Slow Newscast
In the early hours of the morning of the 5 December 2022, a shot – a pulse – was fired that could save the world. It was a shot that achieved the fusion scientists had been seeking for more than half a century. They call it ignition, and it could solve an energy crisis that’s becoming existential for humanity. This is the story of those precious seconds and the decades leading up to it
Sensemaker Audio
After three years and countless deaths, were the people who think Covid came from a Chinese lab right all along?
Slow Newscast
Nasa wants to put people back on the moon, half a century after Apollo 11. Its Artemis moon mission is over-budget, overhyped and underpowered – it might even be the end of Nasa as we know it
Sensemaker
What just happened
Sensemaker Audio
At the start of July, one in eighteen people in the UK were infected with Covid because of two new Omicron sub-variants. How worried should we be about rising cases?
thinkin
Consciousness is a tricky subject. Academics, philosophers, artists and mathematicians have grappled with its definition for centuries. There’s something mysterious about our perception of the world, and the way it gives rise to the feeling of conscious being. Something mysterious that makes us who we are.With the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence models — like Google’s LaMDA — questions about the nature of consciousness are surfacing. Can a programme be sentient? Do other animals possess a form of consciousness similar to ours? Do conscious things deserve particular rights? The brain and the body, the nervous system and the senses, all seem to play a role. What on earth is going on in there? editor and invited experts Luke GbedemahData Reporter Anil SethProfessor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex; Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness; Author of ‘Being You: a new science of consciousness’
Sensemaker Audio
The recent outbreak of monkeypox has been described by health experts as a “highly unusual” event. Why’s it happening now?
thinkin
A race is on for control of vital materials that go into batteries. China is way out in front, and demand for these materials — lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and rare earths few people can name — is going to quintuple by 2030. Is it time for democratic countries to form a western battery alliance to make sure they’re not held hostage by dictatorships as they make the energy transition?This ThinkIn is part of Tortoise’s Accelerating Net Zero coalition.The initiative brings together our members and a network of organisations across a programme of ThinkIns and journalism devoted to accelerating progress towards Net Zero.Visit the homepage to find out more about the coalition and join us. With thanks to our coalition members: a network of organisations similarly committed to achieving Net Zero. editor and invited experts Giles WhittellSensemaker Editor Amber RuddFormer Secretary of State, Energy and Climate Change Chris SkidmoreMP for Kingswood Lee RowleyMP for North East Derbyshire Steve LeVineEditor, The Electric
What just happened
Slow Newscast
In the early hours of the morning of the 5 December 2022, a shot – a pulse – was fired that could save the world. It was a shot that achieved the fusion scientists had been seeking for more than half a century. They call it ignition, and it could solve an energy crisis that’s becoming existential for humanity. This is the story of those precious seconds and the decades leading up to it
Sensemaker Audio
After three years and countless deaths, were the people who think Covid came from a Chinese lab right all along?
Slow Newscast
Nasa wants to put people back on the moon, half a century after Apollo 11. Its Artemis moon mission is over-budget, overhyped and underpowered – it might even be the end of Nasa as we know it
Sensemaker Audio
At the start of July, one in eighteen people in the UK were infected with Covid because of two new Omicron sub-variants. How worried should we be about rising cases?
Sensemaker Audio
The recent outbreak of monkeypox has been described by health experts as a “highly unusual” event. Why’s it happening now?
Sensemaker
Even though it’s more transmissible, there’s a chance the new Covid variant might be weaker than others. And that might be because, as the virus mutates, it loses its “fitness”…
Sensemaker
Scientists think the new mutation of Covid-19 could be linked to HIV. How?
Sensemaker
Sickle cell disease is a condition which affects Black people, and people from other ethnic minorities. Too many are dying needlessly from it.
thinkin
Consciousness is a tricky subject. Academics, philosophers, artists and mathematicians have grappled with its definition for centuries. There’s something mysterious about our perception of the world, and the way it gives rise to the feeling of conscious being. Something mysterious that makes us who we are.With the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence models — like Google’s LaMDA — questions about the nature of consciousness are surfacing. Can a programme be sentient? Do other animals possess a form of consciousness similar to ours? Do conscious things deserve particular rights? The brain and the body, the nervous system and the senses, all seem to play a role. What on earth is going on in there? editor and invited experts Luke GbedemahData Reporter Anil SethProfessor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex; Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness; Author of ‘Being You: a new science of consciousness’
thinkin
A race is on for control of vital materials that go into batteries. China is way out in front, and demand for these materials — lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and rare earths few people can name — is going to quintuple by 2030. Is it time for democratic countries to form a western battery alliance to make sure they’re not held hostage by dictatorships as they make the energy transition?This ThinkIn is part of Tortoise’s Accelerating Net Zero coalition.The initiative brings together our members and a network of organisations across a programme of ThinkIns and journalism devoted to accelerating progress towards Net Zero.Visit the homepage to find out more about the coalition and join us. With thanks to our coalition members: a network of organisations similarly committed to achieving Net Zero. editor and invited experts Giles WhittellSensemaker Editor Amber RuddFormer Secretary of State, Energy and Climate Change Chris SkidmoreMP for Kingswood Lee RowleyMP for North East Derbyshire Steve LeVineEditor, The Electric
thinkin
More episodes of the Slow Newscast Why this story? For 70 years, humans have known how to unleash the power of the sun in bombs. For 50, they’ve had a blueprint for how to harness that power safely in a lab – a scientific paper published in 1972. But for most of that time the researchers devoting their lives to fusion power have had to concede it was decades from reality. They’ve been the butt of jokes. Not any more. Four months ago the race towards fusion changed forever when the world woke up to news that ignition had been achieved. Scientists at a giant US government lab in northern California had created a fusion reaction that yielded more energy than it took to initiate. It was a Sputnik moment – a moment that changed the boundaries of the possible. As the world hurtles towards two degrees of warming and more, the need for superabundant clean energy is only growing. The way things are going, wind and solar alone won’t meet that need, but for the first time it’s not crazy to suggest that fusion power will.
