Hey readers, it’s the 34th issue of the White Pill, the world’s most excellent weekly newsletter covering developments in space, energy, engineering, computing, and medicine. We’re happy to be back in your inbox with, as usual, an absolute banger. This week: a way to go over 31 miles a second using a series of orbital slingshot trajectories, video of a comet doing a kamikaze dive into the sun, a neuromorphic supercomputer that runs as fast as the human brain, a rare instance of Eliezer Yudkowsky enjoying AI, the White Pill Investment Index, the first approved CRISPR gene therapy in the US, fun stuff at the end, and lots more in between.

And please don’t forget, White Pill has a Twitter account. Follow, like, share, retweet, even quote tweet if you please.

OK — let’s get to it.

Space

Let’s go to ‘Oumuamua. We could visit the strange interstellar ‘Oumuamua — a comet-like, accelerating object without a visible coma (the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of the comet) that entered our solar system in 2017, and, because of its speed (about 16 mi/s / 26 km/s) will definitely be leaving the solar system, never to return — by using a hardcore combination of gravity assists. Here’s how it would work: our probe launches from Earth, then slingshots around Jupiter to fall straight back to the sun, where it again slingshots, but this time ‘Oumuamua-wards, thereby receiving a “massive velocity boost, up to 50 km/s [31 mi/s],” catching “up to ‘Oumamua around 2050 — well within the lifetime of most people alive today.” LET’S GOOOOO!! (@andercot and @tony873004)

Just a quick aside on Oumuamua’s speed, 16 miles per second (960 mi/m, 57,000 mph and 26 km/s, 1560 km/m, 93,600 km/h). This is like if you were able to get from:

• LAX to downtown LA

• EWR to Manhattan

• SFO to downtown SF

… all in one second (if you took the freeway, not as the crow flies) 🤯. Someone please build this thanks. (@whitepill_pw)

• One more note about ‘Oumuamua. There is good reason to believe it is not shaped like a cigar but a pancake. In fact there are a lot of misconceptions of this this interstellar traveler, and they’re adeptly handled by Jason Wright et. al in this fun analysis.

USG to provide USD to make way more USD in space. DARPA was explicit in its desire to kickstart the lunar economy when it announced that it gave 14 companies awards to develop a “technically rigorous plan for advancing quickly towards our goal: a self-sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure.” “Contributions from these companies” will include “advancement of lunar services in areas such as lunar power; mining and commercial in-situ resource utilization; communications, navigation and timing; transit, mobility and logistics; and construction and robotics.” Companies who received awards include Blue Origin, CisLunar Industries, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, and more.

More detail:

The study will result in the design of system-level solutions that fuse multiple necessary lunar services and deliver a quantitatively defendable analytical framework for future lunar infrastructure that leverages technology overlap between potential services to the maximum extent possible. More than one framework is anticipated. Performers will create new benchmarks and metrics defining performance parameters for each integrated system solution, directly tied to an aggregate “critical mass” for a self-sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure.

The money “is not intended to support human exploration or scientific experimentation that does not have a commercial value.” Can’t complain. Like it in fact. Let’s go DARPA, let’s get the capitalists to the moon! (Space.com)

• As always, please read my now canonical Lunar Operations, in which I lay out concrete plans for how we can start developing a lunar-based economy.

More:

• Concept artist Paul Chadeisson dropped an extremely based and amazing sci-fi short — stills above (someone get this guy a job working on the next Armored Core!). The synopsis: “In a race for domination, the Continental Alliance's ambition leads to the uninhibited exploitation of planet Solstice-5. As they construct unstoppable autonomous factories, the Alliance’s insatiable quest for power leaves behind a forsaken workforce in a world spiraling out of control.” Shoot it straight into my veins. (YouTube)

• NASA released stunning footage of its Orion craft plowing into our atmosphere at 32 times the speed of sound, screencap above.

• Waste some time on “NASA’s Eyes” (probably use laptop, not phone) like I did while procrastinating writing more of this newsletter. It’s basically Google Earth for both our solar system and humanity’s coolest missions, such as Voyager-1. Cruising through the site and its individual scenarios feels very ‘Amazon’s The Expanse.’ Hard to explain, just check it out. Screenshots above.

