Sunzi, ‘shì’ and strategy: How to read ‘Art of War’ the way its author intended

A copy of the ‘Art of War’ from a collection at the University of California, Riverside. vlasta2/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Scott D. McDonald, Tufts University

In the mid-1990s, I picked up the military classic “Art of War” hoping to find insight into my new career as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

I was not the only one looking for insights from the sage Sunzi, also known as Sun Tzu, who died over 2,500 years ago. “Art of War” has long been mined for an understanding of China’s strategic tradition and universal military truths. The book’s maxims, such as “know the enemy and know yourself,” are routinely quoted in military texts, as well as business and management books.

Initially, I was disappointed. It seemed Sunzi’s advice was either common sense or in agreement with Western military classics. However, a few years later the Marine Corps trained me as a China scholar, and I spent much of my career working on U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific region. This deepened my desire to understand how leaders in the People’s Republic of China see the world and choose strategies. Looking for insight, I turned to classical Chinese philosophy and finally encountered concepts that helped illuminate the unique perspective of Sunzi’s “Art of War.”

Today, I am an academic researching how Chinese philosophy and foreign policy intersect. To comprehend “Art of War,” it helps readers to approach the text from the worldview of its author. That means reading Sunzi’s advice through the prism of classical Chinese metaphysics, which is deeply shaped by the philosophy of Daoism.

Daoist roots

China’s intellectual tradition is rooted in the Warring States period from the 5th to 3rd century B.C.E., the era during which Sunzi is thought to have lived. Though a time of conflict, it was also a time of cultural and intellectual development that led to the rise of Daoism and Confucianism.

Sunzi’s writing has had a significant impact on both Chinese and foreign politics. Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Confucian philosophy focuses on maintaining proper social relationships as the key to moral behavior and and social harmony. Daoism, on the other hand, is more concerned with metaphysics: trying to understand the workings of the natural world and drawing analogies about how humans should act.

Daoism views existence as composed of constant cycles of change, in which power ebbs and flows. Meanwhile, the “Dào,” or “the way,” directs all things in nature toward fulfilling their inherent potential, like water flowing downhill.

Helping nature take its course

The Chinese word for this concept of “situational potential” is 勢, or “shì” – the name of Chapter Five in “Art of War.” Almost every Western version translates it differently, but it is key to the military concepts Sunzi employs.

For example, Chapter Five explains how those who are “expert at war” are not overly concerned with individual soldiers. Instead, effective leaders are able to determine the potential in the situation and put themselves in position to take advantage of it.

This is why later chapters spend so much time discussing geography and deployment of forces, rather than fighting techniques. One does more to damage an opponent’s potential by undermining their scheme than by merely killing their soldiers. Sunzi is concerned about long supply lines, because they lower an army’s potential by making it harder to move and vulnerable to disruption. A general who understands potential can evaluate troops, terrain and scheme, then arrange the battlefield to “subdue the enemy without fighting.”

Painting of a battle between Chinese and Vietnamese forces during the Qing invasion of Vietnam in 1788. Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In Daoist thought, the correct way to manage each situation’s potential is to act with 無為, “wúwéi,” which literally translates as “nonaction.” However, the key idea is to disturb the natural order as little as possible, taking the minimum action needed to allow the situation’s potential to be fulfilled. The term does not appear in “Art of War,” but a contemporary reader of Sunzi’s would have been familiar with the connection between nurturing “shì” and acting with “wúwéi.”

The importance of acting with “wúwéi” is illustrated by the Confucian philosopher Mengzi’s story about a farmer who pulled on his corn stalks in an attempt to help them grow tall, but killed the crop instead. One does not help corn grow by forcing it but by understanding its natural potential and acting accordingly: ensuring the soil is good, weeds are removed and water is sufficient. Actions are most effective when they nurture potential, not when they try to force it.

From the battlefield to the UN

In a Daoist understanding, leaders hoping to chart an effective strategy must read the situation, discover its potential, and position their armies or states in the best position to take advantage of “shì.” They act with “wúwéi” to nurture situations, rather than force, which could disturb the situation and cause chaos.

Therefore, in foreign policy, a decision-maker should attempt to make small policy adjustments as early as possible to slowly manage the development of the international environment. This approach is evident in Beijing’s use of “guānxì.” Meaning “relationships,” the Chinese term carries a strong sense of mutual obligation.

For example, the PRC waged a decadeslong effort to take over the United Nations “China seat” from Taiwan, where the Republic of China government had fled after Communists’ victory in the civil war. Beijing accomplished that by slowly building friendships, identifying shared strategic interests and accruing owed favors with many small states around the world, until in 1971 it had enough votes in the General Assembly.

Trend-watching today

The concept of “shì” also provides a lens for understanding the PRC’s increasing pressure on Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims is its own territory.

A Taiwanese tank used in previous conflicts and on display for tourists in Kinmen, Taiwan, is seen silhouetted against the skyline of the mainland city of Xiamen. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Sunzi might say that discerning the current trend in the Taiwan Strait is more essential than conventional questions about comparative military strength. Several factors could push Taiwan closer to Beijing, including the island’s loss of diplomatic allies and the pull of the PRC’s massive economy – not to mention Beijing’s growing global clout vis-à-vis the U.S. If so, shì is in Beijing’s favor, and a nudge to persuade the U.S. to stay out is all that is needed to keep the situation developing to the PRC’s advantage.

Or is the potential developing in the other direction? Such factors as a growing sense of a unique Taiwanese identity and the PRC’s troubled economic model may make closer ties with the mainland less and less appealing in Taiwan. In that case, Beijing may see a need to appear strong and dominant so Taiwan will not be lulled into counting on support from Washington, D.C.

A surface reading of Sunzi can easily support an emphasis on troop deployments, intelligence and logistics. However, an understanding of “shì” highlights Sunzi’s emphasis on evaluating and nurturing situational potential. It is not that the former are unimportant, but a decision-maker will use them differently if the goal is to manage situational trends rather than seek decisive battle.

