*[Enwl-eng] SFB Weekly: Could mRNA make us superhuman?

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SFB Weekly: Could mRNA make us superhuman?View this email in your browser







                              A solutions-oriented weekly digest from 
Struggles From Below
                              11/12/21

                              N.B. If someone forwarded you this email, 
subscribe for free here.

                              In our top read this week, BBC Future's Tim 
Smedley discovers that the pandemic's mRNA vaccines may be the key to 
solving a wealth of health problems.

                              Barely a year ago, Anna Blakney was working in 
a relatively inconspicuous, niche field of science in a lab in London. Few 
people outside of her scientific circles had heard of mRNA vaccines. Because 
none yet existed. Attendees at an annual conference talk she gave in 2019 
could be counted in the tens, not hundreds. Today, she's in hot demand: an 
assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a 
science communicator with 253,000 followers and 3.7 million likes on TikTok. 
She was, she admits, in the right place at the right time to ride a 
once-in-a-generation wave of scientific progress. She even gave this new era 
a name: "the RNAissance".

                              Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have 
now heard of – and have received – an mRNA vaccine, from the likes of 
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. But even when Blakney started her PhD at 
Imperial College London in 2016, "a lot of people were sceptical as to 
whether it could ever work". Now, "the whole field of mRNA is just 
exploding. It's a game changer in medicine," she says.

                              It's such a game changer that it raises some 
very big, exciting questions: could mRNA vaccines provide a cure for 
cancers, HIV, tropical diseases, and even give us superhuman immunity?


                              Read the article



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                              What we're reading:

                              ‘We need to break the junk food cycle’: how to 
fix Britain’s failing food system
                              From ultra-processed junk to failing supply 
chains and rocketing food poverty, there are serious problems with the way 
the UK eats. Will the government ever act? THE GUARDIAN


                              A monthly ritual of selflessness has 
transformed Rwanda
                              On the last Saturday of each month, everyone 
stops what they’re doing and works together to improve their communities. It’s 
called Umuganda. REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL


                              Embracing a wetter future, the Dutch turn to 
floating homes
                              Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of 
housing, the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes. These 
floating communities are inspiring more ambitious Dutch-led projects in 
flood-prone nations as far-flung as French Polynesia and the Maldives. YALE 
ENVIRONMENT 360


                              The new enclosure: how land commissions can 
lead the fight against urban land-grabs
                              In a bid to make Liverpool the fairest and 
most socially inclusive city region in the UK, the mayor, Steve Rotherham, 
launched England’s first land commission in September 2020. The commission’s 
findings chime with new research. It argues for a fundamentally new 
understanding of what land is. THE CONVERSATION


                              The futuristic plan to fix America’s power 
grid
                              Winter is often the season for blackouts. 
Smart grids could change that. VOX


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                              One to ponder:

                              The accidental revolutionary leading Belarus’s 
uprising
                              How Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya came to challenge 
her country’s dictatorship. THE NEW YORKER

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                              Quote of the week:

                              "Freedom is what you do with what's been done 
to you." – Jean-Paul Sartre

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                              Song of the week:

                              Ponte Duro - Roberto Roena





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                              That's it for today, folks. If you're enjoying 
this newsletter, please do forward it on to any friends who might be into 
it.

                              All the best,

                              Ollie

                              Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Struggles From 
Below























                              Copyright © 2019 Struggles From Below, All 
rights reserved.
                              Our mailing address is:
                              Struggles From Below, 48b Waller Road, London, 
SE14 5LA













             Struggles From Below · 48b · Waller Road · London, SE14 5LA · 
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      From: Struggles From Below
      Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2021 11:04 AM
      Subject: SFB Weekly: Could mRNA make us superhuman?



 
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