A Significant Step Forward.
A bee and a hummingbird walk into a bar.
1. Drugs that boost our brain’s waste-disposal system so it can better remove proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease have been identified for the first time. The combination of a therapy that is commonly used as a sedative with a medicine that prevents dangerously low blood pressure seems to safely and effectively remove proteins linked to the disease, which could delay its onset by seven years. “This is a significant step forward,” says Shiju Gu at Harvard University, who wasn’t involved in the research. “It could benefit people with neurodegenerative disease, but even for healthy people, maybe you could use it to maximize the function of the brain.” Research paper is here. (Sources: newscientist.com, ranlab.mgh.harvard.edu, medrxiv.org. Italics mine.)
2. For decades, liquefied natural gas acted as the global economy’s reliable escape valve during energy crises, keeping factories humming and homes warm. Now, LNG has become the battlefield itself. The war in Iran has fractured every node of the regional LNG supply chain. Iranian strikes on Qatar, one of the world’s top LNG producers, have damaged its Ras Laffan facility, knocking out some 17% of its capacity for up to five years, and delayed the country’s massive expansion plans. On Tuesday, QatarEnergy declared force majeure on some of its LNG supply contracts, including customers in China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium. Meanwhile, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which usually carries around a fifth of global LNG, is paralyzed. Buyer confidence in Gulf supply has also been undermined. Even if the Trump administration and Iran agree to end the war soon, the consequences for the LNG market will be long-lasting—and even more profound than for oil, experts say. (Source: wsj.com)
3. Standing in front of a crowd of oil-and-gas executives this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright reiterated that the chaos in global energy markets birthed by the U.S.-Iran war would be “short term.” But on the stage and sidelines of a global energy conference in Houston, CEOs painted a much bleaker picture: Financial markets aren’t accurately reflecting the gravity of the crisis, the war is crippling the world’s fuel supplies, and the industry’s Middle East operations are at risk, they said. (Source: wsj.com)
