Tech companies are realizing that kids fresh from college might have the latest skills, but the companies also are learning that the grounded infrastructure that powers innovation will demand skills won through experience. Bigger tech companies, and savvy small ones, are seeking to diversify the age of their workforce.
Human-made nanoparticles kill leukemia
Bioscientists at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have engineered biodegradable particles that reprogram key immune-system cells inside the body to kill cancer. These nanoparticles target T cells that are among the immune system’s front-line defenders against viruses and other invaders. The particles were loaded with specific genes that turned T cells into specialized leukemia fighters. The particles also were...
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Immunotherapy is showing special promise in treating cancers. Combining innovations in early detection with in-body treatments, as the Hutchinson group has developed, could reduce cancer from a major disease to a major inconvenience by 2050.
Saudi-Japan tech venture fund is world’s biggest
Japan’s SoftBank tech conglomerate and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund have gathered $93 billion to back new ventures, from artificial intelligence to medical devices, across the technology landscape. The fund’s goal is to top reserves of $100 billion to plunk into public and private companies that will define the tech economy’s future. Called The Vision Fund, the two lead investors...
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Japan’s economy is burdened by a growing legion of retirees, and Saudi Arabia’s by the long-term shrinking global demand for oil. The Vision Fund’s formation will buoy their national treasuries into the future, which, in turn, should help quell internal political unrest. Also, now that major venture capital is no longer the sole province of western investors, tech startups in...
Climate action is economic engine
Taking steps to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions could amp the world economy by as much as 5 percent by 2050, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, of which the US is a member. The organization is known for its support of free-market and free-trade policies. The 309-page study draws its conclusions from economic data...
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The global private sector and its investors already are shifting assets away from fossil fuels and into a broader array of energy strategies, with increasing emphasis on renewable power sources. In the aggregate, investments in green energy are yielding greater returns than those in new fossil-fuel projects. The green-energy industry is creating more, and better-paying, jobs than the high-carbon fuel...
As bans rise, diesel dying in Europe
Paris has announced a ban on diesel vehicles starting in 2025; three other French cities will restrict diesel vehicles’ access to urban centers during pollution peaks. In Germany, Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne are mulling restrictions on diesel-engine cars and trucks. Similar discussions are underway in Spain and the United Kingdom. As a result, diesel car and truck sales in...
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Diesel engines appear be an early casualty in the European Union’s new militancy about air pollution. As sales fall, automakers will have less incentive to make diesel vehicles or to improve diesel technology. And, as diesel’s constituency shrinks, there will be less opposition to the bans. Diesel seems to be joining coal on the road to obsolescence.
Pure propaganda
Russia did it! Russia invaded a US ally, Ukraine, and occupied the eastern reaches of the country. It hacked our elections. It broke into Democratic National Committee servers to steal thousands of emails detrimental to candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It has the undying support of US President Donald Trump because it has secretly brokered billion-dollar deals with the former real...