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Sep 16, 2023 • 5 min read

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Nigeria Power Grid Blackout:

After celebrating 400 consecutive days without a major blackout, Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, faced a nationwide power outage. The blackout was caused by a fire on a vital transmission line connecting the Kainji and Jebba power plants. Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu has stated that the situation is being addressed and over half the connections have been restored.
Despite its stature as a major oil and gas player, Nigeria often contends with an unreliable power grid. This inconsistency has led many households and businesses to depend on diesel and petrol generators. This reliance becomes particularly burdensome for sectors like tech, especially after a recent removal of fuel subsidy.
Previous year records indicate multiple grid failures due to technical issues. While Nigeria claims 12,500 MW of installed capacity, it produces only around a quarter of that. The extensive blackout came as a surprise even to Lagos residents who regularly experience power cuts. Efforts are in progress to restore power across the country.

Auto Industry Strike:

On Friday, the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents a 145,000 workforce across General Motors (GM), Ford, and Stellantis (previously Chrysler), initiated a targeted strike. The strike involved only a segment of their membership, specifically 12,700 workers from select factories.
The union, which renegotiates its contracts every 4.5 years, sought substantial benefits and a 40% wage increase over a four-year period. However, the automakers' counterproposal fell short of these demands. The UAW president believes this selective strike tactic will amplify their bargaining power.

Microsoft Protein AI:

Microsoft has released EvoDiff, an open-source AI tool capable of generating proteins. Unlike other similar tools, EvoDiff can produce proteins without needing detailed structural data. The software is poised to accelerate the creation of new enzymes for therapeutics and industrial uses.
EvoDiff utilizes a large-scale AI model, trained with diverse protein data, to function. It's a diffusion model similar to those used for image generation. The model can design proteins by focusing on their sequence, even creating "disordered proteins" without a fixed 3D structure. The team behind EvoDiff plans to test the model's generated proteins for feasibility.
EvoDiff operates by gradually refining a "noisy" starting protein until it forms a viable protein sequence. The tool's potential is significant; for instance, given a segment of a protein, it can craft an entire amino acid sequence around it based on a certain criteria. Although promising, the research supporting EvoDiff hasn't undergone peer review yet, and further refinement is needed before its widespread commercial use.

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