Tuesday 18th March 2025

Bug drugs: bacteria-based cancer therapies are finally overcoming barriers

A century-old cancer therapy gains new life with modern science.

Continued here

Trump Is Playing a Dangerous Game With the Courts - Intelligencer (No paywall)

The administration is at the brink of open defiance. It’s all unnecessary.

Continued here

When you might start speaking to robots - MIT Technology Review (No paywall)

Google is only the latest to fuse large language models with robots. The trend has big implications.

Continued here

What I learned over lunch with Warren Buffett

Investor Guy Spier is a self-described “disciple” of multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world’s most famous money-makers. That places him among hundreds of thousands of Buffett acolytes — nothing so unusual there — but he’s one of the few to have spent quality time with the legend. In 2007, Spier, along with friend and fellow investor Mohnish Pabrai, won lunch with Buffett in a charity auction, paying $650,000 between them. The knowledge he picked up, as he reveals below, was priceless.

Spier started the Aquamarine Fund in 1997 — now worth $450 million — using Buffett’s “value investor” strategy of buying stocks at a price below their intrinsic value and holding them for a long time. Spier’s book, The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom and Enlightenment, details the ups and downs of his career, and covers his early ambitions to become the king of Wall Street, and his move to Zurich, where he now lives and works.

Continued here

What are all the different types of nebula in astronomy?

When most people think about astronomy, they think about the common, light-emitting objects familiar in our night sky: stars, planets, and perhaps even galaxies. Once in a while, here on Earth, we’ll encounter a few other objects that — like planets — reflect the Sun’s light to appear visible either to our eyes or our telescopes: objects like satellites, asteroids, or comets. However, if we look out into the Universe with our telescopes, both within our own Milky Way as well as beyond, into the grand abyss of deep space, we’re likely to encounter a new class of object: objects that aren’t compact and solid, but rather are faint, extended, and difficult to resolve. Astronomers call these objects nebulae.

For a long time, we had only conjecture to tell us what these objects might be. A few of them, as telescopes became more advanced, turned out to be nothing more than clusters of stars. Others turned out to be galaxies far beyond the extent of the Milky Way: “island Universes” full of anywhere from thousands to trillions of stars. These objects, colloquially sometimes called “faint fuzzies” after their appearance through a telescope, not only were fixed and unmoving, but came about through a vast array of astrophysical phenomena. Over time, we began classifying them, recognizing and understanding their properties, and placing them into their proper context within the great cosmic story. Here are what the different types of nebulae known to astronomers actually are.

Continued here

3 Types of Silos That Stifle Collaboration--and How to Dismantle Them

The silo effect, characterized by limited communication between specialized business departments, can negatively impact communication and collaboration in organizations. In particular, there are three types of silos: systemic, elitist, and protectionist, each requiring specific strategies for resolution. These targeted solutions—aligning goals, improving communication, and fostering secure data sharing—can help dismantle silos and foster a more collaborative environment.

Continued here

The Economic Data You Need to Make Decisions Through Volatility

When major events—like new tariffs or government layoffs—happen rapidly, it can be challenging to know what impact they will have on the economy and your business. To help make sense of recent economic changes, researchers analyzed readouts from the U.S. Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, federal government spending reports, and recent unemployment claims reports. They offer guidance about what data organizations should keep an eye on as things continue to evolve.

Continued here

Case Study: Are the Right People in the Right Seats?

The newly appointed CEO of Highstreet Properties has doubts about several members of the top team she has inherited. She’s trying to drive a turnaround, the company has a complicated matrix structure, and some team members seem opposed to her strategy. She’s debating replacing several of them, but she’s worried about making too many changes too quickly, upsetting her board, and bringing in too many former colleagues.

Continued here

Build a Corporate Culture That Works

The trick to making a desired culture come alive is to debate and articulate it using dilemmas. If you identify the tough dilemmas your employees routinely face and clearly state how they should be resolved—“In this company, when we come across this dilemma, we turn left”—then your desired culture will take root and influence the behavior of the team.

Continued here

How Part-Time Senior Leaders Can Help Your Business

Technological innovation, advances in remote work, and reshaped post-pandemic priorities have led to companies hiring fractional leaders, or part-time senior talent, to occupy key leadership roles. These leaders, who typically have 20 to 30 years of experience, blend strategic and functional leadership with a hands-on approach, and they offer their skills to multiple organizations, typically startups or small and medium-sized enterprises. The arrangement enables organizations to benefit from senior leadership without the expense and commitment of a full-time hire, and it allows senior executives both career flexibility and stability. This article looks at the pros and cons of fractional leadership and outlines three crucial conversations to have before engaging in this kind of arrangement.

Continued here