DTN 016: An Alzheimer’s Breakthrough

Eli Lilly Trial Finds Alzheimer’s Drug Can Slow Progress of Disease

“The drug manufacturer Eli Lilly announced that a clinical trial of an experimental Alzheimer’s drug showed it can slow progress of the feared disease and allow patients to have more time when they can still live independently, performing tasks like cooking meals, going to the store and driving a car. The results come after decades of failed attempts, despair, discouragement and billions of dollars spent. Most big pharmaceutical companies simply gave up on Alzheimer’s drugs. (New York Times)

Geothermal Everywhere: Finding the Energy to Save the World

“What Jamie was aiming to do is the hard part: create geothermal everywhere. That meant figuring out how to corral the heat from all of the dry rock below ground. That heat could provide a reliable, abundant, always flowing source of power. No need for the sun to shine or the wind to blow. No need for batteries to store it all. And it wouldn’t be geopolitically volatile, subject to complicated supply chain disruptions.” (WIRED)

Brain surgery on a fetus

“She doesn’t know it yet, but a baby girl living somewhere near Boston has made history. The seven-week-old is one of the first people to have undergone an experimental brain operation while still in the womb. It might have saved her life. Before she was born, this little girl developed a dangerous condition that led blood to pool in a 14 millimeter-wide pocket in her brain. The condition could have resulted in brain damage, heart problems, and breathing difficulties after birth. It could have been fatal.” (MIT Tech Review)

Germany’s Nuclear Phase-Out Has Been a Disaster

“German scientists are warning that the national energy transition has pushed Germany into an energy shortage. “We demand an immediate stop to the nuclear phase-out,” wrote twenty renowned technological and economic scientists in the “Stuttgart Declaration,” which is being widely discussed in Germany. The continued operation of Germany’s nuclear power plants, they said, should be guaranteed “as the third climate protection pillar” alongside solar and wind power to secure Germany’s power supply and prosperity. “Rising energy prices and declining security of supply endanger competitiveness and prosperity,” the scientists warned. “With a one-sided focus on sun, wind and natural gas, Germany has been maneuvered into an energy shortage.” (The National Interest)