James' World 2

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How one man was drawn into online conspiracies and how they led to his death – an investigation by the BBC’s disinformation reporter Marianna Spring.

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Gary Matthews

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Alzheimer’s has been reversed in mice after scientists boosted the formation of new brain cells.

A gene therapy fueled neurons in the hippocampus – a region vital for learning and remembering.

The breakthrough could lead to new treatments. The number of dementia cases worldwide will triple to 150 million by 2050. There is no cure.

Lead author Professor Orly Lazarov, of the University of Illinois, Chicago, said: “Taken together, our results suggest augmenting neurogenesis may be of therapeutic value.”

Experiments have shown the process is impaired in patients and mice with mutations linked to Alzheimer’s – particularly in the hippocampus.

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By the time Rebecca Bell applied for a job at Amazon, she was willing to do “literally anything” to get pregnant. The problem was money. After four miscarriages, she and her husband had already spent more than $10,000 on donor embryos, medication, and a few IVF transfers. Neither of their jobs⁠ — hers at FedEx, his in the military⁠ — offered insurance that covered the treatments she has needed since being diagnosed with PCOS, a hormonal condition that can lead to infertility. The couple even resorted to selling some of their stuff, like a chainsaw and a moped, to help with payments. Last fall, when a doctor suggested further testing that would cost yet more thousands of dollars, Bell knew she needed another solution.

The 28-year-old joined Facebook support groups, where she found women who took jobs at Amazon warehouses for the first-rate fertility benefits. This could be my last hope, she thought, scrolling through posts about how the company covers at least two full IVF cycles. The work seemed grueling, but she only needed to survive a few weeks to foot the testing bill. How bad could it really be?

In October, Bell started working overnight shifts at a North Carolina warehouse, where she spent ten hours on her feet sorting packages before lugging them on a cart that could weigh up to 200 pounds at the end of her shift. Soon, she began feeling a searing pain in her legs that became so bad she could barely stand. Then she’d wake up in the middle of the night with a jabbing sensation in her hips, which a doctor later diagnosed as bursitis, a condition that causes swelling around joints. Bell took painkillers and gave herself pep talks: Keep pushing through. There is no other option. After a week of agony, she took the next one off, then quit. It was enough time to both cover the necessary testing and make her feel like an “80-year-old woman.” “It’s terrifying,” she says. “It’s like, ‘We have great benefits, but we’re going to break your body.’”

The U.S. healthcare system treats IVF and egg freezing as luxuries for the rich. Yet unlike nose jobs and face-lifts, they are treatments for infertility, a condition that plagues up to one in six couples and affects men and women at roughly the same rate. There is no federal mandate to provide infertility coverage — a bill requiring private health insurers to do so has stalled in Congress — and at the state level, coverage is sporadic. A single full IVF cycle can cost up to $30,000, and most people are stuck paying for treatments out of pocket.

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Illustration: Maxwell Erwin

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In the 19th century, when European thinkers began developing the economic principle of diminishing marginal utility, they probably weren’t dwelling on its implications for the best strategy for ordering food at a restaurant. But nearly 200 years later, their work informs what I get for dinner.

The basic concept that these early economists were getting at is that as you consume more and more of a thing, each successive unit of that thing tends to bring you less satisfaction—or, to use the economic term, utility—than the previous one.

Recently, Adam Mastroianni, a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School, invoked this idea in his newsletter, Experimental History, to explain why a flight of beer can be more satisfying than a larger glass of a single brew. “The first sip is always the best sip,” he wrote, “and a flight allows you to have several first sips instead of just one.”

The same principle, I’d argue, applies to first bites: If the first half of a dish tends to be more satisfying than the second half, why not have the first half of two dishes instead of one whole dish? In other words, when you go to a restaurant, just share every dish with whomever you’re with. That way, you get more first bites.

Diversification can free you from indecision when you’re torn between menu items that sound equally awesome. For instance, it is the answer to the classic conundrum of brunch: sweet or savory? As Mastroianni put it to me, “Do you really want to choke down three French-toast dulce de leche pancakes? No, you want one and a half of those, and then you want half of some kind of scrambled thing.”

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Brian Finke / Gallery Stock

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Robert Sansone is a natural-born engineer. From animatronic hands to high-speed running boots and a go-kart that can reach speeds of more than 70 miles per hour, the Fort Pierce, Florida-based inventor estimates he’s completed at least 60 engineering projects in his spare time. And he’s only 17 years old.

A couple years ago, Sansone came across a video about the advantages and disadvantages of electric cars. The video explained that most electric car motors require magnets made from rare-earth elements, which can be costly, both financially and environmentally, to extract. The rare-earth materials needed can cost hundreds of dollars per kilogram. In comparison, copper is worth $7.83 per kilogram.

“I have a natural interest in electric motors,” says Sansone, who had used them in different robotics projects. “With that sustainability issue, I wanted to tackle it, and try and design a different motor.”

The high schooler had heard of a type of electric motor—the synchronous reluctance motor—that doesn’t use these rare-earth materials. This kind of motor is currently used for pumps and fans, but it isn’t powerful enough by itself to be used in an electric vehicle. So, Sansone started brainstorming ways he could improve its performance.

Over the course of a year, Sansone created a prototype of a novel synchronous reluctance motor that had greater rotational force—or torque—and efficiency than existing ones. The prototype was made from 3-D printed plastic, copper wires, and a steel rotor and tested using a variety of meters to measure power and a laser tachometer to determine the motor’s rotational speed. His work earned him first prize, and $75,000 in winnings, at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the largest international high school STEM competition.

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Robert Sansone with his novel synchronous reluctance motor. Society for Science

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There are few things worse than feeling disappointed. The big opportunity you were made to get excited about suddenly evaporates, or the new relationship you thought was really gaining traction vanishes into thin air.

If these scenarios sound familiar to you, it’s likely you’ve been ‘breadcrumbed’.

Hansel and Gretel associations aside, put simply, ‘breadcrumbing’ involves leading someone on, and keeping their hopes up through small and superficial acts of interest. A breadcrumber might be flirtatious, complimentary, or seem engaged with you at first, but will ultimately end up disappointing you with empty promises and emotional abandonment.

And breadcrumbing isn’t just limited to relationships. It can happen in the workplace, within families, friendships, and on social media.

However, the good news is that there are some key signs that make it easy to spot. 

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