I heard from a science journalist friend of a friend that the genetic medicine is going to be very exciting with the further development of single-cell RNA sequencing. To put it incredibly crudely, DNA is the blueprint for an organism and it's the same in all cells. RNA is the expression of the DNA in a particular cell and shows you what that cell is doing, and with which genes.
Imagine the difference between diagnosing a genetic issue when you have information true for all cells versus knowing about the action of a particular cell of interest.
When applied to the brain it's possible we might have biological descriptions of conditions previously only psychologically identifiable.
Recently I was pointed to this story about an older man who (for 20 years or so) has been training puppies to be service animals which are donated to those in need of service dogs but can’t afford them.
Part of this training involves taking the puppies to elementary schools for socialization. The kids love seeing the puppies, the dog learns, and the trainer loves what he’s doing.
He spends about a year with the dogs then they are given up. He spends his own money and time raising and training these dogs.
Related: was talking with a neighbor about this story and we both agreed that it would be nice if we saw more of this in papers and local news instead of all the negativity.
I honestly believe there is more good news than bad, it's just that people and news organizations have a negativity bias.
For an example of some of the big ones from 2023: the amount of renewable energy that is being installed each year, the growth rate in adoption of electric cars, record low teen pregnancies, and a record low unemployment rate.
