Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to CaturSaturday, November 8, 2025; it’s shabbos for Jewish cats and National Cappuccino Day. Here’s my latte this morning—close to a cappuccino since I’m nearly out of milk. Note the special Hili cup I had made, showing Her Highness drinking from another cup, which itself shows her drinking from another cup, and so on. . . . . . Is this really a Catuccino?
Galliano is an herb-flavored liqueur, the Italian equivalent of Chartreuse:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the November 8 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*J. D. Watson, most famous for co-discovering the structure of DNA, though he also led the NIH’s Human Genome Project until he came into conflict with NIH director Bernadine Healey, who wanted to patent DNA sequences and Watson didn’t, died yesterday at 97. I noted his passing yesterday afternoon, and you can read his NYT obituary here (archived here). I’ll have a memory or two later today, but here are a few paras from the NYT:
James D. Watson, who entered the pantheon of science at age 25 when he joined in the discovery of the structure of DNA, one of the most momentous breakthroughs in the history of science, died on Thursday in East Northport, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 97.
His death, in a hospice, was confirmed on Friday by his son Duncan, who said Dr. Watson was transferred to the hospice from a hospital this week after being treated there for an infection.
Dr. Watson’s role in decoding DNA, the genetic blueprint for life, would have been enough to establish him as one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. But he cemented that fame by leading the ambitious Human Genome Project and writing perhaps the most celebrated memoir in science.
For decades a famous and famously cantankerous American man of science, Dr. Watson lived on the grounds of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which, in another considerable accomplishment, he took over as director in 1968 and transformed from a relatively small establishment on Long Island with a troubled past into one of the world’s major centers of microbiology. He stepped down in 1993 and took a largely honorary position of chancellor.
But his official career there ended ignominiously in 2007 after he ignited an uproar by suggesting, in an interview with The Sunday Times in London, that Black people, over all, were not as intelligent as white people. He repeated that assertion in on-camera interviews for a PBS documentary about him, part of the “American Masters” series. When the program aired in 2018, the lab, in response, revoked honorary titles that Dr. Watson had retained.
They were far from the first incendiary, off-the-cuff comments by a man who was once described as “the Caligula of biology,” and he repudiated them immediately. Nevertheless, though he continued his biological theorizing on subjects like the roles of oxidants and antioxidants in cancer and diabetes, Dr. Watson ceased to command the scientific spotlight.
He said later that he felt that his fellow scientists had abandoned him.
More on his feeling of grievance later today.
*As all Americans know, the government shutdown (now a record for America), combined with air traffic controllers and TSA officials calling in “sick,” has led to big flight delays across America—so many that I already know several people who have delayed their fall/winter vacations because of flight uncertainty. Here’s the skinny:
The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered traffic to be reduced at 40 major airports to help keep skies safe as the government shutdown drags on. The cutbacks come ahead of a popular holiday-travel weekend for those who get Veterans Day off.
Here is what we know so far:
How many flights will be affected?
New data shows there are more than 740 canceled flights so far on Friday and 25,375 flights scheduled to depart, according to Cirium, an aviation-data provider. That’s a reduction of 3%.
To put that in perspective, Friday is the 72nd worst day for flight cancellations overall in the U.S. airline market since Jan. 1, 2024.
Earlier this week Cirium predicted that as many as 1,800 flights could be affected on Friday alone, based on the idea that air-traffic reductions would start at 10%.
The FAA updated its plan to start with traffic cuts of 4% at select airports Friday. The reductions will increase to 6% of capacity by Nov. 11, 8% by Nov. 13 and 10% by Nov. 14.
But the proportion of flights canceled is pretty low: the hightest involve United and American (3.5-4%); the lowest are Sprint and Allegiant (less than 0.5%).
The FAA released the list of affected airports Thursday, with a focus on areas that have been struggling most with air-traffic-control staffing shortages. The list includes some of the nation’s biggest, busiest airports, including those in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and New York City.
Flight reductions are expected to continue until the end of the shutdown. Keep an eye on your email or airline app for updates, including potential requests to accommodate you on a different flight. Track your upcoming flights on an app like Flighty.
If your flight gets canceled, the airline will typically put you on another flight, though you have the option to accept or reject it.
Are international flights affected?
At least one carrier—United Airlines—has told employees that international flights won’t be affected. The same is true of connections between its hubs, Chief Executive Scott Kirby said in a memo to staff, leaving regional flights likely bearing the brunt of cancellations.
Delta Air Lines also said its international long-haul flights will operate as scheduled.
