Synthetic Biology, Robot Dolphins, and Very Old Twinkies: Lux Recommends #251
Welcome to Lux Recommends #251, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
The second decade of synthetic biology: 2010–2020 — Sam
How a downed internet balloon produced an unlikely love story: “Google’s Loon balloons have been hailed as the future of connectivity, but in Uruguay, they’ve been most effective for matchmaking.” — Deena
After a 7-Month Wait, This Tourist Got Machu Picchu All To Himself — Adam K
Why Are Babies So Dumb If Humans Are So Smart? — Deena
The robot dolphin that could replace captive animals at theme parks one day — Adam K
Bruce Springsteen Is Living in the Moment: ‘“Letter to You,” his new album with the E Street Band, is built on lessons and skills accumulated in the past. But the Boss is focused on where he stands now — and where he’s going next.’ — friend of Lux Brad Weinberg
Bruce Springsteen Is an Emoji Now and Fans Can’t Get Enough — Adam K
Fossilized Human Trackway Discovered At White Sands National Park — Deena
A 12-year-old found a 69 million-year-old dinosaur fossil while hiking with his dad — Lindsay Kalish (Adam K’s better half)
A Disturbing Twinkie That Has, So Far, Defied Science — Sam
The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League–Obsessed Parents: “Where the desperation of late-stage meritocracy is so strong, you can smell it” — Lux friend Tommy Kane
And Six Things Millennials Have in Common with Dr. Frasier Crane (№5 Will Drive You Into a Deep Depression) — Sam
Television
Tehran: “An Israeli Mossad agent infiltrates Iran. But when her mission goes wrong, there’s no way out.” — Lux friend Tommy Kane
Books
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson: “Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders.”— Sam
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