Making Europe a scientific superpower · Luma The European Union spends more on science funding each year than America’s National Science Foundation. But scientific output in Europe still trails the US…

Another Brussels event by Works In Progress, this time on how to improve science funding.

March 2nd, I highly recommend attending!

luma.com/08rnunqw

At the Nucleic Acid Observatory, we do a *lot* of wastewater metagenomic sequencing—currently ~25B read pairs weekly, soon scaling to 75B.

Both finding suspicious sequences and understanding their genomic context are crucial challenges in our pathogen monitoring. 1/4

Currently reading "The Alchemy of Air" about the invention of the Haber-Bosch process. One note:

Before synthetic ammonia, demand for fertilizer led to several economic mini-booms. E.g., Peru saw rapid growth due to the sale of guano, a potent fertilizer made up of dried bird droppings.

There are still major challenges, especially around labor regulation, corporate governance, and energy.

But I'm optimistic. The fundamentals of Germany are strong, most people want growth, and there is a palpable shift away from post-materialist politics.

Re CDU:
- CDU is becoming more open to debt break reform + they might restart TTIP negotiations (this could work, given USMCA under Trump v1)
- CDU could enter into a coalition with the Greens, who are not as opposed to tax cuts and labor reform as the SPD.

People are very doom-y about Germany's economy.

But I think there will be a reversion to the mean:

- The country always reformed when its economy tanked (e.g., Agenda 2010). Reform will happen again.
- The pro-business CDU will soon govern with a strong mandate.

👋