Ada Palmer

F&SF Novelist (Terra Ignota), historian (U Chicago), Renaissance, book history, censorship, classics, disability activism, FILK music Sassafrass, manga/anime Tezuka, chronic pain

blog: exurbe.com
homepage: adapalmer.com
Recent Nonfiction:: Trace Elements
Next Fiction:: And Loki in His Prison

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Last Notes

2026-02-02 17:01:38 GMT

In Medieval Europe ships called cogs revolutionised shipping simply by their size: they were the biggest things to ever hit the water. A cog named Svælget 2 was recently found off the coast of Copenhagen: it’s 28 metres from bow to stern and, preserved under sand, its rigging is still intact. Archaeologists were particularly excited to find a brick-and-tile fireplace on the ship’s deck, a remarkable bit of comfort that allowed sailors to have hot meals. https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/archaeologists-find-a-supersized-medieval-shipwreck-in-denmark/
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2026-01-13 17:01:28 GMT

Scientists have used artificial intelligence to create an enzyme that can eat one of the toughest plastics on Earth: the kind used in foam mattresses and sneakers. The enzyme breaks polyurethane down into reusable chemicals in just 12 hours at 50°C, turning it back into raw materials. Truly circular recycling. Wild. We know it’s already in the headline, but did we mention they used AI to design this thing? Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/10/polyurethane-is-the-latest-polymer-broken-down-by-designer-enzymes/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email #ShareGoodNewsToo

2026-01-03 18:02:02 GMT

In September, The Lancet released a report with one of the most extraordinary statistics I’ve ever seen: since 2010, humanity’s total burden of illness and early death has dropped by 12.6 percent, driven by declining deaths from the world's deadliest infectious diseases: tuberculosis, lower respiratory infections, diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, all down by between 25 and 49 percent. https://fixthenews.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-12-28 18:02:01 GMT

Agrivoltaics boost crop yields even when the solar panels aren’t generating power. New research from Canada shows that shading crops with elevated solar panels creates a cooler, wetter microclimate that can lift yields and improve performance across dozens of crops, from peppers to pasture grass. These benefits persist even when panels are offline, strengthening the case for agrivoltaics as dual-use infrastructure. The Conversation https://theconversation.com/the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-how-solar-panels-on-farms-can-help-increase-crop-yields-269264?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-12-25 17:01:04 GMT

US coal generation has collapsed from about 50% of electricity in 2005 to just 14% today. It’s one of the fastest energy transitions in modern history. Nearly 400 plants have retired or been scheduled for closure, and operating a coal plant now costs more than building new wind and solar in every state. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/can-the-war-on-coal-be-won?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-12-23 17:00:52 GMT

400 years ago, Jubilee Marsh was walled off from the sea and stopped being a saltwater marsh. In the mid-2000s, the Royal Society for the Protection Of Birds bought the land and decided to ‘rewet’ the marsh. Just letting the sea back in wouldn’t be enough though — the land had sunk — but in London, the Crossrail project was excavating the Elizabeth line tunnel and needed a place to put dirt. Cue collaboration, and now a hugely successful bird refuge https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/record-40000-birds-flock-to-elizabeth-line-created-wetland/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-12-11 14:01:17 GMT

Britain ends new fossil fuel exploration. The government has introduced a legal moratorium on all new oil and gas exploration licences, ending five decades of North Sea expansion and aligning policy with 1.5°C targets. Existing fields will keep producing under stricter climate tests, but future investment will now flow to offshore wind, carbon-free heat and upgrades to the grid. Greenpeace UK https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/britain-ends-new-fossil-fuel-exploration/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-12-10 17:01:35 GMT

In Europe, rewilding is reversing the fortunes of ‘Empty Spain.’ In the sparsely populated Serranía Celtibérica, a decade of rewilding efforts has revived ecosystems, wildlife and rural livelihoods. Semi-wild herbivores and predators are returning to abandoned farmland, local timber and resin businesses are gaining sustainable footing, and young volunteers are helping build a rewilding movement rooted in community and ecological renewal. Rewilding Europe https://rewildingeurope.com/news/rewilding-is-revitalising-lives-and-landscapes-in-the-iberian-highlands/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-12-08 17:02:32 GMT

3,150-year-old papyrus reveals the world’s earliest recorded labour strike. New analysis of the Turin Strike Papyrus—a detailed account from 1157 BCE—shows how artisans building the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina staged a coordinated walkout after going 18 days without grain rations. The document reads like an ancient industrial dispute: workers blocking gates, sending written demands to officials, and ultimately winning emergency payments. https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_1880
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2025-12-06 18:02:01 GMT

15,000 acres of New York’s Adirondacks has passed from private hands to parkland — and for the first time in 100 years, will be re-opened to the public. 6,000 acres along ten miles of the Raquette River will now allow hiking, paddling and camping, while 9,000 additional acres around the lake are protected as a freshwater research preserve supporting rare cold-water species. The Nature Conservancy https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/forever-wild-adirondacks/
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2025-12-05 17:02:20 GMT

