth with environmental concerns that many Western governments and cites failed during the twentieth century. (more) Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, editors. Beijing, China. June, 2008.
"The Cadillac of scientific biography" -- Booklist. Selected for collections at Princeton, Harvard, MIT, JPL/ Caltech; the Wellcome Trust Collection, and more
K. Lee Lerner has served on the Advisory Board for American Men and Women of Science for the last 20 editions (21st through 40th edition; 2003-0222), He is currently working as an advisor for the 41st edition due to be published in 2023.
First published as American Men of Science by J. McKeen Cattell in 1906, throughout its 116 year history American Men and Women of Science has recognized both men and women scientists who have made significant contributions in their field. In 1971, the name of the series was changed to American Men and Women of Science.
American Men and Women of Science includes scientists selected for their contributions to science as measured by their publications in reputable scientific journals and media. Also included are those whose work cannot be published due to governmental or industrial security. Inclusion criteria include awards, grants and other forms of recognition, publication record, attainment of a position of substantial scientific responsibility, and nomination by peers in their respective fields. Scientists who are not citizens of the United States or Canada are included if a significant portion of their work was performed in North America.
GES 6th edition Introduction by K, Lee Lerner
At its printing, the Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 6th Edition features the latest in vetted climate data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the most recent assessments made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other global monitoring agencies on topics ranging from atmospheric greenhouses gas levels to sea level rise. Key articles also include information and generalized predictions relating climate change to severe storms, floods, and draught for regions around the world including the impacts of climate change—both observed and predicted—in Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, North America, South America, and in small island nations.
With a global pandemic of COVID-19 underway due to an outbreak of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, the editors have attempted to strengthen this edition's coverage of emerging diseases. The Gale Encyclopedia of Science includes updated articles on epidemics, pandemics, epidemiology, hepatitis variants, SARS, H1N1, H5N1, the MERS coronavirus in the Middle East, the H7N9 flu virus and a new article on the first six months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Because knowledge related to these diseases—especially COVID- 19—changes rapidly with science and medical advances, readers must always consult their personal health care provider to ensure that they have the latest information that applies to their individual needs.
Advances in biotechnology, especially related to genome editing and related molecular genetic engineering technologies—including 2020 Nobel Prize winning work related to the development of CRISPR technologies—are expertly covered in Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 6th Edition <download to read more> K. Lee Lerner Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2020.
Just as this revision of the GES went to press the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a draft copy of its Fifth Assessment Report, a study of published climate-related research compiled by 259 leading scientists and released in late September 2013. With the help of expert advisors and an array of support staff, key GES entries now include the most important 2013 IPPC findings on topics ranging from greenhouses gas levels to sea level rise. Key articles also include information and generalized predictions relating climate change to severe storms, floods, and draught. Critical commentary on substantiated scientific debates is also included where appropriate.
The latest edition of GES also contains a region-specific cluster of articles on both observed and predicted climate change related impacts. New articles focus on climate change in Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, North America, South America, and small island nations.
In addition to climate change, the editors have attempted to strengthen the GES 5th edition's coverage of emerging diseases. Accordingly, GES now includes new and substantially updated articles on epidemics, pandemics, epidemiology, hepatitis variants, SARS, H1N1, H5N1, the MERS coronavirus in the Middle East, and the H7N9 flu virus that emerged in China during 2013. (more) -- K. Lee Lerner & Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors-in-chief /contributing editors. Cambridge, Mass. October 2013.
One event that occurred after GES4 went to press was so significant that the editors desire to offer an update in this introduction.
At a press conference at Paris in February 2007, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists offered landmark consensus that strong scientific evidence supports the assertion that "most of the observed increase" in global warming is due to observed increases in greenhouse gases contributed by human (anthropogenic) activity. The report findings instantly fueled global debate on how to respond to the report's ominous predictions regarding climate change.
The IPCC panel described progress in understanding both the natural and human impacts on climate change, including data related to observed climate change, the methods involved in the scientific study of climate processes, and estimates of projected future climate change. The report expanded upon prior IPCC reports and incorporated new data and findings discovered since the last report in 2001. <more> K. Lee Lerner & Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors. London, U.K. October, 2008.
Whether students want to know how to live or work more sustainably, or want to know more about the ecology of sustainability, or want to learn more about the economics or politics involved with sustainability, this is the resource to turn to.
Topics on sustainability range from he ecology of sustainability to economics and politics of sustainability, The 149 entries explain basic principles of Sustainability, ranging from Agricultural Runoff to Zoning Laws, as well as discussions of important treaties, laws, organizations, and events related to sustainability, such as Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Earth Day.
The energy sources considered alternative today were the only ones available throughout most of human history.
Nonrenewable fuels such as coal and petroleum only began to be widely used starting with the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. Some renewables, such as hydropower and wood, remained in use even after the Industrial Revolution, though their share of the energy supply dwindled. Nuclear power first became available for electricity generation in the 1950s.
The Industrial Revolution changed energy production and use. Coal was burned in vast amounts to power factories and steam engines as the economies of Europe and North America grew and developed. Later, more efficient electricity became the preferred power source, but coal still had to be burned to produce electricity in large power plants. Then in 1886, the first internal combustion engine was developed and used in an automobile. Within a few decades there was a demand for gasoline to power these engines. By 1929, the number of cars in the United States had grown to twenty-three million, and in the quarter-century between 1904 and 1929, the number of trucks grew from just seven hundred to 3.4 million.
