Will lab-grown meat ever make it onto supermarket shelves? - The Economist   

THE FIRST mouthful of “cultivated” meat is both remarkable and dull. In a homely kitchen at the California headquarters of Eat Just, a startup, a playing-card-sized slice of meat has been glazed and grilled. It is served with a sweet-potato puree, maitake mushrooms and some pickled peppers. The meal is remarkable because the meat was grown in a lab, rather than on an animal. It is mundane because the texture, taste, look and smell of the meat is almost identical to that of chicken. And that, of course, is the point.

The cultivated-meat business hopes that this experience will become more common. In June Eat Just and Upside Foods, another California startup, became the first two companies to win regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat in America. A handful of firms already do so in Singapore, which was the first country to permit the sale of the stuff in 2020. A herd of rivals is stampeding after them. All told, around 160 firms are trying to bring cultivated meats to market.

But doing so will be challenging. In America diners without the benefit of a press card can find cultivated meat in just two restaurants, one in San Francisco and one in Washington, DC. A few years ago the industry was bullish. In 2021 McKinsey guessed it might grow to $25bn worldwide by the end of the decade. That hope is fading, amid stubbornly high costs and troubles with scaling production. Most companies are now more focused on producing hybrid meats, which combine cultivated animal protein with protein derived from plants such as soya or wheat. That sort of hybrid dinner is what your correspondent sampled with Eat Just.

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Google Mourns Veteran Engineer Luiz André Barroso, Who Invented the Modern Data Center - WIRED   

Luiz André Barroso had never designed a data center before Google asked him to do it in the early 2000s. By the time he finished his first, he had overturned many conventions of the computing industry, laying the foundations for Silicon Valley's development of cloud computing.

Barroso, a 22-year veteran of Google who unexpectedly died on September 16 at age 59, built his data centers with low-cost components instead of expensive specialized hardware. He reimagined how they worked together to develop the concept of "the data center as a computer," which now underpins the web, mobile apps, and other internet services.

Jen Fitzpatrick, senior vice president of Google's infrastructure organization, says Barroso left an indelible imprint at the company whose contributions to the industry are countless. "We lost a beloved friend, colleague and respected leader," she writes in a statement on behalf of the company.

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8 Essential Qualities of Successful Leaders - Harvard Business Review   

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How to Increase Your Influence at Work - Harvard Business Review   

To be effective in organizations today, you must be able to influence people. Here are some tips on how to position yourself as an informal leader, even if you’re not a formal one. (1) Strategize. Create a “power map” — an org chart of decision makers related to the initiative you wish to promote — to guide your campaign. Think about how and when you will approach your colleagues. (2) Craft your message. Prepare a concise elevator pitch about your idea. Then, based on your map, customize your pitch, taking into account your individual colleagues’ needs, perspectives, and temperaments. (3) Cultivate allies. Ask colleagues for their advice and incorporate their feedback. Enlist colleagues who are enthusiastic about your idea to serve as ambassadors. (4) Develop expertise. Stay up-to-date about your topic area. Attend conferences, enroll in a certification program, or assume a leadership position in a professional organization. These visible steps help you become that go-to person that others look to for advice.

To be effective in organizations today, you must be able to influence people. Your title alone isn’t always enough to sway others, nor do you always have a formal position. So, what’s the best way to position yourself as an informal leader? How do you motivate colleagues to support your initiatives and adopt your ideas? How can you become a go-to person that others look to for guidance and expert advice?

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