The U.K. will ban the sale of plastic-based wet wipes from 2026, targeting a major source of sewer blockages and riverine microplastics. Water companies say wipes form up to 90% of fatbergs, costing millions to remove and degrading ecosystems downstream.The ban forces a full market shift toward biodegradable alternatives that the country’s pipes and treatment plants can actually handle, closing a long-standing gap in wastewater regulation. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/czxkv0d28x8o
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2025-12-04 17:01:24 GMT

Powerful new malaria drug offers first serious alternative to artemisinin in decades. Novartis’ new drug cured more than 97% of malaria cases in a Phase 3 trial of 1,688 adults and children across 12 African countries, matching or beating current artemisinin-based therapies while killing drug-resistant strains and blocking transmission stages. If regulators approve, it will be the first frontline malaria drug of its kind in over 25 years. Reuters https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/new-effective-anti-malaria-drug-could-help-fight-rising-resistance-says-novartis-2025-11-12/
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2025-11-28 19:42:31 GMT

#BlackoutFriday
Join unions 💪 & organizers 🤝 today by avoiding spending.
The BIG ones to to Say NO to are:
🎯Amazon (Whole Foods)
🎯Home Depot
🎯Target
🎯 Walmart.
Say no to merchants making money off of ICE and complicity with authoritarianism. Say no to big corporations axing DEI.
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/115/629/017/009/123/203/original/e80b0baea35fa71a.jpeg

2025-11-27 17:01:57 GMT

Clean power growth is now covering all new global demand; and fossil fuels are falling in China and India. Solar and wind generated 635 TWh in the first nine months of this year, exceeding the 603 TWh rise in global electricity demand, and holding fossil generation flat for the year. China’s fossil generation fell 0.7% in the last 12 months compared to the previous period. India’s fossil generation declined by 2.5%. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/q3-global-power-report-no-fossil-fuel-growth-expected-in-2025/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-11-26 17:01:22 GMT

Site in Kenya reveals 300,000 years of uninterrupted toolmaking. Archaeologists uncovered nearly 1,300 stone tools spanning 2.44 to 2.75 million years, showing that early hominins taught and replicated the same techniques across roughly 10,000 generations. During this time period, the surrounding landscape shifted from lush, humid forests to arid desert shrubland and back again - and the hominins survived in part because of their toolmaking traditions. https://www.404media.co/advanced-2-5-million-year-old-tools-may-rewrite-human-history/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-11-16 18:02:02 GMT

British and Australian chemists have discovered a powerful new antibiotic called pre-methylenomycin C lactone, hiding in a well-known soil bacterium that produces another drug, methylenomycin A. This molecule however, is 100 times more potent than methylenomycin A and kills drug-resistant bacteria without triggering resistance. The find could reshape antibiotic discovery and revive the fight against superbugs. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251029002855.htm?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-11-15 18:02:02 GMT

Doctors in China have used lab-grown insulin-producing cells to treat a woman with type 1 diabetes. The cells were made from her own tissue, reprogrammed into stem cells, and then grown into tiny clusters that release insulin. A year after the transplant, her blood sugar remains normal without medication. It’s the first time in history that a person with type 1 diabetes has been freed from insulin injections using cells made from their own body. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)01022-5?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-11-13 17:02:03 GMT

In Ecuador’s Pastaza province, the Kichwa community of Pakayaku has kept 400 km² of Amazon rainforest free from mining, oil and logging through a self-organised guardian force. 45 women patrol the territory, enforcing ancestral laws and mapping sustainable livelihoods in a “plan of life.” Their vigilance has preserved both forest ecosystems and cultural autonomy amid growing national extractive pressures. https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-11-11 17:01:05 GMT

Christiana Figueres: The global south is now leading the clean-energy revolution. The architect of the Paris Agreement argues that while politics remain paralysed, economics and technology are driving unstoppable change, led by emerging economies from Nigeria to Oman. Clean industries are scaling at exponential speed across the global south - home to 70% of the world’s wind and solar potential. The Economist https://archive.li/2AHpU
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2025-11-10 17:02:28 GMT

Barn owl numbers soar in Cheshire thanks to volunteers. Three decades after a survey found just six breeding pairs in West Cheshire, the Broxton Barn Owl Group now counts around 160 pairs: a 25-fold increase, driven entirely by local volunteers. Founded in 1995 by Dot and George Bramall, the group has restored habitats, installed nest boxes and monitored chicks, turning once-vanishing owls into a thriving rural presence across the county. BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mxwke7wr7o
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2025-11-05 17:01:57 GMT

The World Bank’s latest data shows a quiet global triumph: 93% of people aged 15 to 24 can now read and write, up from 87% in 2000. In many regions, including East Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe, youth literacy has reached or neared universal levels, marking one of the most successful, least reported stories in development. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.1524.LT.ZS?end=2024&start=2000&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-10-29 16:01:52 GMT

