Luca
@lucatardigrado.bsky.social
Everything science and humane and everything else
Reposted by Luca
Philosophers: Imagine yourself behind the veil of ignorance, not knowing what life you might be born into
Giving What We Can: But what if we unveiled it
Giving What We Can: But what if we unveiled it
Giving what we can has implemented a fun game where you spin a globe to see how your starting point in life would compare if you were reborn today, randomly somewhere on earth.
www.givingwhatwecan.org/birth-lottery
www.givingwhatwecan.org/birth-lottery
Birth Lottery
If you were reborn today, where would you land? And how would that change your life?
www.givingwhatwecan.org
December 25, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Philosophers: Imagine yourself behind the veil of ignorance, not knowing what life you might be born into
Giving What We Can: But what if we unveiled it
Giving What We Can: But what if we unveiled it
Reposted by Luca
Just arrived in the mail today!! 😁
November 21, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Just arrived in the mail today!! 😁
Reposted by Luca
Nobel Prize Laureate Roger Penrose, Yvette Fuentes, and myself, request your help in order to save an archive of incredible scientific and historical value. Please raise awareness by *sharing*, or *contribute*:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/roger-penr...
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/roger-penr...
Roger Penrose & Friends Appeal for Unique Archive
To digitise and restore the worlds largest collection of audio and visual recordings within the scientific community, spanning over 50 years
www.crowdfunder.co.uk
September 8, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Nobel Prize Laureate Roger Penrose, Yvette Fuentes, and myself, request your help in order to save an archive of incredible scientific and historical value. Please raise awareness by *sharing*, or *contribute*:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/roger-penr...
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/roger-penr...
Reposted by Luca
Yes, populism is the answer! Unfortunately though, the corresponding question is "How do you alienate your core voters while chasing the votes of racists and xenophobes who aren't going to vote for you anyway?"
The latest issue of Prospect is out today. A month’s worth of absorbing reads. Plus - to celebrate the magazine’s 30th birthday - we’re lifting the paywall for a couple of days. Feast yourself !
September 3, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Yes, populism is the answer! Unfortunately though, the corresponding question is "How do you alienate your core voters while chasing the votes of racists and xenophobes who aren't going to vote for you anyway?"
Reposted by Luca
I'm very proud to have won the Royal Statistical Society's award for best statistical commentary by a non-journalist this year 🥹
July 16, 2025 at 12:20 PM
I'm very proud to have won the Royal Statistical Society's award for best statistical commentary by a non-journalist this year 🥹
Reposted by Luca
No, it's not the case that only China is responsible for the large decline in extreme poverty over the past decades.
We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china
We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china
July 13, 2025 at 7:07 AM
No, it's not the case that only China is responsible for the large decline in extreme poverty over the past decades.
We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china
We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china
Reposted by Luca
Sorry folks, I am a newbie dolt on Substack. The link should be this one. It will have a pretty picture in due course.
philipball86.substack.com
philipball86.substack.com
And Another Thing | Philip Ball | Substack
Philip Ball's marginalia that can't or needn't be published elsewhere. It could be music, it could be biology, quantum mechanics, more or less anything. Click to read And Another Thing, by Philip Ball...
philipball86.substack.com
July 11, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Sorry folks, I am a newbie dolt on Substack. The link should be this one. It will have a pretty picture in due course.
philipball86.substack.com
philipball86.substack.com
Reposted by Luca
New post! Our summer edition of What's new in biology:
The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind sweet tastes, baby cured with gene therapy, gene-editing breakthroughs & new cholesterol drugs.
Written by me and @nikomccarty.bsky.social
The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind sweet tastes, baby cured with gene therapy, gene-editing breakthroughs & new cholesterol drugs.
Written by me and @nikomccarty.bsky.social
What's new in biology: summer 2025
The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind sweet tastes, a baby cured with gene therapy, and more
www.worksinprogress.news
July 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM
New post! Our summer edition of What's new in biology:
The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind sweet tastes, baby cured with gene therapy, gene-editing breakthroughs & new cholesterol drugs.
Written by me and @nikomccarty.bsky.social
The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind sweet tastes, baby cured with gene therapy, gene-editing breakthroughs & new cholesterol drugs.
Written by me and @nikomccarty.bsky.social
Reposted by Luca
The latest issue of Works in Progress is out today!
- One weird trick to build a metro
- The FDA's secret liberalisation of animal drugs
- How Japan builds infrastructure through cities
- Brain-computer interfaces
- How NZ invented inflation targeting
And more! worksinprogress.co
- One weird trick to build a metro
- The FDA's secret liberalisation of animal drugs
- How Japan builds infrastructure through cities
- Brain-computer interfaces
- How NZ invented inflation targeting
And more! worksinprogress.co
June 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM
The latest issue of Works in Progress is out today!
