Think you are having a bad day? Another grim, AI-assisted update on the numbers from Congo. open.substack.com/pub/overmatt...
Largest ebola outbreak Congo has ever seen
And still getting worse.
open.substack.com
Natasha Loder
@natashaloder.bsky.social
Health Editor, The Economist. free words: overmatter.substack.com/subscribe
Think you are having a bad day? Another grim, AI-assisted update on the numbers from Congo. open.substack.com/pub/overmatt...
Largest ebola outbreak Congo has ever seen
And still getting worse.
open.substack.com
That isn’t the sort of caption you want to see on a photo.
Biologist Michael Levin writes ideas so dense they've been called "impossible to read." A NY Mag profile left me fascinated but wanting to know more. So I asked an AI to translate and it built a bridge between Levin and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. nymag.com/intelligence...
What Is It Like to Be a Cucumber?
Biologist Michael Levin is working to prove that minds are hiding everywhere, from a plant to a scrap of skin to a single cell.
nymag.com
I’m hoping to go to Uganda and I went to see the nurse at my GP practice just now. He recommended eight vaccines in four jabs and I said yes to every single one. 💉💉💉💉 Vaccines work and they save ✌️ ✌️✌️✌️
Our Big Mac index is celebrating its birthday as leaders from Washington to Beijing are at loggerheads over global imbalances. On The Insider we discuss what burgernomics reveals about the lopsided world economy, from 6pm London time on Thursday
Is the world economy out of balance? | The Economist Insider
Forty years ago, The Economist began comparing the prices of a Big Mac around the world to judge whether currencies were too cheap or too expensive. The Big Mac index is celebrating its birthday as leaders from Washington to Beijing are at loggerheads over global imbalances. Zanny Minton Beddoes, our editor-in-chief, and Edward Carr, deputy editor, are joined by a panel of our experts to discuss burgernomics and what it reveals about today’s lopsided world economy.
bit.ly
I’m hoping to go to Uganda and I went to see the nurse at my GP practice just now. He recommended eight vaccines in four jabs and I said yes to every single one. 💉💉💉💉 Vaccines work and they save ✌️ ✌️✌️✌️
Useful to know, if you are out of the loop (ie me) on 'peptides'
Natasha Loder@natashaloder.bsky.social · 2w agoAn FDA advisory committee has voted to recommend wider access to BPC-157, the peptide beloved of "folk pharmacologists" So what exactly is it, and what research convinced the @US_FDA panel that it should be more widely available?
That's the point: Nobody has done a controlled trial to see what dose will affect your body, and how. No doctor or pharmacist has the data to tell you. And you're right: peptides are short strings of amino acids that *can* affect you; maybe exciting and maybe dangerous. They need to be studied more.
Thank you Dr Fauci for a Lifetime of Service.🇺🇸 God bless you🕊🙏🏼
Anthony Fauci Facepalms
ALT: Anthony Fauci Facepalms
static.klipy.com
Brilliant account of the Fauci hearing and what it means for the origin of covid. By @KatherineEban www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
The Covid Origins Saga Is More Complicated Than Either Side Wants to Admit
The Covid-19 origins controversy is more complicated than Rand Paul and Republicans or Anthony Fauci have been willing to admit.
rollingstone.com
Obituary of our wonderful, wonderful cover designer Graeme James. Such an incredible talent and very much missed. www.economist.com/culture/2026...
The Economist’s cover designer, Graeme James, has died, aged 65
His more than 2,500 covers cleverly captured, mocked and ridiculed the world
economist.com
Obituary of our wonderful, wonderful cover designer Graeme James. Such an incredible talent and very much missed. www.economist.com/culture/2026...
