“Somewhere in the northern US, drones fly over a 2,000-acre preserve, protected by a nine-foot fence built to zoo standards. It is off-limits to curious visitors, especially those with a passion for epic fantasies or mythical creatures. The reason for such tight security? Inside the preserve roam three striking snow-white wolves—which a startup called Colossal Biosciences says are members of a species that went extinct 13,000 years ago, now reborn via biotechnology.
For several years now, the Texas-based company has been in the news for its plans to re-create woolly mammoths someday. But now it’s making a bold new claim—that it has actually “de-extincted” an animal called the dire wolf.”
A weekly dispatch featuring exclusive interviews with deep tech founders & a roundup of the most important deep tech news.
- Colorado start-up launches to improve drug discovery chemistry
- DOE allocates first round of HALEU to five U.S. advanced nuclear reactor developers
- AI defense startup Helsing draws fire for tech and tactics
- AI models are helping dirty industries go green
- Congressional biotech commission calls for $15B over 5 years to catch up to China
- Army conducting 3D printing sprint for small drones, eyeing scaling decision
- Marine Corps to field counter-drone systems to dismounted units
- Starlink’s rise in the defense market forces industry to adapt
- AI models can help generate cleaner power
- Space nuclear power poised for breakthroughs — if NASA and DoD stay committed
- Startups are preparing for the launch of space-based solar power
- XL Batteries is using petrochemical infrastructure to store solar and wind power
- Space entrepreneurs sign open letter endorsing Jared Isaacman for NASA role
- How a hydrogen explosion led a teenage founder to become Sequoia’s first defense tech investment
- With new contracts, SpaceX will become the US military’s top launch provider
- Anduril unveils torpedo-launching ‘Copperhead’ underwater drone
Scientists have achieved what was once thought impossible by mapping both the activity and structure of 200,000 cells and their 523 million connections in a cubic millimeter of mouse brain. The project, called MICrONS, involved recording neural activity as mice watched videos, then creating detailed 3D maps of the brain tissue, revealing previously unknown patterns in neural wiring. Researchers are now working toward mapping an entire mouse brain, though mapping the human brain remains a distant goal. (via The New York Times)
- Key neural pain-sensing pathway recreated in a lab dish
- Surgeons can permanently change eye color with experimental keratopigmentation procedure
- Cosmic radio station could probe early universe from far side of the Moon
- New AI tool set to speed quest for advanced superconductors
- Scientists make water-repellent replacement for toxic ‘forever chemicals’
- Nanocarriers breach blood-brain barrier to deliver anti-inflammatory medicine
- An all-sky infrared camera named Dalek continues the search for alien technosignatures
- Scientists discover new way to keep quantum spins coherent longer
- Brain implant ‘streams’ a paralyzed woman’s thoughts in near real time
- Neurona closes a $102M financing for regenerative cell therapy derived from human pluripotent stem cells
- RayThera secures $110M in Series A raise to help it advance a preclinical pipeline of small molecule drugs for immunological diseases
- Aiming for autoimmunity, Merida Bio launches with $121M series A
- Optional switch startup nEye Systems completes $58M Series B financing
- Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines Labs is reportedly aiming for a massive $2B seed round
- Caris Life Sciences, an AI TechBio company and precision medicine provider, raises $168M in private capital
- Aelius Biotech raises further £750K for laboratory gut models
- Insect protein startup Ÿnsect replaces CEO, secures €10M bridge funding
- Brinc Drones, a startup building emergency response drones, just raised $75M led by Index
- Autonomous driving startup Nuro raises $106M at $6B valuation
- Solu Therapeutics closes $41M Series A financing to eliminate disease-driving cells in cancer, immunology, and other therapeutic areas
- Amca launches with $76M to acquire and develop aerospace products
- Early-stage VC Revent closes €100M to back European climate, health and empowerment startups
- Osney Capital closes debut £50M fund for cyber security startups
- Zero Industrial, a development company decarbonizing industrial heat with thermal energy storage, raised a $10M Series A
- German solar energy startup Enpal raised a $121M equity round
- Bio-based materials startup Simplifyber raised a $12M Series A
Lawmakers to weigh permanent daylight saving time / The tricky task of calculating AI’s energy use / Where Does Meaning Live in a Sentence? Math Might Tell Us. / Trump’s Tariffs Wipe Out over $6T on Wall Street in Epic Two-Day Rout / UK Police Arrest 30 People Per Day for Internet Comments / The booming, high-stakes arms race of airline safety videos / Middle-aged man trading cards go viral in rural Japan town / Clean energy powered 40% of global electricity in 2024, report finds / Justice Dept. scales back crypto cases in line with Trump administration memo / Brain Structure That Filters Consciousness Identified / The New King of Tech / FDA plans to phase out animal testing requirements / China Just Turned Off U.S. Supplies Of Minerals Critical For Defense & Cleantech