- One weird trick to build a metro
- The FDA's secret liberalisation of animal drugs
- How Japan builds infrastructure through cities
- Brain-computer interfaces
- How NZ invented inflation targeting
And more! worksinprogress.co
- One weird trick to build a metro
- The FDA's secret liberalisation of animal drugs
- How Japan builds infrastructure through cities
- Brain-computer interfaces
- How NZ invented inflation targeting
And more! worksinprogress.co
Reposted by Luca
LAUNCH DAY 🚀
Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social)
Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.
Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social)
Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.
Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end AIDS
Hard Drugs · Episode
open.spotify.com
June 11, 2025 at 2:16 PM
LAUNCH DAY 🚀
Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social)
Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.
Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social)
Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.
Reposted by Luca
How Chinese drones could defeat America
How Chinese drones could defeat America
A Ukrainian drone attack shows our extreme vulnerability.
www.noahpinion.blog
June 3, 2025 at 7:35 AM
How Chinese drones could defeat America
Reposted by Luca
One of the most promising ideas for how life became "handed" (left-handed amino acids, say) is that there was some sort of autocatalytic amplification of an initially random small fluctuation. Now there's a way it could work for actual amino acids.
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/hand...
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/hand...
Handing handedness to amino acids
A new theory proposes how chiral amplification could happen
www.chemistryworld.com
May 28, 2025 at 8:58 AM
One of the most promising ideas for how life became "handed" (left-handed amino acids, say) is that there was some sort of autocatalytic amplification of an initially random small fluctuation. Now there's a way it could work for actual amino acids.
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/hand...
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/hand...
Reposted by Luca
I had a fantastic talk a few weeks ago with Nobel laureate Paul Nurse, head of the Crick Institute, about where biology has got to and where it's heading. Here is the first part of it.
www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/paul-nu...
www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/paul-nu...
Nobel Laureate, Paul Nurse, on the Future of Biology
SIR PAUL NURSE | Life is something that is able to self-assemble into a whole, behaving object. And that's what a cell is, too...
www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com
April 21, 2025 at 8:25 AM
I had a fantastic talk a few weeks ago with Nobel laureate Paul Nurse, head of the Crick Institute, about where biology has got to and where it's heading. Here is the first part of it.
www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/paul-nu...
www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/paul-nu...
Reposted by Luca
Welcome to the aerobiome: I talk to Big Think about AIR-BORNE. bigthink.com/life/carl-zi...
Carl Zimmer explores the hidden world of the aerobiome
In Airborne, Zimmer tells how scientists learned about the “gaseous ocean” we swim in — and the trillions of life forms we share it with.
bigthink.com
March 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Welcome to the aerobiome: I talk to Big Think about AIR-BORNE. bigthink.com/life/carl-zi...
Reposted by Luca
I’ve been seething and grieving since yesterday’s Friday Night Massacre of NIH overheads, a seeming bit of bureaucratic trivial that will in fact destroy the US university system if unchecked. But I want to get away from budgets and rate breakdowns and F&A percentages for a moment.
Humor me?
Humor me?
February 8, 2025 at 9:41 PM
I’ve been seething and grieving since yesterday’s Friday Night Massacre of NIH overheads, a seeming bit of bureaucratic trivial that will in fact destroy the US university system if unchecked. But I want to get away from budgets and rate breakdowns and F&A percentages for a moment.
Humor me?
Humor me?
Reposted by Luca
Trump just undid the only good thing GWB did in his entire 8 years.
Many sudden and shocking health care developments this week. But this was a big one: The Trump administration on Friday paused funding for PEPFAR, the famed program to fight HIV/AIDS around the world.
@mradamtaylor.bsky.social @johnphudson.bsky.social Missy Ryan + a little help from me
@mradamtaylor.bsky.social @johnphudson.bsky.social Missy Ryan + a little help from me
Funds for fight against HIV/AIDS paused in Trump aid freeze
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide and has long enjoyed bipartisan support.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 25, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Trump just undid the only good thing GWB did in his entire 8 years.
Reposted by Luca
What does the remarkably early appearance of the Last Universal Common Ancestor tell us about the first days of life on Earth? My article in yesterday's Observer.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Luca is the progenitor of all life on Earth. But its genesis has implications far beyond our planet
New research into the single-celled organism is providing clues about what the early planet looked like – and raising the prospect that we may not be alone in the universe
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2025 at 8:49 AM
What does the remarkably early appearance of the Last Universal Common Ancestor tell us about the first days of life on Earth? My article in yesterday's Observer.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Luca
𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰
Some of the books I enjoyed reading this past year.
