💡 Warp News #308
🤨 Researchers question studies on microplastics in the human body. 💧 California completely drought-free. 👩⚕️ Huntington's disease has been successfully treated for the first time.
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🤗 Two failed hugs
The last time I was in Seattle, I took the opportunity to meet one of my favorite thinkers, Ramez Naam. It started out rather badly.
The very first thing he did when we met was give me a hug. We from Nordics are a bit stiff, so how do you think I handled that?
Yes, exactly how you imagine I did…
Despite that, we had a very pleasant lunch.
Naam belongs to a group of perhaps a handful of people in the world who understood how quickly the price of solar energy would fall. He took a lot of flak for that, but he was also right.
He has also written a book about the power of ideas, a science fiction trilogy about how humans can connect their minds with one another, and he has deep expertise and thoughts on several topics, such as fusion energy.
Do read my article about the lunch with Mez, and about what happened when he tried to hug me again after lunch.
A bit of praise as well
Last week I scolded the news media, but now it is time for a positive example.
The Guardian has done something we at Warp News often talk about, and have done ourselves on a few occasions: scrutinizing things that sound too bad to be true, not just too good to be true.
They have taken a closer look at claims that the human body absorbs large amounts of microplastics, and concluded that this may very well be exaggerated.
We write about it here.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
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🍽️ The naive optimist who turned out to be right – lunch with Ramez Naam
Two failed hugs framed an interesting conversation with the polymath and renewable energy expert Ramez Naam.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
👩⚕️ Huntington's disease has been successfully treated for the first time
A gene therapy has for the first time been shown to slow Huntington's disease by 75 percent after three years in a clinical trial. The results provide proof that the disease can be treated, opening possibilities for other neurodegenerative conditions as well.
⚗️ Amazon buys copper produced with microorganisms in new climate-friendly process
The process uses microorganisms to extract copper from ore that previously often became waste, eliminating the need for traditional smelters and refineries. The technology can strengthen domestic copper supply without waiting for permits for new mines, a process that normally takes many years.
💧 California completely drought-free for the first time in 25 years
California has no dry areas for the first time since 2000 according to the US Drought Monitor. Heavy winter rains have filled the state's reservoirs far above historic averages.
🤨 Researchers question high-profile studies on microplastics in the human body
Seven studies reporting microplastics in the brain, testes, and other organs have been challenged by other researchers in scientific journals. Analytical techniques for measuring microplastics in tissue can produce false positive results because body fat can be confused with common plastics.
🌾 Scientists solve hybrid rice's biggest problem: seeds that lose their yield advantage
Researchers have developed hybrid rice that produces genetically identical seeds generation after generation. The system achieves over 99 percent cloning efficiency with normal seed production. The technology could eliminate the need for farmers to buy new hybrid seeds every season.
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