Maldives eliminates mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B. No babies were born with HIV or syphilis in 2022–23, and hepatitis B has vanished among children. The WHO is calling it a “triple elimination,” the world’s first of its kind. https://www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2025-maldives-becomes-the-first-country-to-achieve-triple-elimination-of-mother-to-child-transmission-of-hiv-syphilis-and-hepatitis-b?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-10-27 16:01:43 GMT

Aztec-era farms revived by women to heal Mexico City wetlands
Women farmers in Xochimilco and San Gregorio are restoring chinampas (high-yield island farms) using canal-mud fertiliser, biofilters and invasive-fish barriers. The programme has certified 16 producers and is improving water quality in a wetland that’s just 3% of its original extent but buffers floods, cools the city and shelters the axolotl. AP https://apnews.com/article/mexico-xochimilco-chinampas-women-island-farms-427086e05486eedbceb478c6dc6cb819?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-10-18 17:03:29 GMT

Social media use begins global decline. For the first time, time spent on social media is falling worldwide. An analysis of 250,000 adults across 50 countries shows average daily use dropped nearly 10% since 2022, reversing a decade of growth. The steepest declines are among teens and 20-somethings, suggesting humanity’s fever may have broken. Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/92c241d7-e265-4b4d-938a-6a60200f2c6d
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2025-10-17 16:03:09 GMT

In Maine, four hydroelectric dams are being sold to conservationists, paving the way for the largest river-restoration effort in US history. The deal could reopen hundreds of kilometres of spawning habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon and other migratory fish, following decades of advocacy and smaller dam removals that already boosted alewife and shad runs. The Maine Monitor https://themainemonitor.org/dams-sale-salmon-return-kennebec-river/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-10-16 16:02:55 GMT

Solar in California now out-generates fossil fuels. California’s vast solar farms, now backed by giant batteries, have flipped the state’s electricity balance, driving record emissions drops and lower power prices. The shift, built on three years of storage expansion, shows how clean energy can run an economy the size of France’s without the grid collapsing. Reuters https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/californias-solar-battery-combo-packs-transformational-punch-2025-10-03/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-10-11 17:03:13 GMT

A decade after the Paris Agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions are barely rising, up just 0.3% a year since 2015, compared with 1.7% before. https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/paris-agreement-at-ten-brakes-slammed-on-emissions-growth-finds-analysis?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-09-28 18:51:57 GMT

- reply

book rec Guido Ruggiero “Love and Death in Time of Plague.” Brilliant nonfiction close reading of the Decameron and a joy to read. You would likely also really enjoy my “Inventing the Renaissance”
which us also nonfiction but uses episodic plural storytelling like the Decameron, and treats the impact of the plague. You’d also enjoy the good 2012 European international cast Borgia show, “Borgia: Faith & Fear” (not to be confused with “The Borgias” which is a different show).

2025-09-26 16:01:37 GMT

Paris turns the Seine into an air conditioner. Beneath the city, 100 km of pipes now channel river water through heat exchangers to cool 800 buildings - none more than the Louvre, which alone draws 12MW to protect its art. The way the system works is by transferring heat through closed loops, room by room, until it disperses back into the Seine. The network will more than double by 2042, supplying 3,000 sites as heatwaves intensify. WIRED https://archive.md/64Dni
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2025-09-16 16:00:44 GMT

In good ocean news, Scotland is officially banning bottom trawling in 11 marine protected areas starting October 16, in a move welcomed by both environmental groups and the Scottish Fisherman’s Federation. Oceana UK https://uk.oceana.org/blog/what-scotlands-trawling-announcement-really-means-for-its-marine-protected-areas/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-09-15 16:00:47 GMT

Denmark is on track to wipe out the most dangerous strains of HPV. 15 years after rolling out its national HPV vaccination program, Denmark is closing in on eliminating the leading cancer-causing strains of the virus. New data shows the vaccine has all but wiped out HPV16 and HPV18 - which together cause around 70% of cervical cancers - among young women born after 2000. It's a powerful proof point for what widespread, equitable vaccine coverage can do. https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/denmark-close-wiping-out-leading-cancer-causing-hpv-strains-after-vaccine-roll-out?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-09-14 17:02:02 GMT

Scientists from China and the U.S. have found direct evidence of a solid inner core inside Mars. Using seismic data from NASA’s now-retired InSight lander, researchers detected a solid core about 600 km in radius, roughly the same inner-core-to-planet ratio as Earth. If confirmed, it would mean that Earth, the Moon, and Mars all share the same inner structure, hinting at a more dynamic history for our rocky neighbours than we realized https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3324265/mars-should-not-have-solid-inner-core-it-does-china-us-study-finds?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-09-01 16:00:31 GMT

In recent years, we’ve all been horrified by news of increasing wildfires, but between 2002 and 2021, global burned area fell 26%. The horror mostly comes now that humans are being exposed to more wildfires, because settlement near wild lands and climate change makes fires easier to encounter and start - but ignores how they’ve also gotten easier to stop. Science https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu6408?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-08-25 16:00:46 GMT

