287: The Secret Pattern

This week's top stories

2024 was an astonishingly good year for clean energy. The world installed 599 GW of solar panels last year, up by about a third from 2023. Generating power only 15% of the time, those panels should produce about 787 TWh of electricity — equivalent to the output of a third of the world’s nuclear reactors. Add that to the roughly 344 TWh of wind that was connected last year, and the incremental amount of wind and solar added in 2024 alone was equivalent to about 6.2% of all the fossil-fired electricity on the planet. Repeat that trick for 16 years running and hold demand steady, and net zero could, in theory, be solved. Bloomberg 🎁

We're making child marriages a thing of the past in Malaysia. The number of girls being married before the age of 18 dropped by 37% between 2019 to 2023, according to statistics from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. The country has underlined its commitment to addressing the root causes of the practice, including by changing social norms at the grassroots level. FMT

Internet now reaches 79% of Indonesia’s population up from 53% in 2022. The rise of digital wallets, meanwhile, means that seven times the population of Switzerland has been added in the past decade to Indonesia’s banking system. WEF

And speaking of digital wallets, the Thai government’s Digital Wallet program has provided a one-time cash transfer to 14.5 million Social Welfare Card holders since its launch in September. It's part of the government's suite of anti-poverty efforts, which have seen more than 2.8 million people lifted out of poverty between 2021 and 2024. World Bank

Europe’s wild predators stage a stunning comeback. Since 2016, golden jackal numbers have surged by 46% to 150,000, wolves have increased by 35% to 23,000, brown bears by 17% to 20,500, and Eurasian lynx and wolverine populations expanded by 12% and 16% to 9,400 and 1,300 animals respectively. The best recovery? Iberian lynx numbers are up from 100 at the turn of the century to over 2,000 today. Guardian

The winner of this year's Underwater Photographer of the Year.

Did someone just say trophic cascade (again)? European bison released in England’s ancient woodland have doubled in number since 2022, and the woodland has gotten healthier since, reviving previously extinct beetle species and increasing sightings of dormice and reptiles. And England isn’t the only European nation getting bison back in business: In the 1920s, there were just 54 European bison after intense hunting over millennia, but thanks to re-wilding efforts there are now around 10,000, mostly in Russia and Belarus. RTBC

US states hit the ground running on renewables. Wind and solar are expected to meet nearly 50% of power demand in Texas this spring, in Minnesota the state’s largest utility just announced plans to reach carbon-free targets by 2035, and 48 days into 2025, fossil gas use for electricity in California is down almost 28%, while battery use is up 78%.

Pop up health clinics get rolled out in Ukraine. In 2024, a joint WHO-EU-Ukraine initiative deployed 12 modular clinics across Ukraine, ensuring up to 50,000 patients can continue accessing essential healthcare in war-torn areas. These clinics, which are equipped with electricity, sanitation, waiting and examination rooms, and generators in case of power outages, can be installed in as little as 10 days and have a lifespan of over 10 years. WHO EURO

Puerto Rico can now take on climate criminals. A US judge ruled that Exxon, Chevron, and Shell must face claims in Puerto Rico accusing them of misleading the public on climate change and suppressing clean energy alternatives. Reuters

Free AI model creates functional genomes. Scientists at Stanford have released Evo 2, biology's largest-ever AI model, trained on 128,000 genomes spanning all imaginable life forms, from humans to bacteria - the entire tree of life.

Imagine being able to speed up evolution – hypothetically – to learn which genes might have a harmful or beneficial effect on human health. Imagine, further, being able to rapidly generate new genetic sequences that could help cure disease or solve environmental challenges. Now, scientists have developed a generative AI tool that can predict the form and function of proteins coded in the DNA of all domains of life, identify molecules that could be useful for bioengineering and medicine, and allow labs to run dozens of other standard experiments with a virtual query – in minutes or hours instead of years (or millennia).

