Welcome to the second edition of Think Inc. Thursdays; a collection of my team’s favourite stories from around the web!
A big happy birthday to one of my personal heroes, Richard Dawkins! I also highly recommend that you guys all check out the new documentary on Netflix called Seaspiracy if you’re interested in the news about lab-grown fish below.
If you come across news that everyone should know about, send me a link to it via info@thinkinc.org.au and we might include it in the next edition!
Warm regards,
Suzi
RICHARD DAWKINS TURNS 80
Richard Dawkins turned 80 this week!
Dawko is famous for many things, not least of which is coining the term meme to represent the cultural equivalent of a gene.
He argued that Darwinian principles could be extended beyond biological organisms: just like the strongest genes become widespread, so too do the strongest memes become widespread.
Some wisdom from Dawkins: “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.” Amen!
FOUCAULT “SEXUALLY ABUSED BOYS IN TUNISIA”
Michel Foucault, the most cited scholar in history and prominent French intellectual, has recently been accused of sexually abusing children while living in Tunisia in the 1960s.
These allegations are not all too surprising, considering Foucault publicly signed a petition advocating for the decriminalisation of sexual relations between adults and children.
Noam Chomsky said the following of Foucault: “I’d never met anyone who was so totally amoral… It’s as if he was from a different species, or something”. Wow.
WHAT HAPPENED IN WUHAN?
The World Health Organisation has once again delayed their report on the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Jamie Metzl, a friend of Think Inc. (check out his Outside The Box event), and member of the W.H.O advisory committee, argues that the recent investigation was weak and is strongly urging for a new international inquiry.
“I wouldn’t really call what’s happened now an investigation. It’s essentially a highly-chaperoned, highly-curated study tour.”
LAB GROWN FISH
There is a global overfishing problem: the world simply cannot produce enough fish at the pace we eat it. Despite knowing the problem, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization recorded that global fish consumption grew from 9kg to 20kg per capita over the last 65 years. Factory farmed fish seemed promising, but they come with a heavy environmental cost.
Well a startup from San Diego has come up with one possible solution to help the problem: lab-grown tuna. The company uses cell-based technology, which involves growing actual meat from cells rather than other soy-based vegan alternatives. Cells are harvested from the tissue of the dish without having to kill it. If you want a fatty fish, you harvest fat cells. If you want lean fish, just the muscle cells. The muscle, fat and connective tissue cells are all grown in different nutrient baths.
The company says it will be ready to launch its first product in a year, and plans to make fillets including red snapper, mahi mahi, Chilean sea bass and blue-fin tuna.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
A screenshot from SpaceX’s Starship prototype launch that occurred on Tuesday. The rocket reached its target altitude of 10 kilometres but unfortunately exploded shortly thereafter. Better luck next time.
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