• village604
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      2 days ago

      There’s been “progress” every few years for decades. Male birth control is basically the medical equivalent of battery technology.

      I’ll believe it when a pill makes it to market.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I mean… you know that you can buy batteries today, and they’re much better than the ones you could buy a decade ago?

        • village604
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          2 days ago

          The point is that on a regular basis there are articles about some amazing new battery breakthrough, but it never leaves the lab.

            • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
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              1 day ago

              Tech illiterate media writing hype articles. Repeats yearly also with flying cars or vacuum tube trains.

            • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Most progress isn’t made in sudden huge jumps, but small incremental improvements.

              When pubsci articles promise a breakthrough, remember:

              • it takes a long time to bring such research to market (think ~decade)
              • most breakthroughs are only applicable to narrow niches or work under specific conditions
              • real-life results will usually be worse than lab results
              • startups have incentives to make their research appear as important as possible

              But instead of waiting for huge breakthroughs, just look at the progress made in commercially available batteries. There have been many improvements in cost & charge density.