Aug 23, 2026 · 4 min listen · Last updated August 23, 2026
From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief. Chloe here. August 23rd. Health and longevity in ten — let's begin with what changed my mind this week. Let's get into it. First, from ScienceAlert. Scientists Discover a Bizarre New Way Life Can Make DNA… Without DNA.
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Daily Science Brief · August 23rd
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Scientists Discover a Bizarre New Way Life Can Make DNA… Without DNA
To replicate information, life usually has fairly straightforward ways of doing things. To copy DNA, you generally use DNA as a template. To make RNA, cells generally use DNA as a template, while RNA in turn provides the instructions for making proteins. But now a bacterium has revealed a different path, and it's deeply surprising. In one half of this newly discovered system, a protein acts as a molecular template for building a specific repeating DNA sequence – basically allowing information written in amino acids to determine information written in DNA.
In the past several years the number of Americans ages 16 and over reporting a disability has increased from slightly more than 30,000,000 to more than 37,000,000. (Bureau of Labor Statistics data). That’s an increase of about 23% in five and a half years, or almost 5% per year. The escalating disability numbers appear to be impacting many things in South Dakota. Some local companies have reported significant increases in health insurance premiums.
Something that keeps popping up in my writing is how differently nature handles time and risk compared to how we do. And, in particular, what that mismatch means for us. I thought it’d be useful to pull these pieces from the past couple of years together into one thread1. You don’t need to read all ten pieces. You may have already read them all. If so, thanks for sticking with me! If not, pick and choose what sounds most appealing. A quick note: I’m also unlocking “How nature spreads risk (and we don’t)” today.
No matter our circumstances, temperament or beliefs, there is one desire that all of us share: We want to be happy. We may not agree about what happiness is or where it is to be found, but the longing itself runs through everyone. This desire is normally understood to belong to us as an individual, that it arises in us and that it is ours to satisfy. I would suggest, however, that its origin lies elsewhere. It is the movement of the infinite within the finite, the pull that our true nature exerts upon itself when it has apparently become something less than itself.
The Spell of Authority-Language, Power, Consent and the Fight for Local Sovereignty
Dispatch: geopolitics, etymology, philosophy, social engineering, economics, environment, authority, natural resources, decentralization, centralization, self-empowerment, community. Authority Is a Fiction: Reclaiming Power from Words, Elites and Agenda 2030 Words are extremely powerful, as they can elicit an emotional response in the human mind; it is therefore interesting to analyze a word’s origin (Etymology) and investigate it to overcome its influence on people. Authority itself operates through a hypnotic mechanism, inducing fear and obedience simultaneously.
Italian moto marque launches big US comeback with 5 limited-run bikes
Bimota has never really been in the business of making motorcycles for everybody. Since its birth in 1973, the Italian marque has made a name for itself doing things the unnecessarily complicated way: take a proven engine from somebody else's parts bin, build an outrageously sophisticated chassis around it, drape the whole thing in Italian bodywork, and then make only a handful of them. Category: Motorcycles, Transport
The Psychology Of Loyalty: The Rarest Trait There Is
above all else, i value loyalty. it’s one of those qualities that i value over honesty, kindness, resilience, love and all the rest. the reason is simple. i think loyalty is one of those things that is incredibly rare. i see love all the time. love is something that i won’t say is easy to find, but it is common. i see kindness. i see empathy. i see all sorts of things. it’s also true that the polar opposites of these traits exist at a magnitude that’s equal or even greater than the ones that are good. but the one that i find is disproportionately outweighed is loyalty.
This Once-Daily Pill Helps The Skin Regain Its Color in People With Vitiligo
A once-daily pill has helped restore skin color in some people with vitiligo, a condition that causes white patches to appear on the skin. The development could offer an easier treatment option, particularly for people whose vitiligo affects large or hard-to-reach areas of their body. Unlike creams applied to individual patches, the tablet works throughout the body. Vitiligo develops when the immune system mistakenly attacks the cells that give skin its color. The condition is not contagious, but its visible patches can affect people's daily lives and mental health.
How we found Haida Gwaii's first marbled murrelet nest in more than 30 years
Scrambling through dense salal in the dark, weaving between the majestic western red cedars of northern Haida Gwaii, I could barely imagine where we were just days before—crossing Dixon Entrance off the coast in an open skiff, pushing head-on through ocean swells and salt spray.