The rate at which we are extracting minerals from the earth is growing exponentially, raising the question of whether technology can overcome scarcity ...

The place where e becomes most useful is when it comes to growth, change, and decay. The number e is used as the base of the exponential function.

We just need to keep transmission rates below the tipping point between exponential growth and exponential decay: where every person with Covid-19 infects fewer than one other person, on average.