“Relativity Space said Wednesday that it had received its launch license from U.S. regulators, clearing the way for its first-ever orbital flight attempt on March 8. Relativity will be attempting to send its lightweight rocket Terran 1 to orbit for the first time, in a demonstration mission that will not carry any customer payloads. The company is quick to point out that, at 110-feet tall and 85% 3D-printed by mass, Terran 1 is the largest 3D-printed object to attempt orbital flight and the largest 3D-printed object to exist, period.” (TechCrunch)
Cobalt, a crucial battery material, is suddenly superabundant
“Just a year ago a global crunch in one metal looked likely to single-handedly derail the energy transition. Not only was cobalt, a crucial battery material, being dug up far too slowly to meet soaring demand, but the lion’s share of known reserves sat in Congo, a country rife with instability, corruption and child labour. Fast forward to today and the price of the blue metal, which had more than doubled between summer 2021 and spring 2022, to $82,000 a tonne, has collapsed to $35,000, not far from historic lows.” (Economist)
“For many, the permissibility of lab-grown meat hinges on whether you think the harvesting of stem cells from an animal qualifies as exploitation. The question could be posed like this: Should we assert the rights of a single cow not to have its stem cells harvested above the rights of all the animals who could be emancipated—that is, not slaughtered—by the burgers grown from that cell?” (Wired)
Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing
“In the past year, researchers have teleported energy across microscopic distances in two separate quantum devices, vindicating Hotta’s theory. The research leaves little room for doubt that energy teleportation is a genuine quantum phenomenon. “This really does test it,” said Seth Lloyd, a quantum physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not involved in the research. “You are actually teleporting. You are extracting energy.” (Quanta)
- 5th person confirmed to be cured of HIV after stem cell transplant
- An ‘artificial photosynthesis’ system that is 10x more efficient than existing systems
- Lab-Grown Skin Could Revolutionize Transplants
- Renowned sci-fi magazine closes submissions due to barrage of AI writers
- College deans suspended after ChatGPT used to email students about mass shooting
- US Army Searches For The Silicon Battery Of Its Dreams
- Air taxi rivals Wisk and Archer will enter mediation in March in trade secret theft suit
- Motional opens Las Vegas robotaxi service to nighttime hours
- Google’s Quantum Computer Hits Key Milestone by Reducing Errors
Crypto News
- Japan’s central bank to pilot digital currency starting in April
- The Majority Of Bitcoin Mining Is Fueled By Sustainable Energy
- Nearly $370B in Bitcoin Has Gone ‘Dormant’— Here’s Why
- Coinbase launches blockchain Base to help developers build dApps on-chain
- ‘The Wallet Is The New Cookie’: Salesforce Web3 Lead
- Using light to switch drugs on and off
- Innovative tool for measuring electron dynamics in semiconductors
- Nanoscale, ultra-fast, user-friendly microscopy
- Neuromorphic camera and machine learning aid nanoscopic imaging
- Nanoparticles self-assemble to harvest solar energy
- Robotic bees and roots offer hope of healthier environment and sufficient food
- Electrodes grown in the brain: Paving the way for future therapies for neurological disorders
- ‘Electronic nose’ built with sustainably sourced microbial nanowires could revolutionize health monitoring
- Deepfreeze electronics for supercomputers—technology prepares quantum computing for industrial use
- UK quantum computing startup Quantum Motion raises $50.5M
- Swap’s robotic mowers score $7M in seed funding
- AI-powered crypto search engine Kaito raises $5.3M to improve browsing with AI, ChatGPT
- Chain Reaction, a startup developing semiconductors and related architecture to use in blockchain hardware, raised a $70M Series C
- Transcend Therapeutics, a mental health focused biotechnology company, raised a $40M Series A
- AI-centric greenhouse management startup Source.ag raised a $23M Series A
- Aquafortus, a startup extracting metals / minerals from difficult-to-treat wastewater, raised a $17M Series A
- Future Fields, a startup using fruit flies for recombinant protein production, raised $11.2M
- BioSqueeze, a startup commercializing biomineralization technology designed to eliminate methane emissions from oil and gas wells, raised $7.4M
- Fortem Technologies, an airspace awareness and security startup, raised $17.8M
- Abilita Bio, a biotech startup focused on membrane protein-targeted therapeutics, raised $7.5M
- Azra Games raises another $10M from A16z for Web3 games
- ZK dark pool startup Renegade breaks cover with $3.4M from Dragonfly, Naval Ravikant
- Lemniscap backs $4.6M raise for infrastructure provider Gateway.fm
- Bain Capital Crypto backs gaming firm creating on-chain diplomats with $2.9M
- Binance Labs and Polychain co-lead ZK startup Polyhedra Network’s $10M raise
- 3RM raises $3M to streamline customer relationship building in web3
- Lightspeed leads $6.4M seed round into web3 observability platform
- Kaito AI raises $5.3M to build ChatGPT-powered search engine for crypto
- Blockchain Capital back indexer Superchain’s $4M raise
- Web3 native messaging platform Salsa raised a $2.1M pre-seed
- Chaos Labs, an automated security system for crypto protocols, raised a $20M seed round led by PayPal
- Sentio, an observability platform for decentralized applications, raised $6.4M
- Huma Finance raises $8.3M to enable DeFi borrowing against future income
- Web3 Social Startup Towns Raises $25.5M Led by Andreessen Horowitz
- ConstitutionDAO members raise $2.8M for multi-signature wallet Den
Bitcoin’s Future Depends on a Handful of Mysterious Coders/ How an AI Porn Industry Is Emerging Through Stable Diffusion / Supercomputer warns of a Second Dust Bowl / A Guide to High-Altitude Objects / Wind-Powered Cargo Ships / Spy Balloon Simulator / I Broke into a Bank Account with an AI-Generated Voice / Scientists record first-ever brain waves from freely moving octopuses