Incubators and ventilators are invaluable when treating extremely premature infants, but they’re a far cry from the cozy confines of a mother’s womb. In an effort to create an environment that more closely approximates the real thing, researchers have now developed an artificial womb that could dramatically reduce mortality and disease in preemies.

In coming decades, better birth control like long-acting IUDs and implants may make elective abortion virtually obsolete. But for now, unsought pregnancy is still painfully common; over a million American women have an abortion each year.

[Note: This is (roughly) the text of a talk I delivered at TEDxWHU on the 4th February 2017. A video of the talk should be available within a few weeks.]

There is a cave about 350km from here, in the Swabian Jura. It is called the Hohle Fels (this picture is the entrance to it). Archaeologists have been excavating it since the late 1800s and have discovered a number of important artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic era. In June 2005, they announced an interesting discovery.