The Economist’s cover designer, Graeme James, has died, aged 65
His more than 2,500 covers cleverly captured, mocked and ridiculed the world
economist.com
Wonderful. Wally Funk was told women couldn’t be astronauts economist.com/obituary/202... from The Economist
Wally Funk was told women couldn’t be astronauts
The aviator who refused to agree died on July 8th, aged 87
economist.com
Does nobody in Washington see the strategic importance of a China that is independent of energy prices? It’s so fundamental. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... China pours funding into green energy deals as Iran war hits oil demand
China pours funding into green energy deals as Iran war hits oil demand
Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative takes advantage of rise in appetite for renewables as Middle East conflict drags on
giftarticle.ft.com
69 days to 1,000 dead. We have not seen an Ebola outbreak like it before. substack.com/@natashalode...
Natasha Loder (@natashaloder)
69 days to 1,000 dead. We have not seen an Ebola outbreak like it before. https://overmatter.substack.com/p/ebola-is-back-again-here-is-what?r=cw4p0&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
substack.com
My hot take on the Nike Mind shoes that are developed through years of neuroscience..... walking barefoot is regulating because you get the input from the ground. Put a pair of thick-soled trainers on and that input vanishes. So what Nike has done is returned some feedback www.nike.com/gb/mind
Nike Mind
Discover Nike Mind 001. A mind-altering shoe. A pregame-enhancing hack. A new way to connect body and brain. Engage your sensory cortex with Nike Mind.
nike.com
An FDA advisory committee has voted to recommend wider access to BPC-157, the peptide beloved of "folk pharmacologists" So what exactly is it, and what research convinced the @US_FDA panel that it should be more widely available?
Extraordinary that this death happened. This isn't like the baby KJ gene editing which was on the liver (far easer and less risky to edit than the brain), and using lipid nanoparticles (not billions virus particles). www.science.org/content/arti...
Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public
Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals
science.org
The next health supplement you buy could be sold to you by an AI-generated avatar that looks like someone you trust. www.nytimes.com/video/techno...
Video: The Fake Influencers Selling Wellness on Your Feed
The New York Times found hundreds of A.I.-generated doctors, healers and wellness influencers on social media touting the health benefits of supplements to American consumers. Many of these hyperreali...
nytimes.com
With Anthropic racing to get into biopharma, I'm sharing my earlier piece on how AI companies are trying to eat pharma's lunch. (How far this will go will largely depend on what they can learn or infer about biology that isn't currently understood) open.substack.com/pub/overmatt...
In Brief #1: The lab with no lab. How AI is changing the rules of drug discovery
Machines are making wet labs matter less
open.substack.com
Yes!
Imran Bristol@imranicus.bsky.social · 3w ago"Europe's booming solar fleet has saved €20 billion in gas imports since Iran war, finds new analysis" As oil and gas prices remain high due to the Iran war - solar power is cushioning the impact across Europe, investment needs to continue though. www.euronews.com/2026/07/16/s...
To go with the Earth's Energy Imbalance package, this week's @economist.com has a leader on the planet's excessive heating. It includes some love for methane emission reduction and the Kigali amendment; it also revisits Paul Crutzen's thoughts about geoengineering www.economist.com/leaders/2026...
It’s too darn hot. Blame global dimming
Earth is absorbing a lot more sunshine
economist.com
If you want to know more about Crutzen and geoengineering and have an hour to spare this morning/lunchtime (US) or afternoon (UK) you might like to come along to this : us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Oliver Morton, Eater of Sun@eaterofsun.bsky.social · 3w agoTo go with the Earth's Energy Imbalance package, this week's @economist.com has a leader on the planet's excessive heating. It includes some love for methane emission reduction and the Kigali amendment; it also revisits Paul Crutzen's thoughts about geoengineering www.economist.com/leaders/2026...
Wow! Eli Lilly has just bought psychedelic medicines firm AtaiBeckley for 3.8bn!
My grandfather, a doctor, asked for morphine at the difficult end of his life and his doctors had the kindness and grace to give it to him. It’s called compassion. apple.news/AVSsJsftbSYi...
The NHS doctor: ‘I have shortened quite a few patients’ lives’ — The Times and The Sunday Times
During his long career, Professor Richard Coker has given morphine to dying patients to end their suffering. Here he speaks out about assisted dying
apple.news