🦈 Shark attacks decreased during 2024
The number of shark attacks decreased from 69 to 47 during 2024, well below the ten-year average of 70 attacks. Four of the attacks resulted in fatalities. Bull sharks were responsible for the majority of identifiable attacks during the year.
💡 Warp News #267
🧒 Cancer mortality in children has decreased by 84%. 🐳 Return of marine life in the North Sea. 🌾 Record year for global food production.
⚕️ Nine countries eliminated diseases in 2024
Cape Verde and Egypt became malaria-free countries in 2024. Jordan became the first country ever to be certified as leprosy-free. Pakistan, Vietnam and India eliminated trachoma, a disease that causes blindness.
🦾 The Swedish runner-up’s best prompt tips
Joakim Jardenberg placed second in the Swedish Prompt Championship and is highly skilled at collaborating with AI assistants like Gemini and ChatGPT. Here, he shares his best tips.
🌾 Record year for global food production
Global production of rice, wheat and soybeans reached new record levels during 2024. Corn production remained at high levels, comparable to the 2021 harvest. Yields per hectare for most staple crops were equal to or higher than previous years.
🐳 Return of marine life in the North Sea
Thousands of grey seals are now born every year along Norfolk's beaches, with almost 4,000 pups during last year's record season. Humpback whales and minke whales are seen more frequently in the North Sea.
🦟 Drastic reduction in malaria deaths in Kenya
The number of malaria deaths in Kenya has decreased by 93 percent. Approximately 400,000 children in western Kenya have received the RTS,S malaria vaccine, the world's first of its kind. The country has distributed 15.3 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets.
🧒 Cancer mortality in children has decreased by 84%
Childhood cancer mortality in the US has decreased six-fold since the 1950s. Improved treatment methods for leukemia have led to significantly more children surviving the disease. Mortality has decreased significantly for all types of cancer, including lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
🔬 AI performs chemical research completely independently
A new AI system can independently plan, design and conduct chemical experiments. Coscientist has successfully optimized chemical reactions and proven its ability to work independently in six different experimental tasks.
💡 Warp News #266
🐢 Sea turtles increase significantly. 👨💻 AI tutoring twice as effective. ✈️ First privately developed supersonic aircraft reaches Mach 1.1.
✈️ New aircraft flies at supersonic speed without sonic boom
XB-1 has completed three supersonic flights without creating an audible sonic boom on the ground. Sound waves bend when traveling through air with different temperatures. Due to the colder temperatures at high altitude, the sound waves make a U-turn in the atmosphere.
🧪 "Frankenbabies" and what the pessimists said about IVF
Hell will break loose, said a Nobel Prize winner. We will see baby factories, said others. That's how they talked about in vitro fertilization then. We can learn from that now.
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👩🏭 EU reaches lowest unemployment level in decades
EU unemployment has dropped from 11.3 percent in 2013 to 6 percent in 2023, the lowest level in several decades.
🐢 Sea turtles increase significantly in numbers
New studies show sea turtles are increasing in numbers at 28 locations worldwide. Only five sites show a decrease. On Sal Island off Africa, the number of loggerhead nests increased from 500 to 35,000 between 2008 and 2020.
📚 Top Reads
We're honored to present these top reads from world-class writers, who contribute to Warp News because they believe in our mission of spreading fact-based optimism all over the world.
🆙 Warp Levels - an idea to level up humanity
Humanity is doing the high jump without a bar. We have no goal. With Warp Levels, we determine what the next level for humanity should contain, so we can level up and make progress faster.
📚 Kevin Kelly: Focus on the biggest opportunities, not the biggest problems
We talk about some of the 450 advice in his new book, but also about his new project: Protopia - the hundred-year desirable future. And Kevin Kelly give advice for how Warp News should grow faster: "Wrap it around people and their dreams."
💡 A new mindset for humanity can impact billions of people now and in the future
If we succeed in giving humanity more optimism about the future, it will not only affect those living now but also all generations and billions of people who will live in the future.
💰 Wall Street legend: “Pessimists sound smart – optimists make money”
Jim O'Shaughnessy is a legendary investor on Wall Street. He shares what he thinks is the biggest opportunity for the future and explains how the world is going through a great reshuffle.
🔋 Northvolt and the benefit of understanding the future
The story of Peter Carlsson and Northvolt teaches us two lessons: You need to understand the future to see all the possibilities, and you must be a fact-based optimist to grab them.
💡 David Deutsch: Optimism, Pessimism and Cynicism
With so much progress in the world, how can pessimism still be widespread? It is because of cynicism, denying that “so-called-progress” is progress, argues David Deutsch, professor at Oxford University and one of the world's leading intellectuals on optimism.