New model enables humanoid robots to manipulate objects unseen. The future coming at ya: "A dual-system architecture that combines a language model for understanding commands with a fast visuomotor policy for precise execution, enabling humanoid robots to coordinate their entire upper bodies—including individual fingers—at 200Hz." Figure

Major wins for U.S. rape kit reform. In 2016, the Joyful Heart Foundation developed an actionable nationwide campaign to end the backlog of untested rape kits across the United States. As of January 2025, 21 states and Washington D.C. have achieved full rape kit reform, benefitting 163.4 million people. Two recent, big wins occurred in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which both implemented a rape kit tracking system in 2024. End The Backlog

Coming soon: the world's 'most colourful' map of the cosmos.
NASA's SPHEREx telescope, launching today, will create an unprecedented multi-coloured map of the entire sky by dividing light into 96 distinct spectral bands. Unlike Webb and Hubble, which examine tiny portions of space in high detail, this compact but powerful instrument will survey the full sky every six months, cataloging over 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars. The Conversation

Long-dormant Toronto airport reborn as wildlife corridor. After decades of struggle against development, Rouge National Urban Park will grow by thousands of hectares, preserving part of a wildlife corridor connecting Lake Ontario to protected land northeast of Toronto. The corridor allows wildlife — including species at risk — to move between habitats, giving them a stronger chance of survival. Narwhal

If you think humanity's doomed, a reminder from UNICEF
- Since 1990, annual under-five child mortality has declined by 60%.
- Since 2000, the number of children with stunting has declined by 40%.
- Safe water is available to 2.1 billion more people compared to 20 years ago.
- In the past 25 years around 1.9 million deaths and 4 million HIV infections have been averted among pregnant women and children.
- Over 68 million child marriages have been prevented in the last 25 years.
- 23 million more girls finish high school each year compared to a decade ago.
- Open defecation has declined by two-thirds since 2000.
- 77% of children under five are registered, up from 60% in the early 2000s.
- Vaccines have saved 154 million lives in the last 50 years.

Aube Rey Lescure, a French-Chinese-American writer, returns to China after four years away, where she finds her father working as a food delivery man and obsessively documenting a 'secret pattern' - a spiral shape he sees everywhere from ancient bronzes to modern media. As she travels from Shanghai to Yunnan's mountains to her grandmother's apartment in Dalian, she weaves together themes of worship, death, and the search for meaning across generations. Throughout the journey, she notices her own search for patterns too - in wild graves dotting mountainsides, in Buddhist shrines, in the stories of family tragedies during the Cultural Revolution, and in the jarring juxtapositions of ancient traditions against QR code menus and influencers with high-end equipment. Granta

Progress

How did Guinea eliminate sleeping sickness? A deep dive. In the early 2000s, Guinea had the most cases of sleeping sickness in West Africa. In January, the WHO declared that the country had eliminated the disease as a public health problem, with only 12 cases recorded in 2024. The extraordinary victory is a result of medical advances, community outreach, and, fascinatingly, using the colour blue to lure the tsetse fly. El Pais

Free cancer medications for children. The WHO and St. Jude's, a paediatric treatment and research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, have begun delivering cancer medications to children in hospitals in Mongolia and Uzbekistan. Similar shipments will soon start arriving for children in Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal and Zambia, and should reach ~5,000 children across 30+ hospitals in 2025. The program plans to expand to 120,000 children in 50 countries in the next fyears. WHO

The Irish are living longer, better lives thanks to healthcare expansion. A new report finds 79.5% of residents in good or very good health, the highest in the EU, and life expectancy at 82.6 years, the fifth highest. Mortality rates decreased between 2014 and 2023, with cancer down by 14.7% and heart disease by 27.7%. In contrast to the rest of the EU, the number of hospital doctors and nurses/midwives rose by 61.3% and 34.9% respectively, from 2015 to 2024. The government also covered 77.4% of total health expenditure in 2023, reducing reliance on out-of-pocket costs. Euractiv

The transformative effect of MacKenzie Scott's big gifts. Since 2019, Scott, worth over $32 billion, has given $19 billion to more than 2,000 nonprofits. The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) recently surveyed recipients on the impact of these grants: one charity expanded its refugee efforts from 29 to 71 countries. Another said they were able to grow from serving meals to approximately 2.5 million people a day, to 10 million. Take note, Bezos. CBS

