11281 Leverhulme Jan 2601V5

“...scholarships for research and education...” Newsletter August 2012 Evolution of the Milky Way Ancient Drawn Organised humans from natural of Britain history structures All change at the RAAC How do mosquitoes survive a The Trust each year deals with approximately 4,000 applications for grants. Not surprisingly, given this volume blood-meal? of interest, the Board delegates responsibility for some Mosquitoes need to feed on award-schemes to other expert panels. blood to reproduce and, as a Principal amongst these is the Research Awards Advisory consequence, transmit many of Committee (RAAC), which looks after three Fellowship schemes the world's most devastating (Early Career, Research and Emeritus) and both of the Study diseases including malaria, Abroad opportunities (Studentships and Fellowships). dengue and filariasis. During 2011 the RAAC made decisions about 1600 or so Insecticides are still the most applications – representing approximately 20 percent of the effective means to block the Trust’s spend for the year. The Committee itself comprises spread of disease and widely A female mosquito engorged with blood nine senior, experienced academics, who collectively take used to reduce mosquito (courtesy of John Morgan). responsibility for grant-making across the spectrum of populations, either coated on scholarly specialisms and disciplines. You don’t have to be a bednets or sprayed on walls. genius at arithmetic to work out that the colleagues who are However, resistance to insecticides is on the increase, and new targets on the RAAC are hard-worked by the Director and the Board. for the design of reagents to prevent transmission are urgently sought. Fortunately, good-will abounds, and all nine colleagues never Given that blood digestion releases high concentrations of highly toxic fail to impress by their diligence, efficiency, and (most free heme following haemoglobin degradation, how mosquitoes survive important of all) their insight and exercise of great scholarship a blood meal over three times their body weight is an intriguing question in reaching decisions about the many requests for funding fundamental to our understanding of disease transmission. Indeed, that must be considered and resolved by the Committee. remarkably little is known about heme degradation in mosquitoes or An important additional factor that has contributed to the other insects, yet it must be vital for the blood-suckers to survive. success of the Committee during the past decade has been the outstanding leadership provided by its departing Most higher organisms Chairman, Professor Keith Gull. cope with free heme by breaking it down with Keith is a distinguished researcher. Professor of Molecular two enzymes, namely Biology at the University of Oxford, Principal of St Edmund heme oxygenase (HO) Hall, his contributions to science have been recognised by and cytochrome P450 (amongst other things) his election to the Royal Society (in reductase (CPR). 2003) and his appointment as a CBE (in 2004). No less Although HO-like genes relevant, however, are those personal attributes that have are present in enabled him to maintain good order and good humour mosquitoes, and we amongst fellow committee members whose disparate backgrounds range from Mathematical Physics to the History predict they may be structurally similar to of Art. With Keith’s guidance, demanding decisions have been The Anophele gambiae (mosquito) HO (blue ribbon) human HO-1, we have, debated and agreed without demur, and with good grace. It structure is predicted to be similar to human (green has been a pleasure to observe the Committee at work. as yet, no evidence of ribbon) HO-1. their function. However, On behalf of everyone at the Trust therefore, I want to take having studied HO’s partner, mosquito CPR, we have discovered the opportunity offered by this Newsletter to say a very public significant functional differences between the mosquito and human and huge ‘thank you’ to Keith, for all that he has contributed enzymes that suggests very different mechanisms of heme breakdown. over the past 15 years as a member of the RAAC, 10 as This finding has exposed an Achilles heel which we aim to exploit for Chairman. I know that I speak for all of Keith’s colleagues the development of selective inhibitors of mosquito detoxification. on the Committee in wishing him well for the future. At the same time I am delighted to be able to announce the appointment of Professor Martin Daunton as Chairman of the RAAC. Martin is also an outstanding researcher, Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge and Master of Trinity Hall, elected to the British Academy in 1997 in recognition of his scholarly achievements. I expect his tenure to be no less successful than that of his distinguished predecessor and I look forward to working with him in the years to come. Gordon Marshall Contacts The Leverhulme Trust Insecticide being sprayed in Vanuatu to kill mosquitoes transmitting malaria. 