💡 Warp News #320
🪱 Hookworm vaccine reduces infection. 🤰 Maternal mortality declining. 🦾 Startups that learned to use AI correctly generated 1.9 times higher revenue.
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Free newsletter with fact-based optimistic news about technology, science, and human progress with the angry optimist, Mathias Sundin. If you are not a subscriber, become one here.
🎥 Amaze, amaze, amaze
Science fiction is often dystopian—and that can be part of its appeal. I love the Mad Max films, for example.
But it gets a bit tiring when humanity has always destroyed nature, used up all natural resources, been consumed by greed, and is now forced to live in rain, fog, and neon light.
Often with incredibly advanced technology, yet still a collapsed civilization.
Maybe that’s why I neither read nor watch that much science fiction.
With a few exceptions. Among them the Star Trek series, which start from a humanity that has developed into something better.
And then there’s Andy Weir, who wrote the best science fiction book I’ve read: Project Hail Mary.
It’s now also a global hit in theaters, starring Ryan Gosling—and a living rock.
This week, I’m writing about why I hope Hollywood learns from books and films like The Martian and Project Hail Mary, where slightly reluctant but incredibly resourceful humans take the lead.
Removed a news item
Last week, I published a news piece with a questionable headline and lead about researchers finding a method to make solar cells more efficient. Taken together, the headline and lead could be interpreted as producing more energy than was put in, which isn’t possible.
I later changed both the headline and the lead, but even though the story was based on solid research and what appears to be a genuine breakthrough, the article didn’t quite communicate it in a way that avoided confusion. So I’ve removed it.
Thanks to those of you who pointed out the issue.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
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🍿 Amaze, amaze, amaze: Will Hollywood understand now?
In Hollywood, the future is always dystopian. Dark, rainy, and filled with neon lights. That’s where the money is, they believe. But one film now shows that isn’t true.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
🧬 From 13% to 88%: This many survive pancreatic cancer thanks to new vaccine
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. Fewer than 13 percent of those diagnosed survive more than five years. But after receiving a new mRNA vaccine, nearly 90 percent are still alive six years later.
🦾 Startups that learned to use AI correctly generated 1.9 times higher revenue
Startups that learned how other companies had reorganized their operations around AI found 44 percent more use cases for the technology. The startups that received this information had 1.9 times higher revenue and were 18 percent more likely to acquire paying customers.
😶🌫️ The risk of developing dementia at any given age has dropped sharply
The share of older people with dementia at any given age has fallen by two-thirds over 40 years. An 85-year-old in 2024 has one-third the risk of having dementia compared to an 85-year-old in 1984.
🪱 Hookworm vaccine reduces infection in trial – could help millions with anemia
Hookworm infects more than 100 million people and is a major cause of iron-deficiency anemia, particularly in children and pregnant women. A phase 2 trial shows that a vaccine candidate substantially reduces the intensity of infection.
📉 Overdose deaths in the US have dropped 35 percent from the 2023 peak
The number of overdose deaths in the US is estimated to have fallen by 35 percent from the peak year of 2023 to 2025. The purity of seized fentanyl powder was cut in half between August 2023 and the end of 2024. A coordinated counter-narcotics strategy has choked off the supply of fentanyl.
🤰 Maternal mortality declining – new data and methods show measurable results
Globally, maternal mortality has decreased by 40 percent since 2000, according to estimates from the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group. A sepsis prevention program at 59 hospitals in Malawi and Uganda reduced infection-related maternal mortality by 32 percent.
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