The Big Picture

PAPERS AND PATENTS ARE BECOMING LESS DISRUPTIVE OVER TIME

“The number of science and technology research papers published has skyrocketed over the past few decades — but the ‘disruptiveness’ of those papers has dropped. Data from millions of manuscripts show that, compared with the mid-twentieth century, research done in the 2000s was much more likely to incrementally push science forward than to veer off in a new direction and render previous work obsolete. Analysis of patents from 1976 to 2010 showed the same trend. (Nature)

L3HARRIS BUYS AEROJET ROCKETDYNE IN $4.7B DEAL

“Based in El Segundo, California, Aerojet makes a range of rockets, including hypersonic engines and electric power systems…Aerojet agreed in December 2020 to be bought by Lockheed Martin Corp. [but] that deal was terminated after the Federal Trade Commission moved to block it on antitrust grounds. The deal would follow L3Harris’s agreement in October to buy Viasat Inc.’s tactical data links division, which was seen as helping compete with larger Pentagon suppliers such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.” (Bloomberg)

CRYPTOSAT LAUNCHES 2ND SATELLITE IN LOW EARTH ORBIT

Cryposat has launched the second of its isolated computational environments, a CubeSat named Crypto2, into low Earth orbit. The small satellite is no larger than a mug, but boasts 30 times more computational power than the company’s first satellite that launched in May 2022. Cryptosat aims to improve cryptographic security for sensitive operations by isolating computational environments in orbit where they cannot be so easily targeted.(The Block)

CHINESE RESEARCHERS CLAIM TO FIND WAY TO BREAK ENCRYPTION USING QUANTUM COMPUTERS

“The method, outlined in a scientific paper published in late December, could be used to break the RSA algorithm that underpins most online encryption using a quantum machine with only 372 qubits — or quantum bits. “As far as I can tell, the paper isn’t wrong,” said Peter Shor. He added, however, that the Chinese researchers had “failed to address how fast the algorithm will run”, and said that it was possible it “will still take millions of years.” (Financial Times)