Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- US researchers have developed an automated vaccine production facility that uses hydroponic irrigation to grow genetically modified tobacco plants for producing targeted biochemicals. This approach to biochemical production can cut the lead time for culturing new vaccines to approximately 6 weeks, increasing the turnaround time for producing future influenza vaccines.
- Researchers may have found a way to avoid the time-consuming process of developing a new vaccine for each strain of flu that threatens a pandemic. The method, which involves squirting a harmless virus containing a gene for broadly effective antibody into patients’ noses, has been tested on mice and ferrets.
- For the first time in the history of the United States, white deaths outnumbered births last year, due to low fertility. This milestone came ten years earlier than expected, and presages the demographic shifts of this century.
- A new study by the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory found that iron fertilization of the ocean might not be the effective global warming mitigation technique it was thought to be. Diatoms in the ocean take in more iron than they need for photosynthesis, meaning that they are sucking up a lot of the iron needed to create algae blooms to remove and trap carbon from the air.
- A recent Federal Court ruling in NY State may put many unpaid internships in legal jeopardy. Companies that fail to structure their unpaid internships as genuine learning opportunities could be found to be in violation of Federal minimum wage laws.