
- The top 25 stories curated by editors and fellow readers!
Editor's Pick
The big idea: can what you eat change your mind'
From designer drinks to dodgy leftovers, our brain responds to food in surprising ways
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Editor's Note: When you take a sip of a sugary drink, your brain processes the sensory information - the taste, bubbles on the tongue, and so on. But it doesn't stop there. Once you've swallowed, your digestive system tells the deep reward structures of the brain - via the vagus nerve again - that what you've eaten has calories. You also register that it's hydrating. These signals reinforce your behaviour: they tell your brain to pursue that particular drink again in future.
Work In defence of productivity crapI was reading through the top Bear blog posts last night and found this at the very top: Stop wasting time on productivity crap. Just shut up and work. They're right, to a certain extent. |
Work AI is changing the way we grieve and perceive death Imagine attending a funeral where the person who has died speaks directly to you, answering your questions and sharing memories. This happened at the funeral of Marina Smith, a Holocaust educator who died in 2022. |
Work The Good Guy/Bad Guy Myth Pop culture today is obsessed with the battle between good and evil. Traditional folktales never were. What changed? |
Work After a Great Run for Stocks, Be Ready for Something Different Financial markets have been choppy since the November election, and for good reason. With the next presidential administration promising sharp policy changes on a broad range of economic issues, there is plenty to be nervous about. The new proposals are dizzying. |
Work Meta built a global fact-checking operation. Will it survive? Meta's announcement it will end professional fact checking on Facebook and Instagram in the U.S. has left fact checkers elsewhere around the world uncertain about their futures. Meta said the rollback is "starting in the U.S." but does not apply to other countries "at this time. |
Work Cytokinetics is not looking to be acquired CEO says Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard.
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Work Truveta enlists health systems drugmakers to launch ambitious new genomic database Pharmaceutical company Regeneron has invested $119.5 million in Truveta’s project, and its laboratory subsidiary the Regeneron Genetics Center will sequence the exomes of the first 10 million volunteers for the program. DNA sequencer manufacturer Illumina has also invested $20 million in the project, which builds on a 2021 investment and partnership from Microsoft, which will provide the cloud infrastructure for the project.
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Work Let's talk about JPM Day 1 Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard.
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Work Researchers Have Found a Way to Help Erase Bad Memories Being able to erase bad memories and traumatic flashbacks could help in the treatment of a host of different mental health issues, and scientists have found a promising new approach to do just this: weakening negative memories by reactivating positive ones. |
Work Airline and Cruise Stocks Slide as Oil Prices Surge to 5-Month High Travel stocks finished the year strong as oil prices trended lower and consumers showed few signs that higher prices have dented robust post-pandemic travel demand. United Airlines was one of the S&P 500’s best-performing stocks in 2024. Its shares have more than doubled in value in the past year. Delta has gained about 69% over the same period. Royal Caribbean (RCL) stock was little changed Monday but has risen more than 87% in the last 12 months.
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Work Zelensky offers exchange of North Korean soldiers Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is willing to hand over two captured soldiers from North Korea back to their home country in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. Ukraine said on Saturday that the men were captured on 9 January. |
Work The first AI chip startup to go public in 2025 will be Blaize | TechCrunch “All of the AI hype is happening in the data center. Interestingly, they’ve totally neglected and forgotten about real physical world use cases that are very real, that are touching people’s lives and are happening now and making money,” Munagala told TechCrunch. “We’re focused on the practical use of AI in the physical world.”
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Work Meta moderators were already in Texas before Zuckerberg announced move say ex-workers Thousands of full-time employees work for Meta in Texas in several different departments. More than 220 workers were laid off in the state in 2022, however, as part of a large restructuring of the social media company. In all, Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees worldwide with Zuckerberg deeming it the “year of efficiency”. Meta’s trust and safety teams were some of the hardest hit.
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Work FBI warns of potential acopycat or retaliatorya New Orleans attacks Cities often use physical barriers to prevent vehicle ramming attacks, but in New Orleans on New Year's Day, the road-blocking, cylindrical columns known as bollards were down for repairs at 11 of 16 locations, including at the foot of Bourbon Street where the attack occurred.
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Work Dangerous winds expected to amplify California wildfires as death toll hits 24 Edison said in a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission that “a downed conductor was discovered at a tower” near the start of the Hurst fire, which broke out in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Sylmar. But the utility added it “does not know whether the damage observed occurred before or after the start of the fire”. That fire burned more than a square mile and is now mostly contained.
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Work Ryanair calls for limit of two alcoholic drinks at airports in Europe “Ryanair is therefore taking a civil proceeding against this passenger in the Irish courts to recover these costs, which were incurred wholly and exclusively as a result of the disruptive passenger’s behaviour, which caused not just a diversion, but an overnight in Porto of over 160 passengers and six crew member and the operating aircraft,” said the airline.
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Work Will the EU fight for the truth on Facebook and Instagram “What has happened in the US is just the beginning,” the Filipino site Rappler, founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, concluded. “It is an ominous sign of more perilous times in the fight to preserve and protect our individual agency and shared reality.”
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