At the same time, technological advances improved life in the home. In 1920, for example, the United States produced a total of five thousand refrigerators. Just ten years later, the number had grown to one million per year. These and many other industrial and consumer developments required vast and growing amounts of fuel. Compounding the problem in the twenty-first century is that other nations of the world such as China and India are developing burgeoning and modern industrialized economies powered by fossil fuels. (download to read more) -- K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors. Apt, France. November, 2011
(more) -- K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors. Apt, France. November, 2011
Although the term energy is frequently used in media reports and everyday conversation, energy is actually complex term to introduce to younger students. We describe energy as a tangible substance that can be created, stored, moved about, etc., but energy isn't a tangible physical entity. When we say that the sun's energy powers earth, for example, it isn't energy per se that is transported to earth. Energy itself only exists as a state function (a function of the state or position of matter). In the case of transferring energy from the sun to earth, photons are the vector of energy change.
In a very simplistic manner, we can describe the transfer of energy essentially in terms of light photons, emitted from fusion reactions and excited atoms in the sun, that travel through space at energy levels described by an electromagnetic spectrum of wavelengths and frequencies (or photon energy levels) that then strike something (atmospheric gas, water molecules in the ocean, land, or a sunbather in a park). The impact then changes the energy state of the target atoms so that the net result is that the solar energy obtained from reactions within the sun is effectively transferred to atoms on earth.
Accordingly, instead of a precise definition more commonly used in physics courses, Energy in Context adopts the most common usage for the term energy and thus puts off dealing with conceptual and linguistic complexities until students and readers are more advanced in their studies... (more) -- Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, editors. Cambridge, MA. June, 2016.
The excitement in the air was palpable, but so too was the pollution that at times tortured the lungs and brought both real and symbolic tears to the eyes.
Walking along a road one day, we watched as a small piece of paper, no larger than a gum wrapper, flew off the backpack of a young man speeding along on his bicycle to work or school. The young man never saw the litter and soon turned a corner. The small piece of paper, something that would be inconspicuous among the debris routinely encountered along streets in most of the other great capitals of the world, stood in stark contrast to the meticulously clean street and generous bike path. Less than a minute later, however, a woman peddling by in the opposite direction spotted the paper, turned, stopped, dismounted from her bicycle, picked up the paper and put in her own backpack before resuming her journey. // The incident contrasted a people meticulous and caring of their environment with inhabitants of a city sometimes choked with smog, and in an instant crystallized our understanding that it is simply not the case that the Chinese do not care about pollution in Beijing or other cities. Rather it is the case that modern China and other developing economies now face the very same tests of balancing economic growth with environmental concerns that many Western governments and cites failed during the twentieth century. (more) Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, editors. Beijing, China. June, 2008.
"The Cadillac of scientific biography" -- Booklist. Selected for collections at Princeton, Harvard, MIT, JPL/ Caltech; the Wellcome Trust Collection, and more
K. Lee Lerner has served on the Advisory Board for American Men and Women of Science for the last 20 editions (21st through 40th edition; 2003-0222), He is currently working as an advisor for the 41st edition due to be published in 2023.
First published as American Men of Science by J. McKeen Cattell in 1906, throughout its 116 year history American Men and Women of Science has recognized both men and women scientists who have made significant contributions in their field. In 1971, the name of the series was changed to American Men and Women of Science.
American Men and Women of Science includes scientists selected for their contributions to science as measured by their publications in reputable scientific journals and media. Also included are those whose work cannot be published due to governmental or industrial security. Inclusion criteria include awards, grants and other forms of recognition, publication record, attainment of a position of substantial scientific responsibility, and nomination by peers in their respective fields. Scientists who are not citizens of the United States or Canada are included if a significant portion of their work was performed in North America.
GES 6th edition Introduction by K, Lee Lerner
At its printing, the Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 6th Edition features the latest in vetted climate data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the most recent assessments made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other global monitoring agencies on topics ranging from atmospheric greenhouses gas levels to sea level rise. Key articles also include information and generalized predictions relating climate change to severe storms, floods, and draught for regions around the world including the impacts of climate change—both observed and predicted—in Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, North America, South America, and in small island nations.
With a global pandemic of COVID-19 underway due to an outbreak of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, the editors have attempted to strengthen this edition's coverage of emerging diseases. The Gale Encyclopedia of Science includes updated articles on epidemics, pandemics, epidemiology, hepatitis variants, SARS, H1N1, H5N1, the MERS coronavirus in the Middle East, the H7N9 flu virus and a new article on the first six months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Because knowledge related to these diseases—especially COVID- 19—changes rapidly with science and medical advances, readers must always consult their personal health care provider to ensure that they have the latest information that applies to their individual needs.
Advances in biotechnology, especially related to genome editing and related molecular genetic engineering technologies—including 2020 Nobel Prize winning work related to the development of CRISPR technologies—are expertly covered in Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 6th Edition <download to read more> K. Lee Lerner Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2020.
Just as this revision of the GES went to press the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a draft copy of its Fifth Assessment Report, a study of published climate-related research compiled by 259 leading scientists and released in late September 2013. With the help of expert advisors and an array of support staff, key GES entries now include the most important 2013 IPPC findings on topics ranging from greenhouses gas levels to sea level rise. Key articles also include information and generalized predictions relating climate change to severe storms, floods, and draught. Critical commentary on substantiated scientific debates is also included where appropriate.
