Over the previous 12 months, Jim O’Neill has turn into one of the crucial highly effective individuals in public well being. Because the US deputy well being secretary, he holds two roles on the high of the nation’s federal well being and science companies. He oversees a division with a funds of over a trillion {dollars}. And he signed the choice memorandum on the US’s deeply controversial new vaccine schedule.
He’s additionally a long life fanatic. In an unique interview with MIT Know-how Evaluate earlier this month, O’Neill described his plans to extend human healthspan by longevity-focused analysis supported by ARPA-H, a federal company devoted to biomedical breakthroughs. Fellow longevity lovers mentioned they hope he’ll convey consideration and funding to their trigger.
On the identical time, O’Neill defended lowering the variety of broadly advisable childhood vaccines, a transfer that has been extensively criticized by consultants in medication and public well being. Learn the complete story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
The parable of the high-tech heist
Making a film is rather a lot like pulling off a heist. That’s what Steven Soderbergh—director of the Ocean’s franchise, amongst different heist-y classics—mentioned just a few years in the past. You give you a inventive angle, put collectively a crew of specialists, work out easy methods to beat the technological challenges, rehearse, transfer with Swiss-watch precision, and—when you do it proper—redistribute some wealth.
However conversely, pulling off a heist isn’t very similar to the films. Surveillance cameras, computer-controlled alarms, knockout fuel, and lasers rarely characteristic in big-ticket crime. In actuality, technical countermeasures are not often an issue, and high-tech devices are not often an answer. Learn the complete story.
—Adam Rogers