A decade of pastoral progress in the Sahel. Many think of pastoralism as a thing of the past, but pastoralism contributes nearly 15% to the GDP of Sahelian countries and is the livelihood of over 20 million people. The Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project (PRAPS), set up in 2013, has significantly strengthened the sustainability of the practice through expanded veterinary services, vaccination parks, and improved water access for both herds and communities. World Bank

Cash-for-travel program vaccinates a million. Nigeria has the most zero-dose children in the world. A significant barrier is the cost of transportation to vaccination centres. The All Babies are Equal initiative offers a simple solution: each mother receives 1,000 naira ($0.67) per visit to cover transport costs, plus an additional 5,000 naira ($3.36) when they complete their babies’ immunisation schedule. Since its inception in 2017, the initiative has enrolled over 1 million children, and distributed more than 11 million vaccines. DW

More vaccination victories all across the globe. 10 million children in Burkina Faso were vaccinated against typhoid fever in January, South Sudan and Somalia have both launched country-wide initiatives to vaccinate five million plus children against polio, Gavi and the IRC say they've delivered nine million vaccine doses to children across the Horn of Africa since 2022, and nearly 1.5 million girls in Nepal are now protected from cervical cancer following the country's inaugural HPV campaign.

Violent crime is down in the United Kingdom. The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales found that homicides decreased by 4% for September 2024, compared to September 2023. Firearm offence levels fell by 17% during this time, reaching their lowest levels since March 2016. Domestic abuse has also gradually decreased over the last decade, with rates dropping from 6.5% in 2014 to 5.4% last year. ONS

And early data suggests the US saw a historic decline in crime in 2024. Stats compiled by the Major Cities Chiefs Association show homicides in the nation's largest cities fell by 16% in 2024 from the previous year. Some of the falls are astonishing - 35% in Boston and New Orleans, 26% in Cleveland and Dallas, 34% in Philadelphia and 32% in Washington, D.C. Axios

Overall, the Axios analysis found that homicides dropped 24% from 2020 (the first nine months of the pandemic and Trump's last year in office) to 2024. Over those four years, overall violent crime decreased by 10%. Robberies dropped 10% and aggravated assaults fell 3%. 

Environment and Conservation

Germany, once a notorious polluter, cracks down on cars and achieves clean air. Germany complies with all EU air pollutant limits for first time since standards were set in 2010, with nitrogen dioxide finally joining particulate matter in meeting thresholds across 600 monitoring stations nationwide. Even Munich's infamous pollution hotspot dropped below the 40 μg/m³ limit following years of court battles that triggered speed reductions and vehicle modernization. Heise

Chinook salmon return to California’s North Yuba River. Several months after the start of a pilot program aiming to restore salmon runs in California’s Sierra County, Chinook salmon could be found in the North Yuba River “for the first time in close to a century." This effort could double available salmon habitat in the Yuba watershed, creating crucial cold-water refuge for climate-vulnerable spring-run Chinook. SFGate

Well-managed solar farms triple bird populations. A study of solar farms in East Anglia in the United Kingdom has shown that they host nearly three times more birds than surrounding croplands. Solar sites maintaining diverse habitats, uncut grass, and hedgerows create vital refuges for declining farmland species like yellowhammers and corn buntings. BBC

Wales becomes first UK nation to ban greyhound racing. The ban, following 35,000-signature petition and cross-party support, will protect dogs from documented injuries and euthanasia risks. Wales joins progressive nations like New Zealand in ending a practice that animal welfare organizations confirm causes significant harm. "This is a good day for thousands of animals in Wales." BBC

Sweden’s final fur farms to close in 2025. Sweden has allocated $17 million to empty the country’s remaining mink farms, following up on its closure of fox farms in 2005 and chinchilla farms in 2014. The government still has yet to formalize a full fur farming ban, but by June 2025, Sweden should be de facto fur-farm-free. The policy follows a a 50-year campaign by activists, and will save 200,000 animals annually from cage confinement. Fur Free Alliance

France leads global action against toxic "forever chemicals.” French Parliament has approved a landmark ban on using PFAS in common products including cosmetics, ski wax and clothing by 2026, expanding to all textiles by 2030. This decisive action follows restrictions in Denmark, which in 2020 banned the use of PFAS in cardboard and paper food wrapping. WaPo

