Blog Lars Jaeger
On the eco-ethical indifference of business leaders - The example of Glencore
At times, one has to study the newspaper very closely to learn about insightful statements by top business executives providing a deeper insights into what our economic leaders think about pressing questions in our world than any journalist’s editorial or comment. Often one then stumbles over phrases and statements that at first sound rather harmless […]
It finally happened (probably) — the first CRISPR baby is here
It had to happen at some point. You did not need to be a prophet to predict the birth of the first CRISPR baby. More than two years ago, in May 2015, the science journal Nature in an article entitled the same asked the question: “Where in the world could the first CRISPR baby be […]
With artificial intelligence to the top of the world - the examples of China and Germany
The term “artificial intelligence” (AI) is more than 60 years old (it was coined by John McCarthy at a conference in Dartmouth in 1956). But only in the last five to ten years has this field evolved into a future key technology with ever more powerful impact on our lives. Increasingly, it deals with tasks […]
A forgotten female pioneer of quantum physics - The mathematician and philosopher Grete Hermann
Those who are more concerned with the early development of quantum theory will quickly realize that the pioneers of modern physics appear to be a pure men’s club: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Max Born, Paul Dirac, Enrico Fermi, later Richard Feynman or Freeman Dyson, to name only […]
The Woman Who Explained Nuclear Fission - On Lise Meitner's 50th Death Anniversary
With Donna Strickland in 2018 only for the third time a woman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963 (only the economists have less Nobel Prize laureates, but the Nobel Prize for Economics has only been awarded since 1969). The most well-known physicist, who remained […]
Attacking the liberal order and our democracy - When technologies are being abused by authoritarian states
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg stresses at every opportunity the total transparency, he and his company are dedicated to. “We bring the world closer together” is his motto. In reality, however, Facebook is a covert surveillance company that earns its money by collecting and selling detailed records of our private information. What kind of customer they […]
Nobel Prize for Economics 2018 - The economic importance of technological innovation and the environment
With the announcement of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics, the annual and ever- anticipated process of Nobel Price announcements has come to an end. The prize for economics is the only one awarded for a social science instead of a natural science. Its discipline deals with processes in which many factors […]
Eradication of entire species – What has become possible with Gene Drive and CRISPR
The genetic modification of not only the characteristics of individuals, but the permanent genetic manipulation of entire populations is one of the biggest dreams – or, depending on the reading nightmares – of geneticists. The effects would be enormous: For example, insects such as tsetse flies or mosquitoes could be modified throughout their entire species […]
Fantasies of technological omnipotence - The "Silicon Valley Dream"
In the 1970s, biologists celebrated a major breakthrough: The discovery of so-called restriction enzymes enabled them to perform “gene transplantations”. It was the birth of gene technology. Artificial genes produce certain proteins that can then be used to treat respective human diseases. With this form of “genetic engineering,” the biosciences suddenly aroused the imagination and […]
The Second Quantum Revolution - From Entanglement to Quantum Computing and Other Super-Technologies
In Douglas Adams’ parody of intergalactic life The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, one reads at the beginning of the second book: There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more […]