And a map of the affected airports from the WSJ. The two Chicago airports are O’Hare and Midway, the two I fly from. Fortunately, I have no imminent travel plans.
*Although Cornell University says it didn’t strike a deal with the Trump administration that allowed the administration to dictate its policies, it sort of did.
Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding and end investigations into the Ivy League school.
Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced the agreement on Friday, saying it upholds the university’s academic freedom while restoring more than $250 million in research funding that the government withheld amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations.
The university agreed to pay $30 million directly to the U.S. government along with another $30 million toward research that will support U.S. farmers.
Kotlikoff said the agreement revives the campus’ partnership with the federal government “while affirming the university’s commitment to the principles of academic freedom, independence, and institutional autonomy that, from our founding, have been integral to our excellence.”
Can you say “mealymouthed”? More:
The six-page agreement is similar to one signed by the University of Virginia last month. It’s shorter and less prescriptive than others signed by Columbia University and Brown University.
It requires Cornell to comply with the government’s interpretation of civil rights laws on issues involving antisemitism, racial discrimination and transgender issues. A Justice Department memo that orders colleges to abandon diversity, equity and inclusion programs and transgender-friendly policies will be used as a training resource for faculty and staff at Cornell.
The campus must also provide a wealth of admissions data that the government has separately sought from campuses to ensure race is no longer being considered as a factor in admissions decisions. President Donald Trump has suggested some campuses are ignoring a 2023 Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in admissions.
So Cornell has to pay the government, agreed to comply with government requirements for antisemitism, racial discrimination (I assume this means no race-based admission) and transgender issues, as well as abandoning DEI policies and stop training people to use them. That sure sounds like “allowing the administration to dictate policy” to me. Not that all of this is bad: prohibiting trans-identified men from competing in college sports and ditching DEI are good policies. Here’s the AP’s graph of which colleges have “settled” with the government and which are in the process of doing so (click to enlarge).
*As usual, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s news-and-snark column in the Free Press. This week’s version is called “TGIF: Lower East Side work camp“.
→ Mamdani’s win: Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is now the mayor-elect of New York City, and if you think you’ll escape his gaze, you are wrong. From his victory speech: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.” No concern too small to care about. We’ve covered Mamdani a lot, so you don’t need my take, which is that I’m so excited to fight with my neighbors over which Doritos bag has less air in the new government grocery store.
Political views: He describes himself as a democratic socialist, which has no clear definition but essentially means giving a voice to workers, not corporations.
Who wouldn’t want that?! Wow, I never knew it was so simple. I’m for workers having a voice (not my workers—back to work, Sascha—but workers in general). This socialism thing sounds like a new idea that’s never been tried before, globally or historically, so let’s give it a shot here and we can see what happens.
In honor of Mamdani’s victory, people are pulling fun pranks like spray-painting swastikas on Jewish institutions, including a yeshiva and a cemetery. The New York Post cover showing Mamdani holding aloft a hammer and sickle has sold out of every bodega and become a hot commodity on eBay. Don’t look at me—I’ve only flipped five. (DM for signed copy.)
→ Deli sandwich trial: In Washington, D.C., former Justice Department paralegal Sean Dunn was found not guilty of misdemeanor assault in his trial for hurling a Subway sandwich at a Border Patrol agent during a street confrontation. Prosecutors said it was assault; Dunn’s lawyer called it harmless political expression, “an exclamation mark at the end of a verbal outburst,” which is exactly what I say when I’m literally brawling on the street. It is always good to punctuate your outbursts. The sandwich, fired at close range, reportedly left little damage—just a mustard stain that “exploded” on the agent’s uniform and a bit of onion dangling from his police radio. That’s it—enough is enough. We need commonsense sandwich laws to keep our condiments safe. If it saves just one slice of provolone from ending up on a badge. . .
Here’s a video of the Assault by Sandwich:
→ Motive unknown: A driver smashed into pedestrians and bikers on the beautiful French island of Île d’Oléron.
I’m so excited for the investigation to reveal the motive behind someone driving their car into random French cyclists and screaming “Allahu Akbar.” I don’t know about you, but he sounds like a Christian Nationalist to me. Anyone else smell a fresh pine and cinnamon Bath & Body Works candle? This guy is all in on Replacement Theory, I just know it.