• Here is a comet doing a kamikaze dive into the sun. This actually happens fairly often, we’re just now starting to capture it on camera more regularly. RIP. (@ExploreCosmos_)

Computing, Engineering, AI, Robotics

Supercomputer mimics the human brain. Researchers in Australia are building a neuromorphic (based on the human brain) supercomputer that when completed, is estimated to be able to handle 228 million operations per second — about the same as a human brain. “Able to process massive amounts of data at high speed, while being much smaller than other supercomputers and consuming much less energy thanks to its spiking neural network approach,” it’s expected to fire up next spring,

In addition to performing an enormous volume of operations, one of the key aspects of this computer (the team building it calls it DeepSouth) is that its efficiency mirrors the human brain's ability to perform complex tasks with relatively low power consumption (around 20 watts). The overarching goal here is to advance our understanding of how the brain computes using neurons and to develop applications for this technology such as in — obviously — large-scale AI applications. (New Atlas)

More:

• In a rare instance of Eliezer Yudkowski being an AI enjoyer, he posted about when he asked an image generator to make a suburban street scene progressively more normal, and 20+ images in, I can tell you, reader, the images are NOT normal. Fascinating, though. (@ESYudkowski)

• Scientists have created a new material that could be as hard as diamond. It’s a tougher form of boron nitride, already the world’s second hardest known material. This improved strength could be used on coatings for everything from cars to spaceships. Perhaps a space elevator, even? (Science Daily)

• Tesla unveiled the second generation of its humanoid robot Optimus with a demo showing, among other things, its “brand new hands” and ability to do squats. Thank you Elon, very cool! (@Tesla_Optimus)

The White Pill Investment Index

The White Pill Investment Index tracks investments in companies developing interesting, exciting, forward-thinking products. Deals are sourced using a combination of Pitchbook and reach outs to each company.

• Autonomous forklifts — Cyngn, a company developing autonomous industrial vehicles such as forklifts (this video of the forklift moving pallets without a human in the seat is a white pill), raises $1.72 million in its second public offering on the Nasdaq

• Early heart attack detection — RCE, a company developing a transdermal monitor that can measure levels of the Troponin protein to allow doctors to assess cardiac risk levels when patients complain of chest pain, raises $1.73 million of venture funding from Healthcare Innovation Pitch

• Voice cloning for creators — Respeecher, a platform that allows creators and film producers to change their voice to a different language or accent (it can be used to localize video content for a foreign market, for example), raises $1.90 million of venture funding from undisclosed investors

• Cleanliness monitoring for cities — Cortexia, a company developing infrastructure that allows city governments to use cameras installed on vehicles to monitor the cleanliness of city streets and parks (they say their system can detect a single cigarette butt), raises $2.72 million of venture funding from Remondis Digital Services, Bloomhaus Ventures and Spicehaus Partners

• Quadcopter for humans — Doroni, a company developing the 23-foot-long H1 personal flying vehicle (it’s designed for commuting, and has a short 60-mile range), raises $2.86 million of a targeted $5 million of equity crowdfunding via StartEngine

• Preventative health membership — Everlab, an Australian startup that offers a “health and longevity program” that continually identifies health risks using a comprehensive assessment that involves bloodwork, radiology, and sleep tracking, raises a $3 pre-seed funding led by b2venture and other investors

• Nuclear propulsion for space — Helicity Space, a company developing fusion-burst engines to power deep space exploration (the fusion process produces ten million times more energy per unit mass of fuel compared to conventional methods), raises a $5 million Seed from Airbus Ventures, TRE Ventures and Gaingels

• Manicure robot — Clockwork, a company building robots that can offer ten-minute, $10 manicures (they’re in 8 locations across the US so far), raises $6.31 million of equity crowdfunding via Wefunder

• Plastic made from seaweed — Sway, a company that makes home-compostable plastic from seaweed (it can break down within 1-2 months of composting), raises $7.02 million of venture funding from undisclosed investors

• On-demand space telescope network — OurSky, a company that employs a distributed network of space telescopes that can be used by researchers, companies and governments, raises $9.5 million through a combination of Seed 1, Seed 2 and Seed 3 funding in a deal led by Upfront Ventures

• Whole genome analysis for embryos — Orchid Health, a company that can sequence 99% of an embryo’s DNA to screen for neurodevelopmental disorders and other abnormalities (it can do this all from a saliva sample from each parent), raises $12 million of venture funding from Prometheus Health Partners, Refactor Capital and Anne Wojcicki, and others