Cotton farmers are turning to nature’s own pest control. Developed by entomologist Robert Mensah, a simple mix of yeast, sugar, and water lures in ladybirds and lacewings (predator insects that feast on crop pests). The method has since spread from Australia to Benin, Ethiopia, Vietnam and India, protecting farmers’ health while cutting pesticide use. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/08/insecticides-integrated-pest-management-crops-cotton-farming?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-08-24 17:02:01 GMT

We can now restore memory by recharging the brain’s batteries. French and Canadian researchers have shown that faulty mitochondria directly drive memory loss in dementia. Using a new tool to boost mitochondrial activity in mice, they restored memory performance, proving cause and effect for the first time. The work points to mitochondria as a powerful target for therapies that could slow, or even prevent, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250811104227.htm?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-08-18 16:00:39 GMT

Scientists just created the first global maps of mycorrhizal fungi, the vast underground mushroom networks that connect plant roots and let plants trade nutrients and store carbon. Safeguarding these networks could boost biodiversity, food security, and carbon storage all at once, with the maps identifying hotspots most in need of protection. Plus, the initiative was led by SPUN, the whimsically named Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.
https://www.spun.earth/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-08-12 16:00:40 GMT

Just one year after its breakout public health moment, 'miracle drug' lenacapavir has been approved by the FDA and recommended by the WHO. The drug, which Science called its 'breakthrough of the year' in 2024, is a long-lasting shot that provides almost 100% protection against HIV infection. https://www.science.org/content/article/breakthrough-2024 #ShareGoodNewsToo

2025-08-09 17:02:02 GMT

Murujuga, a 1.000 km² property in Western Australia that holds the world’s densest concentration of rock art, has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Home to over a million petroglyphs carved by First Nations over tens of thousands of years, it means Australia now has two World Heritage sites exclusively listed as Indigenous sites of outstanding universal value to all humanity. https://archive.md/p823A
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2025-08-05 16:00:40 GMT

Poland repeals its last anti-LGBT+ resolutions. In 2019 and 2020, over 100 local authorities around Poland adopted sometimes-thinly-veiled anti-LGBT+ resolutions, declaring themselves free of “LGBT ideology” or pledging to “protect children from moral corruption.” Last week, the last of those declarations was revoked after the EU threatened to deny those regions funding, marking the end of Poland’s so-called 'LGBT-free zones.' Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/16/poland-ends-lgbt-free-zones?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-31 16:01:01 GMT

A $65,000 electric Kia just out-dragged Ferrari’s $400,000 Purosangue. We haven't featured one of these drag races in a while... they're fun reminders that mainstream EV drivetrains have smashed the performance ceiling once reserved for supercars. Electric torque, not cylinders, now rules acceleration bragging rights. insideevs.com https://insideevs.com/news/765535/kia-ev6-gt-ferrari-purosangue/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-27 17:02:01 GMT

The Oder Delta becomes Europe’s wetland classroom, thanks to ten years of cross-border rewilding. Poland and Germany have re-flooded polders, removed dams and restored landscapes, two-thirds of which is now under protection. Wildlife tourism is soaring as elk, wolf, grey seal, and beaver recolonise the area, while European bison and Eurasian lynx are gradually moving westwards towards the delta from Poland. Rewilding Europe https://rewildingeurope.com/news/a-decade-of-rewilding-lays-the-foundations-for-a-wilder-oder-delta/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-26 17:02:01 GMT

Scientists have figured out how to turn Earth’s most abundant mineral into zero-waste battery metals. The most abundant mineral in earth’s crust is something called olivine: pretty in the gemstone peridot, but otherwise pretty useless. Now, New Zealand engineers have figured out how to dissolve olivine to yield silica (50%), magnesium (40%) and nickel-manganese-cobalt hydroxide (10%) for lithium-ion cathodes, leaving only brine. IEEE Spectrum https://spectrum.ieee.org/nmc-battery-aspiring-materials?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-23 16:01:23 GMT

Solar overtakes fossil gas as California's largest source of electricity. Gas is also struggling in the world’s fifth-largest economy. A decade ago, fossil gas supplied nearly 60% of California’s power; today two-thirds of the state’s electricity is emissions-free. PV Magazine https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2025/07/09/solar-becomes-top-source-of-electricity-in-california/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-12 17:02:28 GMT

The number of people without access to electricity has been cut by 292 million in the last decade - despite the global population increasing by around 760 million during the same period. That means 92% of humanity now has electricity, up from 87% in 2010. Increasingly, that electrification is being driven by renewables, and hundreds of millions more people are no longer cooking over open stoves. SDG 7 Progress Report https://trackingsdg7.esmap.org/sites/default/files/download-documents/executive_summary_0.pdf?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-07 16:01:29 GMT

Psilocybin shows strong results treating major depression in cancer patients. Being diagnosed with a hard-to-treat cancer has major mental health implications. Now researchers in palliative care have shown that a small dose of psilocybin, combined with therapy, could treat depression in cancer patients more durably than treatment with long-term antidepressants – one psilocybin trip kept half of cancer patients depression-free for two years. Science Daily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250616040215.htm?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-05 17:02:23 GMT

Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes Europe’s 15th coal-free nation
Following wind’s rise to 37% of generation last year, the 915MW Moneypoint plant has just been switched off, ending four decades of Irish coal-fired electricity. The station will serve only as an emergency backup until 2029, underscoring how rapid renewables growth and grid reforms are wiping coal from one of Europe’s last hold-outs. PV Magazine https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/20/ireland-coal-free-ends-coal-power-generation-moneypoint/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-07-04 16:01:50 GMT

Amazonian scorpion molecule wipes out breast-cancer cells in lab tests. Brazilian scientists isolated a peptide from Brotheas amazonicus venom and, using yeast ‘factories’, mass-produced it to screen against tumour lines. In vitro, the compound triggered necrosis in breast-cancer cells within 24 hours, achieving effects comparable to chemotherapy without damaging surrounding tissue. https://www.sciencealert.com/amazonian-scorpion-venom-can-kill-breast-cancer-cells-scientists-say?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-06-30 16:01:42 GMT

Fog nets turn Chile’s Atacama Desert into a salad bowl. In Chañaral, growers are using mesh 'fog catchers' to harvest up to 1,400 litres of water daily from coastal mist, enough to raise lettuce and lemon trees in the planet’s driest desert. Researchers will publish a national fog-water map to replicate the method across arid zones, reframing atmospheric moisture as a viable irrigation source. Reuters https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/chiles-atacama-worlds-driest-desert-growing-lettuces-with-fog-2025-06-24/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-06-28 17:02:31 GMT

Batteries are so cheap, solar doesn’t sleep. Thanks to plummeting prices, analysts say that solar plus batteries can now provide round-the-clock power in the sunniest parts of the world, undercutting fossil gas and reshaping grid planning. Cities like Muscat, Oman, and Las Vegas can already hit that steady power mark for up to 99% of the hours in a year, while Hyderabad, Madrid, and Buenos Aires can get 80-95% of the way there using the same setup. Ember https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-every-hour-of-every-day-is-here-and-it-changes-everything/
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2025-06-15 17:02:32 GMT

Lab-grown salmon cleared for sale in the United States. Wildtype’s 'cultured' salmon is made in a lab from a few cells, meaning no farmed or wild salmon need die to fill out your sashimi. In May 2025, the FDA approved Wildtype’s salmon for commercial sale, paving the way for the world’s first commercial sales of cell-based seafood. The company says its sushi-grade product will debut in restaurants this year. AgFunder https://buff.ly/yJiHfus
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2025-06-09 16:01:20 GMT

Luxembourg has passed new legislation extending full adoption rights to people in registered partnerships, cohabiting couples, and single individuals. Previously, full adoption, which legally severs ties with the child's biological family, was only available to married couples. The law was also recently updated to allow same-sex married couples to adopt on equal terms with heterosexual couples. RTL https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/2291074.html?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-06-05 16:02:22 GMT

Lithuania’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the exclusion of same-sex couples from legal partnership violates the country’s constitution. The decision compels lawmakers to extend civil protections to LGBTQ+ families for the first time - a long-overdue affirmation of dignity and legal equality in one of Europe’s most conservative legal environments. Go Mag https://www.baltictimes.com/absence_of_same-sex_partnerships_in_lithuania_s_civil_code__unconstitutional__-_court/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-06-01 17:02:25 GMT

Electric propulsion now dominates global ferry orders, with 70% of new vessels featuring batteries. Already operating on about 200 ferries worldwide, this shift to batteries means reduced emissions and lower maintenance costs. Thanks to a 5-8 year payback period, most fleet operators have now developed electric retrofit plans, signalling an irreversible transformation. Clean Technica https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/05/global-ferry-electrification-accelerates-70-of-new-orders-go-electric/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-05-24 17:02:22 GMT

New Caledonia has enacted a sweeping 50-year ban on all commercial seabed mining across its entire 1.3 million km² maritime zone. The French Pacific territory, home to nearly one-third of the world's remaining pristine coral reefs, says it is prioritising environmental protection over economic extraction, allowing only non-invasive scientific research. RFI https://www.rfi.fr/en/environment/20250502-new-caledonia-bans-dangerous-seabed-mining-for-half-a-century?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-05-16 16:01:42 GMT

A shipbuilding company in Tasmania just launched the world's largest fully electric ship—a 130 metre ferry capable of carrying 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles between Argentina and Uruguay. Equipped with over 250 tonnes of batteries—four times larger than any previous vessel—it represents one of Australia's most significant single manufacturing exports. The Driven https://thedriven.io/2025/05/02/this-ship-changes-the-game-worlds-largest-all-electric-ferry-launches-in-tasmania/?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-04-23 16:01:50 GMT

Helicopters from the Vietnam war are airlifting rhinos to safety. In the best kind of plot-twist - using a war machine to save lives, Hueys are revolutionising rhino translocation across Africa; a conservation measure designed to create new populations and ensure genetic diversity. The use of helicopters decreases the health risks associated with crate travel and long transportations due to lack of roads. BBC https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250327-the-vietnam-war-helicopters-riddled-with-bullet-holes-airlifting-rhinos-to-safety?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-04-06 17:02:00 GMT