That “Art of War” continues to top sales lists demonstrates its lasting appeal. However, to be useful as a guide to understanding security policy and strategy, my experience in the Indo-Pacific region suggests one must dig into the principles that shaped Sunzi’s view of the world and continue to shape the view of leaders in Beijing.

Scott D. McDonald, Non-resident Fellow, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies; PhD Candidate, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

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Justice Sotomayor’s health isn’t the real problem for Democrats − winning elections is

Winning on Election Day is the best path for any political party to remake the Supreme Court. Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images

Kevin J. McMahon, Trinity College

It almost sounds like a bad joke: What did the 78-year-old male senator say to the 69-year-old female justice?

“RETIRE!”

That’s effectively what happened recently when U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut suggested that Sonia Sotomayor – the first Hispanic and third woman Supreme Court justice – retire so that President Joe Biden could appoint a younger and presumably healthier replacement.

Blumenthal is not alone. Fearing a repeat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September 2020 — just weeks before Election Day — progressives such as Josh Barro, Mehdi Hasan and Nate Silver want to ensure that if Donald Trump does defeat Biden in November, he would not have another opportunity to replace a departed liberal justice with a young conservative ideologue.

If Sotomayor is indeed ill, she could justifiably choose to retire. But such calls are not clear-eyed assessments of the justice’s health. Blumenthal and the progressive columnists calling for Sotomayor’s retirement aren’t medical doctors who have reviewed the justice’s records.

Instead, in my view as a political scientist who studies the Supreme Court, these calls are gimmicks really designed to keep a seat on the Supreme Court in the hands of a liberal justice.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut has urged Sonia Sotomayor to resign from the Supreme Court. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Long tenure is a problem

Don’t get me wrong. As I write in my new book, “A Supreme Court Unlike Any Other: The Deepening Divide Between the Justices and the People,” the increasingly long tenure of justices is a serious problem for American democracy. The confirmation of younger justices who stay far longer than they once did prevents the court’s membership from changing organically.

Consider, for example, a hypothetical I pose in my book. Justice Clarence Thomas once said that he intends to serve until he is 86 years old because, as he put it, “The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years, and I’m going to make their lives miserable for 43 years.”

If Thomas, who at 75 is the oldest sitting justice, is able to fulfill that promise and no younger justice leaves the court before him, the U.S. would not see another vacancy until 2034.

A court unchanged for 12 years would be unprecedented in American history. This is just one of the factors that has deepened the “democracy gap” between the justices and the people, which I define in the book as “the distance between the court and the electoral processes that endow it with democratic legitimacy.”

Some reforms would prevent justices from remaining on the high bench for three-plus decades, on average. But publicly requesting an ideologically aligned justice to retire isn’t one of them. It isn’t likely to work, and in the case of Sotomayor, it has been viewed as sexist.

Perhaps more importantly, it misses the point.

Win elections, shape the court

When it comes to the Supreme Court, progressives are now in the position where conservatives found themselves for many years. They’re on the outside looking in.

Instead of advancing gimmicks that are unlikely to work, progressives could take a page from the playbook of conservatives who learned from liberals of the previous era: Take the argument to the people.

Winning on Election Day is the best path for any party to remake the court. Recall how the conservatives came to dominate the court. In election after election, Republican presidential nominees rallied conservative voters to the polls by critiquing the court’s most politically divisive decisions, such as Roe, and promising a different type of justice if given the opportunity to fill a seat.

Winning on Election Day is the best path for a political party to remake the Supreme Court. Artis777/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Democrats often stayed silent about the Supreme Court during these campaigns, preferring to motivate voters to the polls with other issues. A 2016 exit poll question asked respondents about the importance of Supreme Court appointments in determining their vote for president. Twenty-one percent answered that it was “the” most important issue for them. And significantly, 56% of that 21% supported Trump, 15 percentage points more than those who backed Hillary Clinton.

In fact, when Trump named Neil Gorsuch as his first high court nominee mere days after his presidential inauguration, he highlighted this data, saying that “millions of voters” had supported him based on his promise to appoint conservatives to the court.

Voters are key

Progressives have already shown that the politically astute response to the conservative Supreme Court and its decisions isn’t to go after one of their own. It is to take advantage of the great distaste many Americans have toward some of the court’s decisions, particularly its 2022 Dobbs ruling uprooting Roe.

Just weeks after the Dobbs decision, Kansans overwhelmingly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have denied women a right to obtain an abortion in their state. In the 2022 midterm elections, the expected red wave turned into a ripple as Democrats highlighted the abortion issue. And as the 2024 campaign season heats up, Democrats are primed to highlight their pro-Roe views to rally voters to the polls.

History shows that parties can win elections after losing the Supreme Court. Those parties have done so by strategically focusing on convincing voters to support them, not persuading justices to retire.

Kevin J. McMahon, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science, Trinity College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

When are parents responsible for their kids’ behavior?

A researcher weighs in on who’s accountable, when and why, in the eyes of the law — and whether the measures work as intended

By Elise Hansen 

When the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley were convicted of involuntary manslaughter, it was a watershed moment in US school shooting cases. It was also a key moment in parental culpability law, governing cases in which parents can be held legally responsible for the actions of their children.

Ethan Crumbley, who at age 15 brought a gun to his high school and killed four people and injured seven, pleaded guilty to 24 crimes at his own trial in 2022. But for the first time in American history, a school shooter’s parents were also convicted, of involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to prison terms.

States have a variety of laws that hold parents responsible for youth offenses under what are called parental culpability laws. Most of these cases involve lower-level matters such as skipping school or damaging property, says developmental psychologist Colleen Sbeglia.

A doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine, Sbeglia was lead author of a paper in the Annual Review of Criminology that examines the wide range of behaviors covered by parental culpability laws and whether the laws work as intended. She spoke with Knowable Magazine about the laws — and the surprisingly small amount of research on their effectiveness.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s significant about the criminal convictions for Ethan Crumbley’s parents?

Criminal charges have never been brought against the parents of a school shooter — or at least, not successfully. So this is really the first time we’re seeing this in American history.

Now that there’s precedent, is it possible we’ll start to see more cases where the parents of school shooters are held criminally accountable?