→ Requiem for Teen Vogue: This week, Condé Nastofficially announced that Teen Vogue will be absorbed intoVogue.com, and layoffs of key staff were reported. The Teen Vogue era is at an end. Now, I gotta say I’m sad. Because when Teen Vogue rebranded to do left-wing politics, they actually published some bangers. Yes, I loved their circa 2016 political stuff. It was fun. It was refreshing. Lauren Duca in her prime was hilarious. But then it just got so exhausting, and a little annoying. As former writer Elly Belle (the perfect Teen Vogue writer name) put it, “Teen Vogue was one of the first places I ever got to write the kinds of more radical stories about mental health, polyamory, queerness, trans people, and more. I helped shape the identity and politics verticals back in 2017–2018 and seeing it ruined is nothing short of horrific.” Nothing short of horrific. Like seeing an execution, but worse. Elly built those verticals with they/their bare hands.
Despite its demise, Teen Vogue will live on in the halls of internet fame forever—Wikipedia still calls the site a “generally reliable source,” while claiming that Quillette, which is essentially the Australian version of us but way less controversial, is not. I haven’t checked, but I’m 100 percent sure TheFree Press isn’t considered a reliable source on Wikipedia (it’s labeled “no consensus” which seems fair; they just threw up their hands). With the voice of their generation gone, how will today’s youth know what to wear while drinking a case of Coors Light and setting off fireworks in campus buildings?
*Here’s a NYT headline I just couldn’t pass up: “The Sierra Club embraced social justice. Then it tore itself apart” (article archived here). “What else?”, I thought to myself as I pondered the similar fates of the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NPR, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Here are some details:
The Sierra Club calls itself the “largest and most influential grass roots environmental organization in the country.” But it is in the middle of an implosion — left weakened, distracted and divided just as environmental protections are under assault by the Trump administration.
The group has lost 60 percent of the four million members and supporters it counted in 2019. It has held three rounds of employee layoffs since 2022, trying to climb out of a $40 million projected budget deficit.
Its political giving has also dropped. Federal campaign-finance records show $3.6 million in donations from the Sierra Club during the push to defeat Donald J. Trump in 2020, but none as Mr. Trump stormed back to the presidency in 2024.
And this year, as the Trump administration returned better organized and better prepared than in its first term, the Sierra Club was the opposite. While Mr. Trump boosted coal power, canceled wind farms and rolled back pollution limits, the club was consumed by internal chaos, culminating when the board fired its executive director, Ben Jealous, a former president of the N.A.A.C.P.
. . .The Sierra Club did this to itself.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, when the Sierra Club was flush with donations, its leaders sought to expand far beyond environmentalism, embracing other progressive causes. Those included racial justice, labor rights, gay rights, immigrant rights and more. They stand by that shift today.
“As long as climate change and environmental protection are viewed as just being concerns for a limited group of elites, we lose,” Loren Blackford, the group’s new executive director, said in a statement. “We only win by building a powerful, diverse movement.”
. . .The downside, according to interviews with people involved with the group and a review of financial records and internal documents, was that the Sierra Club lost its focus, then its strength.
By 2022, the club had exhausted its finances and splintered its coalition.
It drove away longtime volunteers who loved the club’s single-minded defense of the environment, by asking them to fully embrace its pivot to the left. Some even felt they were investigated by the club for failing to go along. Many hard-core supporters felt the Sierra Club was casting aside the key to its success: It was an eclectic group of activists who had one, and sometimes only one, cause in common.
It’s the same story, over and over again. Drive out of your lane into “social justice” (largely performative for these elite organizations), and you lose members. As Stanley Fish called one of his books, Save the world on your own time. If your organization, like a university, has a well-defined mission, it’s best to remain institutionally neutral and not try to save the world. Let members do that on their own, but don’t force the organization to take different stands (invariably “progressive” ones in groups like this). The same thing will, I predict, happen to the Audubon Society as it becomes “progressive,” ditching the Society’s name in many branches.
Scientists have spotted the brightest flare yet from a supermassive black hole that shines with the light of 10 trillion suns.
These bursts of light and energy can come from things like tangled-up magnetic fields or hiccups in the heated gas disks surrounding black holes. The flares help illuminate researchers’ understanding of the black holes within.
The latest cosmic display was spotted in 2018 by a camera at the Palomar Observatory in California. It took about three months to shine at peak brightness and has been decaying in the years since.
It likely happened because a large star wandered too close to the black hole and got shredded to pieces.
The new findings were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The flare came from a supermassive black hole that’s 10 billion light years away, making the flash the most distant one observed so far. It hails from a time when the universe was rather young. A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).
. . . . Almost every large galaxy, including our Milky Way, has a supermassive black hole at its center. But scientists still aren’t sure how they form.