We’ve discovered a new class of antibiotics that can beat drug-resistant bacteria. McMaster researchers have identified lariocidin, the first new class of antibiotics in nearly 3 decades, effective against drug-resistant bacteria. Extracted from backyard soil bacteria and successfully tested in animal models, this discovery might go some way towards addressing the global antimicrobial resistance crisis responsible for 4.5 million annual deaths worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-breakthrough-moment-class-antibiotics.html?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-03-29 17:02:01 GMT

A new study finds that global conservation efforts are reliably bringing species back from the brink. A major review of over 67,000 animal species by the University of Cambridge has found that targeted conservation measures like habitat protection, captive breeding and reintroductions are successfully restoring populations of endangered animals. We are facing an ecological crisis - but it is possible to do something about it. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-efforts-species-brink-biodiversity-falls.html?ref=fixthenews.com
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2025-03-20 13:00:19 GMT

From 22 to 561: California condor rebounds from extinction. In 1987 there were only 22 remaining California condors, North America's largest bird. There are 561 today, with 344 flying free. This remarkable recovery stems from innovative breeding techniques, genetic research, and cross-border collaboration between US and Mexican institutions. Knowable Magazine https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2025/california-condor-reintroduction?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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2025-03-19 13:00:05 GMT

After a 3,000 years of absence on mainland Australia, Tasmanian devils have been released into a protected sanctuary in New South Wales. The rewilding initiative aims to restore ecological balance by reintroducing these apex predators, which can help control invasive foxes and cats devastating native wildlife (did someone just say trophic cascade?!). New Scientist https://archive.md/SBbVw
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2025-03-09 02:34:46 GMT

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In rural situations you’d be 100% right, but this is actual urban laborers who didn’t have gardens or animals, and ate out or got takeout for all their meals, running up tabs at restaurants. These guys genuinely did have a 3 day workweek, counter to what anyone expected before Richard Goldthwaite did the research! https://www.amazon.com/Economy-Renaissance-Florence-Richard-Goldthwaite/dp/1421400596

2025-03-08 18:02:01 GMT

Puerto Rico can now take on climate criminals. A US judge ruled that Exxon, Chevron, and Shell must face claims in Puerto Rico accusing them of misleading the public on climate change and suppressing clean energy alternatives. Reuters https://buff.ly/hLkDk6k
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2025-03-05 14:00:10 GMT

Well-managed solar farms triple bird populations. A study of solar farms in East Anglia in the United Kingdom has shown that they host nearly three times more birds than surrounding croplands. Solar sites maintaining diverse habitats, uncut grass, and hedgerows create vital refuges for declining farmland species like yellowhammers and corn buntings. BBC https://buff.ly/4hTbmBC
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2025-03-04 16:56:42 GMT

Covert Resistance Giraffe! A thread on political symbols, exotic animals, self-fashioning, and the conspicuous consumption of the super-rich.
Part of my countdown to Inventing the Renaissance! (Out in the UK, three weeks to go in the USA!) 1/?
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2025-03-04 16:56:42 GMT

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Lorenzo de Medici had a pet giraffe. Its name was Giraffe, because it was *the only* giraffe, the first giraffe in Europe since the days of Augustus. It was a gift to Lorenzo from the Sultan of Egypt, in thanks for some trade deals and diplomacy that helped the Sultan in his war against Venice. 3/?
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2025-03-04 16:56:42 GMT

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I love when Florence's reenactors do their historic parades, the vivid costumes looking very much like 550 years ago, but what’s really anachronistic is the absence of a giraffe lumbering up the street sticking its head in people’s upper floor windows and eating their window box herb gardens. 2/?
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2025-03-04 14:00:08 GMT

Germany, once a notorious polluter, cracks down on cars and achieves clean air. Germany complies with all EU air pollutant limits for first time since standards were set in 2010, with nitrogen dioxide finally joining particulate matter in meeting thresholds across 600 monitoring stations nationwide. https://buff.ly/41AFcFm
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2025-02-28 20:32:53 GMT

Today's Wikipedia page of the day is Anactoria, a lesbian romantic subject in Sappho poems! What a wonderful topic to have a loving Wikipedia page! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anactoria

2025-02-28 17:00:12 GMT

Roman concrete's 2,000-year durability secret finally decoded
The exceptional strength comes from 'hot mixing' quicklime directly with volcanic ash at high temperatures. This creates distinctive lime clasts that grant remarkable self-healing properties - when cracks form, water reacts with these clasts to form calcium carbonate that naturally repairs damage. Science Alert https://buff.ly/3EQOcxi
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2025-02-25 22:29:20 GMT

BOOK BURNING!
Challenge: you will NEVER guess what book this woodcut illustration of a book burning is from, *or* why it's there! 1/?
(A little thread for the countdown to the release of Inventing the Renaissance)
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2025-02-23 18:02:01 GMT

