Where Europe comes to talk about science. Along with @scienceblogs, part of the @science2_0 nonprofit education family. EU Opening M̵a̵r̵c̵h̵ ̵A̵p̵r̵i̵l̵ soon?
This year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences goes to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt. Why?
Because they explained something we often take for granted:
Why the modern world keeps getting richer.
The answer?
Innovation.
Let’s break it down 👇
For most of human history, economic growth was flat.📜 Better tools came and went.
📉 Gains in income vanished in the next famine, war, or plague.
⏳ Progress existed, but it didn’t compound.
Then came something different.
Over the last 200 years, growth didn’t just happen - it sustained.
Year after year.
Decade after decade.
Enough to lift billions out of poverty.
The question is:
Why now?
Why us?
Why did growth suddenly stick?
That’s where this year’s laureates come in.
🧠 Joel Mokyr (historian of ideas).
📈 Philippe Aghion & Peter Howitt (economic theorists).
Each uncovered a different piece of the puzzle:
How innovation became self-reinforcing.
How new ideas sparked lasting prosperity.
📚 Mokyr’s insight:
Progress doesn’t just need invention.
It needs explanation.
In the past, people stumbled onto new techniques - but didn’t know why they worked.
Without a scientific foundation, progress fizzled out.
But once societies embraced science, openness, and curiosity?
Innovation became exponential.
⚙️ Aghion & Howitt’s insight:
They built the modern theory of creative destruction.
When a better product enters the market, old ones fail.
That’s creative - it builds new industries.
That’s destructive - it kills outdated ones.
It’s uncomfortable.
It creates winners and losers.
But it’s also the engine of growth.
Together, their work explains the cycle of innovation:
🧪 New ideas are born
⚔️ Old tech is disrupted
📈 Productivity improves
🔁 And the cycle begins again…
If - and this is key - society allows it.
Because innovation doesn’t just happen.
It can be:
– Blocked by incumbents.
– Crushed by rigid systems.
– Slowed by fear of change.
That’s why the laureates warn:
Growth isn’t guaranteed.
Stagnation is always one bad decision away.
Their message for 2025 is loud and clear:
If we want a better future, we must protect:
✅ Scientific inquiry
✅ Open societies
✅ Competitive markets
✅ Risk-taking and reinvention
That’s how we keep building forward.
This Nobel Prize isn’t about the past.
It’s about the future we still have to build.
🚀 Growth isn’t magic.
🧠 It’s powered by ideas.
🧱 Sustained by science.
⚖️ Protected by good policy.
And without it, we go nowhere.
NASA: We can't make sure there's still no water on Venus right now due to the government shutdown.
Corporate journalists: Republicans set back science by 40 years!
My parent's car is 15 years old, barely 20k km driven, still runs like new.
Engine untouched, PUC perfect. Yet it must be scrapped under govt absurd policy.
After looting 30–40% taxes, they will now seize your car at petrol pumps.
Just to keep middle class under loans forever!
In 2019, the antivaccine movement was still on the left wing in America and Europe led everyone in denial.
The politics of vaccines have changed in the United States but Europe remains the same.
Yesterday, @FBIDetroit arrested a second Chinese national on charges of smuggling biological materials into the U.S. and lying to federal agents.
This individual is Chengxuan Han, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a Ph.D. student in Wuhan, China. Han is the third PRC connected individual charged on similar allegations in recent days.
Han is alleged to have sent four packages to the U.S. from China containing a biological material related to round worms — addressed to individuals associated with a lab at the University of Michigan.
Upon arriving at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on June 8, Han allegedly made false statements to federal officials regarding the packages she had previously mailed — and had erased her electronic device just days prior.
In a follow up interview with FBI and ICE HSI agents, Han admitted to sending the packages and lying about their contents.
This case is part of a broader effort from the FBI and our federal partners to heavily crack down on similar pathogeon smuggling operations, as the CCP works relentlessly to undermine America’s research institutions.
Thank you to our partners @ICEgov@CBP@HSI_HQ.