Ada Palmer

Since people are discussing Hugo eligibility, here's my essay about how "Inventing the Renaissance" is an SFF-related work. Many have asked me if I think it is, and it was fun thinking it through!
https://www.exurbe.com/how-is-inventing-the-renaissance-an-sff-related-work/

My other recommendation for "Best Related" is Henry Lien's brilliant "Spring Summer Asteroid Bird" an incredible comparison of East-West tropes, exactly the kind of global SF analysis we need more of! https://henrylien.com/spring-summer-asteroid-bird/

National Geographic’s hot new cover story about silkworms modified to spin spider silk. Spider silk is an amazing material, 5x stronger than steel by weight, combining strength and elasticity. But unlike the silk that comes from worms, it’s impossible to come by at any volume; spiders “farmed” together cannibalise each other. But the creation of synthetic spider-silk-spinning silkworms means we may soon have the stuff in abundance. https://archive.is/Z5LyI #ShareGoodNewsToo

Kazakhstan is rebuilding habitat for the return of wild tigers more than 70 years after the species vanished from Central Asia. Conservationists planted 37,000 trees along Lake Balkhash in 2025, adding to 50,000 earlier plantings and a national effort that has already reached 1.4 billion trees since 2021. The restoration is reviving prey populations and preparing landscapes for Amur tigers expected to arrive from Russia later this year. Live Science https://www.livescience.com/animals/cats/kazakhstan-plants-tens-of-thousands-of-trees-in-giant-effort-to-reintroduce-tigers
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Costa Rica has completely reversed its rampant deforestation from the 20th century, lifting natural forest cover from under 25% by 1985 to well over half the country today. A national payments for ecosystem services scheme helped, along with a 1996 ban on converting natural forest, a beef-price slump that reduced pasture profits, and booming ecotourism that created more incentives to keep forests standing than to cut them down. Vox https://archive.ph/t3gr2 #ShareGoodNewsToo

Balcony solar is taking US state legislatures by storm. In more than half of states, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation that would boost adoption of small plug-in solar panels that sit on apartment balconies and plug directly into household outlets. The simple technology is already in use in millions of households in Germany. Canary Media https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/balcony-solar-taking-state-legislatures-by-storm #ShareGoodNewsToo

Enjoy a full minute of beavers being released into the wild in Cornwall. These little fluffbutts are the first to swim in these waters in a very, very long time - the last official records of beavers in the wild in England are from the 1300s. BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2x9ndl4l9o
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South Africa recorded a 16% national decline in rhino poaching in 2025, with 352 rhinos killed compared to 420 in 2024, reflecting continued reductions in illegal hunting driven by enforcement and anti-trafficking efforts. Africa News https://www.africanews.com/2026/02/10/south-africa-reports-16-drop-in-rhino-poaching-for-2025/
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Vienna reclaims street space by ending free parking and turning parking spots into shade, trees and Dutch-style cycling. The city has run over 350 projects to swap asphalt for green/public space, including a ‘Dutch-inspired’ cycling street where 140 parking bays became 1.3 km of bike lanes and planting. Since 2022, all street parking has been paid, raising €180m/year, and nudging commuters to public transport. DW https://www.dw.com/en/how-one-city-won-over-its-residents-to-turn-parking-into-green-space/a-75017286
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Rural Cambodia is getting roads that don’t wash out when the rains hit. A World Bank-supported programme has upgraded 130 km of highway and improved 145 km of priority rural roads (with another 130 km underway), giving more than 1.2 million people reliable access to schools, health facilities and markets across three northern provinces. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2026/02/09/connecting-communities-and-boosting-opportunity-resilient-roads-transform-rural-cambodia
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Chile has rebuilt access to welfare around a municipal “one-stop shop”. Before, vulnerable families in Chile often had to make multiple trips to municipal offices to secure a single benefit. That all changed with the launch of Gestión Social Local in 2019: since then, GSL has reached 10 million poor and vulnerable people across 339 municipalities, trained 10,000+ municipal workers, and processed more than 13 million benefit requests. World Bank https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2026/02/09/a-people-centric-vision-transforming-social-protection-system-in-chile #ShareGoodNewsToo

