💡 Premium Supporter recap + fact-based optimistic news
📉 Fewer journalists killed. 💉 New skin cancer vaccine works better than expected. 🔟 10-fold efficiency in CO2 capture. 🐦 Study shows minimal impact of wind turbines on bird populations.
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🚀 A paradigm shift behind Sweden's new astronaut
Sweden got a new astronaut last Thursday. We are a small country, so this is only our third astronaut, and we were lucky with the second one. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is American but has a Swedish mother, so we got her as a bonus.
Why would this interest you? Because Sweden's latest astronaut symbolizes a paradigm shift in the space industry.
Marcus Wandt, as he is called, was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2022, but only as a reserve. Not because he wasn't good enough, but because Sweden didn't contribute enough money to ESA's astronaut program. That's how it works.
Therefore, it would take several years before he made it to space, if he ever did.
But suddenly, he's going now. First of all in his group.
How it happened, I revealed last year. It started with a call to Sweden's first astronaut, Christer Fuglesang (who is also a Warp Premium Supporter.) The call came from a former astronaut colleague, now working for Axiom Space. A private space company that transports people to the International Space Station.
They had a dropout from the next mission, and Sweden now had the chance to buy that seat. And we did. (At a discounted price.)
Thanks to the emerging private space industry, launch costs are decreasing, and opportunities are opening up for many more to access space.
More about how this happened and what this shift means, I wrote about here:
🚀 A paradigm shift behind Sweden's new astronaut
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
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🙄 No, AI-disinformation is not the biggest global threat - on the difficulty of getting a message across
AI-generated disinformation is the biggest global threat, says 1500 experts. That's nonsense.
💡 Musings of the Angry Optimist: Electric cars are terrible in cold weather! Or are they?
Up to 1,000 cars were stuck for at least 24 hours, during a snow storm. Immediately prejudices about electric cars started to spread.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
📡 Internet everywhere – Starlink Mini – a backpack-sized satellite dish coming this year
The dimensions of the Starlink Mini are about the size of a laptop and it will fit in your backpack. Making it possible to have internet in the most remote places.
📉 Lowest number of journalists killed in 20 years
45 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2023, the lowest number since 2002. The number of imprisoned journalists also decreases.
🔎 Focused ultrasound – a new method to combat Alzheimer's
The non-invasive ultrasound technology targets specific brain areas, enhancing drug delivery. Focused ultrasound, combined with monoclonal antibody therapy, shows promise in reducing Alzheimer's disease plaques.
💉 New skin cancer vaccine works better than expected
Moderna's mRNA cancer vaccine shows a 49 percent reduction in melanoma recurrence or death.
🔟 10-fold efficiency in CO2 capture
Researchers have developed a method to capture more CO2 from the air than natural systems.
🐦 Study shows minimal impact of wind turbines on bird populations
Oil and gas extraction was found to cause a significant decline in bird numbers, unlike wind power.
🎙️ Fact-based optimism at your event?
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Learn more at mathiassundin.org.
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