Scientists are discovering a powerful new way to prevent cancer
“In the past few years scientists have been finding something surprising—so-called cancer-driver mutations are also common in healthy tissue…When a person is middle aged more than half the surface of the oesophagus and nearly 10% of the lining of the stomach is covered by cells with cancer-driver mutations…It seems that cells with faulty DNA can be prevented from growing into full-blown cancers through the activity of healthy cells around them with beneficial mutations in their DNA. Encouraging those healthy cells to grow could become an effective strategy for stopping cancer…These discoveries suggest that new cancer-preventing drugs might help the body better limit the harm done by its own immune system.” (via The Economist)
A weekly dispatch featuring exclusive interviews with deep tech founders & a roundup of the most important deep tech news.
- First gene-edited pig liver transplanted into a living person
- Metal-organic frameworks win the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry
- The AI boom has a copper problem. Are microbes the solution?
- Inversion unveils Arc spacecraft for rapid space-based delivery and hypersonic testing
- Qunnect announces Air Force contract for quantum networking over conventional fiber
- One startup’s paper-thin stainless steel could change how bridges are built
- Inside Intel’s Hail Mary to reclaim chip dominance
- Plan to reflect sunlight to power solar panels at night upsets astronomers
- The US is set to cancel funding for two major direct-air-capture plants
- SpaceX wins the bulk of Space Force’s 2026 launch contracts
- Turning ocean carbon into biodegradable plastic
- China tightens export controls on rare-earth minerals once again
- Firefly to acquire defense contractor SciTec in $855M deal
- Inside Trump’s foray into mineral ownership
- Quantum tunneling trio win the 2025 physics Nobel
- Intel unveils new processor powered by its 18A semiconductor tech
- SoftBank to buy ABB’s robotics business in $5.4B deal
- Noncontact motion sensor brings precision to manufacturing
iRonCub is a robot project that has been running out of Italian scientist Daniele Pucci’s lab for several years. For the past decade, Pucci and his team have been working tirelessly on a jet-propulsion system that looks like it’s straight out of Tony Stark’s lab. This summer, Pucci finally unveiled the promise of flying humanoid robots through the iRonCub3 — a robot approximately the size and shape of a five-year-old child. He hopes that this robot–jet system can be deployed in disaster response scenarios such as floods or fires, where it’s difficult for human responders to reach victims. (via IEEE Spectrum)
- Tumbleweed rover tests demonstrate technology for low-cost Mars exploration
- Ultra-thin sodium films offer low-cost alternative to gold and silver in optical technologies
- Molecular coating cleans up noisy quantum light
- Researchers develop the first miniaturized ultraviolet spectrometer chip
- Chip-based phonon splitter brings hybrid quantum networks closer to reality
- Harnessing GeSn semiconductors for tomorrow’s quantum world
- Quantum uncertainty captured in real time using femtosecond light pulses
- DNA nanospring that measures cellular motor power could yield improved disease diagnosis
- Polymer scaffold can self-assemble in tissue to deliver multiple vaccine components over time
- Physicists improve precision of atomic clocks by reducing quantum noise
- Open source mega-constellations could solve overcrowding
- Visible light powers molecular motors, easing key barrier
- Base Power raises $1B to deploy home batteries everywhere
- Reflection raises $2B to be America’s open frontier AI lab, challenging DeepSeek
- Meanwhile raises $82M to scale Bitcoin-based life insurance and retirement products
- A 19-year-old nabs $2.6M in seed funding from Google execs for his AI memory startup, Supermemory
- Sugar Free Capital raises $32M inaugural fund to back early-stage MIT founders
- New deep tech fund Wave Function Ventures raises $15M
- Stoke Space raises $510M to develop a fully reusable launch vehicle
- Expedition Therapeutics, a biotech company scouring China for drug candidates, raises $165M
- Former Moderna leaders raise $325M for biotech venture firm Ascenta Capital
- Blackstone billionaire James’ family office starts biotech fund
- Mark Alles’ biotech gets $96M for ADCs from UCLA lab
- Trogenix raises $95M Series A as brain cancer program nears clinic
- Soufflé Therapeutics, co-founded by Bob Langer, launches with $200M
Media trust hits new low across the political spectrum / Divorce plunged in Kentucky. Equal custody for fathers is a big reason why / Amazon is digitally erasing guns from James Bond posters / Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society / The death of industrial design and the era of dull electronics / ‘Obedient, yielding and happy to follow’: the troubling rise of AI girlfriends / How the US got left behind in the electric car race / Gold prices top $4K for first time / The murky economics of the data-centre investment boom / Qualcomm to acquire Arduino / Starlink is burning up one or two satellites a day in Earth’s atmosphere / Man gets drunk, wakes up with a medical mystery that nearly kills him / California biotech tycoon found guilty of orchestrating rival’s murder / National security threatened by climate crisis, UK intelligence chiefs due to warn / The world’s biggest citizen science project / Geothermal firm sues to remove a Nevada toad from ESA list / The real space war is being fought in cyberspace / North Korean hackers stole over $2B in crypto so far in 2025, researchers say / A study of more than 250 platforms reveals why most fail / When AI agents do the shopping: insights from 100 conversations with ChatGPT Agent mode