# Progress links digest, 2023-08-02: Superconductor edition

**Opportunities**
-----------------

*   [Stripe Press is hiring a creative producer for video, audio, & special projects](https://stripe.com/jobs/listing/producer-stripe-press/5047655) (via [@_TamaraWinter](https://twitter.com/_TamaraWinter/status/1683872401401020416))
*   [Astera’s new Science Entrepreneur-in-Residence program will support new tools for scientific publishing](https://astera.org/upgrading-scientific-dialogue/) (via [@mattsclancy](https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1683432332189892609))

**Announcements**
-----------------

*   [The Frontier Model Forum is an industry body co-founded by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google/DeepMind, and Microsoft “focused on ensuring safe development of future hyperscale AI models”](https://openai.com/blog/frontier-model-forum) (via [@OpenAI](https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1684145154628653056))
*   [Impetus Grants has closed $10M for more longevity projects](https://impetusgrants.org/news-and-updates/10-million-dollars-for-aging-science-round-3-announcement) (via [@LNuzhna](https://twitter.com/LNuzhna/status/1683485564387876865))
*   [Emergent Ventures winners, 27th cohort](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/07/emergent-ventures-winners-27th-cohort.html) (via [@tylercowen](https://twitter.com/tylercowen/status/1684885443173863424))
*   [The Studies Show is a new science podcast by Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie](https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/), also on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/7kkWvSnrXAAzQZ9hfTEwjM) (via [@TomChivers](https://twitter.com/TomChivers/status/1684216443385118725), [@s8mb](https://twitter.com/s8mb/status/1683954484311887874))
*   [The Lean FRO will work on “scalability, usability, and proof automation in the Lean proof assistant”](https://lean-fro.org/about/) (via [@leanprover](https://twitter.com/leanprover/status/1683745025711038464))
*   [Ed Yong is leaving *The Atlantic*](https://buttondown.email/edyong209/archive/the-eds-up-an-ending/). Subscribe to his newsletter to keep up with him (via [@edyong209](https://twitter.com/edyong209/status/1684970608302706689))
*   [Works in Progress is now available on Apple News](https://apple.news/TCtaJ8DSoThyLKlfUZskP-g) (via [@WorksInProgMag](https://twitter.com/WorksInProgMag/status/1684208618692911110))

**Superconductors**
-------------------

*   Lots of chatter about LK-99, the supposed room-temperature superconductor. [I have been holding off on speculating or sharing too many links until it is more solid](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1684218741729419264)
*   Derek Lowe [wrote an explainer](https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/breaking-superconductor-news) and [gave an update Aug 1 in which he is “guardedly optimistic”](https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/room-temperature-superconductor-new-developments)
*   Andrew McCalip and some of his co-workers at Varda have been [trying to replicate](https://twitter.com/andrewmccalip/status/1684433849781202944). Here is [a list of all the replication attempts](https://eirifu.wordpress.com/2023/07/30/lk-99-superconductor-summary/)
*   At least one paper [suggested a theoretical basis for superconductivity in this material](https://twitter.com/davidad/status/1686334251120119808), but a physics prof who studies materials says [it doesn’t matter](https://twitter.com/MichaelSFuhrer/status/1686267690770739200), and gives [a history of disappointments in the space](https://twitter.com/MichaelSFuhrer/status/1686644227885944833)
*   [Alex Kaplan](https://twitter.com/alexkaplan0) shares a lot of news and is a good follow (even though IMO he got too excited too quickly)
*   Andrew Cote has a long, technical thread on [the implications if this is real](https://twitter.com/Andercot/status/1685088625187495936)
*   [Manifold Markets currently at about a 1-in-3 chance](https://manifold.markets/QuantumObserver/will-the-lk99-room-temp-ambient-pre). Kalshi market [coming soon](https://twitter.com/mansourtarek_/status/1686382972960940032)

**Video**
---------

*   Where is my flying RV? The Helihome was “a fully furnished flying home based on the body of a surplus Sikorsky helicopter,” and it was actually built and sold

**Other links**
---------------

*   [NASA plans to launch a nuclear-powered rocket engine into space as early as 2027](https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/07/nasa-seeks-to-launch-a-nuclear-powered-rocket-engine-in-four-years/) (via [@isabelleboemeke](https://twitter.com/isabelleboemeke/status/1684788425830875136))
*   [Max Roser: The limits of our personal experience and the value of statistics](https://ourworldindata.org/limits-personal-experience)
*   [How phosphorus was discovered by alchemists trying to make gold](https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/White%20Phosphorus/phosphorush.htm), via Molecule of the Month
*   [Candle clock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle_clock), via [@Rainmaker1973](https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1683740114139373568), who points out: “To set an alarm, you pushed a nail into the desired point and the nail would fall and clank on the metal holder”