It is possible. If there’s precedent for something, that helps you build a case for doing the same thing again in the future. But with this particular case, there was so much verifiable, documented evidence of negligence that made it pretty unique. It will be important to watch and see what happens in the future.

How severe do the circumstances have to be, in order for parents to get criminally charged?

The bar is extremely high. You have to prove negligence, which in many cases is difficult. And you also have to be able to somehow disentangle the actions of the perpetrator — in these cases, the child — from the actions of the parents, which is normally kind of impossible to do.

Especially if we start thinking about teenagers, 16 to 17 years old, how much can their parents really control their behavior? That’s something that’s hard to prove definitively in court. Parents are important: They can try to do as much as they can and should be involved as much as they can. But at the end of the day, kids can become pretty independent by their mid-teens.

I think part of the reason why prosecutors were able to successfully bring charges against the parents in the Ethan Crumbley case is because there were so many text messages and records of ignored calls and documented instances of negligence.

Aside from these criminal charges for a school shooting, there’s a whole range of civil charges that can be brought against parents for much smaller stuff that their kids do wrong. What do those cases look like?

Two other broad categories come up much more frequently. If a kid damages some type of property, parents are going to be responsible for financial restitution. Kids don’t have jobs; they’re not able to pay, so the parents are on the hook for that. Civil liability can also include personal injury. If a kid causes a car accident, then the parents can be on the hook for the damage to the vehicle, but they may also have to pay for the personal injury damages.

The other big category is status offenses: behaviors that are illegal only because the youth is under 18. That includes things like underage drinking, truancy — not attending school — or violating curfew.

What’s the typical penalty for parents in a status offense case?

There are different laws by state, so it varies, but a lot of times it’s fines: Parents have to pay a certain amount, which is supposed to encourage them to monitor their kids more closely. Though it’s much more rare, the penalties in some states can be up to incarceration, or eviction, or parents having driver’s licenses taken away. These are obviously more extreme cases, but in some states it could, in theory, lead to that.

Why do we have these laws? What was the thinking behind putting these laws in place?

In the thinking behind any laws that we have, the goals are sort of twofold. One is to restore justice to the victim of the crime. And the other one is either to deter people from committing a crime in the first place or to stop them from committing a crime again.

With parental culpability laws, if the kid hurts someone or damages some property, you’d be able to restore something to the victim. But the other piece, this deterrence piece, implies that if these laws exist, then maybe parents will more closely monitor their children and try to control their behavior better. Or that if their kid does get in trouble, there’s consequences on the parents so they’ll change their behavior to become “better parents.”

But the problem is, we just don’t know if the laws have that deterrent effect. They might, but we do not know.

Why do we know so little about whether these laws help prevent juvenile crime?

There’s a lack of research. Originally, when we were writing our review, we planned to survey the research on the effects of parental culpability sanctions. And then we realized, “Oh, we don’t have much to write about.”

Why? Why is there so little research on this?

I think part of it is because, the way that counties keep records, it’s difficult to know how often these parental culpability charges are really pursued. All 50 states have property damage and restitution laws, and all 50 states have status offenses like truancy. But the charges can be pursued differently based on demographic factors, like race, and location.

And sometimes cases may come up that involve parental responsibility — such as someone suing a parent — that don’t follow the pattern of the government pursuing charges based on parental responsibility laws.

And then there can be different definitions of how things are measured. Like truancy, for example. When Kamala Harris was district attorney in San Francisco, she fought for strict truancy laws at one point. She wanted truancy to be defined as kids missing more than 10 percent of school days. So for a while, truancy was defined that way, but before that, it was just defined as “excessive absenteeism,” which is not a strict standard.

So what you are saying is that, for an academic studying this, getting one-to-one comparisons across states or jurisdictions could be really hard.

Yes. And another reason why there is a lack of research is that when we implement laws, for better or for worse they don’t automatically come with a study to see how effective they are.

So we don’t have much direct research on this question. But there are some real-life examples of consequences of really strict parental culpability laws.

Going back to the Kamala Harris example, not only did she push for a stricter truancy standard in San Francisco, when she became the attorney general for the state of California, she championed a law that made that the standard statewide. And the penalties on parents if their kids had too many unexcused absences could include fines or even jail time. This is maybe a good idea in theory: making a clear definition of truancy, making it consistent statewide, and being clear and consistent about the punishment that people can expect if kids don’t go to school. It would make it easier to research, too.

But there were a lot of unintended consequences here. Soon after the law went into effect, there was a single mother in Orange County in Southern California who was arrested and perp-walked for having her child miss more than 10 percent of the school days. But it turns out her child had sickle cell anemia and was missing school for medical appointments. Now, the mom and the school had not fully worked out the accommodation plan yet. But this is a single mom who has a child with an extreme medical condition and is facing lots of medical bills, and she got arrested and it was very publicized on television. Nowadays, Kamala Harris is trying to promote data-driven policies instead, and trying to understand the reasons why kids miss school, instead of just punishing parents.

And do status cases, such as truancy, happen often? What’s the scale of this issue?

In writing the review, I found that roughly speaking, there’s on average around 100,000 status offense cases that are filed in the United States every year.

You mentioned the mother in Orange County who was arrested. Could lesser penalties, such as a fine, cause hardship too?

Yes. If you think, for example, about a single mother who is socioeconomically disadvantaged, may have multiple children, and may be working multiple jobs, it can be very difficult for her to have the time and the resources to help her child do what they need to do.

Suppose it comes out that one of her sons hasn’t been going to school. If she has to pay a fine of several hundred dollars, she may have to pick up extra shifts at work to deal with this unexpected expense, which further limits her ability to monitor her son’s behavior. And it’s also possible that it is weakening their bond, because of course he’s doing something that he shouldn’t be doing and is causing his mother financial stress. And that can deteriorate the warmth in their relationship.

And there is research showing that having a warm relationship with your mother can help to prevent delinquency. A study published in 2017 followed 317 mothers and their teenage sons over two and a half years. The sons had just been arrested for the first time when the study started, and interviews over the study period showed that a high-quality mother-son relationship reduced youths’ reoffending over time.

