⤴⤵ Up Wing/Down Wing #5

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

⤴ Up Wing Things

⚛ US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called for a significant increase in nuclear reactor construction both in the United States and globally. Speaking at the site of Georgia Power's recently completed nuclear reactors in Waynesboro, Georgia, Granholm stated that the US needs an additional 98 reactors with capacities similar to the new units at Plant Vogtle to generate electricity while reducing carbon emissions. She emphasized the need to at least triple the country's current nuclear capacity to reach the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Granholm: “To reach our goal of net zero by 2050, we have to at least triple our current nuclear capacity in this country. That means we’ve got to add 200 more gigawatts by 2050. Okay, two down, 198 to go!”  (Yahoo Finance)

⚕ Researchers have announced groundbreaking trial results for a new drug, lorlatinib, which has demonstrated the longest progression-free survival outcomes ever recorded in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease. In the trial, 60% of patients with advanced lung cancer who took lorlatinib were still alive after five years without disease progression, compared to only 8% of patients treated with a standard drug. These results, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) annual meeting in Chicago, are being hailed as "unprecedented" by the study's lead author, Dr. Benjamin Solomon, from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, with particularly poor survival rates for those with advanced forms of the disease. (Guardian)