Here’s the abstract of the paper:
Since their discovery more than 60 years ago, accreting supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been recognized as highly variable sources, requiring an extremely compact, dynamic environment. Their variability is related to several phenomena, including changing accretion rates, temperature changes, foreground absorbers and structural changes to the accretion disk. Spurred by a new generation of time-domain surveys, the extremes of black hole variability are now being probed. Here we describe the discovery of an extreme flare by the AGN J224554.84+374326.5, which brightened by more than a factor of 40 in 2018. The source has slowly faded since then. The total emitted ultraviolet and optical energy to date is ~1054 erg, which represents the complete conversion of approximately one solar mass into electromagnetic radiation. This flare is 30 times more powerful than the previous most powerful AGN transient. Very few physical events in the Universe can liberate this much electromagnetic energy. We discuss potential mechanisms, including the tidal disruption of a high-mass star (>30 M⊙), gravitational lensing of an AGN flare or supernova, or a supermassive (pair-instability) supernova in the accretion disk of an AGN. We favour the tidal disruption of a massive star in a prograde orbit in an AGN disk.
Look at that: the light of TEN TRILLION SUNS! Sadly, it’s been fading since 2018. Remember, black holes don’t let light out, so the light has to come from the “tangled-up magnetic fields or hiccups in the heated gas disks” surrounding the hole. But we can’t see it with our eyes anyway; its detection requires sophisticated instruments. But to propitiate you, here’s a NASA video depicting what it might be like to fly into a black hole. I’m still amazed that these things were predicted before they were known, and then verified.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the editor and Andrzej are doing double duty on Listy:
Hili: So this is our new workplace?
Andrzej: One of many, since I constantly have to run between computers.
In Polish:
Hili: Więc to jest nasze nowe miejsce pracy?
Ja: Jedno z z wielu, bo ciągle muszę biegać między komputerami.
First time on motorbike in Europe .
Maduro’s regime took his nationality. The Islamic regime tried to take my life. They are failing we are succeeding. From Iran to Venezuela and now in Berlin. Our motors never stop working. This Saturday, more than 170 dissidents from 60… pic.twitter.com/KkYQXmCcio
From Luana: the rapid decline of trans and nonbinary identiies among Americans of college age (20-23). This implicates strong social factors influencing one’s self-identified gender.
NEWS: Trans and nonbinary identities are indeed in free-fall in college age Americans.
Prof. Jean Twenge @jean_twenge found new survey data that supports @epkaufm‘s much disputed claim from last week.
A Dutch Jewish boy and his sister (note the Stars of David on their clothes) were gassed to death as soon as they arrived in Auschwitz. He was 8 years old, and today is his 91st birthday. https://t.co/cPnfYbMO9z
Two from Dr. Cobb. First, he gave a lecture on Crick at Cambridge today, and got several rewards:
Terrific day @mrclmb.bsky.social – tea, lovely homemade cakes, chats with young and old, signed and sold all the copies of my book (32! should have brought more) and had a lovely time giving a talk about Francis Crick. Thanks to all, especially Shahana Ahmed who organised it all and made the cakes!
And I got this photo yesterday, with Matthew’s caption “Cheers from the Green Man in Grantchester!” But to my shock, it was not Tim Taylor’s Landlord but. . . oy. . . an IPA!
He was quaffing this hoppy pint the day before his Crick talk in Cambridge.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Your voice dries up if you don’t use it. -Patti Page, singer (8 Nov 1927-2013)
I recall Joan Baez saying that going into her 50s, for the first time in her life, she needed to do voice exercises. She was remarking, I think, on how effortless her singing had been up until then.
I do not understand:
How does it help lower tuition costs to fine a university millions of dollars into federal government coffers?
Seems many of the same people who insisted on opening the government for the good of the economy in the midst of a deadly, highly contagious pandemic, now think it perfectly fine to shut it down due to a non-contagious budget disagreement.
I was a member of Sierra Club for thirty years, served on the board of its north-central Florida group, and was the group’s chairman for a year. In the early 2020s I started noticing that the national SC leadership was more interested in Left politics than conservation. In one of the elections for the national board, only two or three of the ten or so candidates even mentioned the words “wilderness” or “wildlife” in their policy statements. The rest was about smashing the cis-het patriarchy or whatever the fuck. Then they canceled their own founder, John Muir, because he didn’t talk like AOC. So I canceled them, joining the 40% similarly disgusted.
I don’t blame you. Quote: “…its leaders sought to expand far beyond environmentalism, embracing other progressive causes. Those included racial justice, labor rights, gay rights, immigrant rights and more. They stand by that shift today.”
