💡 Hopescrolling: Fact-based optimistic news from November
👵 Dementia has started to decline. 🌳 Ecuador's forests are making a comeback. 🚀 Starship exploded, but made progress. 🔋 Northvolt's new battery needs less rare minerals.
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The most surprising news for me in November was that dementia is not increasing, but decreasing. You hear so much about dementia, and with increased lifespans, it seems reasonable that more people would be affected. But that's not the case.
A breakthrough in November was Northvolt's new battery, which does not require minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite. The breakthrough is not a functioning battery, but the successful creation of one with such high energy density that it can be commercialized.
This is something that pessimists often miss. "Having everyone drive an electric car is impossible because we will runt out of mineral X," they say, and are surprised when someone creates a battery without mineral X.
Finally, a reminder that the transition to a climate-friendly society is not just about global warming and the effects of that. Over 200,000 human lives are saved each year already, as we have fewer particles in the air thanks to reduced use of fossil fuels.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
Hopescrolling
Hopescrolling = the opposite of doomscrolling.
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💡 Fact-based optimistic news in November
🍛 Bangladesh has added an additional year of healthy life for just $1
Bangladesh successfully eliminates lead adulteration in turmeric. This program provided an additional year of healthy life for just $1.
🧬 AlphaFold's goes beyond protein – will speed up drug discovery
AI AlphaFold expands beyond proteins to various biomolecule structures. This opens new horizons in drug discovery and disease understanding.
👵 Dementia has started to decline
Dementia was linked to aging, scientists thought. So as we live longer, dementia will rise. But that is not the case. In the richer parts of the world, dementia has started to decline.
☢️ Rolls-Royce plans new nuclear power in Sweden - could be a SMR at Marviken
For several decades, Rolls-Royce has been constructing small nuclear reactors, which are found on British nuclear submarines, among other places. Now, they plan to start building small modular reactors on land as well, and some of these may be placed in Marviken, Sweden.
☂️ An astronaut proposes a climate insurance: A space parasol
A space parasol to reduce the influx from the sun, as a plan B, in case plan A doesn't work.
🦋 England's rivers increase in invertebrate diversity – highest in 30 years
There has been a significant rise in river invertebrate biodiversity since 1989. The positive trend was observed across all river types and regions.
✈️ Investment in unique green aviation fuel: "This is the death of flight shame"
Swedish Biofuel is looking to start production of a unique green aviation fuel, with the goal of selling it worldwide.
📉 China's CO2 emissions set to decline in 2024 amid low-carbon energy surge
If the current pace of low-carbon energy expansion continues or accelerates, China could see a sustained period of emission reduction.
🌊 Desalinates 49,000 liters of water daily, powered by ocean waves
Wave energy propels a new desalination system by Oneka Technologies. The system can filter 49,000 liters of water daily, powered solely by ocean waves.
🍇 Vineyards using emissions and residues from winemaking for making new products
The technique can potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wineries by at least 30 percent. Byproducts like grape skins could offer alternatives to antibiotics, addressing a growing resistance problem.
🌳 Ecuador's forests are making a comeback – and AI helps track the health of the forest
Scientists have found that within the last 25 years, a cornucopia of species, from the smallest insect to the top vertebrates, have made a comeback in areas previously cleared for agriculture.
🏭 First commercial carbon capture plant in the U.S. inaugurated
The plant removes carbon from the atmosphere. This captured CO2 is then sealed in concrete, preventing it from contributing to global warming.
🚀 Starship exploded, but made progress
News media focus on the explosions, providing a skewed view of the progress made during the second test flight of Starship.
💉 U.S. approves first vaccine against chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus
Chikungunya, primarily transmitted through mosquito bites, has emerged as a global health concern. Over the past 15 years, there have been approximately 5 million reported cases. Now the first vaccine for chikungunya, has received FDA approval.
🍿 Jeffrey Katzenberg: AI could reduce animation movie costs by 90%
The man behind Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon foresees a tenfold acceleration in digital processes within Hollywood animation.
🔋 Northvolt's new battery needs less rare minerals
Unlike traditional battery chemistries, the new battery from Northvolt utilizes readily available minerals such as iron and sodium.
📉 Over 200,000 annual deaths averted through lower carbon emissions
The primary driver of this health benefit is the worldwide reduction in coal use, responsible for 80% of the mortality reduction from PM2.5 particulates.
🩸 Promising results in cholesterol-lowering CRISPR treatment trial
The highest doses showed a reduction in cholesterol levels by 39 to 55 percent, indicating a significant decrease in heart disease risk factors.
🤖 Bill Gates: AI will completely change how you use computers
"You won’t have to use different apps for different tasks. You’ll simply tell your device, in everyday language, what you want to do," writes Bill Gates.
🌳 Allowing existing trees to grow could store a third of our carbon emissions
The research estimates that this could equate to around a third of the carbon humans have added to the atmosphere to date, potentially storing as much as 228 billion tonnes of carbon.
🔋 Record low cost for electric vehicle batteries in 2023
The cost has dropped 14% this year and 90% since 2010, but this is just the beginning.
If you are not a subscriber to our free, weekly newsletter with fact-based optimistic news, you really should be! 📧
Most read news in August
😮 The naive Tony Seba has been more right than anyone else (so listen to what he says now)
Humanity is facing its greatest change ever, according to Tony Seba. Some call him a naive, foolish optimist, but Seba has repeatedly been proven right and his critics wrong. A tip is to listen to him this time.
👵 Dementia has started to decline
Dementia was linked to aging, scientists thought. So as we live longer, dementia will rise. But that is not the case. In the richer parts of the world, dementia has started to decline.
🚀 Starship exploded, but made progress
News media focus on the explosions, providing a skewed view of the progress made during the second test flight of Starship.
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💡 Columns, musings, essays and Optimist's Edge
🚴 "We are tool builders," said Steve Jobs
A bicycle for the mind, Steve Jobs said of the computer. AI is the motorcycle. EXCERPT FROM THE NEW AI BOOK THE CENTAUR'S EDGE.
🤖 An optimistic Terminator from the future: The AI-bot WALL-Y, introduces herself
WALL-Y is the co-author of the book "The Centaur's Edge." Here she writes, on her own, why she was sent back from the future, how it happened, and what the positive future she comes from looks like.
♟️ How two amateurs beat the chess grandmasters
Two amateurs shocked the chess world by beating two grandmasters. Had they cheated? Did they receive help from Garry Kasparov? No, they had become centaurs. You can too. EXCERPT FROM THE CENTAUR'S EDGE
😮 The naive Tony Seba has been more right than anyone else (so listen to what he says now)
Humanity is facing its greatest change ever, according to Tony Seba. Some call him a naive, foolish optimist, but Seba has repeatedly been proven right and his critics wrong. A tip is to listen to him this time.
🦾 The end is near – again (don't regulate AI based on yet another tech panic)
The Y2K scare cost billions of dollars. Anti-GMO campaigns are hurting children with vitamin A deficiency. Fearmongering and excessive caution have severe consequences. We must avoid making the same errors with AI.
🕰️ Counting the Minutes and Seconds to a Sci-Fi Future
We should create a Genesis Clock, to counter the Doomsday Clock, and count the minutes and seconds we have until dawn, writes The Conservative Futurist, James Pethokoukis.
💡 Musings of the Angry Optimist: If we'd regulated the internet, as we're regulating AI
President Biden's AI regulation is vague and at the same time EXTREMELY specific. If we had regulated the internet in the same way, it would have seriously hampered our development. Also: We reveal which movie Biden watched that influenced his determination to regulate AI.
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