Quaise Energy, a Boston company, is using tech from nuclear fusion experiments to reach new depths. *"12 miles down", that's 19 kilometers for team metric.

>"Quaise Energy, a startup based in Boston, is taking a third approach: digging deeper—and using more heat—than any company has before. To do so, it’s refashioning a millimeter-wave drilling technique from nuclear fusion experiments."

Globally installed geothermal capacity has grown by 982% between 1975 and 2020, and an astonishing 70% since the year 2000. 📈

While the theoretical potential of geothermal energy is enormous, the technology still accounts for less than 0.2% of the global power supply.

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"Quaise’s chief executive officer, likens it to “a big cousin of the microwave in your kitchen”—only with 1,000 times more power. “It’s a fairly mature technology,” he says. “We just use it for this purpose.”

Building a better future for civilization requires believing a better future is possible as a fundamental prerequisite.

>“On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?” — Thomas Babington Macaulay, Review of Southey’s Colloquies on Society, c. 1830 📈

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>"Over the last 200 years, the lives of average people in every country have been radically transformed and improved. In our modern day, we are living longer and are more prosperous than ever before — in both high-income and low-income countries. And while progress forward is by no means progress completed nor a guarantee of progress to come, the remarkable improvements in global living standards serve, not as a high water or finish line, but rather as a source of inspiration and hope."

From #1. Life expectancy to #3. Indoor air pollution, and from #7. Safe water and sanitation to #6. Literacy, here are "9 astonishing ways that living standards have improved around the world"

Indeed.

Well, there's some good news hidden in the data. Cancer rates will continue to rise, this is largely due to an aging population with a high life expectancy. On average, cancer is still a +50 disease. The fact that we're still making progress with an aging population is indicative of more progress than it looks. Travel back 100 years, and cancer rates were not as high, not because it was a synthetic chemical-free world, but rather because average life expectancy was not as high.

The good news: Five-year survival rates have increased globally. Between 1970 to 2013, five-year survival rates have increased from roughly 50% to 67%, so while we still have a long way to go in mastering cancer, we're making slow but steady progress. 🎉

>"Merck is now exercising its option on mRNA-4157, a personalized cancer vaccine in a phase 2 clinical trial for skin cancer. It’s being studied in combination with Merck’s cancer treatment Keytruda, a humanized monoclonal antibody."

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>" To create each vaccine, Moderna takes a sample of a patient’s tumor. It then uses genetic sequencing technology to identify proteins in the tissue called “neoantigens.” These proteins are found only on the surface of cancer cells, and they are unique to each person’s tumor."

I hope you enjoy this post, I'm a progress studies writer and thinker, and I've genuinely appreciated being part of this subreddit. Keep being awesome team.

That's the spirit. :)

The team at Zipline, renowned for their truly astounding success in Africa (The Super-Fast Logistics of Delivering Blood By Drone), are beginning operations Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

>"The startup is promising on-demand deliveries directly to patients’ homes in “as little as 15 minutes,” and plans to gradually e), are beginning operations in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. e years"

Zipline isn't a small-scale proof of concept, it's a game changer with enormous potential, particularly in low and middle-income countries. To date, they have flown a truly amazing 30 million miles, 48 million kilometres, flying 423,409 commercial deliveries with a reach of 25 million serviceable customers.

>"Every four minutes, ‍someone's life is made better by a Zipline delivery"

Do all countries have nuclear weapons?

>"Yesterday, six companies that build or support sophisticated mobile robots (led by Boston Dynamics) published an open letter to the robotics community and industry pledging to not weaponize their general-purpose robots. Signed by Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, and Unitree, in addition to Boston Dynamics, the letter seeks to ensure that the companies’ robots are used safely and ethically, in a way that helps rather than harms."

Weaponizing advanced robotic systems is a little talked discussed global risk; one that increases the risk of flash points and rapid escalations. It's a risk that needs to be carefully managed to reduce a robotic military arms race, one that is already well underway.

"Antifungal compound helping disease-causing bacteria thrive may treat humans and plants, too." Cosmos, October 11th, 2022, Root Source here: New Antifungal Antibiotic

For 99% of our history as a species, we have been disproportionally outgunned in our war against the microbes, and desperately ignorant. And while we have made enormous progress in beating the microbes into submission, antibiotic resistance remains an ongoing challenge, particularly in livestock.

While it's early days for discoveries like this, some of which may take decades to reach the market, it shows that our improving mastery of genome sequencing is generating tangible innovation with future potential.