The promise of synthetic cells
“For over a decade, scientists have made extraordinary progress on the long-held dream of fabricating an entire cell from nonliving molecules and materials. Such synthetic (or “engineered”) cells would behave similarly to the ones in our bodies, though they would also have built-in safeguards that ensure safety and ethics. By studying them, we could transform our understanding of the rules of life. They could also be used to manipulate living organisms and achieve astounding breakthroughs in medicine and science.” (Phys.org)
A weekly dispatch featuring exclusive interviews with deep tech founders & a roundup of the most important deep tech news.
- Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed, astronauts staying on ISS until February
- Test of a prototype quantum internet runs under New York City for half a month
- Chinese scientists use lunar soil to produce water, state media reports
- Whisper Aero is working with NASA to bring its ultra-quiet tech to outer space
- SpaceX Falcon 9 booster ‘tipped over’ into the ocean during landing
- Companies lobby against giving the military the right to repair
- Fermilab is ‘doomed’ without management overhaul claims whistleblower report
- Human brain organoid bioprocessors now available to rent for $500 per month
- Starliner is such a disaster that Boeing may cancel the entire project
- A new wave of underwater comms is coming
- Nuclear reactors a mile underground promise safe, cheap power
- Startups are devising new ways to expand the lithium supply chain
- California legislature passes controversial “kill switch” AI safety bill
- Scientists propose guidelines for solar geoengineering research
- Scientists use evolution to bioengineer new pathways to sustainable energy and pharmaceuticals
- Manipulation of nanolight provides new insight for quantum computing and thermal management
- Manganese nanoparticles can more than double availability of world’s potable water, say scientists
- Catalytic process vaporizes plastic bags and bottles, yielding gases to make new, recycled plastics
- Advances in semiconductor patterning: New block copolymer achieves 7.6 nm line width
- Researchers start first low frequency search for alien technology in distant galaxies
- Superconductivity study confirms existence of edge supercurrents
- Unconventional interface superconductor could benefit quantum computing
- Computer scientists prove that heat destroys quantum entanglement
- AI predicts earthquakes with unprecedented accuracy
- New 3D printing method is simple, sustainable, and reversible
- World-first lung cancer vaccine trials launched across seven countries
- Intuitive Machines wins $116.9M contract for a moon mission in 2027
- Loft Orbital forms joint venture with UAE-based firm to scale satellite production in the Middle East
- Y Combinator backs its first defense startup, Ares Industries
- Germany plans $3.7B program to help decarbonize industry, including carbon storage
- Cancer survivor launches Oncology Ventures to improve care
- OpenAI reportedly in talks to close a new funding round at $100B+ valuation
- Parry Labs raises $80M as defense tech remains on a tear
- Diakonos Oncology closes $11.4M seed financing
- Science-heavy Swiss VC firm Redalpine raises fresh $200M fund for early-stage investments
- Stoke awarded contract to develop space mobility capabilities
- Last Energy nabs $40M to realize vision of super-small nuclear reactors
- Poland earmarks $1.2B to start first nuclear plant
- Codeium, an AI-powered coding assistant startup, raised a $150M Series C at a $1.25B valuation
Telegram CEO Arrested in France / Man Arrested for Creating Child Porn Using AI / This autonomous yacht is a mobile green hydrogen factory / World’s Top Uranium Producer Cuts Output Target for Next Year / Japan’s space agency ends Moon probe operation / The U.S. military’s latest psyop? Advertising on Tinder / NASA’s DART impact permanently changed the shape and orbit of asteroid moon, new study shows / Citizen science project identifies 20 new astronomical discoveries / Starlink’s financial assets frozen in Brazil / Have Swiss scientists made a chocolate breakthrough? / Anthropic publishes the ‘system prompts’ that make Claude tick / Many FDA-approved AI medical devices are not trained on real patient data / Cash for catching scientific errors: bug bounties for academic publishing / How a tiny radio station came to play a continuous loop since the late-1990s / The Mystics of Progress / US dismantles laptop farm used by undercover North Korean IT workers / 100-Plus Tons of Dead Fish Swamp a Greece Port / Robot Metalsmiths Are Resurrecting Toroidal Tanks for NASA / Martin Shkreli must surrender his Wu-Tang album copies / The US Navy Has Run Out of Pants / Independence Day: how Ukraine’s tech sector is fuelling the fight for freedom