💡 Warp News #279
😊 Young Americans are getting happier. 🍆 Genetic technology enables larger eggplants. 💯 New drug shows one hundred percent protection against HIV infection.
💰 Gates Foundation will spend $200 billion on charity over the next 20 years
Bill Gates has decided to donate virtually his entire fortune through the Gates Foundation. During the foundation's first 25 years, over 100 billion dollars were donated, and Gates plans to double this amount to more than 200 billion dollars by 2045.
🦾 Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm rails against AI regulations and explains why he's a tech optimist: "It has always turned out to be the right thing so far"
"If your fastest growing employee category in Europe is lawyers, then I have some serious concerns. I still don’t know a lawyer who has built a product," says Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm about AI regulations.
🌎 Op-ed: Terraforming – a key to slowing climate change
The climate debate has long been stuck between blame and denial—but now it's time for action. What if the solution lies in actively reshaping Earth’s climate and ecosystems through terraforming?
😊 Young Americans are getting happier
The percentage of university students with symptoms of depression has decreased from 44 percent in 2022 to 38 percent in 2024. Studies show that this trend applies to American youth in general, with decreasing rates of depression and suicide.
💯 New drug shows one hundred percent protection against HIV infection
A clinical trial showed that the drug lenacapavir protected 100 percent of women and girls against HIV infection. The drug only needs to be injected twice a year to provide full protection. New results suggest that an annual injection may be sufficient for long-lasting protection.
🌝 Astronomers discover 128 new moons around Saturn
Saturn now has a total of 274 moons, making it the leading planet in the solar system in terms of moon count. The newly discovered moons are irregular objects just a few kilometers in size and can provide insights into the early history of the solar system.
🍆 Genetic technology enables larger and tastier tomatoes and eggplants
Researchers have discovered genes that control how large tomatoes and eggplants can grow. New techniques in gene editing can lead to the development of new varieties of traditional tomatoes and eggplants that are both larger and tastier.
💡 Warp News #278
♀️ Significant progress for women's rights. 💥 Thousands of square kilometers cleared of landmines in Cambodia. 🔋 Solar panels and batteries dominate new power generation in the US.
🌊 Abundant water from primordial supernovae at cosmic dawn
Researchers have discovered that the first water in the universe formed 100-200 million years after the Big Bang. Dense molecular cloud cores in supernova remnants proved to be the primary sites of water production, with concentrations almost as high as in our solar system today.
📖 Johan Norberg: How golden ages are created, how they end - and what it says about our time
Why do some societies become creative powerhouses while others stagnate? From Renaissance Florence to today's Silicon Valley, Norberg examines what makes civilizations flourish - and what threatens our own golden age.
📉 UK greenhouse gas emissions drop to lowest level since 1872
Coal usage in the country fell to the lowest level since 1666. The number of electric vehicles increased by almost 40% during 2024, contributing to reduced oil demand despite increased traffic on the roads.
♀️ Significant progress for women's rights over 30 years
90% of the world's countries have enacted laws against violence against women and girls. The proportion of women in parliaments has more than doubled since 1995. 53% of member countries have implemented gender-responsive laws and policies for climate and environmental measures.
🦋 Scientists observe 'Hofstadter's butterfly' for the first time
Scientists have measured the energy levels of electrons in a new quantum material and discovered that they follow a fractal pattern, known as "Hofstadter's butterfly." It has been theoretically predicted since 1976 but has now been directly observed for the first time in a real material.
💥 Thousands of square kilometers cleared of landmines in Cambodia
Nearly 3,300 square kilometers of land have been cleared of mines since 1992. 81 percent of the cleared land is now used for agriculture, benefiting over 10 million people. The number of accidents has decreased dramatically from 4,320 in 1996 to only 49 during 2024.
📚 Top Reads
We're honored to present these top reads from world-class writers, who contribute to Warp News because they believe in our mission of spreading fact-based optimism all over the world.
🆙 Warp Levels - an idea to level up humanity
Humanity is doing the high jump without a bar. We have no goal. With Warp Levels, we determine what the next level for humanity should contain, so we can level up and make progress faster.
📚 Kevin Kelly: Focus on the biggest opportunities, not the biggest problems
We talk about some of the 450 advice in his new book, but also about his new project: Protopia - the hundred-year desirable future. And Kevin Kelly give advice for how Warp News should grow faster: "Wrap it around people and their dreams."
💡 A new mindset for humanity can impact billions of people now and in the future
If we succeed in giving humanity more optimism about the future, it will not only affect those living now but also all generations and billions of people who will live in the future.
💰 Wall Street legend: “Pessimists sound smart – optimists make money”
Jim O'Shaughnessy is a legendary investor on Wall Street. He shares what he thinks is the biggest opportunity for the future and explains how the world is going through a great reshuffle.
🔋 Northvolt and the benefit of understanding the future
The story of Peter Carlsson and Northvolt teaches us two lessons: You need to understand the future to see all the possibilities, and you must be a fact-based optimist to grab them.
💡 David Deutsch: Optimism, Pessimism and Cynicism
With so much progress in the world, how can pessimism still be widespread? It is because of cynicism, denying that “so-called-progress” is progress, argues David Deutsch, professor at Oxford University and one of the world's leading intellectuals on optimism.
