⤴⤵ Up Wing/Down Wing #45

A curated selection of pro-progress and anti-progress news items from the week that was

In case you missed it ...

⤴ Productivity paradox (Monday)

⚡ AI + energy: A Quick Q&A with … Mark Jamison on permitting reform (Tuesday)

✨ 😷 AI and the radiologist apocalypse that wasn't (Thursday)

🗽🧠 America needs to get more out of its high-IQ kids - (Friday)

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⤴ Up Wing Things

🧬 Personalized gene editing treatment saves infant in medical first. A groundbreaking gene-editing treatment using CRISPR has successfully helped an infant in Philadelphia, K.J. Muldoon, combat a rare and life-threatening metabolic disorder called CPS1 deficiency. K.J. was diagnosed shortly after birth and received a custom therapy developed in just six months by researchers at Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Delivered via lipid nanoparticles, the treatment corrected his liver enzyme deficiency and reduced the risk of organ damage. While ongoing monitoring is needed, K.J. is currently thriving. This personalized approach could pave the way for treating other rare genetic diseases more rapidly and effectively. (WSJ)

🤝 US and China cut back tariffs for 90 days. After meeting in Geneva, the two have agreed to a 90-day pause in their ongoing trade war, with both sides slashing tariffs — US duties dropping from 145 percent to 30 percent, and China’s from 125 percent to 10 percent. The agreement aims to reset the tone of trade relations and opens the door to further negotiations:

“The consensus from both delegations this weekend is that neither side wants a decoupling, and what had occurred with these very high tariffs was the equivalent of a trade embargo, and neither side wants that,” Bessent said in a news conference in Geneva.

While markets reacted positively, analysts caution this is only a temporary reprieve. Core issues remain unresolved, but both nations have expressed a shared desire to avoid economic disengagement and work toward more balanced trade. (Wapo)

🩺 AI enhances (not replaces) radiologists. Nine years after AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton predicted radiologists would soon be obsolete, the field is thriving — and transforming. At institutions like the Mayo Clinic, AI is not replacing radiologists but enhancing their capabilities, improving accuracy, efficiency, and diagnosis. From automating kidney volume measurements to detecting early signs of disease, AI acts as a powerful assistant rather than a substitute. The clinic now uses over 250 AI models, with radiologists deeply involved in developing and refining these tools. Evidently, the future of medicine is not man versus machine, but man and machine, working smarter together. (NYT)