Take a look at Greta Thunberg and numerous other environmental activists. The fight for the environment now plays only a minor role in their circles. Identity politics activism (especially post-colonialist activism directed against Israel) has become all the more relevant.
Regarding the Sierra Club, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, reports:
Non-profits continue to be impacted by Government funding as well as rising costs. These entities announced plans to cut 27,651 this year, an increase of 419% from the 5,329 announced by this point in 2024.
It was certainly a mistake for the Sierra Club to go woke. There are plenty of conservative conservationists. My father wrote on conservation in the 50s for magazines like Field & Stream. He used to say that the conservation movement was actually started by outdoorsmen. Conservatives will give to Sierra Club for conservation, but not for social justice.
You can’t save the trees unless you let the wood into the ladies’ locker room.
The Teen Vogue article Jerry cited is almost a self-parody. The author goes on and on about the persecution and exclusion some women face at the hands of other women! just because they, like the author himself, are “transgender.” How sad that society, especially women who are the pointed end of the DEI spear, could be so bigoted about another woman’s physical appearance, like bad acne or crooked teeth. Haven’t we transcended that? The poor girl describes how awkward she felt using a women’s changing room. I’ll bet she did.
Of course, if an editor had changed all the instances of “transgender woman” to “man” and corrected all the pronouns so they matched their antecedents, everything would have fallen into place. Yes, “He Cheated.”
Intra sex competition is always a crowd pleaser, Leslie. And the female side is way more entertaining. We dudes just hit each other over the heads with sticks and chase balls. Sometimes we shoot at each other. That’s fun and all.
The ladies, though, THEIR competition is incredible: subtle, treacherous, merciless, strategic.
Yet another win for evolutionary biology/psychology!
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Your voice dries up if you don’t use it. -Patti Page, singer (8 Nov 1927-2013)
I recall Joan Baez saying that going into her 50s, for the first time in her life, she needed to do voice exercises. She was remarking, I think, on how effortless her singing had been up until then.
I do not understand:
How does it help lower tuition costs to fine a university millions of dollars into federal government coffers?
Seems many of the same people who insisted on opening the government for the good of the economy in the midst of a deadly, highly contagious pandemic, now think it perfectly fine to shut it down due to a non-contagious budget disagreement.
I was a member of Sierra Club for thirty years, served on the board of its north-central Florida group, and was the group’s chairman for a year. In the early 2020s I started noticing that the national SC leadership was more interested in Left politics than conservation. In one of the elections for the national board, only two or three of the ten or so candidates even mentioned the words “wilderness” or “wildlife” in their policy statements. The rest was about smashing the cis-het patriarchy or whatever the fuck. Then they canceled their own founder, John Muir, because he didn’t talk like AOC. So I canceled them, joining the 40% similarly disgusted.
I don’t blame you. Quote: “…its leaders sought to expand far beyond environmentalism, embracing other progressive causes. Those included racial justice, labor rights, gay rights, immigrant rights and more. They stand by that shift today.”
Take a look at Greta Thunberg and numerous other environmental activists. The fight for the environment now plays only a minor role in their circles. Identity politics activism (especially post-colonialist activism directed against Israel) has become all the more relevant.
Regarding the Sierra Club, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, reports:
It was certainly a mistake for the Sierra Club to go woke. There are plenty of conservative conservationists. My father wrote on conservation in the 50s for magazines like Field & Stream. He used to say that the conservation movement was actually started by outdoorsmen. Conservatives will give to Sierra Club for conservation, but not for social justice.
You can’t save the trees unless you let the wood into the ladies’ locker room.
The Teen Vogue article Jerry cited is almost a self-parody. The author goes on and on about the persecution and exclusion some women face at the hands of other women! just because they, like the author himself, are “transgender.” How sad that society, especially women who are the pointed end of the DEI spear, could be so bigoted about another woman’s physical appearance, like bad acne or crooked teeth. Haven’t we transcended that? The poor girl describes how awkward she felt using a women’s changing room. I’ll bet she did.
Of course, if an editor had changed all the instances of “transgender woman” to “man” and corrected all the pronouns so they matched their antecedents, everything would have fallen into place. Yes, “He Cheated.”
Intra sex competition is always a crowd pleaser, Leslie. And the female side is way more entertaining. We dudes just hit each other over the heads with sticks and chase balls. Sometimes we shoot at each other. That’s fun and all.
The ladies, though, THEIR competition is incredible: subtle, treacherous, merciless, strategic.
Yet another win for evolutionary biology/psychology!
D.A.
NYC