Over the previous yr, Jim O’Neill has develop into one of the crucial highly effective folks in public well being. Because the US deputy well being secretary, he holds two roles on the prime 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 Expertise Evaluation 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 decreasing the variety of broadly beneficial childhood vaccines, a transfer that has been extensively criticized by specialists in medication and public well being. Learn the total 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 artistic angle, put collectively a workforce of specialists, determine find out how to beat the technological challenges, rehearse, transfer with Swiss-watch precision, and—should you do it proper—redistribute some wealth.
However conversely, pulling off a heist isn’t very like the flicks. Surveillance cameras, computer-controlled alarms, knockout gasoline, and lasers infrequently function in big-ticket crime. In actuality, technical countermeasures are not often an issue, and high-tech devices are not often an answer. Learn the total story.
—Adam Rogers
