The World as You'll Know It
Newsletter / Issue No. 49
A Conversation with Nobel Laureate Joel Mokyr
One of the three 2025 Nobel Laureates in Economics, Mokyr weighs in on how the steam engine changed the direction of science, how we are mis-measuring GDP, the promise of AI and the three greatest threats facing humanity.
Plus
Artificial intelligence is learning how to master the complexity of human cells. Scientists are racing to preserve glaciers and the records they contain of human history. And a writer started a business staffed entirely by AI agents; it wasn't easy.
Technology / Feature
How healthy am I? My immunome knows the score.
Groundbreaking new tests reveal patterns in our immune systems that can signal underlying disease and tell us how well we might recover from our next cold. I got my results in a text message.
By David Ewing Duncan
Technology / Feature
A $10-Billion Plan to Sell Africa's Wind and Sun to Countries 7,000 Miles Away
A deep look at how green hydrogen could capitalize on remote areas of renewable resources and redraw the world's energy map.
By Paul Tullis
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about the Future of Aging
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about the Future of Aging
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Artificial Intelligence / Feature
One Company's Decision to Put AI Into the Ground
What does it mean to adopt AI? For John Deere it meant hundreds of millions of dollars, a new corporate culture and forever changing the relationship between a farmer and the land.
By Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Robotics / Feature
Robots' final frontier? Taking care of us.
To understand how far robots are from replacing humans, just look at the everyday task of using a fork.
By Clive Thompson