Scientific rationalism and technological domination have led us to the brink of climate catastrophe. Unless we embrace a new, incipient ethos that places ecology and care at its core, our civilization will not survive, much less continue to flourish.Enjoy your reading,Aposto editorial team

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The best articles on science at Aposto, curated by our editors.

Aposto Science

Unless we embrace a new, incipient ethos that places ecology and care at its core, our civilization will not survive, much less continue to flourish.

Ecology as New Enlightenment

Hello,In this article, our tech editor İrem Denli discusses the personalised cancer vaccine developed by Merck (MSD) and Moderna with mRNA technology, which was found to be effective in recent experiments.Enjoy your reading,Aposto Editorial Team

We discuss the personalised cancer vaccine developed by Merck (MSD) and Moderna with mRNA technology, which was found to be effective in recent experiments.

Does the cure for cancer lie within mRNA technology?

Hello,In this issue, you can find the article 'Who's Ready to Fight Plastic Pollution' by Olga Speranskaya and Alexandra Caterbow, Co-Directors of Health and Environment Justice Support.Enjoy your reading,Aposto Editorial Team

Article by Olga Speranskaya and Alexandra Caterbow.

Who's Ready to Fight Plastic Pollution?

Hello,In the first issue of Aposto Sports, you can read the article 'Debunking Solar Geoengineering' by Lili Fuhr, Deputy Director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law.Enjoy,Aposto Editorial Team

Article by Lili Fuhr in collaboration with Project Syndicate

Debunking Solar Geoengineering

Teknoloji hakkında yayımlanmış makaleler ve yayınlar

Teknoloji

Bilim hakkında yayımlanan makaleler ve yayınlar

Bilim

By Corine PelluchonPARIS – Enlightenment ideas of scientific rationalism and technological domination have led us to the edge of an abyss. Unless we embrace a new Enlightenment – one that places ecology and care at its core – we will have no way back.The Enlightenment that took root in eighteenth-century Europe cast aside old norms and held out the promise of a limitless future. Individuals came to believe that they were free to take charge of their destinies and emancipate themselves from the bonds of religion, tradition, and nature. Rationality would liberate them from prejudice and scarcity, ushering in a new world of peaceful abundance, equality, and universal human rights.The experience of the twentieth century suggests that this vision, while commendable in many respects, was deeply flawed and bears some responsibility for a train of environmental degradation and industrial-scale murder. And the destructive logic of the false dualism of man and nature continues to threaten our civilization.The new Enlightenment would overcome this dualistic perspective, by bringing about a deep reconsideration of our moral duties to animals and future generations, and transforming how we inhabit the Earth. Instead of thinking of ourselves as separate from nature, we must recognize that we are embedded in it, and that even our most mundane actions have far-reaching consequences.Whatever we eat, wherever we live, however we work – we rely on ecosystems and other living beings. The new Enlightenment would produce a new social contract that reflects an understanding of this dependence, such as by emphasizing the protection of the biosphere and delivering environmental justice for all people and animals.An understanding of our earthly condition – the vulnerability that binds us to other living beings and nature – must be central to the new Enlightenment. Rather than focusing exclusively on human freedom, we must recognize the role that corporeality, passivity, and interdependence play in defining the human condition. Simply put, the new Enlightenment must be based on ecology.Per its Greek etymology, ecology embodies the rationality (logos) of our earthly dwelling (oikos), which is always a cohabitation with others. Ecology can therefore not be reduced only to environmental considerations, like climate change, biodiversity, or pollution. It also has a social dimension, which demands fairness in the distribution of resources and some changes in the modes of production. And it has an existential dimension, as it demands a deep understanding of ourselves and our place in nature.Ecology is incompatible with both our unbridled exploitation of the natural world and our failure to recognize our vulnerability and finitude. When paired with&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationality-instrumental/" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">instrumental rationality</a>, the denial of our mortal and vulnerable condition, together with our obsession with control, turns ordinary practices of life – working, breeding, governing – into forms of warfare. Unless we fully acknowledge our own limits, it will be impossible to constrain our rights so that they are not a license to do whatever we please.Concretely, the new Enlightenment should lead us to rethink agriculture and the role that ordinary workers play in the creation of a more caring society. Since the Enlightenment, human progress has conventionally been reduced to technological innovation and urbanization. The ancient Greek philosophers believed political order originated in the city (polis). Karl Marx disparaged the “idiocy” of rural life in his&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">Communist Manifesto</a>: the proletariat herded history, not sheep. For many other Enlightenment thinkers, too, agricultural workers were a backward class.Today, however, the moral revolution we need may begin in the village or the fields. While many modern farmers are burdened by debt, long hours, and the effects of unsustainable practices, others have broken out of this system and are cultivating new folkways – for example, by&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-015-0749-2" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">replacing</a> monoculture with diversified and ecosystemic agriculture and&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362716117_Transforming_Intensive_Animal_Production_Challenges_and_Opportunities_for_Farm_Animal_Welfare_in_the_European_Union" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">moving</a> from intensive livestock production to on-farm models. They are organizing themselves at the&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_dialogue/@actrav/documents/publication/wcms_113732.pdf" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">local level</a>, selling healthier food, and bringing cooperative ideals to the marketplace. Their efforts have helped to rejuvenate deprived and abandoned regions.Care includes everything we do to maintain and cultivate our world – including all activities that transform rural and peripheral land – so that we can flourish in it. By showing deep care for nature and for others, those who practice sustainable farming embody the values that must underpin the new Enlightenment: humility, conviviality, and solidarity. National governments (and the European Union) should support them, instead of providing massive subsidies to&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://straydoginstitute.org/agricultural-subsidies/" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">industrial farms</a>.These farmers – and all those who nourish hope for a more caring world – are the quiet laborers and unseen vanguard of the new Enlightenment. We need their creativity if we are to survive what many are calling a global “<a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.unicef.org/blog/outlook-2023-tackling-polycrisis" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">polycrisis</a>” – climate change, war, debt defaults, and more – and learn to live well in the twenty-first century.<hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">Corine Pelluchon is Professor of Philosophy at the Université Gustave Eiffel.<hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2023. <a fr-original-style="" href="http://www.project-syndicate.org" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">www.project-syndicate.org</a>