Endangered parrot population rebounds in Mexican mountain forests. After decades of decline, the population of Mexico's Thick-billed Parrot has increased by 10% over 12 years, reaching 2,500 individuals. Community-led sustainable forest management restored critical pine habitats between 1,500-3,000 metres of elevation in western Sierra Madre, saving a species once widespread across southwestern North America. BirdGuides

Ecuador protects fauna, flora, water and people —
— Per the Andes Amazon Fund, Ecuador has connected four protected areas into a 417 km² wildlife refuge, creating an essential migration corridor for over 70 endangered species including Andean condors and spectacled bears.
By doing this, they’ve also secured vital water services for Cuenca, Ecuador's third-largest city, AND
They’ve also created an additional 150 km² protected zone, securing vital water sources in Ecuador's Daule River basin, AND
Using indigenous knowledge for effective watershed management, they’ve demonstrated replicable community-based conservation that balances resource protection with local livelihoods, WHILE
Ensuring water security for surrounding communities and safeguarding 373 species.

Energy and Climate

There are a lot of batteries coming to the United States. The US is set to nearly double its EV battery manufacturing capacity in 2025, with ten new factories coming online and investment already locked in. “They’re already built. You can’t stop it, and the momentum is there. And most of them are in Republican states. It’s difficult to take away many thousands of jobs promised to your key voter base.” Inside Climate News

There are orders of magnitude more coming to China. Last year, China registered 280,000 new energy storage businesses, while the country's energy storage capacity soared 130%. This year, they're looking to continue the trend and integrate batteries and other energy storage solutions into the grid, since right now the country's generating more energy from renewables then they can store. SCMP

Japan raises emissions targets, aims for 60% cut by 2035. Japan has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from 2013 levels within the next decade, aligning with the 1.5°C global goal and a net zero target by 2050, according to government officials. Japan plans to reduce fossil fuel use by 30-40% by 2040, with renewables like solar and wind expected to provide 40-50% of electricity. The plan marks meaningful progress for the country, which relied on fossil fuels for 70% of its power in 2023. The Press

Solar energy offers a 'beacon of hope' for Ukraine. Despite Russian attacks, 5.9 GW of industrial solar remains operational and held by local forces in in Ukraine —enough to power 1.1 million homes annually. This reliable, local energy source is crucial in offsetting power shortages caused by frequent aerial strikes and an inability to rely on foreign oil. PV Magazine

Episcopal Church fully divests from fossil fuels. Nearly a month ahead of schedule, the Episcopal Church has fully divested from fossil fuels, according to its Office of Public Affairs. Episcopal News Service reports that the church manages $500 million in trust funds. Pope Francis and the World Council of Churches have led calls for more investment into clean energy too. Living Church

Toyota's diverse approach to electrification in the US. While Tesla's still the biggest seller of pure battery-electric cars in the US, other automakers are approaching electrification another way. Toyota, which is currently building a $14 billion battery plant in North Carolina, expects more than 50% of their sales this year will be in hybrids, plug-ins, EVs, and cars that run on hydrogen. Last year, electrified vehicles accounted for 43% of the automaker's U.S. sales, up from 29% in 2023. GreenCarReports

We're starting to see fossil-fueled trucks, buses and boats replaced by zero-emissions alternatives. In 2024, 78,000 zero-emissions trucks were sold in China, twice as many as delivered in 2023, encouraged largely by improvement in infrastructure: charging stations and battery swapping technology. Meanwhile, the world's largest electric ferry is being built in Hobert to service Argentina and Uruguay's channel, while in Spain they're rustling up the first zero-emissions Commissioning Service Operation Vessel - a specialized ship that supports offshore wind farm installations and maintenance operations.