There’s also research showing that being socioeconomically disadvantaged is a risk factor for adolescents engaging in delinquent behavior. And if parents have to pay fines, if they have to take time away from work to go in and attend hearings, the time and money can add up.

So perhaps these penalties could be counterproductive?

There isn’t much research on this, so we don’t know for sure. But we do know that these penalties on parents can contribute to all these other factors — such as financial hardship and family bonds — that are linked to juvenile crime.

What are the next steps for researchers and policymakers interested in this issue?

First and most obviously, it would be good to be able to measure the effect that these laws have. Are they having the desired effect — that after kids get in trouble, they don’t get in trouble again? Or if the parent has to pay fines or face some other consequence, is that actually related to a change in their parenting behavior? We know that if parents are more involved, and they are monitoring their children, that is linked to lower delinquency. But we don’t know if laws are making that change in parents.

But I would say the biggest avenue for future research, based on what we know about adolescent development, is whether support for parents and families is more effective at preventing or reducing crime than parental responsibility laws. Getting someone involved in the legal system does not necessarily address why the behavior happened. I think it’s important to remember that, especially when it comes to kids, the root of the problem is not necessarily criminal in nature.

More often than not, it’s a social problem: It could be because they don’t have a good neighborhood, or they are with other peers who are engaging in risky behaviors or who are involved in gangs. They might not have strong ties with their parents, maybe because their parents are working long hours or multiple jobs.

And on top of this, speaking in terms of their psychological development, teens are really wanting to seek out exciting things, and they’re not very good at controlling their impulses. Across the globe, risk-taking and offending behavior peaks during the teenage years, but almost all youth, even ones who commit serious crimes, stop offending as adults.

And so I think for the future, it’s also important to remember that the legal system is not the only tool that we have to address societal problems, especially when the root of these types of problems is often social in nature.

Why is it so important for there to be more research on these questions?

The Ethan Crumbley case is particularly horrible, but it is very rare and does not represent the majority of cases where parents will face legal culpability. We don’t know what the effects of parental culpability laws are on juvenile offending, but we do know that there could be many unintended consequences of parental culpability laws that have the potential to make juvenile crime worse.

So doing the research and actually evaluating things empirically is really important, because that can help us design better policies that do the most good, while limiting harm as much as possible.

Knowable Magazine

Dish Up Protein-Packed Sweet Treats

In a world of packed schedules and boring food, it can feel like doing the healthy thing means giving up some of what makes you happy – like treats and flavors you love. Choosing health shouldn’t mean restricting yourself; everyone deserves a treat now and again.

Try incorporating better-for-you ingredients into your favorite indulgences. Look for convenient, ready-to-use products, like Premier Protein High Protein Shakes, to help infuse the nutrition you need with the joy you deserve. With 30 grams of protein, 160 calories and 1 gram of sugar, the shakes make it easy to take the first step and keep that momentum going, adding nutrient-dense protein to nearly any recipe.

In addition to a smooth, creamy texture, each shake delivers 24 vitamins and minerals including vitamins C and E, which help support a healthy immune system as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle. With 11 flavors – including strawberries & cream and chocolate – there’s an impossibly indulgent option for everyone to make a healthy life a happy endeavor through recipes like Peanut Butter Jelly Ice Cream and Chocolate Ice Cream with “Caramel” Sauce.

Find more information and recipes at PremierProtein.com or on Instagram.

Peanut Butter Jelly Ice Cream

Servings: 12

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup Premier Protein Strawberries & Cream Protein Shake
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar-free strawberry jelly

1. In large, heavy saucepan, heat milk, protein shake, brown sugar and salt until bubbles form around sides of pan. Whisk small amount of hot mixture into egg. Return to pan, whisking constantly.
2. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon. Remove from heat; whisk in peanut butter. Quickly transfer to bowl; place in ice water and stir 2 minutes. Stir in cream and vanilla. Press wax paper onto surface of custard. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
3. Fill cylinder of ice cream freezer 2/3 full; freeze according to manufacturer's directions.
4. When ice cream is frozen, spoon into freezer container, layering with jelly; freeze 2-4 hours before serving.

Nutritional information per serving: 271 calories; 23 g total fat; 11 g saturated fat; 0 g trans fat; 72 mg cholesterol; 205 mg sodium; 13 g total carbohydrates; 1 g dietary fiber; 8 g total sugars; 6 g protein.

Chocolate Ice Cream with “Caramel” Sauce

Recipe courtesy of "Chelsea's Messy Apron"
Servings: 8

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 bag (10 ounces) dark chocolate chips, plus additional for topping (optional)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 Premier Protein Chocolate Protein Shake

"Caramel" Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil (measured when solid)
• 3 tablespoons real maple syrup
• 1 1/2 tablespoons almond butter
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Wash and scrub sweet potato. Pierce with fork several times. Place on microwave-safe plate and microwave 5 minutes; flip and microwave 5 minutes. Allow to cool.
2. In microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate chips in 20-second increments, stirring between each increment until smooth and melted. Set aside.
3. Remove sweet potato skin and thoroughly mash. Pack into 3/4 cup measuring cup. Place in large blender.
4. Add melted chocolate to blender along with vanilla, sea salt, coconut sugar and chocolate protein shake.
5. Place lid on blender and blend on high at least 1 minute, or until ingredients are smooth and incorporated.
6. Transfer to ice cream maker and prepare according to manufacturer's directions then transfer to airtight container and freeze 2-3 hours.
7. To make "caramel" sauce: In microwave-safe bowl, microwave coconut oil and syrup 30 seconds. Stir and microwave 30 seconds, or until melted and smooth. Stir in almond butter and whisk until smooth. Add sea salt and vanilla extract; whisk to combine.
8. Set "caramel" sauce aside at room temperature about 30 minutes. Top ice cream with sauce and additional chocolate chips, if desired.

Nutritional information per serving: 346 calories; 18 g total fat; 11 g saturated fat; 5 mg cholesterol; 219 mg sodium; 40 g total carbohydrates; 4 g dietary fiber; 31 g total sugars; 7 g protein.