China has added or rejuvenated over a million hectares of wetlands since 2012 through 3,800 restoration projects, backed by new national and provincial wetland laws. The drive includes 903 national wetland parks, large-scale monitoring systems, and 92 km² of new mangroves. Officials credit the programme with stabilising key species, including the red-crowned crane. China Daily https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202602/03/WS69813302a310d6866eb37108.html
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The Great Bear Sea moves from pact to practice in Canada. A decade after a 2014 agreement, the 101,200.0 km² Indigenous-led marine protected area network in the Great Bear Sea is shifting from pledge to implementation. 17 First Nations are now negotiating site-level protections, deploying ranger programmes and directing CA$335 million in secured finance toward stewardship and local enterprise. Nature Conservancy https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/community-conservation-great-bear-rainforest/
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Scientists in California have created a new way to see inside the body by combining ultrasound with a light-based technique called photoacoustic imaging. The result produces fast 3D images that show both the shape of soft tissues and how blood is flowing. It has already been tested on human heads, breasts and limbs, and could help doctors spot tumours, track nerve damage from diabetes and study the brain — without radiation or injected dyes. Caltech
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/bringing-optical-color-to-ultrasound
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Washoe Tribe completes one of California’s largest land returns. The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California has completed the purchase of more than 10,000 acres of ancestral territory near Lake Tahoe — a historic land return that expands tribal land stewardship, supports cultural revitalisation, and enables ecosystem restoration across sagebrush, forests, meadows and wildlife habitat. Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/11/washoe-tribal-land-return-california
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Aluminium tubes that float even when punched full of holes are bringing us one step closer to unsinkable ships. Researchers at the University of Rochester have found a way to make ordinary aluminium tubes float indefinitely. By engineering the aluminium’s surface to repel water, the tubes trap air inside and refuse to sink, even when damaged, perforated, put in rough water, or submerged for long periods of time. ZME https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-volcanic-eruption-in-1345-may-have-triggered-a-chain-of-events-taht-brought-the-black-death-to-europe-180987803/
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Forests in the United States are storing more carbon than at any point in decades. New analysis finds gains are being driven by forest ageing, favourable climate trends and regrowth, outweighing losses from deforestation. From 2005 to 2022, forest age structure alone added about 89 million tonnes of carbon annually, highlighting the climate value of letting forests mature. PNAS https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2513588123
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Food poverty in the Philippines dropped from 49% to 30% in Q4 2025, the steepest quarterly fall on record. The shift reflects expanded subsidised rice sales and infrastructure spending, with about five million families no longer identifying as food-poor. Overall self-rated poverty also fell 17 percentage points, signalling rapid easing of household pressure as food prices stabilised. Department of Agriculture https://www.da.gov.ph/food-poverty-drops-in-q4-as-da-expands-rice-program-other-interventions/
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In the Atacama Desert, one of the world’s driest regions, the Initihuasi Seed Bank is freezing thousands of native plant species to safeguard them against climate change, extinction and disaster. Stored at –20°C in earthquake-proof vaults, the collection now underpins species recovery, supports rewilding pilots, and acts as a genetic backstop for a country where 46% of plant species exist nowhere else on Earth. OPB https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/01/in-chiles-desert-a-seed-bank-holds-the-key-to-the-future-of-agriculture/
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France launches its largest ever rewilding project in the Dauphiné Alps. Launched late last year, the project builds on decades of natural species return, aiming to restore herbivores, predators and river systems across mostly forested land, pairing biodiversity recovery with local economic activity and climate resilience in one of Europe’s fastest-warming mountain regions. Mongabay https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/frances-largest-rewilding-project-takes-root-in-the-dauphine-alps/
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Armenia is building a universal health care system. Mandatory health insurance started on 1st January 2026, rolling out over three years, with a single national benefits package. The state will fully cover minors, senior citizens and several vulnerable groups, with the first phase aiming to reach 1.6 million people. The government says it expects the share of people skipping healthcare for cost reasons to drop by around 30%. OC Media https://oc-media.org/armenia-adopts-universal-healthcare-insurance/
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New podcast interview up on the Singularity Podcast! Nikola is one of my very favorite interviewers, incredibly rich, in-depth and long conversation to get at big, meaty questions and really zoom both in and out!