Science and Technology

Scientists develop new malaria vaccine providing 90% protection with just one injection (for context, the two current malaria vaccines being rolled out across Africa require four doses, and are around 75% effective). This new vaccine uses genetically engineered parasites with two key genes deleted, allowing them to replicate in the liver while preventing progression to blood-stage malaria. Clinical trials are scheduled for 2025 in the United States, Germany, and Burkina Faso. Eureka Alert

Chinese scientists reach 1990s dialup speeds for quantum internet
Scientists at Tsinghua University transmitted data at 2.38 kilobits per second over 100km of standard optical fiber, setting new world records for both speed and distance. Their "quasi-QSDC" protocol sends information directly through quantum states rather than just encryption keys, allowing secure transmission of text, voice and images while detecting any eavesdropping attempts. SCMP

And more on last week's quantum computing story...
Microsoft's new 'topological' approach creates qubits that are resistant to the errors that plague other quantum computing systems, potentially accelerating development from decades to just years. The system, named Marjorana, works by 'coaxing' particles into existence with magnetic fields and superconductors. It's sort of like quantum computing's equivalent to the invention of semiconductors, opening up a pathway to scaling to a complex million-qubit system. The Conversation

First-ever in-womb treatment succeeds against deadly genetic disease.
Doctors have successfully treated a child with spinal muscular atrophy before birth, a groundbreaking first for this often-fatal condition. At nearly three years old, the child shows normal development with no signs of the muscle weakness that typically characterizes this rare genetic disorder. Nature

New fibre may enable real-time brain cell imaging. Chinese and Australian scientists have developed hair-thin optical fibres with built-in neural networks that process light signals directly. The technology transmits tens of thousands times more information than traditional fibres, potentially enabling real-time brain cell monitoring and faster telecommunications. SCMP

AI cracks superbug problem in two days that took scientists years. "I feel this will change science, definitely. It's like you have the opportunity to be playing a big match - I feel like I'm finally playing a Champions League match with this thing." BBC

Information Superhighway

Former editor of the New Yorker, Tina Brown, looks back on her time at the helm (her newsletter, Fresh Hell, is fantastic).

There's been a lot of analysis in recent weeks about our brave new online world. My standouts have been Janus Rose's warning that we can't post our way out of fascism, Renée DiResta's explanation of how we're all migrating to ideologically pure online community gardens, David Roth's dystopian account of a future that leaves us isolated in prisons of ease, and Ryan Broderick's analysis of how Trump and the far right mastered what he calls 'influentialism.' TLDR: digital platforms have fragmented our attention and hollowed out democracy, replacing meaningful engagement with performative outrage and isolating us in algorithmic bubbles. The challenge isn't just political anymore but existential: reclaiming authentic human connection in a world where posting feels like action, but changes nothing.

Getting even deeper into the weeds, philosopher Dan Williams wonders whether our rush to label political disagreement as disinformation reveals what Karl Popper called a "conspiracy theory of ignorance" - the comforting but dangerous assumption that those who reject our obvious truths must be lying or manipulated, rather than seeing reality through genuinely different frameworks than our own.

Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass) has a new book out:

When we think about economic systems, there is this assumption underlying capitalism that participants in the market economy will work to advance their self-interest. This is just fundamental. Well, okay, we’ll accept that. But what are the boundaries of the self? If we define the self to be just an individual and their material needs in the world, that’s one kind of economy. But what if we recognize that the self is very permeable? I am permeated by the plants that are feeding me. I’m permeable with the atmosphere, with the water. I am so not disconnected from the mycorrhizal network in the woods outside my house. We’re all part of this. So then I want to say, “Oh, okay, what would an economy look like if we advanced self-interest when the self is expanded to our natural kinfolk?” That interests me deeply. Now we’re talking about ecological economics, about how we not only foster our own well-being but the well-being of everyone in the system.

Have you ever heard of Alice Hamilton?
"A century later, her work reaches deep into every aspect of modern life. She laid the foundation for occupational health and safety standards that protect millions of workers worldwide. She broke gender barriers in the broader sciences that opened stodgy male-dominated fields to women. And her approach to social justice—combining evidence-based research, interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement—remains the blueprint for nearly all public health and policy fights today, from the smallest neighborhood disputes to global battles over pollution, natural resources and climate change." Smithsonian

That's it for this week.

We'll see you next week, same time same place :)

With love,

The FTN team