 

SOURCE:
Premier Protein

High-ROI Spring Home Projects

Spring is nature’s cue to renew and refresh. Whether you’re looking to add value for potential sale or simply create a more comfortable living space, you can make the most of the season and breathe new life into your home with projects that provide a high return on investment (ROI).

Consider these top home renovation projects to tackle this spring from the experts at Westlake Royal Building Products – a leader in innovation, design and production of exterior and interior building products including siding, trim, mouldings, roofing, stone, windows, outdoor living and more – based on the 2024 Cost vs. Value Report from “Remodeling Magazine.”

Remodel the Kitchen and Bathroom
The average seller can expect an 96.1% return on a light touch to the kitchen, according to the report, and 73.7% on a modest bathroom renovation. Because personal preferences can vary widely among buyers, minor upgrades can provide a higher ROI than large, upscale remodels. A few easy ways to refresh your kitchen or bathroom include updating shelving or adding new hardware. Decorative trim and mouldings are also cost-effective ways to add visual interest.

Upgrade with Stone Veneer
As natural and textured home trends continue, homeowners are gravitating toward stone veneer, or manufactured stone, as it can replicate the look of real stone, adding comfort, character and beauty to homes. An option like Versetta Stone from Westlake Royal Building Products offers the authentic, handcrafted look of stone in a panelized format that’s easy to install with nails and screws. There’s also no need to paint, coat or seal once installed. Ideal for its ability to add texture and dimension throughout both home interior (accent walls and fireplaces) and exterior applications (siding, entryways and walkways), stone veneer – which comes with a 153.2% ROI – can influence mood, emotion and energy levels while serving as a focal point of your home’s design.

Install New Windows
Depending on the harshness of winter in your area and the age of your home, you may notice certain windows have developed drafts, allowing cold air to enter and heat to escape. Replacing drafty or outdated windows with modern, energy-efficient models is one of the most effective ways to enhance your home’s energy efficiency. Additionally, a vinyl window replacement brings approximately 67.1% ROI.

Replace Siding
In some cases, applying a fresh coat of paint is enough to refresh your home. However, if you’re looking to enhance your home’s curb appeal while making a long-term impact, consider installing new siding or replacing existing siding. Because vinyl siding serves as an additional layer of insulation, improving the energy efficiency of your heating and cooling systems, it offers a 80.2% ROI. Weather-resistant, low-maintenance siding like Celect Cellular Composite Siding, which is now available in on-trend colors including Imperial Red, a robust shade of red; Deep Pewter, a compellingly modern forest green; and Timberland, a rich, natural brown, won’t warp, sag or buckle and is built to withstand even the harshest weather conditions. Its patented interlocking joints provide a seamless look and it’s easy to install in small spaces, like along a knee or pony wall.

Update Decking
If you want to entertain guests outside, spring is a perfect time to get your patio or deck ready. While a new coat of stain can update your existing deck’s appearance and help protect it, spring is also an ideal time to build a deck if your home doesn’t currently have one. When choosing a decking material, cost and maintenance are two factors to consider. Composite decking offers a 68.2% ROI and is low maintenance as it’s not susceptible to cracking, warping and weather damage.

Find more ideas to update your home this spring at WestlakeRoyalBuildingProducts.com.

SOURCE:
Westlake Royal Building Products

As humans, we all want self-respect – and keeping that in mind might be the missing ingredient when you try to change someone’s mind

Looking to persuade someone? Start with respect. dusanpetkovic/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Colin Marshall, University of Washington

Why is persuasion so hard, even when you have facts on your side?

As a philosopher, I’m especially interested in persuasion – not just how to convince someone, but how to do it ethically, without manipulation. I’ve found that one of the deepest insights comes from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, a focus of my research, who was born 300 years ago: April 22, 1724.

In his final book on ethics, “The Doctrine of Virtue,” Kant writes that each of us has a certain duty when we try to correct others’ beliefs. If we think they’re mistaken, we shouldn’t dismiss them as “absurdities” or “poor judgment,” he says, but must suppose that their views “contain some truth.”

What Kant is describing might sound like humility – just recognizing that other people often know things we don’t. But it goes beyond that.

This moral duty to find truth in others’ mistakes is based on helping the other person “preserve his respect for his own understanding,” Kant claims. In other words, even when we encounter obviously false points of view, morality calls on us to help the person we’re talking to maintain their self-respect – to find something reasonable in their views.

This advice can come across as patronizing, as though we were supposed to treat other adults like children with fragile egos. But I think Kant is onto something important here, and contemporary psychology can help us see it.

The need for respect

Imagine that you had to postpone lunch because of a meeting. With only 15 minutes to spare and a growling stomach, you leave to get a burrito.

On your way, however, you run into a colleague. “I’m glad to see you,” they say. “I’m hoping to change your mind about something from the meeting.”

In that scenario, your colleague has little chance of persuading you. Why? Well, you need food, and they’re getting in the way of you satisfying that need.

As psychologists of persuasion have long recognized, a key factor in persuasion is attention, and people don’t attend to persuasive arguments when they have more pressing needs – especially hunger, sleep and safety. But less obvious needs can also make people unpersuadable.

No, I really don’t to hear your ‘quick idea’ – not until I have some food in me, anyway. Jose Luis Pelaez/Stone via Getty Images

One that has received a lot of attention in recent decades is the need for social belonging.

The psychologist Dan Kahan gives the example of somebody who, like everyone in their community, incorrectly denies the existence of climate change. If that person publicly corrected their beliefs, they might be ostracized from friends and family. In that case, Kahan suggests, it can be “perfectly rational” for them to simply ignore the scientific evidence about an issue that they can’t directly affect, in order to satisfy their social need for connection.

This means that a respectful persuader needs to take into account others’ need for social dignity, such as by avoiding public settings when discussing topics that might be sensitive or taboo.

… and self-respect

Yet external needs, like hunger or social acceptance, aren’t the only ones that get in the way of persuasion. In a classic 1988 article on self-affirmation, the psychologist Claude Steele argued that our desire to maintain some “self-regard” as a good, competent person profoundly shapes psychology.

In more philosophical terms: People have a need for self-respect. This can explain why, for instance, students sometimes blame low grades on bad luck and difficult material, but explain high grades in terms of their own ability and effort.

