Plus, why your brain is not for thinking, space gnomes, 3D-bioprinted hearts, and good news on global terrorism, period poverty in Scotland, and air pollution in Europe.
A weekly roundup of science, technology and intelligent optimism (not necessarily in that order). You're signed up to the premium edition. We give one third of our subscription revenues to charity.
Welcome to our first foray behind the paywall! We're so pleased you're here with us. You know the drill. Let's get straight into it.
Good news
Swedish iron-ore giant, LKAB, is investing €39bn to decarbonize, the biggest transformation in the company’s 130-year history and the largest industrial investment ever made in Sweden. This might be the most important energy news of 2020 - industrial emissions are nowhere close to being solved, and this investment paves the way for desperately needed new technologies and standards.
Remember the good old days when terrorism was front page news? The 2020 Global Terrorism Index is reporting that deaths from terrorism have fallen for the fifth consecutive year. 103 countries have improved - the highest number of countries to record a year-on-year improvement since the inception of the index.
COVID-19 has raised questions about whether authoritarian regimes are better at handling pandemics than democratic societies. They're not. Eight of the top 10 most successful responses have come from democracies. Success appears to rely less on being able to order people into submission, and more on governments engendering a high degree of trust and societal compliance. Bloomberg
Scotland has become the first country in the world to introduce free universal access to period products. Members of the Scottish Parliament unanimously approved the legislation, which makes access to tampons and sanitary pads in public buildings a legal right. “Scotland will not be the last country to make period poverty history – but it now has a chance to be the first." The Scotsman
A new study has shown that air quality in Europe has improved dramatically in the past decade. Thanks to the implementation of better environmental and climate policies, around 60,000 fewer people died prematurely due to fine particulate matter pollution in 2018, compared with 2009. For nitrogen dioxide, the reduction is even greater; premature deaths have declined by about 54%. EEA
250 years after they were stripped of their ancestral homelands, a 1,200 acre ranch has been returned to the Esselen tribe of northern California, a deal that will conserve old-growth redwoods and the California condor and red-legged frog. Guardian
The most incredible environmental group you've never heard of is called Pristine Seas. Since 2008, they've inspired the creation of 23 marine reserves - two-thirds of the world’s fully protected marine areas, covering an area of than five million square kilometers. They're now gearing up for another decade of expeditions and believe they can double what's already been accomplished. Nat Geo
Indistinguishable from magic
Kiwi space pioneers, Rocket Lab, have just taken a big step towards reusable rockets, after recovering one of their Electron rockets in the Pacific for the first time. The mission, aptly named "Return to Sender," also placed 30 satellites and a 3D-printed titanium garden gnome named Gnome Chompski into orbit, raising over $80,000 for a children's hospital in Auckland. Ars Technica
Digital concerts are definitely now a thing. US rapper Lil Nas X just performed for 33 million people inside a kids' game called Roblox. This comes off the back of an even more spectacular concert a few months ago by Travis Scott inside Fortnite (how about a planet, ocean, and space for a stage?). Billions of people hang out in games now, and concerts give players more reasons to spend time there.
A team of British engineers have achieved the world’s first walk by a robot on the blades of an offshore wind turbine. The six-legged inspect-and-repair robot repeatedly scaled blades on a turbine off the coast of Scotland, managing to walk 50m straight up while perfectly adhering to the surface, navigating the curves and relaying data from scans and a video feed to the team on the ground. New Atlas
Another group of British inventors have developed a way to manufacture plastic that decomposes harmlessly in the natural environment. It involves mixing in an additive that causes them to decompose into harmless waxes in a matter of months. Once the technology comes to market – it’s currently being tested in a handful of countries – it could totally transform the packaging industry. Nat Geo
Scientists in Israel have made a major breakthrough in the quest to reverse ageing. Inspired by evidence from the effects of space travel on astronauts, they gave a group of patients three months of hyperbaric oxygen chamber sessions, extending the length of their telomeres, the structures that 'cap' the tips of human chromosomes, by around one fifth. Science Alert
Bio-engineers in Pennsylvania have created the first full-sized 3D bioprinted human heart model. The technique involved printing a soft natural polymer called alginate inside a bath of soft hydrogel, giving the object properties similar to real cardiac tissue. For surgeons, this now enables the creation of models that can cut, suture, and be manipulated in ways similar to a real heart. Wired
Information superhighway
Psychologist and neuroscientist, Lisa Feldman Barrett, has a timely reminder that your brain is not only for thinking. It's most important job is actually running the systems of your body to keep you alive and well; even when you do produce conscious thoughts and feelings, they're more in service to the needs of managing your body than you realize. Such an important message for 2020. NYT
Polygon have compiled a list of the 14 most consequential and groundbreaking science fiction stories of the last 15 years - the ones have altered the genre by changing the conventions or tropes that authors traditionally use. It's been an amazing period, with the emergence of so many new voices from every type of background, and this list is a great snapshot in time.
Science writer Ashutosh Jogalekar takes Freeman Dyson's famous 'birds vs frogs' typology and runs with it, pointing out the most famous birds and frogs in science from the last 400 years. "Birds can soar all they want, but even when they see things that others don’t, frogs have to be recruited on the ground to verify what is only a dream." 3quarksdaily
This is an extraordinary essay by mother, scientist, and citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s a story about the rematriation of corn, an exploration of the dance between the plant’s unique gifts and the human gift for technology: not technology in the sense of machines that separate us from the living world, but a sacred technology, which unites us. Emergence
Amazing profile of Jeb Corliss, the coolest, gnarliest BASE jumper on earth and by far the most intense. As he was loaded into an ambulance, he heard a paramedic say, “Looks like a double amputation.” “When I heard that,” Corliss said, “the thought wasn’t, ‘Oh God, I’m gonna lose my legs.’ It was, ‘You mean there’s a chance I’m going to live?’ " Outside
Give a damn
A few weeks ago, we sent $4,000 to Doutores da Amazonia, to help them in their mission to bring medical treatment to remote Amazon tribes. They're using it to buy a satellite phone, three walkie talkies and a laptop computer and backpack, to keep up their work in super remote locations. Here's a thank you message to all of our subscribers from their founder, Caio Machado. Youtube
Humankind
Meet Arissa Jemima Ikram Ismail and Davina Devarajan, two law students in Malaysia helping Rohingya women integrate into the local community by teaching them to read and write.
It all started when Arissa, 23, a volunteer at a relief agency, was approached by a refugee leader to help ‘uplift’ the women in the community. Arissa and Davina, 25, went to the leader's neighbourhood outside Kuala Lumpur. There, they quickly realised how many women wanted to learn English and Malay to help them become independent with daily tasks, like shopping or seeking medical advice in a country where they don’t know the language.
The dynamic duo formed the Women for Refugees group in September 2020, recruiting 20 volunteer teachers via Instagram to give free weekly two-hour classes from a rundown two-story block that houses around 50 migrant families. They're already recruiting more volunteers, and are planning to extend their classes to include technical skills that could help these women earn an income.
“It's essential for us to not pitch the refugee women as a charity, where they are constantly requiring external aid,” says Arissa. “We want to equip them with the necessary skills so that they can sustain themselves and contribute back to the community.” Associated Press
That's it for this edition, thanks for reading.
Short and sweet this week - we're busy working on a comprehensive update of our information diet, detailing all of our favourite online sources for the news we share with you here. Keep an eye out for that coming soon, it will be a members only post.
With love,
FC HQ
