Existential Hope Drop #10: Lee Cronin, University of Glasgow
Catalyzing Progress through Chemistry
February 2023
In this Hope Drop we are joined by special guest Lee Cronin. Lee is a Regius Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, with a passion for science and technology since childhood.
What are Lee Cronin's hopes for the future?
Lee Cronin is a Regius Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, with a passion for science and technology since childhood. With a team that has raised over $35M in grants, he's exploring the creation of artificial life forms, searching for alien life, and constructing chemical computers. He's given over 300 international talks and authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers, with recent work published in Nature, Science, and PNAS.
In this episode of the podcast, we sit down with Lee to discuss his groundbreaking work at the forefront of synthetic chemistry. Lee offers us a glimpse into the world of creating new forms of matter and pushing the boundaries of scientific exploration.
Lee speaks on:
The latest advancements in his field and exploring the possibilities for creating entirely new forms of matter.
The cutting-edge of synthetic chemistry, revealing the incredible possibilities that lie ahead for the future of science.
Chemputing - A radical new method of producing drug molecules via a programmable ‘chemputer’
Imagine that we are able to predict and treat all human diseases.
If we have detection systems that can predict if you are at risk of getting cancer or any disease, we would have enough knowledge to be able to intervene. It would be a world where we are able to predict, treat, and understand all human diseases, and where human suffering does not exist anymore.
Such a scenario is the vision of a positive future as envisioned by Lee Cronin, which is the basis for this art piece.
About the art
This piece was created by Aron Mill, using Midjourney, a machine learning model created to produce images from language descriptions. Aron is a researcher at the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED). Through his work he aims to contribute to civilizational resilience against Global Catastrophic Risks. He is interested in flourishing future scenarios in which we have traversed the precipice of existential risks and recently began exploring these themes through art and hopeful narratives.
NEWS FROM THE XHOPE ECOSYSTEM
How can we reinvent our historical city landscapes for a more solarpunk future?
Often when we see visualisations of the future, they can feel quite cold and very far from our current environment. But imaginging the future can also be done by finding ways to reimagine our current spaces.
Roofscapes is a startup working to re-create a historical urban landscape by creating outdoor spaces on the roofs of Paris.
What do you think? Is this how we can create the better cities of tomorrow?
Metaculus is introducing Conditional Pairs
Events don't take place in isolation. Often we want to know the likelihood of an event occurring if another event does.
Prediction platform Metaculus just introduced conditional pairs, a new kind of forecast question that helps you forecast the probability of an event given the outcome of another, bringing greater clarity to the relationship between them.
Conditional pairs are a step toward Metaculus larger goal of empowering forecasters and forecast consumers to quantify and understand the impact of particular events and policy decisions.
Learn more about our work at existentialhope.com.