This is what I learned this week - week 33 of 2025.
- Guess how many plastic bags the average person in England buys each year... 🛍️ England's latest official data on single-use plastic carrier bag charges for 2024-2025 is now available from the UK government. Plastic bag use is "up 7% since 2023 to 2024", to "around 8 single-use plastic bags per person sold by all retailers who reported data" (and that last bit is really important. Many of them don't report...) And "there has been a decrease of almost 98% in the annual number of single-use carrier bags sold by the main retailers (over 7.4 billion fewer bags) since the charge was introduced." - unquestionably good, right? Right?!
- Historic radio telescope headed to the Moon's far side 🚀 The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE-Night), a groundbreaking radio telescope, is poised to launch to the Moon's far side to escape Earth's radio interference. It will monitor low-frequency signals (0.1-50 MHz) and the redshifted 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen, this mission aims to unlock the secrets of the Cosmic Dark Ages. This represents a monumental step for radio astronomy, offering an unprecedented "quiet" window into the universe. The James Webb telescope has brought enormous riches in just its short history - I wonder what we'll get from LuSEE-Night...
- How China’s CHSN01 super steel could shrink fusion reactors, cut costs 💡 China has achieved a significant materials science breakthrough with CHSN01, a 'super steel' certified to withstand 20 Tesla fields and 60,000 fusion pulses, a feat many experts deemed "absolutely impossible." This high-strength, low-temperature steel, approximately 40% stronger than current ITER alloys, is set to drastically reduce the size and cost of future fusion reactors by enabling higher magnetic confinement. Could CHSN01 be the critical enabler for economically viable fusion energy, or does it merely solve one piece of an intensely complex engineering puzzle?
- "New Method" Is the Fastest Way To Find the Best Routes 🧠 A new algorithm has fundamentally re-engineered how shortest paths are found in networks, breaking the long-standing "sorting barrier" that limited the speed of classic algorithms like Dijkstra's. This new method, known as "New Method" (named in the spirit of New College Oxford and every "New [place]" you've ever come across, I guess), operates faster on both directed and undirected graphs by navigating network frontiers. This theoretical advancement has profound implications for optimizing logistics, enhancing AI, and bolstering computational efficiency across various complex systems.
- Ozempic Shows Anti-Aging Effects in First Clinical Trial, Reversing Biological Age by 3.1 Years ⏳ Apparently there is nothing Ozempic can't do. A new clinical trial has shown that Ozempic (semaglutide) can reverse biological age by an average of 3.1 years in individuals with HIV-associated lipohypertrophy (increases in fat cell size and count, typically in diabetic patients, due to constant injections), with even more effect (up to 5 years 'recovered') on the inflammatory system and brain. Researchers attribute this to the drug's impact on fat distribution and inflammation, key drivers of epigenetic aging. Now then... don't just magically believe that this is going to be an anti-aging cure for everybody - but this still feels significant to me.
- And of course, OpenAI GPT-5 was launched. But that news will hit you from every source.
I'm
🔋 Cam Ross
. I'm lucky enough to be the CEO of
Green Angel Ventures
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