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F13WGQhX0AEJTtW.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F13WGQhX0AEJTtW.jpg)

**Queries**
-----------

*   [What can we conclude from the failed “growth mindset” interventions?](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1684708496057434113)
*   [Which thinkers do you wish had blogs?](https://twitter.com/PradyuPrasad/status/1685364570804629505)
*   [Most interesting historical non-fiction, accessible book about the Roman Empire?](https://twitter.com/maryrosecook/status/1684953846840471552)
*   [Good system to search the text of books in order to share quotes?](https://twitter.com/AGamick/status/1684949364635205632)

**Quotes**
----------

*   [Andrew Carnegie and the opposite of the principal-agent problem](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1685835170383822848)
*   [Thanks, Gigi! The progress of milk cows](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1684641582228856835)
*   [Nitrogen makes up only a few percent of plants by mass, but its availability in the soil is often a rate-limiting factor on crop growth](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1685828142609387521)
*   [“The Space Age may well be defined as an era of hubris”](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1685838785031114752)
*   [When Soviet authorities in the 1940s showed *The Grapes of Wrath* as evidence of how miserable the poor were in America, it backfired](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1685834184441450496)
*   [In 1924, Bertrand Russell was certain that governments would one day be controlling our emotions by chemical means](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1685827643873062912)
*   [Jerry Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1683626914315894787)

**Tweets & threads**
--------------------

*   [Everything has to be invented—even boiling eggs](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1683871256670621696)
*   [The Lendbreen Tunic was a simple wool caftan from the Iron Age. It took 760 hours of work, almost half a working year, to produce](https://twitter.com/lingerie_addict/status/1680276589701890050) (via [@paulg](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1683522620594036761) and [@asymmetricinfo](https://twitter.com/asymmetricinfo/status/1683524011098087432))
*   [The sorcery of fracking](https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1685460287129063424)
*   [Algorithmic feeds are great. I want an algorithmic feed for everything in my life](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1684254638147600384)
*   [Mass production gave us best-in-class commodity goods; AI will do the same for services](https://twitter.com/Andercot/status/1683488199912374273)
*   [Sometimes social problems have technical solutions, and vice versa](https://twitter.com/AmandaAskell/status/1684218499227344898)
*   [A “props to ops” story](https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1684114035061686272)
*   [Why not to say “I believe in science.”](https://twitter.com/asymmetricinfo/status/1684701303463714821) “Not everything that calls itself science is science, and even good science sometimes gets wrong results.”
*   [It’s time to scrap AML/KYC entirely](https://twitter.com/brucefenton/status/1683835825988177923) (via [@Atabarrok](https://twitter.com/ATabarrok/status/1683855330734899200), who adds that these laws are “expensive, ineffective and an insult to liberty”)
*   [One of the most important and underrated rationality techniques is to simply get into the right emotional state](https://twitter.com/StefanFSchubert/status/1685318182083420160)
*   [What agency is and how to develop it](https://twitter.com/mbateman/status/1683487890905481218). “Build a shed, develop informed opinions about history, resolve your social anxiety, learn an instrument. These and like victories are the countless premises from which the conclusion ‘I can author my life’ follows.”
*   [“The world is full of couples who are married and functional and in love… romance and courtship are thriving, masculinity and femininity are alive and well and better than ever”](https://twitter.com/mbateman/status/1684971141822128150)
*   [“Elon has an exceptional talent for tackling hard physics-based problems but products that facilitate human connection and communication require a different type of social-emotional intelligence”](https://twitter.com/esthercrawford/status/1684291048682684416)

**Maps & charts**
-----------------

*   [Progress in weather forecasting](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1684620720108630016) (or at least air pressure)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2D1E03XoActjzO.png)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2D1E03XoActjzO.png)

*   [2.5% of the *world’s* population lives in Uttar Pradesh, and another 1.4% in Maharashtra (!)](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1685020565935955969)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2IZt7eXQAAxUbT.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2IZt7eXQAAxUbT.jpg)

*   [“Living in harmony with nature?” Megafaunal extinctions followed ancient humans wherever they went](https://twitter.com/JeffVader10/status/1684555073492336640)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2C96RSXkAAeraQ.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2C96RSXkAAeraQ.jpg)