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Babbage from The Economist

Babbage: Fixing the internet

The internet was meant to make the world a less centralised place, but the opposite has happened. The Economist’s technology editor Ludwig Siegele explores why it matters and what can be done about it. 


Music by Fabian Measures “Open Cab” cc by 4.0

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    An adult human body is thought to consist of more than 37trn cells, of more than 5,000 distinct types. Surprisingly little is known about some of these fundamental biological building blocks. Through cutting-edge sequencing technology and enormous AI models, the Human Cell Atlas project is meticulously identifying and locating every type of cell in a person over the course of their lifetime. As a result, researchers are building an invaluable resource for studying development, disease and potential treatments—from digital twins of the human body to transplantable, lab-grown organs. We pay a visit to the Wellcome Sanger Institute and speak to the founder of the initiative.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, with senior editor Geoff Carr. Contributors: Sarah Teichmann of the University of Cambridge; Liz Easthope, Katy Tudor, Muzlifah Haniffa, Nadav Yayon and Veronika Kedlian of the Wellcome Sanger Institute.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
  • Ready player one: Kelly Clancy on how games have influenced society

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    From poker to Playstations, people love games. In recent years, “gamification” has become big business as tech companies have tapped into gameplay as a way to make their products more compelling. Dating apps, ride-hailing services and social media, to name just a few, have all deployed the techniques of games to keep us hooked. Games have influenced how our brains have developed and they’ve also intruded into many unexpected aspects of our lives. In this episode, we learn how games have changed the course of history and how they’re already starting to shape our future. The Economist’s Tom Standage interviews Kelly Clancy, a neuroscientist, physicist and the author of “Playing With Reality”. Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, hosts.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
  • AI for science: Demis Hassabis, Jennifer Doudna and James Manyika

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  • Burning ambition: how to end coal

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  • ADHD: just a different way of being normal

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  • The everything drugs: how Ozempic could change the world

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    The family of weight-loss jabs known as GLP-1 agonists are among pharma’s biggest blockbusters. But drugs like Ozempic have the potential to do much more than tackle diabetes and obesity. They have been found to treat cardiovascular and kidney disease, and they are also being tested for liver disease, Alzheimer’s and even addiction. If they live up to their promise, GLP-1s are set to transform health care. How can one class of drug do so much?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Caroline Messer, an endocrinologist in New York; Daniel Drucker of the University of Toronto; and The Economist’s Natasha Loder and Shailesh Chitnis. For more on this topic, listen to our podcast on the physiological and psychological causes of obesity—and why GLP-1 drugs could reshape the world.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
  • Europa Clipper: is there life on Jupiter's moons?

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    NASA’s multi-billion-dollar Europa Clipper spacecraft is on its way to Europa, one of Jupiter’s mysterious icy moons. The mission will investigate whether the moon, whose icy crust conceals a vast ocean of liquid water, might harbour the kind of environment suitable for alien life. In their search for life elsewhere, scientists have in recent years become much more interested in the outer solar system's icy moons, once considered too far from the Sun to plausibly support life. Europa Clipper is one of several probes heading to (or planned to travel to) those faraway worlds. Will they find signs that life could exist there?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Michele Dougherty and her team at Imperial College London; Nathalie Cabrol of the SETI Institute and the author of “The Secret Life of the Universe”; and The Economist’s Tim Cross.For more on this topic, listen to our podcast on the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission and our interviews with exoplanet hunters Didier Queloz and Jessie Christiansen.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
  • Like a rocket: Starship and the US-China Moon race

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