The US-based biotechnology company Moderna, whose name we often heard during the pandemic, came out with some <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11533153/New-paradigm-moment-mRNA-cancer-vaccine-slashes-risk-tumor-relapse-death.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">news</a> that inspired hope in millions.Moderna announced that the 'personalised cancer vaccine' developed with the US-based pharmaceutical company Merck (MSD), when used with an immunotherapy drug, reduces the recurrence rate of the disease and the risk of death in melanoma patients, one of the most dangerous types of skin cancer, by 44% compared to drug use alone. It was stated that the cancer vaccine, developed 'specially' for each patient with the mRNA technology used by Moderna in the coronavirus vaccine, uses genetic code fragments obtained from the tumours of cancer patients and 'trains' the body to fight against cancer.<h3 fr-original-style="" style="margin: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85); font-weight: 500; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">How does it work?</h3>To develop the vaccine, scientists first analysed DNA taken from each patient's cancerous cells through biopsy and identified mutations called neoepitopes in tumour cells. They then identified a few dozen of these neoepitopes that they thought would generate the strongest immune response in a patient, and added 'messenger RNA', or mRNA technology, the molecule that carries the genetic code of these neoepitopes and a cell's instructions to produce proteins, to the vaccine. It was discovered that when mRNA enters the body, the patient's cells are instructed to produce neoepitopes, which triggers an immune response that allows cancer cells to be better targeted and destroyed.<h3 fr-original-style="" style="margin: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85); font-weight: 500; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Tthe testing process</h3>The vaccine was tested on a total of 157 patients with stage 3 and 4 melanoma, the most lethal type, in combination with a course of Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug developed by Merck that releases barriers in the immune system to fight cancer, in nine doses every three weeks. By comparing this group of patients, who received the treatment after their tumours had been surgically removed, with a control group of high-risk melanoma patients who had undergone surgery but only received the immunotherapy Keytruda treatment, it was discovered that the new treatment achieved 44% success rate.Stating that the results are extremely 'encouraging' for cancer treatment, Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said, 'mRNA has been transformative for COVID-19, and now, for the first time ever, we have demonstrated the potential for mRNA to have an impact on outcomes in a randomized clinical trial in melanoma.' Bancel announced plans to test the vaccine on other cancer types with the purpose of offering personalised cancer treatments to cancer patients.&nbsp;<h3 fr-original-style="" style="margin: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85); font-weight: 500; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Obstacles on the road to a cancer vaccine</h3>According to Elias Sayour, a neurosurgeon at the University of Florida who works on cancer vaccines at the RNA Engineering Laboratory, it is theoretically possible for an mRNA manufacturer to produce a personalised cancer vaccine in as little as four weeks. In practice, however, Sayour says, much more mutation detection algorithms and much more testing are needed before mRNA vaccines are ready for routine use in cancers.Sayour underlines that mRNA will probably work better for some cancers than others. Stating that not all cancers are immunogenic, that is, they do not trigger an immune response, Sayour states that it is difficult to know which protein should be encoded in an mRNA vaccine without an immune response.On the other hand, according to Henry Wang, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan who works on vaccine production, the production of the vaccine is a much bigger problem than Sayour emphasises. Producing an mRNA vaccine for cancer is quite different from producing an mRNA vaccine for Covid-19. This raises questions such as how to scale up the production of a drug that requires such careful and detailed customisation, and how to manage the process.Of course, there is also the financial dimension. Although it raises hope that humanity can prevail in the war against cancer, it seems that Moderna's new vaccine may not be accessible to everyone. Similar cancer vaccines currently cost about 100 thousand dollars per dose.