The latest edition of GES also contains a region-specific cluster of articles on both observed and predicted climate change related impacts. New articles focus on climate change in Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, North America, South America, and small island nations.
In addition to climate change, the editors have attempted to strengthen the GES 5th edition's coverage of emerging diseases. Accordingly, GES now includes new and substantially updated articles on epidemics, pandemics, epidemiology, hepatitis variants, SARS, H1N1, H5N1, the MERS coronavirus in the Middle East, and the H7N9 flu virus that emerged in China during 2013. (more) -- K. Lee Lerner & Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors-in-chief /contributing editors. Cambridge, Mass. October 2013.
One event that occurred after GES4 went to press was so significant that the editors desire to offer an update in this introduction.
At a press conference at Paris in February 2007, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists offered landmark consensus that strong scientific evidence supports the assertion that "most of the observed increase" in global warming is due to observed increases in greenhouse gases contributed by human (anthropogenic) activity. The report findings instantly fueled global debate on how to respond to the report's ominous predictions regarding climate change.
The IPCC panel described progress in understanding both the natural and human impacts on climate change, including data related to observed climate change, the methods involved in the scientific study of climate processes, and estimates of projected future climate change. The report expanded upon prior IPCC reports and incorporated new data and findings discovered since the last report in 2001. <more> K. Lee Lerner & Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors. London, U.K. October, 2008.
Whether students want to know how to live or work more sustainably, or want to know more about the ecology of sustainability, or want to learn more about the economics or politics involved with sustainability, this is the resource to turn to.
Topics on sustainability range from he ecology of sustainability to economics and politics of sustainability, The 149 entries explain basic principles of Sustainability, ranging from Agricultural Runoff to Zoning Laws, as well as discussions of important treaties, laws, organizations, and events related to sustainability, such as Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Earth Day.
The energy sources considered alternative today were the only ones available throughout most of human history.
Nonrenewable fuels such as coal and petroleum only began to be widely used starting with the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. Some renewables, such as hydropower and wood, remained in use even after the Industrial Revolution, though their share of the energy supply dwindled. Nuclear power first became available for electricity generation in the 1950s.
The Industrial Revolution changed energy production and use. Coal was burned in vast amounts to power factories and steam engines as the economies of Europe and North America grew and developed. Later, more efficient electricity became the preferred power source, but coal still had to be burned to produce electricity in large power plants. Then in 1886, the first internal combustion engine was developed and used in an automobile. Within a few decades there was a demand for gasoline to power these engines. By 1929, the number of cars in the United States had grown to twenty-three million, and in the quarter-century between 1904 and 1929, the number of trucks grew from just seven hundred to 3.4 million.
At the same time, technological advances improved life in the home. In 1920, for example, the United States produced a total of five thousand refrigerators. Just ten years later, the number had grown to one million per year. These and many other industrial and consumer developments required vast and growing amounts of fuel. Compounding the problem in the twenty-first century is that other nations of the world such as China and India are developing burgeoning and modern industrialized economies powered by fossil fuels. (download to read more) -- K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors. Apt, France. November, 2011
(more) -- K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors. Apt, France. November, 2011
Although the term energy is frequently used in media reports and everyday conversation, energy is actually complex term to introduce to younger students. We describe energy as a tangible substance that can be created, stored, moved about, etc., but energy isn't a tangible physical entity. When we say that the sun's energy powers earth, for example, it isn't energy per se that is transported to earth. Energy itself only exists as a state function (a function of the state or position of matter). In the case of transferring energy from the sun to earth, photons are the vector of energy change.
In a very simplistic manner, we can describe the transfer of energy essentially in terms of light photons, emitted from fusion reactions and excited atoms in the sun, that travel through space at energy levels described by an electromagnetic spectrum of wavelengths and frequencies (or photon energy levels) that then strike something (atmospheric gas, water molecules in the ocean, land, or a sunbather in a park). The impact then changes the energy state of the target atoms so that the net result is that the solar energy obtained from reactions within the sun is effectively transferred to atoms on earth.
Accordingly, instead of a precise definition more commonly used in physics courses, Energy in Context adopts the most common usage for the term energy and thus puts off dealing with conceptual and linguistic complexities until students and readers are more advanced in their studies... (more) -- Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, editors. Cambridge, MA. June, 2016.
ISBN-10: 1-319-21414-2; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21414-2
ISBN-10: 1-319-23981-1; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-23981-7
ISBN-10: 1-319-21411-8; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21411-1
ISBN-10: 1-319-23983-8; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-23983-1
Produced by K. Lee Lerner and curated by LMG's academic subject-matter experts and editorial teams, Introductory Astronomy is a fully customizable college-level course crafted in partnership with Intellus Learning and Macmillan Learning editors, instructors, and compliance experts. Topics include: The Birth of Astronomy; Orbits and Gravity; Earth, Moon, and Sky; An Introduction to the Solar System; Cratered Worlds; Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System; Venus and Mars; The Giant Planets; Debris of the Solar System; Nuclear Powerhouse; Analyzing Starlight; Radiation and Spectra; Astronomical Instruments; A Celestial Census; Celestial Distances; Gas, and Dust in Space; The Birth of Stars and the Discovery of Planets Outside the Solar System; Stars from Adolescence to Old Age; The Death of Stars; Black Holes and Curved Spacetime; The Milky Way Galaxy; Galaxies; The Evolution and Distribution of Galaxies; Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Supermassive Black Holes; The Big Bang; and Life in the Universe.