California’s connecting MPAs, and fish populations are rebounding Fish biomass has surged throughout California's 25-year-old marine protected area network, with the greatest gains in older reserves containing diverse habitats. The statewide MPA network, the first of its kind in the United States, shows the benefit of connecting smaller protected areas rather than single large reserve. Baird Maritime https://buff.ly/4hMwBoR
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2025-02-19 16:22:13 GMT

Washington Post is reporting that the US Gov't program to send free COVID tests to households will be shut down tonight, and the remaining tests destroyed. If you haven't already ordered yours in the latest batch (autumn 2024's) it's super quick & easy just takes putting in your address, price $0.00
https://covidtests.gov/

2025-02-16 18:02:00 GMT

No more 40 hours: Spanish government reduces workweek
The Spanish government has taken the first legislative steps towards reducing the working week from 40 to 37.5 hours, without loss of pay. The reduction, agreed after more than a year of political wrangling, would affect around 12 million workers, and would make Spain one of the world's first major economies to implement such a policy. Euractive https://buff.ly/3EAIfUS
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2025-02-15 18:02:03 GMT

Scientists have achieved two major advances in sustainable rice farming: an innovative cultivation method by Chilean researchers that cuts water use in half, and a new strain from a Chinese-Swedish team that reduces methane emissions by 70%. The potential for impact here is enormous - rice produces 12% of global methane emissions, and uses around a third of the world's freshwater resources. https://buff.ly/3Qj9Yft https://buff.ly/3Qk8jq3
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2025-02-14 17:00:04 GMT

From late winter to early summer last year, renewables met 100% of California’s electricity demand for up to ten hours on 98 days. Not only were there no blackouts during this period—thanks in part to backup battery power—but at their peak, renewables provided up to 162% of the grid’s needs. This story challenges one of the key arguments against clean energy: that renewables are unreliable and intermittent. Grist https://buff.ly/3WNti8n
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2025-02-13 17:00:06 GMT

Clothing recycling takes a giant leap forward in Sweden
A Swedish company has developed technology to produce a material from old textiles that can be used to manufacture brand new clothing - as compared to simple products such as upholstery fillings - and can help reduce the huge amounts of water and other resources used by the fashion industry, which also generates 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. RTBC https://buff.ly/3CKxHSB
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2025-02-12 22:46:54 GMT

"Rags to Riches" and "Self-Made Man" stories have long been self-fashioning tools for the ambitious. Historical examples of Rags-to-Riches stories real and fake show us how to cut through the propaganda.
Especially by using one of the best tools for detecting history's lies: LOOK UP EVERYBODY's MOM!
New blog post up on ExUrbe (another preview of "Inventing the Renaissance")
https://www.exurbe.com/rags-to-riches-stories-fake-real-or-always-look-up-everybodys-mom/

2025-02-06 22:00:54 GMT

LGBTQIA+ As we resist those who claim diversity distorts scholarship, let’s run through the acronym & show how easy it is to find the rainbow in every era. We don’t even need to look beyond the Renaissance celebrities that are household names today!
(Countdown to Inventing the Renaissance) 1/?
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2025-02-04 17:00:25 GMT

Kazakhstan restores the North Aral Sea water level by 42%
The project, in partnership with neighbouring countries, has directed 2.6 billion m3 into the Aral Sea. Now at an estimated 27 billion m3, the sea’s salinity has decreased fourfold while annual fish catches have increased to 8,000 tons. The project was initiated after catastrophic shrinkage led to separation of the northern and southern parts of the sea in 1987. The Times of Central Asia https://buff.ly/4guRJyw
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2025-02-02 18:02:01 GMT

Poland's coal heartland ditches fossil fuels, keeps jobs
Katowice, once the heart of Poland’s coal industry, is now leading the charge to phase out coal in favour of green energy. The first major Polish city to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance, Katowice has successfully diversified its economy, focusing on services, technology, and culture to help replace jobs lost from coal - reducing its unemployment rate to 1%, one of the lowest in the country. https://buff.ly/42FU0U3
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2025-01-29 17:00:15 GMT

A decade-long transformation in Ethiopia's Gambella region has revolutionised water access for 235,000 refugees and host communities. The shift from emergency water trucking to a solar-powered utility system has slashed water costs more than ten-fold, while increasing daily water production from 700 to 4,000 cubic metres. The project demonstrates how humanitarian responses can evolve into sustainable solutions. UNICEF https://buff.ly/4hagqBa
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2025-01-27 17:00:18 GMT

First fully 3D-printed microscope costs just £50
Scottish scientists have created the world's first fully 3D-printed microscope, capable of sub-cellular resolution - clearly imaging individual red blood cells and detailed structures in a kidney sample. Built using open-source designs and common 3D printers, the device can be assembled in under three hours, making powerful microscopy accessible to researchers worldwide. University of Strathclyde https://buff.ly/4auW972
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2025-01-20 20:34:12 GMT

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No one in Florence knew which republic was the last republic, not in 1430, 1478, 1494, 1512, or 1530, but they did know *all* resistance held the line and preserved liberties. Partial victory is powerful. We must remember that. (To read more “Inventing the Renaissance” comes out in a few weeks.) 25/?
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2025-01-20 20:34:11 GMT

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Machiavelli said peoples who treasure their liberties can preserve them even through long stretches of tyranny. That it’s peoples like 1450 Milan who yield quickly to the tyrant and don’t try to hold the line who lose their liberty completely. He wasn’t wrong. 22/?