MUNICH/OTTAWA – In late November, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.unep.org/events/conference/inter-governmental-negotiating-committee-meeting-inc-1" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">met for the first time</a>. The INC was established by the United Nations Environment Assembly with a well-defined mission: to create the first-ever legally binding global agreement on plastic pollution. The fact that delegates and observers finally met to have this discussion is welcome. But the meeting results are just the beginning of addressing the scale or scope of the problem.Plastic pollution threatens people’s health and endangers the environment. And plastic causes harm throughout its entire lifecycle, beginning with resource extraction and continuing after disposal.But the problem is not just plastic itself. Plastic contains over <a fr-original-style="" href="https://cen.acs.org/articles/99/i25/Inventory-finds-10000-chemicals-used.html#:~:text=More%20than%2010%2C000%20additives%2C%20processing,used%20in%20plastics%20manufacture%20(Environ." style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">10,000 chemicals</a>, more than a quarter of which are toxic to humans and wildlife. In the absence of a global requirement that companies make known exactly which chemicals are in which plastic materials and goods, what we know about plastic in our lives is dictated by the whims of individual manufacturers and national legislatures. As a result, we are ignorant of the full extent of the problem. No one – from workers facing occupational hazards to parents trying to make healthy choices for their children – has all the information they could and should have.Plastic does not affect everyone equally. Vulnerable groups like low-income families, indigenous communities, and people of color are especially at risk. For example, the vulnerable and disadvantaged are <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/voices-from-the-fenceline/3" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">more likely</a> to live or work near petrochemical manufacturing facilities and refineries, exposing them to air, water, and soil pollution from the toxic chemicals used to manufacture plastic products.This inequality exists within and between countries. Plastic products are often made in developing countries, transported to developed countries, and then <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/recycled-plastic-america-global-crisis" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">returned</a> to developing countries as waste. It is not only the last stage of plastics’ lifecycle that creates pollution and endangers communities. Plastic production itself is hazardous.Consider the textile sector, where workers create clothes from synthetic fibers made of plastics. The workers are largely unaware of the <a fr-original-style="" href="https://greenbusinessbureau.com/industries/fashion/what-is-toxic-fast-fashion-and-how-does-it-impact-the-environment/" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">toxicity of the chemicals</a> they are using while they assemble skirts and shirts for people an ocean away. They do not have all the information they need to understand the risks they are facing from doing their jobs. There is an obvious gendered component to this, too, given that the textile sector in developing countries is <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.fashionrevolution.org/exploitation-or-emancipation-women-workers-in-the-garment-industry/" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">dominated</a> by women.But while people are unfairly and unevenly affected by plastic pollution, the reality is that no one is spared. Plastic pollution does not respect borders. Women everywhere use menstrual products <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.mamavation.com/beauty/pfas-tampons.html" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">containing plastics</a> with chemicals that pose a direct risk to their health. Children all over the world, including in wealthy countries, play with cheap plastic toys containing unknown chemicals.Given the high-stakes challenges facing the first INC, it is disappointing that delegates did not even manage to <a fr-original-style="" href="https://resource-recycling.com/plastics/2022/12/06/stakeholders-react-as-global-plastics-treaty-talks-wrap-up/" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">adopt procedural rules</a>. More substantive negotiations will be delayed until they do.There were some small successes. The presence of observers permitted corridor conversations in which they could help delegates better understand the link between plastic, chemicals, and health. This was reflected in some delegates’ <a fr-original-style="" href="https://enb.iisd.org/plastic-pollution-marine-environment-negotiating-committee-inc1-summary" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">statements</a>, which highlighted the need for transparency on chemicals in plastics.That is not nothing. But it is also not enough.In May 2023, delegates will have another chance. Representatives of governments from around the world will convene in Paris for the INC’s <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.unep.org/events/conference/second-session-intergovernmental-negotiating-committee-develop-international" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">second meeting</a>. Their mission will once again be to work toward a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution.Delegates cannot simply retread the same ground as in November. Delegates will need to demonstrate their governments’ commitment to reducing plastic production. Together, they will need to consider the entire plastic lifecycle and the dangers that it poses to communities, people, and the environment.Perhaps most important, they will need to remember that the point of these meetings is to establish a global, legally binding instrument, not to shrug and sigh and let countries follow mere voluntary guidelines, effectively allowing business as usual to continue.In Paris next year, negotiations on plastic pollution need to be both more efficient and more ambitious. Delegates must act as though they are saving the world. If they get this right, they will be.<hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">Olga Speranskaya is Co-Director of Health and Environment Justice Support. Alexandra Caterbow is Co-Director of Health and Environment Justice Support.<hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2022. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.project-syndicate.org/&source=gmail&ust=1671548582055000&usg=AOvVaw1VvG31cvAZUUkU2sBEvHWI" fr-original-style="" href="https://link.apos.to/c/Vqu4QDDMkmhc?c=_bYmC3TIyJo6RlmEm6QSR&sub=62b033905d379200061d8935&s=web" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; outline: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: auto; box-sizing: border-box;" target="_blank">www.project-syndicate.org</a>

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Ecology as New Enlightenment

Does the cure for cancer lie within mRNA technology?

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