Haidt: end phone-centric childhood

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4vG6gzMscs/?igsh=aTNvMHM5bzkxZTE=

“deliberately exposed to radiation”

'Oppenheimer,' My Uncle and the Secrets America Still Doesn't Like to Tell

…"Oppenheimer" is a movie about a singular genius, an extraordinary collaboration and a turning point in history. But it's also a lesson in applied physics: the way a lone catalyst may trigger a chain reaction whose impact cannot be predicted or controlled. J. Robert Oppenheimer's greatest triumph set into motion forces that brought about his downfall. An innovation designed to make the world safer in the long term made it manifestly more dangerous. And in subsequent atomic tests through the postwar years, many Americans were deliberately exposed to radiation, to see what the blast and its aftermath would do to them...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/opinion/oppenheimer-secret-lives.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Pandemic lessons not learned

It has been four years since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

In 2022 Ed Yong wrote that the U.S. "made none of the broad changes that would protect its population against future pathogens, such as better ventilation or universal paid sick leave." He predicted that America will "continue to struggle against infectious diseases in part because some of its most deeply held values are antithetical to the task of besting a virus."

https://www.threads.net/@theatlantic/post/C4YzdRnRMYY/?xmt=AQGzVL8uXjPeUw92cc_xOhRNVYs1mCOg0E7vTYMC4LycRg

‘Fantastic Voyage’-ish A.I.

A.I. Is Learning What It Means to Be Alive

Given troves of data about genes and cells, A.I. models have made some surprising discoveries. What could they teach us someday?

...“I think these models are going to help us get some really fundamental understanding of the cell, which is going to provide some insight into what life really is,” Dr. Quake said.

Having a map of what’s possible and impossible to sustain life might also mean that scientists could actually create new cells that don’t yet exist in nature. The foundation model might be able to concoct chemical recipes that transform ordinary cells into new, extraordinary ones. Those new cells might devour plaque in blood vessels or explore a diseased organ to report back on its condition.

“It’s very ‘Fantastic Voyage’-ish,” Dr. Quake admitted. “But who knows what the future is going to hold?”

..."Professors should be very, very nervous."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/science/ai-learning-biology.html?smid=em-share