Links for 2021-10-15
Removing a key protein from the worm Caenorhabditis elegans near the end of its life can double the worm’s lifespan, demonstrating that life-extending interventions can be made at any age. https://elifesciences.org/digests/71335/doubling-life-near-death
In 1989 there was an ecoterrorist attack on California, using an invasive species of fruit fly to devastate crops. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_California_medfly_attack
These 5 Recent Advances Are Changing Everything We Thought We Knew About Electronics: 1.) The development of graphene. 2.) Surface mount resistors. 3.) Supercapacitors. 4.) Superinductors. 5.) Putting graphene in any device. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/graphene-advances-electronics/
The Decreasing Cost of Renewables Unlikely to Plateau Any Time Soon: “Past projections of energy costs have consistently underestimated just how cheap renewable energy would be in the future, as well as the benefits of rolling them out quickly, according to a new [University of Oxford] report. …if solar, wind, and the myriad other green energy tools followed the deployment trends they are projected to see in the next decade, in 25 years the world could potentially see a net-zero energy system.” https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/the-decreasing-cost-of-renewables-unlikely-to-plateau-anytime-soon/
"I think the smoothness of real GDP growth tells us basically-nothing about the smoothness of AI takeoff. Even after a hypothetical massive jump in AI, real GDP would still look smooth." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FcRt3xAF4ynojfj6G/what-do-gdp-growth-curves-really-mean
A 2 year search discovered a group of "genius" dogs with remarkable language learning ability. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/canine-corner/202110/language-learning-in-gifted-dogs
The Insane Innovation of TI Calculator Hobbyists https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2021/10/ti-calculator-innovation/
The case for more energy: “America has been on a 45-year energy diet, and we ought to try and end it” https://www.slowboring.com/p/energy-abundance
The surnames of 34,772 corporate board members of 4,005 publicly listed Indian firms (as of 2012) were analyzed in this paper. They found that 55% of all corporate board members were Brahmins, 35% were Vaishyas, 4% were Kshatriyas, 2% were OBCs/SCs/STs. https://worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S1094406020500171