Steele’s approach has yielded some surprising results. For example, one study invited female students to write down values that were important to them – an exercise in self-affirmation. Afterward, many students who had done this exercise earned higher grades in a physics course, particularly girls who had previously performed worse than male students.

That study and many others illustrate how bolstering someone’s self-esteem can equip them to tackle intellectual challenges, including challenges to their personal beliefs.

With that in mind, let’s turn back to Kant.

Politics are personal

Recall Kant’s claim: When we encounter somebody with false beliefs, even absurdly false ones, we must help them preserve their respect for their own understanding by acknowledging some element of truth in their judgments. That truth could be a fact we’d overlooked, or an important experience they’d had.

Kant isn’t just talking about being humble or polite. He directs attention to a real need that people have – a need that persuaders have to recognize if they want to get a fair hearing.

For example, say that you want to change your cousin’s mind about whom to support in the 2024 election. You come equipped with well-crafted evidence and carefully choose a good moment for a one-on-one talk.

Despite all that, your chances will be slim if you ignore your cousin’s need for self-respect. In a country as polarized as the U.S. is today, an argument about whom to vote for can feel like a direct attack on someone’s competence and moral decency.

In today’s climate, political conversations can feel like attacks on your character, not the politician’s. Goran 13/iStock via Getty Images

So providing somebody with evidence that they should change their views can run headfirst into their need for self-respect – our human need to see ourselves as intelligent and good.

Moral maturity

Persuasion, in other words, takes a lot of juggling: In addition to making strong persuasive arguments, a persuader also has to avoid threatening the other person’s need for self-respect.

Actual juggling would be a lot easier if we could slow down the objects. That’s why juggling on the Moon would be about twice as easy as on Earth, thanks to the Moon’s lower gravity.

When it comes to persuasion, though, we can slow things down by pacing the conversation, opening up time to learn something from the other person in return. This signals that you take them seriously – and that can bolster their self-esteem.

To be ethical, this openness to learning must be sincere. But that’s not hard: On most topics, each of us have limited experience. For example, perhaps Donald Trump or Joe Biden validated some of your cousin’s frustrations about their local government, in ways you couldn’t have guessed.

This approach has an important benefit to you as well: helping you preserve your own self-respect. After all, approaching others with humility shows moral maturity. Recognizing others’ need for self-respect can not only help you persuade someone, but persuade in ways you can feel proud of.

Colin Marshall, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

 

Philadelphia has a lot more deadly shootings than expected for a big city − and NYC is much safer, new study says

Rayan Succar, New York University and Maurizio Porfiri, New York University

Recent high-profile mass shootings at SEPTA bus stations have left Philadelphia commuters on high alert. Two gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in the Ogontz neighborhood on March 4, 2024, striking five people and killing 17-year-old Dayemen Taylor. Two days later, a group of teenagers shot eight other teens waiting at a bus stop near Northeast High School after school.

So far in 2024, 86 people have been killed in Philadelphia – the vast majority of them after being shot. And yet, the city is still on track to have the lowest number of homicides since 2016, a sign of just how violent it has been in past years.

A new study by New York University urban science researchers Rayan Succar and Maurizio Porfiri uses a methodology known as urban scaling to understand how violence in Philadelphia and other cities compares with what might be expected in cities based on their size. They answered the following questions for The Conversation.

What is urban scaling?

Big cities – filled with millions of people interacting with each other – are complex systems.

Urban scaling laws are used to explain how certain features of cities – from average salaries to road surface area to COVID infection rates – increase or decrease as population grows. These changes are not in direct relationship to population increases and decreases. In other words, the relationship isn’t linear.

As surprising as it sounds, some quantities – the rate of homicides, for example – tend to increase even more than the rate of population growth. Mathematicians call this superlinear growth. So, a larger population leads to a statistical increase not just in the number of homicides but in the rate of homicides relative to the population.

Other quantities, such as gun ownership and access, may grow at a slower rate as city population increases. This is called sublinear growth. Our study shows that the percentage of gun owners and accessibility, measured by the number of licensed gun sellers in a specific metro region, generally decreases as population increases.

To get a more nuanced view, urban scientists like us use a measure called the Scale-Adjusted Metropolitan Indicator. This indicator was originally proposed by Luis Bettencourt, an urban scientist at the University of Chicago and the Santa Fe Institute. It takes into account nonlinear scaling patterns observed in cities, allowing for a more accurate comparison of different urban areas.

For our study, we used the SAMI to rank 833 U.S. metro areas in terms of homicide rates. We collected data on local rates of gun ownership, accessibility and the prevalence of homicides from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The data takes into account all guns owned – whether they were acquired legally or illegally.

National Guard troops were deployed to New York City in March 2024 to address rising crime on the subways. Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

How did Philly compare with other big cities?

Philadelphia has far fewer homes with firearms and fewer gun dealers than what its population would predict. And yet, Philadelphia still experiences a higher-than-expected rate of violence.

Among the nine cities with populations over 5 million, the Philadelphia metropolitan area – this includes Camden, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware – had the second-largest deviation from what is expected from its size. Chicago had the largest deviation, meaning it was more violent than its size suggests by the largest amount.

For comparison with other cities of varying size, Detroit also has more violence than expected for its population, while Miami is about average, and Boulder is much safer than expected.

While often perceived as unsafe, New York City is actually significantly more safe than one might expect given its population. In fact, it ranks as the least violent of cities with more than 5 million people.

New York’s favorable scores suggest that efforts to reduce violence there have been successful, while efforts in Philadelphia aren’t working as well.

Rayan Succar, Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University and Maurizio Porfiri, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, New York University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

Fuel Family Fun with This Easy Recipe

Between work, after-school activities and homework, planning memorable family time is nearly impossible. Changing that mindset can start by making mealtime simpler with recipes that serve up big smiles for the whole family and fuel fun, even on weeknights.

