Telescope #89

Weekly horizon scan…

SUSTAINABILITY

• Large food and agribusiness companies are forging ahead on efforts to scale regenerative agriculture even as U.S. regulators pull back on reporting requirements for on-farm emissions. Danone, General Mills and other food giants outlined their efforts to foster soil health and increase biodiversity at the Regenerative Agriculture and Food Systems Summit in Chicago last week. The conversation occurred days after the Securities and Exchange Commission voted on a climate disclosure rule that dropped a proposal for companies to report their supplier emissions. DETAIL

• More than 1 billion meals are wasted across the world each day while nearly 800 million people go hungry, a new United Nations report has found. The world wasted 1.05 billion metric tons of food in 2022, meaning about a fifth of the food available to people was squandered by households, restaurants and other parts of the food service and retail sectors. DETAIL

• Spreading crushed rock on farms is gaining traction as a method of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Now, two independent tests of the approach on farms in the US Midwest and in the UK have found it can also substantially increase crop yields. DETAIL

• Researchers suggest that melting glaciers at the poles caused by global warming may affect the Earth's rotation speed, which may lengthen the days in a way that people may not notice but will be felt by computing systems. DETAIL

HEALTH

• Neuralink's first brain implant is still in clinical human trials. But the company is already working on a second implant that promises to cure blindness, according to Neuralink owner Elon Musk. DETAIL

• A new study in Nature Communications suggests that your mother's diet during pregnancy is a significant factor in how your facial features are shaped due to a complex dance between gene expression and how much protein she ate while you were a fetus swimming inside her tummy — putting a new spin on the phrase "you are what you eat." DETAIL

  

• Novocure's (NVCR.O), opens new tab therapy met the main goal of a late-stage trial of slowing the progression of cancer to the brain in patients with a type of lung cancer, the company said on Wednesday, sending the company's shares up 17%. DETAIL

• Viking Therapeutics' (VKTX.O), opens new tab experimental tablet reduced weight by as much as 3.3% when tested in volunteers enrolled in a small early-stage trial, meeting Wall Street expectations and sending the company's shares up 15% in premarket trading on Tuesday. DETAIL

DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE / AI

• In the Netherlands, Theo works weekdays, weekends and nights, checking tulip fields for diseased flowers.  Named after a retired employee of the WAM Pennings farm on the North Sea coast of the Netherlands, the robot is a new technology in the battle to eradicate diseases in the fields that turn into a riot of colors in spring.  The robot moves along the rows of tulips, checking each plant and, if necessary, killing diseased bulbs to prevent the spread of the 'tulip bug virus'. DETAIL

• The United Nations has adopted its first resolution on artificial intelligence, which, while non-binding for the 120 nations sponsoring it, aims to promote "safe, secure, and trustworthy" AI and stop UN member regions from deploying AI that would violate international law. DETAIL

• Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is rolling out an AI-powered educational tool that it says will provide students with personalized learning plans and resources. The tool, dubbed Ed, can translate personalized learning plans into over 100 languages, a much-needed resource. LAUSD is nation's second-largest district, with 565,479 students, of which 86,081 (15%) are still "learning to speak English proficiently," according to a district fact sheet. DETAIL

• Use among younger US adults has ticked up 10 percentage points since July, according to Pew Research, though 34% of respondents said they've 'heard nothing at all about ChatGPT.' DETAIL

• According to the report from Institute for Public Policy Research, up to 8 million jobs in the United Kingdom could be wiped out as society transitions to the next, more entrenched phase of AI adoption. DETAIL

ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION

• Greenpower Park, the UK's initiative for electrification and clean energy, has been launched in Coventry, England. A number of international battery manufacturers are expected to set up shop there. DETAIL

  

• AI uses a lot of electricity: In a new report, analyst Michael Blum of Wells Fargo Securities figures that by 2030, artificial intelligence will require an incremental 700 terawatt-hours per year—more than the total electricity consumption of Germany—requiring a 16% expansion of the U.S. electric grid. Wind and solar power may not be able to scale fast enough, Blum writes, and new natural gas power plants will likely have to play a role. DETAIL

CYBERSECURITY

• UnitedHealth Group said on Friday its Change Healthcare unit will start to process the medical claims backlog of more than $14 billion as it resumes some software services disrupted by a cyberattack last month. The company has been scrambling to resume services at the technology unit that was hit by a cyberattack on Feb. 21, disrupting payments to U.S. doctors and healthcare facilities and forcing the U.S. government to launch a probe. DETAIL

• The US is retaliating against one of China’s most notorious hacking groups by exposing its membership. The Justice Department today unsealed an indictment against seven Chinese nationals for allegedly being part of APT 31, a Chinese state-sponsored hacking outfit that’s been active for the past 14 years. DETAIL

• Leaks from a sketchy data broker have seemingly revealed the locations of hundreds of people who visited Little St. James, the notorious US Virgin Islands haunt owned by convicted — and now deceased — sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. DETAIL

• Newly obtained emails have left both X and Musk, who has long claimed to be a champion of free speech, with egg on their faces. The Intercept reports that despite railing against state spying, the social media company has been quietly profiting off it this entire time — selling a "firehose" of user data for the explicit purpose of being used by law enforcement. DETAIL

• UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), opens new tab said on Wednesday it has advanced more than $3.3 billion in loans to care providers impacted by a cyberattack on the U.S. healthcare conglomerate' tech unit last month. DETAIL

HUMAN

• On an overcast day in Tokyo this week, three dozen men and women strolled through a botanical garden in groups of four, making awkward conversation as they searched for clues to a mystery-solving game - and a potential partner for life. They are participants in one of the many matchmaking events the government of Japan's capital has been hosting for years in an attempt, so far unsuccessful, to reverse declines in marriages and births. DETAIL

• The richest 1 percent in Turkey receives 40 percent of the wealth in the country.  According to this criterion, Turkey ranks first in Europe with inequality in wealth distribution.  Considering the share of wealth received by the richest 5 percent and the richest 10 percent, Turkey ranks second.  Türkiye ranks third in the Gini coefficient, which shows the inequality of wealth distribution. DETAIL