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21440-1; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21440-1
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21443-6; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21443-2
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-22742-2; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-22742-5
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-23987-0; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-23987-9
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21403-7; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21403-6
Notes:I SBN-10: 1-319-23380-5; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-23380-8
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21401-0; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21401-2
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21408-8; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21408-1
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21405-3; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21405-0
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21395-2; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21395-4
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21416-9; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21416-6
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21419-3; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21419-7
In partnership with subject matter experts, editors, instructors, and compliance experts. at Intellus Learning and Macmillan Learning, LMG's editorial teams contributed to the initial development of prototype fully customizable undergraduate introductory courses in chemistry.
Notes: ISBN-10: 1-319-21449-5; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21449-4;I SBN-10: 1-319-21451-7; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21451-7; ISBN-10: 1-319-21397-9; ISBN-13: 978-1-319-21397-8
The previously named B.1.1.529 variant now known as the Omicron variant was first reported by South African scientists on 9 November 2021 and then quickly visualized (see image below) by researchers at the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome. This does not mean that the variant necessarily first arose in South Africa. Variants can also arise independently and spontaneously in multiple locations.
On November 26, the WHO designated the Omicron variant a variant of concern (VOC) subject to special reporting and investigation. The Omicron variant is the most mutated form of SARS-CoV-2 yet sequenced. <download to read more>
From foundational molecular analysis of the novel and highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) to advanced clinical trials of vaccines to ensure that they are both effective and safe, scientists have gathered and published an unprecedented amount of journal articles and data on the virus and the human immune response to it. <download to read more>
By March 25th, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cited approximately 440,000 confirmed cases globally, with almost 20,000 deaths. Every continent in both the northern and southern hemispheres reported confirmed cases, and on March 11th, the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. (download to read more)
This is a highly curated timeline and set of references intended to memorialize the evolution of scientific research and knowledge during a period covering the first public emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 starting late in December 2019 through the early months (until June 2020) of what some became the global COVID-19 pandemic. It is designed to be a scholarly academic resource for journalists and others researching the history of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic.
Although there are references early in this timeline to nCoV-2019 and/or the novel Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, the virus was soon officially named SARS-CoV-2 (also styled SARS-CoV2) and the disease associated with the virus was designated as COVID-19 (also styled as Covid-19).
While in some cases updates and additional resources are found indented below main entries. Readers should note that many entries and comments refer to intermediate findings and data later discarded or modified by subsequent research.
In creating this reference, I focused on essential articles from peer-reviewed journals but I have also added in some general news and opinion pieces that were important to understanding the evolution of government and public health policies (or the absence thereof). In general, I have avoided politics per se, but the timeline and archive should be useful to those wanting to provide context for stories (e.g., what was known and when).
I have also taken care to include scientific articles that addressed and debunked conspiracy theories related to SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic that first appeared in the early months of the pandemic. I do not include exhaustive debunkings because that is beyond the scope of this project. In addition, it is my sad experience that no amount of resources provided can dissuade the conspiratorial mind. There are no set of facts that can’t be twisted, cherry picked, dismiss, or ignored by the byzantine mind.
This thread also incorporates many of the articles --and some of my comments — from a thread a thread I started on Facebook for friends and colleagues in January 2020. Alas, the platform does not allow me to transfer comments and so many questions and insights offered by friends and colleagues were lost in the formulation of this thread. Quite a few hat tips to Jay Flynn at Wiley were also lost and are owed for his suggestions and sharing of articles he posted to his own curated thread.
Thanks are also due to other publishers who, very early on, opened their archives to the world in order to facilitate communication among scientists, inform the public, and defeat both misinformation and disinformation.
A Creative Commons License (CC By-NC-ND 4.0) is granted with author attribution under the following term: No commercial use is permitted, and changes/derivatives are not authorized.
Articles listed are linked to their peer-reviewed source. In some cases where timing is critical, the date listed is the date submitted or a preprint posted rather than the journal publication date.
Full text .pdf copies of articles mentioned below are available for download at scholar.harvard.edu/kleelerner/blog/pandemic-reader.
--- K. Lee Lerner
[email protected]
scholar.harvard.edu/kleelerner
The story of the Alamo is at the heart of the story of Texas. Both its facts and myths are foundational to the identity of Texans and what distinguishes them from others.
This is a selected collection of both published and unpublished writings, poems, photos, and primary source transcriptions drawn from thousands of pages of notes researching the Texas Revolution. Originally crafted as a potential graduate studies thesis or capstone project, it quickly focused on use, evaluation, and integration of primary sources in journalism and in academic publishing. I plan to update it annually while observing annual remembrance days commemorating the siege of the Alamo that begins February 23rd each year and ends on the anniversary of the battle and fall of the Alamo on March 6th. -- K. Lee Lerner, Cambridge , Mass. March 6, 2012
All content copyright, K. Lee Lerner / LMG. *** NO PORTION OF THE ATTACHED CONTENT MAY BE USED OR LICENSED WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR *** Contact K. Lee Lerner at [email protected]
(Currently in revision. Request a copy via a request to [email protected] )
While radiation in the form of heat, visible light, and even ultraviolet light is essential to life, the word "radiation" is often used to refer only to those emissions which can damage or kill living things. Such harm is specifically attributed to radioactive particles as well as the electromagnetic rays with frequencies higher than visible light (ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays). Harmful electromagnetic radiation is also known as ionizing radiation because it strips atoms of one or more of their electrons, leaving highly reactive ions called free radicals which can damage tissue or genetic material.