As a quick and easy mealtime solution that gives families time back to make lasting memories, Mrs. T’s Pierogies are pasta pockets filled with the stuff you love like creamy mashed potatoes, cheesy goodness and other big, bold flavors. Now, parents can get all their loved ones involved with the Go-Fun-Me Challenge – a commitment to make a simple dinner one night a week and create a memorable family experience in or out of the home with the time saved. By opting in between May 2-June 3, parents are entered to win $12,000 and a year supply of pierogies to help fund and fuel all of that fun.

You can find a little inspiration in recipes like these Pierogy Burrito Bowls, loaded with cheesy pierogies, cherry tomatoes, corn, sliced avocado and homemade avocado mayo crema for a simple meal everyone in the family can enjoy.

No matter how parents switch up their weeknight routines, like a trip to the park or an at-home movie night, pierogies make weeknight recipes like this one possible because they’re simple and easy to prepare, leaving more time for parents to do the stuff they love with the ones they love.

Opt into the challenge and find more recipes fit for family fun by visiting MrsTsPierogies.com/Go-Fun-Me.

Pierogy Burrito Bowls

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Servings: 4

Burrito Bowls:

• 1 tablespoon avocado oil
• 1 bag (2 pounds) Mrs. T's 4 Cheese Medley Pierogies
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn, lightly roasted
• 1 ripe avocado, pitted and thinly sliced
• 1 cup pickled red onions
• 3/4 cup Cotija cheese
• fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish

Avocado Mayo Crema:

• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1 ripe avocado, pitted and roughly chopped
• 1/2 lime, juice only

1. To make burrito bowls: In medium skillet over medium heat, add avocado oil. Saute pierogies in batches, approximately 8 minutes on both sides, until golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Divide pierogies, cherry tomatoes, corn, avocado, pickled red onions and Cotija cheese evenly among serving bowls. Garnish with cilantro.
3. To make avocado mayo crema: In food processor, process mayo, avocado and lime juice until smooth.
4. Drizzle avocado mayo crema over bowls, as desired.

SOURCE:
Mrs. T’s Pierogies

From toxic fungus to soy sauce superstar

Today the koji mold is a master fermenter, but it has a checkered past

By Rachel Ehrenberg 

Nearly 9,000 years ago, around the time that humans were first domesticating corn and pigs, some people in China were taming fungi.

One such fungus, the mold Aspergillus oryzae, would go on to become a culinary superstar. Through fermentation of raw ingredients like soybeans or rice, A. oryzae helps to bring us soy sauce, sake and several other traditional Asian foods. It does so by breaking down proteins and starches so that other microbes can finish off the fermentations.

But A. oryzae wasn’t always so obliging. The wild version of the mold makes potent toxins that can poison the consumer and lead to cancer in the liver and other organs. Plus, it’s a destructive agricultural pest that causes millions of dollars in damage each year to crops like peanuts and corn.

What changed? Research is steadily revealing how the fungus transformed from a dangerous, toxic mold into a superior tool of food biotechnology that thrives in human-made environments. And as scientists study A. oryzae, they’re learning more about the process of domestication in microbes in general — which still remains in many ways mysterious.

“Almost everything we know comes from plants and animals,” microbial genomicist John Gibbons of UMass Amherst says of domestication. “You can see the difference between dogs and wolves, between corn and teosinte, but you can’t really see the differences between microbes … because most of it is changes in metabolism.”

A master digester

A. oryzae belongs to a family of fungi in a larger group known as the blue and green molds. Some 40 percent of the family’s species are in the genus Aspergillus, so named because the slender stalks and poofy tips of its spore-producing structures resemble an aspergillum, the holy water sprinkler used in some Christian denominations. The genus has several high-profile members, including helpful industrial species that crank out useful chemicals such as medicines or ferment foods, as A. oryzae does.

Known as the koji mold, A. oryzae is a master digester. In the first stage of soy sauce production, A. oryzae tackles the starter ingredients, typically soybeans and wheat; in sake production, it goes to work on rice. The mold’s digestive enzymes — proteases and amylases — break down the proteins and starches into simpler molecules that will be fermented by yeasts later on. The mold “smells like this wonderful mix of mushroom and grapefruit, and a little bit sour as well,” says microbiologist Benjamin Wolfe of Tufts University near Boston.

Other Aspergillus species are menaces — among them, Aspergillus flavus, the Mr. Hyde to A. oryzae’s Dr. Jekyll. A. flavus makes potent poisons called aflatoxins that, when ingested, are metabolized by the liver into compounds that damage DNA and otherwise mess with cellular functioning. It infects a variety of crops — corn, wheat, cassava, chili pepper, peanut, rice, sesame, sunflower seed and more. It can contaminate plants both before harvest and after, when crops are stored or shipped. The toxins can even contaminate the milk of animals that eat tainted feed. Despite various control measures, sporadic aflatoxin outbreaks poison and kill people and pets around the globe.

Scientists have long recognized that the hazardous A. flavus and the food fermenter A. oryzae are very close relatives — the two can appear identical in color and texture, or look very different from each other, making it tricky to tell them apart. Early investigations of their DNA reported remarkable similarity, and a 1998 study of a handful of genes from each fungus concluded that A.oryzae evolved via domestication from A. flavus.

But A. oryzae doesn’t make aflatoxin and has been safely used as a food fermenter for thousands of years. Now scientists have begun to pinpoint the specific tweaks that that led to the major overhaul of the mold’s metabolism.

Soy sauce production involves two ferments; the koji mold is the workhorse of the first one.

CREDIT: BUSINESS INSIDER

A pivotal genetic deletion

Scientists had long been keen to establish genetic proof that A. oryzae couldn’t make aflatoxin, partly for reassurance that the mold is, and would remain, safe for fermenting food. Over the years, they have documented numerous large- and small-scale destructive changes in the cluster of more than two dozen genes that the fungus’s ancestor employed to make the toxin.

In one recent study, for example, scientists compared the genome of A. oryzae 14160, an industrial strain from China, with the genome of A. oryzae RIB40, a strain that was sequenced in 2005. In a report published in Frontiers in Microbiology in 2021, the team found that more than half of the aflatoxin gene cluster was deleted in strain 14160, while strain RIB40 has mutations in key genes here and there.