thinkin
More episodes of the Slow Newscast Why this story? For 70 years, humans have known how to unleash the power of the sun in bombs. For 50, they’ve had a blueprint for how to harness that power safely in a lab – a scientific paper published in 1972. But for most of that time the researchers devoting their lives to fusion power have had to concede it was decades from reality. They’ve been the butt of jokes. Not any more. Four months ago the race towards fusion changed forever when the world woke up to news that ignition had been achieved. Scientists at a giant US government lab in northern California had created a fusion reaction that yielded more energy than it took to initiate. It was a Sputnik moment – a moment that changed the boundaries of the possible. As the world hurtles towards two degrees of warming and more, the need for superabundant clean energy is only growing. The way things are going, wind and solar alone won’t meet that need, but for the first time it’s not crazy to suggest that fusion power will.
thinkin
More episodes of the Slow Newscast Why this story? For 70 years, humans have known how to unleash the power of the sun in bombs. For 50, they’ve had a blueprint for how to harness that power safely in a lab – a scientific paper published in 1972. But for most of that time the researchers devoting their lives to fusion power have had to concede it was decades from reality. They’ve been the butt of jokes. Not any more. Four months ago the race towards fusion changed forever when the world woke up to news that ignition had been achieved. Scientists at a giant US government lab in northern California had created a fusion reaction that yielded more energy than it took to initiate. It was a Sputnik moment – a moment that changed the boundaries of the possible. As the world hurtles towards two degrees of warming and more, the need for superabundant clean energy is only growing. The way things are going, wind and solar alone won’t meet that need, but for the first time it’s not crazy to suggest that fusion power will.
thinkin
More episodes of the Slow Newscast Why this story? For 70 years, humans have known how to unleash the power of the sun in bombs. For 50, they’ve had a blueprint for how to harness that power safely in a lab – a scientific paper published in 1972. But for most of that time the researchers devoting their lives to fusion power have had to concede it was decades from reality. They’ve been the butt of jokes. Not any more. Four months ago the race towards fusion changed forever when the world woke up to news that ignition had been achieved. Scientists at a giant US government lab in northern California had created a fusion reaction that yielded more energy than it took to initiate. It was a Sputnik moment – a moment that changed the boundaries of the possible. As the world hurtles towards two degrees of warming and more, the need for superabundant clean energy is only growing. The way things are going, wind and solar alone won’t meet that need, but for the first time it’s not crazy to suggest that fusion power will.
thinkin
More episodes of the Slow Newscast Why this story? For 70 years, humans have known how to unleash the power of the sun in bombs. For 50, they’ve had a blueprint for how to harness that power safely in a lab – a scientific paper published in 1972. But for most of that time the researchers devoting their lives to fusion power have had to concede it was decades from reality. They’ve been the butt of jokes. Not any more. Four months ago the race towards fusion changed forever when the world woke up to news that ignition had been achieved. Scientists at a giant US government lab in northern California had created a fusion reaction that yielded more energy than it took to initiate. It was a Sputnik moment – a moment that changed the boundaries of the possible. As the world hurtles towards two degrees of warming and more, the need for superabundant clean energy is only growing. The way things are going, wind and solar alone won’t meet that need, but for the first time it’s not crazy to suggest that fusion power will.
thinkin
More episodes of the Slow Newscast Why this story? For 70 years, humans have known how to unleash the power of the sun in bombs. For 50, they’ve had a blueprint for how to harness that power safely in a lab – a scientific paper published in 1972. But for most of that time the researchers devoting their lives to fusion power have had to concede it was decades from reality. They’ve been the butt of jokes. Not any more. Four months ago the race towards fusion changed forever when the world woke up to news that ignition had been achieved. Scientists at a giant US government lab in northern California had created a fusion reaction that yielded more energy than it took to initiate. It was a Sputnik moment – a moment that changed the boundaries of the possible. As the world hurtles towards two degrees of warming and more, the need for superabundant clean energy is only growing. The way things are going, wind and solar alone won’t meet that need, but for the first time it’s not crazy to suggest that fusion power will.
thinkin
More episodes of the Slow Newscast Why this story? For 70 years, humans have known how to unleash the power of the sun in bombs. For 50, they’ve had a blueprint for how to harness that power safely in a lab – a scientific paper published in 1972. But for most of that time the researchers devoting their lives to fusion power have had to concede it was decades from reality. They’ve been the butt of jokes. Not any more. Four months ago the race towards fusion changed forever when the world woke up to news that ignition had been achieved. Scientists at a giant US government lab in northern California had created a fusion reaction that yielded more energy than it took to initiate. It was a Sputnik moment – a moment that changed the boundaries of the possible. As the world hurtles towards two degrees of warming and more, the need for superabundant clean energy is only growing. The way things are going, wind and solar alone won’t meet that need, but for the first time it’s not crazy to suggest that fusion power will.
Sensemaker
What just happened
What just happened
Sensemaker
What just happened
Slow View
The life changing drug PrEP must be rolled out in community pharmacies, as well as sexual health clinics, to reach all those who need it
Sensemaker
What just happened