2025-01-20 20:34:11 GMT

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Florence’s republic didn’t fall to the Medici only once, it kicked them out in 1433, in 1494, in 1512, in 1530, it took many conquests. But even when it *was* the worst case, the final fall, resistance kept Florence a place that with noticeably more liberty than its neighbors. 24/?
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2025-01-20 20:34:11 GMT

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We don’t like resistance stories without a cathartic revolution, they don’t feel like blowing up the Death Star. They feel like loss. They’re not. We need to revisit these worst case scenarios to see that, even when resistance didn’t *win* it did *work*. It saved lives & livelihoods. 23/?

2025-01-20 20:34:10 GMT

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The tale of resistance told by the Mannelli Tower isn’t one of revolution, it’s one of slowing down the shifting baseline. The baseline did keep shifting, less liberty for all and more power for the conquerors, but it shifted * slowly*, and many lives and rights sheltered behind that line. 19/?

2025-01-20 20:34:10 GMT

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If we define victory as preserving the republic, there’s no happy ending, the Medici won. But if their conquest started in 1430 and they still didn’t dare pierce a symbolic tower 130 years later, that is a lot of slowing the baseline compared to what Florence’s conquered neighbors endured. 20/?

2025-01-20 20:34:10 GMT

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Slowing the baseline shift meant many generations of Medici being careful, respecting core rights, while Alfonso d’Este didn’t just parade around Ferrara buck naked, he had his artists thrown in the dungeon if he thought they weren’t painting fast enough. 21/?

2025-01-20 20:34:09 GMT

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Rewinding a century, the Medici rose to power around 1430 through a combination of cunning, cash & cultural soft power under Cosimo the Elder the great-great-great-grandfather of the Duke Cosimo. Many times in that century Florence drew the line. 17/?
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2025-01-20 20:34:09 GMT

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They drew it violently with uprisings or assassination attempts in 1433, 1466, 1478, 1494, 1430, 1437 etc., and more quietly many times between through moments of resistance like the Mannelli telling the conqueror he and his corridor to (literally) get bent (around their tower) 18/?

2025-01-20 20:34:09 GMT

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Stories of revolution are dramatic and cathartic, but we also need stories like this, of resistance *under tyranny* that drew a line, *reducing harm* even while tyrant stayed. Nor was this the only time Florence drew such a line. 16/?

2025-01-20 20:34:08 GMT

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This is not a story of the kind of resistance that groundswells and overthrows the tyrants. The Medici stayed in power until the family died out, they were never overthrown. But they were *kept in check.* A line the conqueror doesn’t dare cross is a powerful line, that protects much behind it. 15/?
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2025-01-20 20:34:08 GMT

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This wasn’t idealistic resistance; it came from one of the most oligarchic and entrenched of social forces: property rights. But it was resistance, and it worked. Around the tower the corridor went. Every generation thereafter pointed to it as a place the people drew the line, and won. 14/?
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2025-01-20 20:34:08 GMT

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So when the duke unveiled his plans to blast a hole through it, the Mannelli told the young conqueror to get stuffed. Cosimo knew if he violated this symbol of ancient patrimony, every *other* propertied family would turn on him. The conqueror didn’t dare cross that line. 13/?

2025-01-20 20:34:07 GMT

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When Duke Cosimo wanted to build his elevated private commuter tunnel, those heads on pikes were fresh memories. Most neighbors yielded to his architectural conquest, but there in his way was one old tower nub, cramped, unfashionable, cold, but patrimony of the Mannelli family who 11/?
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2025-01-20 20:34:07 GMT

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Were descended from the Roman Manlii family who’d had a consul as early as 480 BC, peers of Cicero and Caesar, who’d already owned the tower a century when Boccaccio’s friend Francesco Mannelli lived in it during the Black Death, 200 years before Duke Cosimo took power. 12/?

2025-01-20 20:34:06 GMT

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In contrast, the Medici were mere merchant scum, commoner equals of their neighbors who, back when everyone important in Florence had a tower, hadn’t had an impressive one. Bowing before a noble-blooded prince made sense to people at the time, before that family down the street? No. 8/?

2025-01-20 20:34:06 GMT

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Florence did fight the ducal takeover. Cellini’s Perseus statue, the topic of my first thread in this series, commemorated Duke Cosimo crushing of one violent uprising, & his desire to cast the severed heads of his enemies in eternal bronze was a show of force, but also fear. https://buff.ly/3WtqEEx 10/?

2025-01-20 20:34:06 GMT

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Machiavelli said if people are deeply invested in an institution they fight for it, so places used to monarchy (like Milan) if they became republics yield to new conquerors easily (Milan did in 1450) but peoples who truly love their would never stop fighting for their ancient liberty. 9/?