Eleni Debo
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This is the first issue of Asterisk, a magazine about the world and what it takes to make sense of it.
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forecast
Modeling the End of Monkeypox
The journalistic and public health response to the US monkeypox outbreak was noisy and contentious. What tools do we have for predicting its spread?
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review
What We Owe The Future
William MacAskill’s latest book presents itself as an introduction to the burgeoning longtermist movement. But his views are eccentric – even within the movement he founded.
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interview
Making Sense of Moral Change
A conversation about abolitionism, moral progress, and the pitfalls of historical counterfactuals.
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interview
How to Prevent the Next Pandemic
Modern technology makes bioterrorism seem increasingly likely. If we can get our act together, there are smart ways to prevent it.
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Over a decade has passed since scientists realized many of their studies were failing to replicate. How well have their attempts to fix the problem actually worked?
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The question of why some countries join the developed world while others remain in poverty has vexed economists for decades. What makes it so hard to answer?
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Wine commands wealth, prestige, and attention from aficionados. How much of what they admire is in their heads?
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China dreams of competing with global superpowers in the semiconductor industry. Whether its efforts will succeed is far from clear.
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How much is enough? It’s the most basic question in the nuclear arms race. For over sixty years, few have asked it, and even fewer have received an answer.
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fiction
They May as Well Grow on Trees
The Future of Genetically Engineered Livestock
01: Inaugural Issue
Asterisk is a quarterly journal of writing and clear thinking about things that matter. We’re for Bayes’ theorem, acknowledging our uncertainty, wild imaginations, and well-constructed sentences. We’re against easy answers, lazy metaphors, and the end of life as we know it.