There are, however, potential benefits of controlled exposures to certain kinds of radiation, which can be used for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of certain diseases. (download to read more)
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI can also expect continued calls in Congress to establish a 9/11-like commission to investigate the case. (continued.. download to read more)
In addition, a full text copy of the NAS report mentioned in this article, "Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters" is available as a full text download (see attachments)
In 2012, a novel human coronavirus, now called Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), emerged in the Middle East to cause fatal human infections. MERS-CoV human infection is similar to SARS-CoV in having a high fatality rate and the ability to spread from person to person which resulted in secondary cases among close contacts including healthcare workers without travel history to the Middle East.
Both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV viruses also have close genetic and physiological relationships with known bat coronaviruses. (download to read moe)
Samples of variola DNA may also be recoverable from old medical samples, such as the century-old smallpox scabs discovered in an envelope tucked in a 19th century medical textbook in a New Mexico library in 2004. In 2014, U.S. official found more smallpox samples in a storage room on the National Institutes for Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox eradicated in 1980. The last confirmed naturally occurring smallpox case was in 1977/ Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital employee in Merca, Somalia, survived his bout with smallpox.
Following eradication, the World Health Organization requested that all laboratories in the world either destroy their smallpox virus stocks or transfer them to one of two reference laboratories, the Institute of Viral Preparations in Moscow or the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The stocks of the Institute of Viral Preparations were transferred in 1994 to the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology of the Russian Federation in Siberia, now the WHO Collaborating Centre for Orthopoxvirus Diagnostics. (download to read more)
The genetic identification of microorganisms utilizes molecular technologies to evaluate specific regions of the genome and to determine the genus, species, or strain of a microorganism. This work grew out of the similar, highly successful applications in human identification using the same basic techniques. Thus, the genetic identification of microorganisms also has been referred to as microbial fingerprinting, and it is a key way in which bioinformatics can assist in the identification of pathogens….
Genetic technologies are especially useful in the detection of biological weapons. Of particular note is the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, which uses selected enzymes to make copies of genetic material. If the genetic material is unique to the microorganism (e.g., a gene encoding a toxin), then investigators can use PCR to detect a specific microorganism from among the other organisms present in the sample. Traditional PCR detects RNA at the end point of the process (the plateau stage), however advances in the technology led to real-time PCR detection. This gave scientists the ability to collect data in the exponential growth phase, making DNA and RNA quantitation more efficient and accurate, and facilitated the development of hand-held detectors. Hand-held PCR detectors used by United Nations inspectors in Iraq during their weapons inspections efforts of 2002/2003 were sensitive enough to detect a single living Bacillus anthracis bacterium (the agent of anthrax) in an average kitchen-sized room. (download to read more)
Epidemiologists seek to determine the origin and risk factors for emerging diseases, defined by the World Health Organization as diseases that appears in vulnerable populations for the first time, or a disease that may have existed previously but which begins to increase rapidly in occurrence or spreads geographically into new areas with vulnerable populations. The term generally is applied to infectious diseases such as influenza, drug-resistant infections, Ebola, HIV/AIDS and measles. Emerging diseases can be previously unrecognized, such as HIV/AIDS was in the 1980s, or be re-emergent. Disease like tuberculosis and measles were once well controlled in developed nations, but both have again become public health problems in areas where outbreaks were rare. (download to read more)
The first known case of SARS was traced to a November 2002 case in Guangdong province, China. By mid-February 2003, Chinese health officials tracked more than 300 cases, including five deaths in Guangdong province from what was at the time described as an acute respiratory syndrome. Chinese health officials initially remained silent about the outbreak, and no special precautions were taken to limit travel or prevent the spread of the disease. The world health community, therefore, had no chance to institute early testing, isolation, and quarantine measures that might have prevented the subsequent global spread of the disease.
Under a new generation of political leadership, Chinese officials subsequently apologized for a slow and inefficient response to the SARS outbreak. Allegations that officials covered up the extent of the spread of the disease caused the dismissal of several local administrators, including China's public health minister and the mayor of Beijing.
In many regards, the SARS outbreak revealed what was effective in terms of public health responses, readiness, and resources. The outbreak also spurred reforms in the International Health Regulations (IHR) designed to increase both surveillance and reporting of infectious diseases and to enhance cooperation in preventing the international spread of disease. (download to read more)
Both peaceful and military uses require enrichment technology and procedures that extract and concentrate uranium-235 (235U), an isotope capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction, from raw uranium ore that contains mostly 99 percent uranium-238 (238U), an isotope incapable of sustaining the chain reaction needed to produce a nuclear explosion. The percentage of enrichment required for use in weapons is much higher than the levels needed to produce nuclear reactor fuel.