But from strain to strain to strain, there’s one deletion in the aflatoxin gene cluster that consistently appears, says Gibbons, who led the 2021 analysis with then-graduate student Katherine Chacón-Vargas (the group has been analyzing hundreds of strains of the molds). This finding suggests that at some point, a strain of wild A. flavus mold acquired the deletion, which rendered it harmless. After that, other genetic changes — mutations, deletions, other alterations — freely accumulated in the aflatoxin genes since they were no longer being used.

Domestication would have ensured that the harmless trait remained, says Gibbons. That’s because aflatoxin is a defensive compound the mold uses to kill other microbes. Since other microbes — specifically, yeasts — are part of the fermentation process for making soy sauce or the rice wine sake, the only fermentations that would work would be those in which Aspergillus toxins weren’t present to kill off the yeasts.

And in the cushy domesticated environment, the toxins aren’t important anyway. “You have this really stable food source all the time and there’s no longer a reason to produce defense chemicals because there’s enough food for everybody,” Gibbons says.

The loss of the ability to make aflatoxin probably paved the way for the fungus to ramp up its starch-digesting abilities, Gibbons adds. That’s because defense chemicals are expensive to make. “If they lose the ability to produce those toxins, it actually saves them a lot of energy that they can put into primary metabolism, like digesting starches and sugars and proteins,” he says.

Research suggests that this dialed-up ability to digest starch evolved over and over again. Back in 1989, for example, long before genome sequences were available for any Aspergillus species, several groups of scientists used methods to show that A. oryzae had multiple copies of the gene coding for alpha-amylase, the starch-digesting enzyme; two strains of the fungus had two copies while two other strains had three.

Researchers have since looked more closely and at more strains and found all sorts of variations on this theme. Strain RIB40, for example, has alpha-amylase genes on chromosomes 2, 3 and 5, while Gibbon’s team recently reported that the industrial strain from China, 14160, has two copies on chromosome 2 and a third copy on chromosome 6.

These kinds of changes also probably happened many times in the wild, says Gibbons, though before domestication, they weren’t retained because they weren’t of use. “But in the food environment, the more of these alpha-amylase genes you have, the more of this enzyme you’re producing,” he says. We humans would then have selected the starch-digesting powerhouse microbes in our domestication for fermentations.

Domestication of A. oryzae could have happened very quickly if research on Penicillium species, another famous mold in the Aspergillus family, is anything to go by.

P. camemberti, which is responsible for the white rind and distinctive smell of Camembert and Brie cheeses, is thought to have evolved from P. commune, a darkly pigmented, toxin-producing species with a musty odor. When Wolfe’s group at Tufts took a wild P. commune strain and another non-cheese Penicillium strain and serially grew them on cheese, after only eight generations — a period of a few weeks — the wild strains showed signs of domestication. Reporting in the journal mBio in 2019, the team found that the molds’ ability to make pigment and toxins diminished. At the same time, they lost their musty odor, acquiring the buttery, cheesy aromas characteristic of their domesticated relatives.

The human factor in fermentation

When contemplating the steps in the taming of A. oryzae, it’s useful to remember that fermentation and human evolution have probably always been intertwined, says microbial geneticist Kevin Verstrepen of VIB and Leuven University in Belgium.

For example, it’s easy to imagine early hominids eating fruit that had been visited by yeast and fermented into an alcoholic mash, and for humans to have recognized the merits of such fruit, both for its mind-altering effects and disinfectant qualities. “I wouldn’t be surprised if those things were discovered quite quickly,” says Verstrepen.

In the case of Aspergillus, spores are constantly drifting about — we inhale upwards of 200 per day, researchers estimate — and they will grow if they settle in a warm, humid spot. A recent reconstruction of the Aspergillus family tree by evolutionary biologist Antonis Rokas of Vanderbilt University suggests that A. flavus and some version of its domesticated counterpart, A. oryzae, last shared an ancestor roughly 3.8 million years ago. A. oryzae is naturally fond of rice, and versions of A. flavus that didn’t make aflatoxin were likely present on wild rice plants consumed by early humans.

With the advent of farming in the Neolithic some 12,000 or so years ago, domestication became a full court press. As people settled in communities and began regularly planting crops and keeping animals, there would have been an excess, perhaps for the first time, of grain or milk or meat. Fermentation provided a way to keep food past harvest and prolong shelf life.

“One of the best examples is raw milk — it goes bad in a day or so at room temperature,” says Gibbons. “But if you ferment it into a hard cheese, you can travel around with it in your pocket at room temperature for a month.”

An early example of people intentionally fermenting foods — very likely using Aspergillus — comes from the Neolithic village Jiahu in Henan province in China, a site with artifacts suggesting domesticated rice and early musical instruments. In 2004, a team reported that pottery shards from the site contained residues of a fermented drink of rice, honey and fruit — basically, a rice wine or “proto-sake,” says Gibbons. Scientists have since investigated residues in vessels from two other early Neolithic sites in China and found traces of fungi, including some that are startlingly like our hero, the koji mold.

Initially, people probably relied on spontaneous colonization by A. oryzae and other microbes but at some point, “back-slopping” developed, wherein a portion of a previous ferment is used to start a new one, like a sourdough starter is used for bread. This intentional fermentation with A. oryzae appears to have been happening as early as 2,300 years ago: The mold gets a mention in the ancient Chinese text Zhouli (Rites of the Zhou dynasty) that dates to 300 BCE. Some time later, people began breeding A. oryzae on steamed rice; its spores were then separated from the grain with a silk sieve and dried for use as needed.

Verstrepen is fond of telling his students that beer yeasts, living year-round in their vats where they are warm and well-fed, are like dogs, while wine yeasts, which are harnessed during the harvest but may intermingle with wild species in the intervening months, are like cats.

Today, says Rokas, A. oryzae is like a dog. There are numerous bred strains that people can order depending on their specific fermenting needs. But for a long time, there would have been unfettered variety floating around — lots of A. oryzae/A.flavus strains with defunct toxin genes and differing abilities to digest starch, and a matter of fortune which ended up in your soy sauce or sake brew. The mold of the ancients, Rokas says, “must have been more catlike.”

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