Weekly Progress Roundup

Sea turtle recovery, new Waymo safety data, a turnaround in US public health, and more.

New data show Waymo taxis are incredibly safe

On Thursday, the self-driving taxi company Waymo published new safety research on its vehicles: “Across 25.3 million miles, the Waymo Driver was involved in just … two bodily injury claims.” This injury rate is 92 percent lower than that of the overall driving population and 90 percent lower than those driving vehicles with advanced safety technologies like automatic braking.

The United States is getting healthier

The journalist Derek Thompson recently pointed out that four particularly American afflictions—drug overdoses, traffic deaths, obesity, and murders—have all recently dropped in the United States. There are many tentative explanations, one being that the country is simply returning to normal after the pandemic. In any case, it’s excellent news, and examining these trends more closely might reveal valuable lessons for improving public health.

Sea turtles are recovering worldwide

The sea turtle, a symbol of environmental destruction, is now rebounding.

A recent study found that out of 61 datasets on sea turtle abundance worldwide, just five showed a decline in population. Splitting the results by species is even more hopeful: for four of the six endangered sea turtle species, every dataset showed an upward or stable trend. For the remaining two, the leatherback and loggerhead, 75 percent and 92 percent of the datasets did, respectively.

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Economics:

• New York Clears the Way for 80,000 Homes

• Amazon Warehouses Benefit Local Economies, Study Finds

Energy & Environment:

• “Murder Hornets” Eradicated in the US, Agriculture Officials Say

• Fusion Start-Up Plans to Build Its First Power Plant in Virginia

• Engineering Immunity in Frogs to Fight Fungal Disease

Health & Demographics:

• A Mysterious Health Wave Is Breaking Out Across the US

• Advanced Genome-Editing Therapies Head for the Clinic

• First Live Birth Using Procedure That Matures Eggs Outside Body

• Woman Receives Nation’s Third Pig Kidney Transplant

• Could AI Help Prevent Diabetes-Related Sight Loss?

• Micro-Robot Will Navigate Fallopian Tubes to Treat Infertility

• AI Is Trained to Spot Warning Signs in Blood Tests

Politics & Freedom:

• Americans Can Now Visit China for up to 10 Days Without a Visa

Science & Technology:

• New LLM Technique Slashes Memory Costs up to 75 Percent

• Europe Signs €10.6bn Iris² Satellite Deal to Rival Starlink

• Most American Adults Are Flourishing Online

Tweets:

• Argentina just recorded its first quarter of economic growth since 2023

• A country's rate of economic growth is inversely correlated with the size of its government