Palm oil was supposed to help the planet, but instead it unleashed a catastrophe.
“A decade ago, the U.S. mandated the use of vegetable oil in biofuels, leading to industrial-scale deforestation — and a huge spike in carbon emissions.” | learn more
Category: big ideas
Can genetically engineered pigs solve the organ donor shortage?
The latest research in the field of xenotransplantation is showing promising results. “The first pig-to-human skin graft using live cells is set to take place this month in Boston. At the same time, Tector is…
Bill Gates unveils a new toilet.
Much of the world lacks toilets. Because of that, disease runs rampant. No water and sewer infrastructure means traditional toilets aren’t going to be an option. So, Bill Gates has been investing in this space….
Nigeria’s great success with a business plan competition.
“From 2012 to 2015, the Nigerian government gave away $100 million to over 3,000 entrepreneurs, all of them under age 40.” World Bank surveys show it has worked exceptionally to spur new businesses with >10…
Inventor of the world wide web wants to try again.
Tim Berners-Lee explained his new effort called Solid. “Solid is how we evolve the web in order to restore balance — by giving every one of us complete control over data, personal or not, in a revolutionary way….
Gates foundation releases Goalkeepers report.
I haven’t made it through this whole report yet, but big ideas indeed! “The Goalkeepers Report is published every year and charts the progress toward the Global Goals. This year’s report focuses on youth population…
Why recycling doesn’t work.
This article is Canada-focused, but I would guess that the content applies to the US as well. “Ontario is the only province from which detailed financials are available. In 2016, blue-box collection cost municipalities a…
The nuclear power plant of the future may be floating near Russia.
More than an idea at this point… “Offshore reactors could be cheaper, safer and more flexible, proponents say, making them a useful weapon against climate change. Critics are incredulous.” | learn more
Exploring the CRISPR market opportunity.
ARK Invest summarizes how various companies are working to apply the technology across different applications. This is a great shapshot of the investment opportunities in CRISPR right now. | learn more
Mini-grids may be the best way to illuminate the ‘bottom billion’.
The Economist discusses the merits of mini-grids as opposed to full scale government infrastructure projects. This makes a lot of sense to me! |learn more
Why cryonics makes sense.
Tim Urban from Wait But Why became a believer in cryonics – freezing yourself after death – in 2016. He lays out an interesting case, though I’m not quite ready to sign up. | learn more
Technology that can double the efficiency of the power grid.
If even part of this pans out, it’s a huge deal. I learned a lot about electricity from this article. | learn more
Workers of the world unite on distributed digital platforms.
The argument proposed in this article isn’t new – its underpinnings are the same as the CONE I wrote about in April. The more I think about it, the more I find this idea revolutionary. Corporations…
Synthetic biology opens door to bioterror dangers.
In other scary news, “A committee of experts examined about a dozen different synthetic biology technologies that could be potentially misused. For each, they considered how likely it was to be usable as a weapon.” | learn…
New AI technique creates scary-good fake videos.
The technology allows for transfer of not only facial expressions from an actor to a target video, but also head and torso movements. Soon we will have a verytough time telling real videos from fake. | learn more
Remember to think long-term.
“Installation has finally begun on Jeff Bezos’ 10,000-year clock, a project that the Amazon CEO has invested $42 million in. The actual idea for the clock comes from Danny Hillis, who originally proposed a 10,000-year…
Time to rethink human embryo research limits?
In 1979, scientists in the US signed on to an international agreement that limits embryo research to 14 days. At the time, this was an arbitrary length of time that was mostly moot because embryos…
Genome writing project aims to rally scientists around virus-proofing cells.
“Launched in 2016 with the sprawling ambition to build large genomes, the synthetic biology initiative known as Genome Project–write (GP-write) is now, slowly, getting down to specifics.” The original project’s aim was “to design and assemble…
The drive behind Bezos’ Blue Origin space company.
Have you ever heard of Vaclav Smil? Bezos sure has… “In a new interview with the CEO of German media conglomerate Axel Springer, Bezos explained why it is so vital for humanity to take to…
MIT media lab does cool stuff.
“For more than 30 years, MIT has been recruiting people with crazy ideas to work in their Media Lab, where life-changing inventions are created. 60 Minutes got a peek at what they’re working on now.” | learn…
How Tencent’s medical ecosystem is shaping the future of China’s healthcare.
This article was a great opportunity for me to broaden my perspective on healthcare innovation to include other countries – namely the big one across the Pacific. | learn more
Rewriting the genome.
“Berkeley biochemist and CRISPR expert Sam Sternberg shares the thrilling story that led to this development and what it means for the future of humanity.” | learn more
Scientists have created programmable shape-shifting liquid metal.
“Researchers at the University of Sussex and Swansea University have applied electrical charges to manipulate liquid metal into 2D shapes such as letters and a heart. The team says the findings represent an “extremely promising”…
Lessons from Hans Rosling on population growth.
I’ve posted one of the late Hans Rosling’s videos before. He’s an expert on population-level health data. In this article, Shane Parrish at Farnam Street helps summarize some of the biggest insights and misconceptions Rosling identified. | learn more
ARK Invests’s big ideas 2018.
I’ve been following this fund manager for a few months, since they keep putting out great content around the big dynamic changes we’re expecting in our world: robotics, CRISPR, cryptoassets, 3D printing, etc. This is…