The Big Picture

How to Build 300k Airplanes in Five Years

“It’s no secret that the Allies won World War II on the back of the U.S.’s enormous industrial output. One of the most important elements in the “Arsenal of Democracy” was aircraft. Over the course of the war the U.S. produced around 325,000 airplanes valued at roughly $46 billion ($800 billion in 2024 dollars). Not only is this more aircraft than what Germany, Japan, and Italy combined produced during the war — it’s also more aircraft than have been built for commercial transport in the entire history of aviation.World War II aircraft production shows that it's possible for a complex manufacturing industry to grow incredibly rapidly. But it also shows the limits of that scale up; that even in an emergency some things can only be accelerated so much, and success depends on what preparations have been taken beforehand." (Construction Physics)

Deep Tech News

• Pentagon: Russia likely launched counter space weapon into low Earth orbit last week
• NASA wants to build a maglev railroad across the Moon
• AI is a black box. Anthropic figured out a way to look inside
• As UK launches semiconductor institute, EU chips get €2.5B boost
• Single brain implant restores bilingual communication to paralyzed man
• Neuralink to test brain implant on second patient
• AI needs enormous computing power. Could light-based chips help?
• SpaceX has grown to 87% of the tonnage to orbit
• First crewed flight of Boeing Starliner postponed again
• Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space after two year hiatus
• Finnish startup gets full funding for world-first fungal protein factory
• The US’s first hydrogen-fueled ship is officially ready to set sail
• VCs and the military are fueling self-driving startups that don’t need roads
• IndieBio’s SF incubator lineup is making some wild biotech promises

JPEG of the Week

This is an operating electric Hall thruster identical to those being used to propel NASA’s Psyche spacecraft on the way to its namesake asteroid. The blue glow comes from the charged atoms, or ions, of xenon.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft passed its six-month checkup with a clean bill of health, and navigators fired up its electric Hall thrusters, which emit a blue glow, as the orbiter zips farther into deep space. They are part of Psyche’s incredibly efficient solar electric propulsion system, which is powered by sunlight. The thrust created by the ionized xenon is gentle, but it does the job. Even in full cruise mode, the pressure exerted by the thrusters is about what you’d feel holding three quarters in your hand. (via NASA)

Peer Review

• Building artificial cells to measure energy flow in living systems
• New crystal production method could enhance quantum computers and electronics
• New catalyst transforms carbon dioxide from industrial emissions into commonly used chemicals
• NASA's 'Wildfire Digital Twin' pioneers new AI models and streaming data techniques for forecasting fire and smoke
• Study reveals promising development in cancer-fighting nanotechnologies
• Can coal mines be tapped for rare earth elements?
• Using DNA origami, researchers create diamond lattice for future semiconductors of visible light
• Researchers develop world's smallest quantum light detector on a silicon chip
• Researchers develop perovskite X-ray detector for medical imaging

Funding x M&A

• Space VC closes $20M Fund II to back frontier tech founders from day zero
• Autonomous shipping startup Orca AI tops up with $23M led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures
• Bedrock Materials secures $9M seed funding, establishes R&D headquarters in Chicago
• Swiss startup creates modular device for on-demand cell therapy manufacturing
• NATO Innovation Fund announces its new investment team
• Ex-Deepmind scientists raise $220m seed round to launch Paris-based “agentic” AI startup H
• Bill Gates-backed wind startup AirLoom is raising $12M, filings reveal
• Atomico’s biotech startup LabGenius raises a £35M Series B
• Remote cancer patient monitoring platform raises $25M to expand internationally and build out pharma offering
• ETF Partners raises €284M for climate startups that will be effective quickly—not 20 years down the road
• Caeli Wind, a platform for analyzing and marketing wind energy locations, raised a $11M round
• Autonomous drone startup Neros raised $10.9M seed round
• Overland AI, an autonomous ground vehicle tech for the defense sector, raised a $10M seed round
• Subeca, a startup providing low cost and easy-to-use water technology, raised a $6M Series A
• AI data foundry Scale AI raised a $1B series F at a $13.8B valuation
• Geothermal energy startup XGS Energy raised a $20M Series A
• Harbinger, an electric truck manufacturer, raised a $13M round
• Aeromine Technologies, a startup developing rooftop wind energy solutions, raised a $9M Series A

Miscellanea

Trying out the Panel-of-Experts prompting strategy for LLMs / University suspends students for AI homework tool it gave them $10,000 prize to make / She sold her bathwater — PayPal took her profits / Scarlett Johansson says that OpenAI approached her to use her voice / Edited highlights from the evisceration of Craig Wright / FBI arrests man for generating AI child sexual abuse imagery / Scientists Confirm Microplastics Now Detected in Human Testicles / China uses giant rail fun to shoot a smart bomb nine miles into the sky / NYPD will deploy drones to respond to 911 calls in 5 NYC precincts, officials say / Swarming Proxima Centauri: Picospacecraft Swarms over Interstellar Distances / Daily cannabis use overtakes drinking in US first / Cement recycling method could help solve one of the biggest climate challenges / Wi-Fi devices set to become object sensors by 2024 via new IEEE standard / Kabosu, the Dog Behind the 'Doge' Meme, Has Died / Imperceptible sensors can be printed directly on human skin / Peeking underground with giant flying antennas / Google AI: People should eat at least one small rock a day