The Atoms for Peace program eventually came to be seen as a mistake by the United States, which has sought to recover the nuclear fuel dispersed around the world by the program. It has not always been able to do so because of political change.
By 1979, when the United States-backed dictator of Iran, the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980), was overthrown by fundamentalist Islamist revolutionaries, Iran already had a sophisticated nuclear program. The existing technology was inherited by the new regime.
Iran has consistently insisted that its nuclear facilities and activities are intended only for the peaceful production of nuclear energy. In 2002, however, Iranian dissidents publicized the existence of secret nuclear facilities they contended were part of secret Iranian program to produce nuclear weapons. The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began inspections of Iran's facilities later that year. (download to read more)
Those states that already had nuclear weapons at the time of the treaty's creation—the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China—are not subject to IAEA safeguards. Only four states—Cuba, India, Israel, and Pakistan—have not signed the NPT and are not part of any international safeguard system. Of these four, India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and Israel is widely assumed to have a nuclear weapons.
The IAEA tracks weapon-grade materials (or, in the case of plutonium, dilute materials that could be refined to weapons grade) in non-military nuclear fuel cycles in states that are signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968.
EURATOM safeguards civil plutonium and uranium in the European countries, including materials not covered by mandatory IAEA safeguards under the NPT (i.e., those in the UK and France). The IAEA and EURATOM cooperatively safeguard European materials to avoid redundancy.
Military nuclear materials are tracked only by the governments that own them. Because the tracking techniques employed internally by nuclear- weapons states vary from nation to nation and are always partly or wholly secret. (download to read more)
I may still be hobbling, but I can sit, test circuits, and rewire. While I have been concerned with repairing myself, a beautiful autumn day, was too much to resist. I put on some old jeans and rugby shirt, both bearing stains from run in with grease, oil, and gas, pulled up the Puccini playlist and made myself comfortable before the old fuse box on the vintage Triumph Spitfire I bought in college 49 years ago.
Sun, sand, and saltwater are good for the soul, but the mental challenges of matching wiring diagrams to reality can be as mentally refreshing as solving a math or crossword puzzle. Decades of intermediate medaling make the task anything but straightforward. The parsing, surgical dissection, and reconnections required exercise visual acuity and fine motor skills.
I'll confess that there is something sensual about feel of electrical tape pulled and wound taught, and a thrill at seeing old circuits come to life.
Jokes about post WWII British electronics aside, my Spitfire's circuits have aged well, especially given the years she sat on the seawall of Navy bases while I flew, and the years in Texas and Colorado where temperature extremes were the norm.
While working I thought about artificial intelligence and how it might age.
The semiconductors making up the billions of connections in nodes and layers in artificial intelligence neural networks are often exposed to high operating temperatures and strong electric magnetic fields. These forces can cause circuits to age prematurely.
While my old analogue Spitfire circuits have weathered time well, what might happen if artificial intelligence networks age prematurely, leading to delusions and errors. Will our AI programs grow cranky and many seniors do? Will AI suffer its own forms of dementia?
Depending on what we turn over to AI the results could vary from amusing to catastrophic.
The aging and degradation semiconductors and other components in electric circuits also hold potential perils for military and intelligence technologies that were early adopters of digital over analogue systems and systems that incorporate AI.
Aging in circuits is a real as aging in humans and is driven the repeated temperature changes, variations in electrical currents and/or voltage, and exposure to a range of environmental stresses. Just a body parts begin to age, performance erodes, and reliability lessens .
The physics behind electric circuit aging and degradation involves complex interactions between electrical, thermal, and mechanical forces that cause gradual damage to materials and components, eventually leading to performance degradation or failure.
Corrosion can lead to increased resistance, signal degradation, or even complete failure of interconnects. In severe cases, corrosion -- or the moisture causing corrosion -- can cause short circuits
Thermal cycling refers to the repeated heating and cooling cycles that an electronic circuit --which has components that have differing coefficients of thermal expansion -- undergoes during normal operation. As circuits heat up during operation and cool down when powered off, they experience expansion and contraction, leading to mechanical stress (e.g., cracks in solder joints ) on materials and components.
Electromigration is one of the primary aging mechanisms in wires and in modern integrated circuits (ICs) where. over time, the free electrons high-density electrical current flowing through a metal conductors, essentially -- for lack of a better conceptual term --push atoms out of their positions to create regions of low metal atomic density (even voids) as well as hillocks where metallic atom accumulate. At hillocks resistance increases, signals may be delayed, and circuits may fail . Electromigration depends on the materials used and the size of the connections but is generally increases with high operating temperatures and smaller semi-conductor connections.
The insulating material (dielectric) between metal layers or transistor components can also degrade after long exposure to electric fields. Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) refers circuit failure due to the formation of a conductive path through the normally insulting dielectric.
Quality of dielectric material can combat TDDB , but incidence increases as layers of the dielectric thin, the strength of the electric field applied across the dielectric increases, and operating temperatures rise. In modern semiconductors used in AI and reprogrammable systems, and the thickness of the dielectric can become so small that they become vulnerable to TDDB short circuits.
Modern semiconductor technology generally utilizes two types of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs): p-type MOSFETs and n-type MOSFETs.