1 Pemberton Row, London EC4A 3BG A key obstacle to the development of new insecticides is the lack of Tel: 020 7042 9888 information on the basic biology which could identify new targets for Fax: 020 7042 9889 intervention. The challenge here is to understand how heme detoxification works and how it can be exploited for malaria control. More articles on current research can be found in the This will provide fundamental new insight into heme metabolism, how Awards in Focus section of our website: blood-feeding insects survive toxic doses of heme, and a potential www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news target for insecticide development. If you would like further copies of the Newsletter please email: [email protected] Dr Mark Paine, Dr Gareth Lycett and Professor Lu-Yun Lian Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 2 August 2012 www.leverhulme.ac.uk Generative capacity of norms: a theory of inference from ‘is’ to ‘ought’ Humans have a unique ability to generate novel money than we need and who believe in norms. Given that there is famine in Somalia, supporting worthy causes. It is not applicable it seems easy and natural to infer that we to someone without money, because, as ought to donate to the Disasters Emergency philosophers advise, ‘ought’ implies ‘can’: an Committee (DEC). Such inference from is to example of a principle which bridges the gap ought lies at the foundation of human between the descriptive and the normative. normative thinking: without it, no new practical We propose that rich and sophisticated chains or moral norms would exist. Under the of inference are involved in drawing normative heading of the ‘is-ought problem’, the validity conclusions. Such inference typically starts of such inference has been a longstanding with conditional sentences such as ‘If you pull conundrum in philosophy. Little is known, the dog’s tail again, then he’ll bite you.’ Such however, of the circumstances under which sentences ‘invite’ people to infer a normative people draw such inference, or the conclusion: in this case, that you should not psychological mechanisms underlying it. This pull the dog’s tail. This inference is pragmatic: is the focus of our project. it depends on beliefs, it is sensitive to social Reasoning from observation to norm (is-ought context, it directs action, and it is probabilistic. inference) appears to be logically invalid and is We distinguish the following steps: described by some philosophers as a major Goal inference: A valued goal is implicitly fallacy. In real life, however, people often reason inferred; e.g., being bitten is bad. with implicit premises which are conveyed by Causal inference: A causal link between the context and supposition and which may action and the outcome is implicitly inferred; support is-ought inference. The DEC example e.g., pulling dog’s tail makes dog bite. supposes we are decent people with more Valence transference: Psychological value People tend to infer norms in the presence of goals and transfers through the causal link from the values (illustration by John Tenniel of the Cheshire Cat goal to the action; e.g., pulling dog’s tail is bad. from the original edition of Alice in Wonderland, 1865). Deontic bridging: The transferred value bridges into a novel norm; e.g., should not conclusions such as ‘Lisa should use the pull dog’s tail. booklet’, on a scale from 1 (Definitely does not Because norms direct behaviour, there will follow) to 7 (Definitely follows). We will test: often be an additional step: the chain of inference leading to normative conclusions; the hypothesis that normative Behavioural directive: The deontic conclusion inference directs behaviour and the relative is translated into action; e.g., you will not pull . contribution of psychological value and causality; dog’s tail and the hypothesis that normative inference The project will test and refine this theory. We underlies much of the way we think about Given that there ARE hungry children in Somalia, we will present participants with descriptive norms, both in deontic and moral thinking. naturally and easily infer that we OUGHT to donate conditional sentences such as ‘If Lisa uses the to famine relief charities (image reproduced under the revision booklet, she will pass the exam’, and Dr Shira Elqayam Creative Commons License from flickr user: Trocaire). ask them to evaluate normative (‘deontic’) De Montfort University Ancient Egyptian demonology Demons abound in the media today – from TV were blamed for a host of physical and shows, to tales of possession, to the labelling of psychological afflictions, others were petitioned political policies as ‘demonic’, to the channelling for aid – demons have remained peripheral to of spirits for healing. Some of the most prevalent most scholarship focussing on Egyptian religion rituals in the ancient and modern worlds are those or ancient ritual practice. While gods such as designed to target demons and those that make Osiris, Isis, and Ra are familiar, the darker side of use of their power for benefit.

Load more