https://www.singularityweblog.com/ada-palmer-inventing-the-renaissance/

Toronto to turn former airport into a sustainable district. Toronto is redeveloping the former Downsview Airport into a C$30 billion, multi-decade urban district planned to house over 60,000 residents and 20,000 jobs. Built around transit, walkability and reused infrastructure, the 370-acre site will add 30,000 homes, 70 acres of parks and a pedestrian boulevard on a former runway, targeting net-zero emissions by 2040. Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/abandoned-airport-becomes-30-billion-dollar-sustainable-city-11332340
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Two decades after a small Duke breast cancer vaccine trial, every participant is still alive — a rare outcome for metastatic disease. When researchers looked closer, they found the women’s immune systems still carried “memory” cells that recognised the cancer. Science Daily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260128075345.htm
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“Inventing the Renaissance” is having another $3.99 ebook sale. I think this one is Uk/Canada/AU/NZ too! If not, that sale is coming in a couple days. Great chance to get it without paying the unreasonably high ebook price!

South Australia has begun a $17 million wetland repair programme, targeting the Coorong, Lower Lakes, Murray Mouth and the South East. Announced in January, the Shorebird and Wetland Habitat programme will upgrade water-control infrastructure, restore breeding and foraging habitat, and cut pressures from weeds, feral foxes and cats, and pest fish. Glam Adelaide https://glamadelaide.com.au/south-australia-launches-17-million-initiative-to-restore-critical-wetlands-and-protect-migratory-shorebirds/
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Prevention may have wider spillovers than we thought: Eric Topol explores the evidence that older adults who received a shingles vaccine had a roughly 20% lower risk of developing dementia in later years https://erictopol.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-the-shingles-vaccineagain
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South Africa has yielded the oldest direct evidence of poisoned hunting weapons. Residues on 60,000-year-old quartz arrowheads show early humans used plant toxins, likely from Boophone disticha, to enhance lethality. The find pushes poison-based hunting deep into the Pleistocene and reveals sophisticated chemical knowledge, planning and tool use far earlier than previously documented. Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/these-60000-year-old-poison-arrows-are-oldest-yet-found/
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Deadline coming up to apply to take my summer week long intensive seminar “History of Censorship from the Inquisition to the Internet” open to anyone interested, through the Rare Books School.

In China’s Yangtze River, the finless porpoise population is rising: the latest count puts it at 1,426 in 2025, up 177 since 2022. Scientists link the recovery to the ten year fishing ban that began in 2021, alongside tighter habitat protection and monitoring. They’re now aiming for 1,700 by 2030 and 2,000 by 2035, backed by an action plan including local governments and research bodies. China Daily https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/31/WS697d3fa5a310d6866eb36b4a.html
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Ireland has dismantled its first commercial wind farm to make way for a step-change in scale. At Bellacorick Wind Farm, 21 early-generation turbines have been removed so Oweninny Wind Farm can expand. Each new turbine now generates more power than the entire 1992 Bellacorick site, illustrating how three decades of innovation have radically compressed land use while multiplying output. RTE https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2026/0116/1553440-mayo-wind-farm/
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‘Bubble batteries’ move from prototype to global rollout. Italy-based Energy Dome has begun operating a 20MW CO₂ “battery” that stores surplus solar and wind power by compressing and expanding carbon dioxide inside a giant dome. More are planned across Europe, the US and Asia. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, the technology avoids critical minerals, lasts decades, and becomes cheaper at larger scales, tackling one of the harder limits of renewable grids.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/co2-battery-energy-storage?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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France’s ban on forever chemicals enters into force. The new law, approved by lawmakers in February 2025, bans the production, import or sale of any product for which an alternative to PFAS already exists, including in cosmetics, clothing and ski wax. Some industrial exemptions remain, but the move sets a regulatory benchmark likely to shape future EU-wide standards. France 24
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251230-french-ban-on-forever-chemicals-in-cosmetics-clothing-to-enter-force #ShareGoodNewsToo

3,150-year-old papyrus reveals the world’s earliest recorded labour strike. New analysis of the Turin Strike Papyrus—a detailed account from 1157 BCE—shows how artisans building the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina staged a coordinated walkout after going 18 days without grain rations. The document reads like an ancient industrial dispute: workers blocking gates, sending written demands to officials, and ultimately winning emergency payments. https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_1880
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