Without getting too technical and delving into the differences between hole and electron carriers, polarity of voltages, and hydrogen atoms dissociate from the silicon-hydrogen bonds, what electrical engineers call Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) increases the threshold voltage and reduces the ability of the p-type MOS to switch on and off quickly. When the threshold voltage of the transistor increases the transistor becomes slower over time. This slowness causes timing delays (i.e., timing violations), where signals arrive too late for proper synchronization. Modern high-performance circuits, which often operate at high speeds and temperatures, are particularly susceptible to NBTI.
Another degradation mechanism that affects both p-type MOSFETs and n-type MOSFETs. is Hot Carrier Injection (HCI), where high-energy carriers (e.g., electrons in n-type MOSFET transistors) gain so much energy they "injected" into the gate dielectric. This leads to broken molecular bonds and degradation over time. Circuits that operate at high frequencies, high temperatures, and voltages are particularly vulnerable to HCI that can, over time, introduce timing errors and reduce circuit reliability.
My Spitfire is about as analog as it gets: Thick and colorful wires, capacitors, resistors, a couple diodes, mechanical switches, three fused junctions, etc. Things a man wrap his head around and put his hands on to fix as his car ages.
I doubt that the aging self-driving artificial-intelligence operated electric cars of the future are going to offer their owners much in the way of visceral garage pleasures on a fine fall day as they deal with circuit jitters, duty cycle distortion, and insertion delays. Moreover, while things like a fuel gauge may stop operating when a circuit fails in my Spitfire, the kind of errors encountered in artificial-intelligence controlled vehicles (and defense systems) may be more creative and much more dangerous.
With the America's Cup now resembling F1 more than sailing, drones about to make fighter pilots obsolete, and autos becoming unrepairable without highly specialized equipment, I am content to have lived in my own time. (download to read more)
The world does not, however, pause for such observances. The world keeps turning, seemingly to keep the peace Israel desires distant and forever over the horizIn so many ways -- too many ways -- yesterday was also just another day.
The terrorist group, Hezbollah launched a barrage of 30 rockets targeting Haifa and northern Israel. That no casualties were reported is due in part to defense technology supplied and resupplied by the United States that underpins Israel's fragile security.
Those wishing to stop arms sales to Israel must realize that it is fighting a seven front war, and that the enemies of Israel will be resupplied by Iran and relentlessly continue their attacks. Accordingly, calls to limit arm sales to Israel, no matter how benignly intended or deeply grounded in genuine concern for civilians simply play into the hands of Israel's enemies. (download to read more)
Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy group with close ties to Iran's Republican Guards. According to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was also reported to be among the wounded. Among the reported dead was the son of a Hezbollah MP, Ali Ammar Mahdi Ammar.
Hezbollah blames Israel for the blasts and vows retaliation. (download to read more)
Typical of the Biden administration, there was never any accountability, just a spin campaign to try to fix the blame elsewhere.
As VP, Harris was not in the chain of command, but she went out of her way to characterize herself as part of the inner circle of those making decisions that, now as the Democratic presidential nominee, she still endorses. (download to read more)
No matter how detached from truth and evidence these student protestors might be, it's fine for students to make statements, issue demands, and think they are changing the world. Youth is a time for the naive.
In Israel, naivety is washed away by national service that give young people cohesion, purpose, and a tangible taste of geopolitical realities. In Gaza, the innocence of youth is stolen by the shameful ends of those geopolitical realities as well as Hamas' hateful teachings and active recruitment of the young to fill their terrorist ranks.
Soon enough, the most of self-proclaimed pro-Palestinian protestors on American campuses will learn that their demands will be largely -- if not totally -- ignored by most of their institutions and certainly in the larger world. Many will go on to learn the hard geopolitical realities that have thwarted peace for generations.
Some may even shed their ignorance of history and develop empathy with and for the people of Israel who, along with their ancestors, have endured centuries of prejudice, persecution, humiliations, murderous attacks, and the attempted brutal genocide of the Holocaust that still motivates Israeli policy to be built on a foundation of "never again."
Legitimate criticism of Israel and its policies can -- and does -- exist without lapsing into antisemitism, and such criticism has a rightful and often needed place in civic discourse. But these protestors will also learn that attacks on Israel -- by people, groups, or nation-states -- will not earn a turned cheek. They will learn such attacks will bring retribution, destruction, and death.
While many protestor statements may trip close to the IHRA and U.S. State Department adopted definitions of antisemitism (posted and linked below), let's give their brainwashed minds a break and try to write off as youthful hubris their delusions that they are the incarnation of protestors of past "unjust" wars and/or protestors of apartheid in South Africa.
(download to read more)
t's the anniversary of the April 21, 1836, Battle of San Jacinto when Texians under the command of General Sam Houston engaged forces under the command of the Mexican President and General, Antonio López de Santa Anna in the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.
In order to move quickly as part of an attempt to capture what his intelligence errantly thought was a Texas government fleeing toward Galveston, Santa Anna rode with just a portion of his overall army. His miscalculations about the quality of his own troops, the position of the Texas army and finally the terrain of his encampment at San Jacinto provided Houston an opportunity to attack, literally on ground favorable to the Texas army.
After steadily retreating eastward through the Texas colonies since the defeat of the Alamo and his subsequent burning of Gonzales to deny it to Mexican troops, Houston seized the opportunity and forced the decisive conflict of the Texas Revolution.