Many great books but a remarkable one on How Life Works offers a beautiful view of biology by Philip Ball.
Some of the books I enjoyed reading this past year.
Many great books but a remarkable one on How Life Works offers a beautiful view of biology by Philip Ball.
January 5, 2025 at 3:17 PM
𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰
Some of the books I enjoyed reading this past year.
Many great books but a remarkable one on How Life Works offers a beautiful view of biology by Philip Ball.
Some of the books I enjoyed reading this past year.
Many great books but a remarkable one on How Life Works offers a beautiful view of biology by Philip Ball.
Reposted by Luca
My favorite books, 2024
December 28, 2024 at 6:31 PM
My favorite books, 2024
Reposted by Luca
the progression of AIDS treatment in my lifetime, from how terrifying it was as a child in the 80s to stories like this 40-odd years later, is genuinely one of the human race’s most awe-inspiring scientific achievements. it was a nonnegotiable death sentence for SO LONG
After nearly three decades, a Minnesota summer camp for kids with HIV/AIDS is closing and up for sale... because retroviral drugs are so effective that there aren't enough campers.
Science works, y'all.
www.startribune.com/closure-of-n...
Science works, y'all.
www.startribune.com/closure-of-n...
Closure of northern Minnesota camp is ‘the greatest story.’ Here’s why.
Willow River, Minn., camp One Heartland is for sale after serving kids there for nearly three decades.
www.startribune.com
December 28, 2024 at 1:24 AM
the progression of AIDS treatment in my lifetime, from how terrifying it was as a child in the 80s to stories like this 40-odd years later, is genuinely one of the human race’s most awe-inspiring scientific achievements. it was a nonnegotiable death sentence for SO LONG
Reposted by Luca
Qui puoi trovare diversi scienziati e divulgatori utili presenti. Ho creato la mia lista dove ci sono quelli che seguo quindi se ti fa piacere puoi dare un'occhiata e fare follow. Ovviamente ho aggiunto anche te così gli altri possono seguirti! @bgallavotti.bsky.social! 💪🏻🦋
go.bsky.app/Ft1bBC2
go.bsky.app/Ft1bBC2
December 28, 2024 at 11:46 AM
Qui puoi trovare diversi scienziati e divulgatori utili presenti. Ho creato la mia lista dove ci sono quelli che seguo quindi se ti fa piacere puoi dare un'occhiata e fare follow. Ovviamente ho aggiunto anche te così gli altri possono seguirti! @bgallavotti.bsky.social! 💪🏻🦋
go.bsky.app/Ft1bBC2
go.bsky.app/Ft1bBC2
Reposted by Luca
A stressor you can break free of:
Industry report: Identifies potential upcoming resource / mineral shortages.
The News: “THERE WILL BE A SHORTAGE IN 5 YEARS.”
Industry: Reacts to report’s identification of economic opportunity, increasing exploration and supply. No shortage ever appears.
Industry report: Identifies potential upcoming resource / mineral shortages.
The News: “THERE WILL BE A SHORTAGE IN 5 YEARS.”
Industry: Reacts to report’s identification of economic opportunity, increasing exploration and supply. No shortage ever appears.
December 21, 2024 at 8:38 PM
A stressor you can break free of:
Industry report: Identifies potential upcoming resource / mineral shortages.
The News: “THERE WILL BE A SHORTAGE IN 5 YEARS.”
Industry: Reacts to report’s identification of economic opportunity, increasing exploration and supply. No shortage ever appears.
Industry report: Identifies potential upcoming resource / mineral shortages.
The News: “THERE WILL BE A SHORTAGE IN 5 YEARS.”
Industry: Reacts to report’s identification of economic opportunity, increasing exploration and supply. No shortage ever appears.
Reposted by Luca
Some said it couldn’t be done. That it was impossible; ridiculous; absurd. But @tomchivers.bsky.social and I have done it: recorded a whole podcast episode about collider bias. www.thestudiesshowpod.com/p/episode-57...
Episode 57: Collider bias
Listen now | Does smoking prevent COVID? Is being obese actually healthy? Or is something funny going on?
www.thestudiesshowpod.com
November 26, 2024 at 8:15 PM
Some said it couldn’t be done. That it was impossible; ridiculous; absurd. But @tomchivers.bsky.social and I have done it: recorded a whole podcast episode about collider bias. www.thestudiesshowpod.com/p/episode-57...