• Collision prevention for satellites — NorthStar Earth & Space, a company “building the world’s first satellite constellation to combat the imminent threat of space collisions,” raises a $14.92 Series D from Investissement Québec, Luxembourg Future Fund and Telesystem Space

• Hypersonic jets — Destinus, a Switzerland-based company developing a hydrogen-fueled hypersonic jet (they say it will be able to fly from Memphis to Tokyo in just over 3 hours), raises $55 million of venture funding in the form of convertible note from Soma Capital, Cornelius Boersch and AA Sons

• Using extra energy for AI compute — Crusoe, a company that is building compute centers near wind farms and other energy sources in order to tap unused electricity to power their GPUs, raises $143.65 million of venture funding from undisclosed investors

Medicine

MAKE. IT. SO. A team out of Harvard Medical School is developing a new technique using 3D printing and ultrasound that can repair and rebuild tissues in vivo. Repairing organs and tissues without the need for invasive surgery is a step towards the Star Trek-like medical techniques of just waving a device over the patient and healing them. Seriously! Just read Singularity' Hub’s description of the team’s demo on a chicken leg:

A robot arm swerved over, scanned the breakage, and carefully injected a liquid cocktail of ingredients into the crack, including some isolated from seaweed. With several pulses of ultrasound, the liquid hardened into a bone-like material and sealed the fracture.

In another proof-of-concept, the researchers injected “sono-ink” into a goat heart that was affected by a condition the analog of which would require open-heart surgery in humans. The “ink” was a blend of molecules that react to ultrasound waves, which cause it to transform into a gel-like material. When exposed to ultrasound, certain components in the sono-ink heated up and solidified, while others absorbed the sound waves, facilitating the change, all of which made it self-propelling: the ultrasound triggered a chemical reaction that generated heat that was absorbed by the gel, thus accelerating the cycle. The precision, aided by a robotic arm, was precise, too: they can already get down to a resolution of about a millimeter.

The result? “After a few blasts of ultrasound [to the goat heart], the resulting patch gelled and meshed seamlessly with surrounding heart tissue, essentially becoming a biocompatible, stretchable bandage.” (Singularity Hub)

The first CRISPER gene therapy approved in the US. CRISPR is like a very precise pair of molecular scissors that allows scientists to make specific changes to the DNA in cells of living organisms, including humans. Using it, they can can remove, add, or replace DNA pieces; it's like rewriting a sentence in a book to correct a typo or change its meaning.

Now, hot on the heels of approval in Britain, America’s FDA has just approved its first CRISPR therapy. It’s designed to treat sickle cell disease, which is caused by a single, specific change in the DNA of red blood cells. This change makes the cells form into a sickle shape, which can cause anemia, periodic episodes of intense pain, vision problems, swelling of the hands and feet, and more.

Writing for MIT Technology Review, Jimi Olaghere, who has already received the therapy in a clinical trial, says that it’s completely transformed his life.

I started to experience things I had only dreamed of: boundless energy and the ability to recover by merely sleeping. My physical symptoms—including a yellowish tint in my eyes caused by the rapid breakdown of malfunctioning red blood cells—virtually disappeared overnight. Most significantly, I gained the confidence that sickle-cell disease won’t take me away from my family, and a sense of control over my own destiny.

(Ars Technica)

More:

• A new treatment for severe asthma shows 92% effectiveness in controlling it. It involves replacing potentially dangerous high dose steroids with a monoclonal antibody that reduces the amount of a type of immune cell overproduced in those with severe asthma. (Science Alert)

• DNA nanomachines created from snippets of DNA are now able to build copies of themselves, potentially leading to nanotech that builds drugs inside our bodies. 👀 (New Scientist)

• A new cancer drug combo has shown significant improvement treating adult leukemia, with 95% of patients still in remission three years after starting the treatment — a very significant improvement over current outcomes. (Science Daily)

Finally, the fun stuff

• New trailer for Dune 2 dropped this week, watch it. In theaters March 1, 2024.

• In modern Africa, herbivores prefer grazing in places where Iron Age humans and their domestic flocks and herds once lived. These places are nutrient hot spots, enriched by manure and human garbage, resulting in a greater diversity of grasses and a higher concentration of nutrients. (Science)

Touch grass this weekend.

-Brandon Gorrell