(download to read more_
Annie Jacobsen's 'Nuclear War' is a meticulously researched book everyone-everyone-should read. The audiobook narrated by the author is also engaging and well done. The contains valuable insights on potential challenges to, and holes in, the nuclear weapon deterrence strategies employed since World War Two that have, thus far successfully prevented global nuclear catastrophe. Jacobsen's book does great service by making it clear that the evidence from studies and war game simulations overwhelmingly shows that strategic or large scale nuclear wars involving the U.S. Russia, and now China are unwinnable. Everyone loses. Everyone. Always.
With detail and articulation, Jacobsen shows the deterrence philosophy and methodology for what is: a complex system. As least for scientists and engineers, the peril is thus immediately revealed because complex systems are destined to fail, and the nuclear deterrence system need only fail once to potentially bring on the end of civilization and, possibly, humanity itself. While the system has worked since the end of World War II, a single failure could essentially wipe clean all humanity has achieved and zero out all its potential.
(download to read more)
Accordingly, each year, to commemorate the siege and sacrificial battle of the Alamo, the massacre at Goliad, and the victory at San Jacinto that secured independence for Texas, the American flag that usually flies in front Sibley is replaced by a Texas flag that once flew over the Alamo. If I am traveling, arrangements are made to continue the tradition.
Before dawn, on March 6, 1836, Mexican General and Dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered his forces laying siege to the Alamo to attack without quarter. The brief battle that followed ended 13 days of defiance that brought glory to the Alamo's Texian defenders and gave life to a revolution that would forge the Republic of Texas.
As is not uncommon with dualling depictions of history, the truth of the Alamo lies somewhere between Texas nationalist mythology and distortions crafted to cynically recast and reframe narratives related to the Texas Revolution so that they falsely align with fashionable ideological agenda. Ironically, hypocritically, and gallingly, some of the most progressive reframing of narratives related to the Alamo rely on suppressing or dismissing the accounts of witnesses who were women, enslaved men, Tejanos, or Mexican soldiers.
This is nothing new, of course. History is always contested territory.
As with many great battles in history, fact mixes with myth concerning the battle of the Alamo and other events critical to the Texas Revolution, In our contemporary culture wars, how people view the events and motivations of those who fought at the Alamo and in that revolution usually runs close to how they view the founding of America and the intentions of its founders.
An honest effort to understand the Alamo must be careful to stay close to the scant evidence available
(download to read more)
Yet, the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19 keeps evolving. Natural evolutionary mechanisms ensure that genetic mutations and changes keep creating new variants.
Not that every new variant is potentially more transmissible or lethal (in fact, most are not), but the combination of greatly reduced testing and sequencing combined with the evolution of highly mutated variants like the BA.2.86 variant discovered in July 2023 indicates a need to potentially shift vaccine strategies that have been primarily oriented to protecting against specific widely circulating variants.
Anti-intellectual, anti-liberal, and anti-science movements shift about over time with regard to who holds the shame-stick. In the U.S., that baton is now firmly in the hands of the progressivista Leftists who have gained an outsize influence in the Democratic party.
Science is inherently able to withstand and eventually overcome the arguments of those who allow partisan or trendy ideology to supersede evidence, but they can do substantial damage that crosses generations. (download to read more)
The challenges include sifting sources for misinformation and disinformation.
(download to read more)
1. Time is now an ally of Ukraine. With Western logistical support, time is now on Ukraine's side. Until recently time was viewed as something that worked against Ukraine. Given Russia's superior numbers, the defeat and occupation of Ukraine was widely viewed (myself included) as just a matter of time. The stout Ukrainian resistance combined with Russian Army and Air Force arrogance and incompetence have now, however, turned time into a Ukrainian asset. Absent substantial help from China, or Putin's use of tactical nuclear weapons (for political purposes his most viable WMD option) the war has devolved into one of attrition that gives a constantly resupplied Ukraine a fighting chance.
2. Putin's WMD reasoning. A war of attrition increases the potential that Putin will resort to the use of a tactical nuclear weapon. How likely is it that Putin might pursue a nuclear option? If Putin is irrational then rational analysis will not yield medium or high confidence assessments of his potential decisions, but one way to approach this problem is to assess negative outcomes a rational Putin might weigh in deciding whether to use a nuclear device.
3. Perilous options. Should Putin attempt the use of a tactical nuclear weapon, he not only faces the prospect that (1) subordinates may not follow orders, but also (2) that a nuclear weapon fizzles. If either of those things happen, it is the end of the Putin regime.
4. A military plundered by corruption. How much confidence does Putin have in his command and control? ….
5. How potent is the Russian nuclear threat? There is also great uncertainty regarding the state of Russian nuclear weapons. Given the state of Russian military infrastructure and performance, it is questionable whether the Russian have adequately maintained and replenished enriched uranium or plutonium stocks. Nuclear weapons also depend on other components that degrade with time… (download to read more)
The Alligator
in haiku, using tankas
A form of haiku
with two additional lines
each with seven syllables
American alligators. (A. mississippiensis) excpt one photo of a crocodile taken at Massai Mara in Kenya. Content and photos by K. Lee Lerner. ©LMG. All rights reserved.
(download to read more)
Additional quote collections are available online at:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1437692.K_Lee_Lerner
https://www.wisefamousquotes.com/k-lee-lerner-quotes/
https://quotation.io/page/author/k-lee-lerner