💫 Space collision altered asteroids' solar orbit – confirms that planetary defense works
NASA's deliberate space collision with the asteroid Dimorphos shifted the asteroid pair's orbit around the sun. It is the first time scientists have been able to measure such a change, confirming that the technique works for deflecting dangerous asteroids.
💡 Warp News #316
🚭 Americans who smoke has dropped to a historic low. 🏠 Americans have tripled their living space. 💓 People who practice empathy with AI get better at showing compassion.
🧒 Child poverty in Sweden drops to lowest level in ten years
The share of children living in families with a low income standard has fallen from 10 percent to 6 percent since 2014. 56 percent of all children live in families with a high income standard, that corresponds to more than 1.2 million children.
💓 People who practice empathy with AI get better at showing compassion
A study with 968 participants shows that personalized feedback from an AI coach makes people significantly better at communicating with empathy. People who feel empathy often fail to express it – most believed they were good listeners, but independent assessment showed that few actually were.
📰 Trust in journalists has nearly doubled in 20 years
44 percent of Swedes have high or fairly high trust in journalists, according to the latest survey from the SOM Institute. The share has risen from 24 percent in 2004, nearly doubling over two decades. At the same time, the share who think journalists do their job poorly has been cut in half.
🚭 The share of Americans who smoke has dropped to a historic low
Less than ten percent of American adults smoked cigarettes in 2024, the first time the rate has reached single digits. Reduced smoking has contributed to nearly four million lung cancer deaths being averted between 1970 and 2022.
🏠 Americans have tripled their living space per person since 1950
The average living space per person in the US has increased from about 290 square feet in 1950 to over 890 square feet in 2024. The share of overcrowded homes has fallen from over 20% in 1940 to under 6%.
🦋 Rewilding in Scotland leads to sharply increased biodiversity
Rewilded land in Scotland has increased the number of suitable breeding territories for birds by 546% compared to non-rewilded land. The number of bumblebees and butterflies has increased more than tenfold, and the network is now estimated to support 2.5 million pollinating insects.
☀️ Bihar gives 250,000 poor families free rooftop solar panels
The Indian state of Bihar is installing solar panels at no cost for families living below the poverty line. The families will have zero electricity costs for basic usage such as fans, lighting and mobile charging. In the first phase, 250,000 households will receive solar panels
💡 Warp News #315
📉 UK emissions at lowest level since 1872. ⛓️ Forced labor has nearly disappeared in the world. 👁️ Small chip in the eye restores sight to the blind.
⛓️ Forced labor has nearly disappeared in the world
In 1789, 165 of 174 countries had large-scale forced labor – by 2024, only nine countries remained. The fastest change occurred after World War II, when the number of countries with widespread forced labor dropped from nearly 100 to 31 in just one generation.
🦋 The lord of the pessimists is dead – this was his great mistake
Dr. Paul Ehrlich has passed away. He was a cheerful pessimist who viewed humans as insects.
🧒 First vaccine that protects children from deadly E. coli infections
ETVAX is the first vaccine to show significant protection against E. coli infections in humans. The vaccine reduced moderate-to-severe diarrhea in infants under nine months by 68 percent. A phase 3 trial with 5,800 infants from low- and middle-income countries is about to begin.
🌲 Sweden's forests are growing – every harvested tree is replaced with two to three new seedlings
Sweden has twice as much old-growth forest compared to 30 years ago, according to the National Forest Inventory. The timber volume in Swedish forests has doubled since the 1920s.
👁️ Small chip in the eye restores sight to the blind
A 2-millimeter implant under the retina has restored vision in 26 of 32 blind patients. European launch is expected later this year, which would make PRIMA the first brain-computer interface product for vision to reach the market.
📚 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.
