The Weekender

Morning Nuggets – Saturday-Sunday, November 28-29, 2020

We Have No Idea What Happens Next · Collaborative Fund

Liebig’s work – improved upon in the following decades, particularly by scientists who learned how to manufacture ammonia synthetically – gave rise to the ammonia-based fertilizer industry that still dominates global agriculture. It’s hard to exaggerate how big a deal it’s been.

Bill Gates, Covid-19 and the Quest to Vaccinate the World – The New York Times

Working behind the scenes is one of the world’s richest men, neither a scientist nor a doctor, who sees himself and his $50 billion foundation as uniquely prepared to take a central part.

The story of mRNA: From a loose idea to a tool that may help curb Covid

Every strand of mRNA is made up of four molecular building blocks called nucleosides. But in its altered, synthetic form, one of those building blocks, like a misaligned wheel on a car, was throwing everything off by signaling the immune system. So Karikó and Weissman simply subbed it out for a slightly tweaked version, creating a hybrid mRNA that could sneak its way into cells without alerting the body’s defenses

How Democrats Suffered Crushing Down-Ballot Losses Across America – The New York Times

“People bought into Joe Biden to stop the insanity in the White House. They did not suddenly become Democrats.”

Inside Trump?s failed quest to overturn the election – The Washington Post

With his denial of the outcome, despite a string of courtroom defeats, Trump endangered America’s democracy, threatened to undermine national security and public health, and duped millions of his supporters into believing, perhaps permanently, that Biden was elected illegitimately

The Cost of Trump’s Assault on the Press and the Truth   | The New Yorker

Trump may have devoted more mental energy to his degradation of the press—through lawsuits, threats, and hundreds of tweets—than to any other issue.

Why I’m Losing Hope in India – Bloomberg

For many of my generation, our long-cherished hope for a better, greater India is all but gone. We wanted to trade some of our democratic chaos for a little bit more growth. We ended up with less of both.

What’s in a name? A lot. – On my Om

You have to have a name. But with the borderless nature of our economies, various trademark challenges, and other hurdles, you are lucky to land on one that is worth having.

With Toyota’s Help, This Secretive Entrepreneur May Finally Give Us Flying Cars – Forbes

“If we can fly, we can turn our streets into parks and fundamentally make our cities much nicer places to live in,”