Techno-Optimist #14
Black hole jets influence the cosmic web, a nuclear renaissance, look up to see a new (very old) comet, CERN may have found an anomaly in physics, type 1 diabetes reversed...and a lot more!
Welcome to the fourteenth edition of Techno-Optimist, your destination for all the latest updates and commentary on space, science, technology, medicine, energy, AI, and much more. To the 60 new readers since last time, welcome aboard.
That sponsored post I mentioned last time isn’t quite ready yet, still working out a few details with the company. But I might publish it next Saturday, Oct 12th, so stay tuned. Otherwise, it’ll just be your regularly scheduled newsletter two weeks from now.
Alright, let’s dive in.
Arthur C. Clarke's Three Laws:
1) "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
2) "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."
3) "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Black hole jets and the cosmic web + further fresh insights from the depths of black holes. Astronomers have found a supermassive black hole “blasting out the largest and longest jets of hot plasma ever observed,” with a power output equivalent to trillions of suns. 23 million light years in length, it’s roughly 140x the width of our own galaxy. Jets from the black hole (nicknamed Porphyrion after a giant of Greek mythology) are actually spewing matter and magnetic fields so far they’re influencing the cosmic web, which is the largest scale structure of the universe itself. The team will search for even bigger jets now, and try to answer questions like “how the jets can extend so far beyond their host galaxies without destabilizing.” It also makes one wonder if this is more common than previously thought, whether some of this material could be the dark matter we’re searching for? (Keck Observatory) (@ErikWernquist)
In other black hole news, it appears that a jet from another black hole is increasing the rate of novas (not supernovas) by about 2.5x, though there’s no solid explanations for how it’s doing this. The strangest part? It’s only one of the jets that’s having this effect, not both. Even cooler, this supermassive black hole—M87—was the first ever imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope back in 2017. (NASA)
Lastly, MIT researchers have proposed a theory that “tiny primordial black holes, potentially making up dark matter, may pass through our solar system once every decade.” Usually when I see things like this, I think “cool idea, but so what?” However, this one is actually testable, which makes it worth taking some notice. Smaller than a stellar mass black hole, these primordial black holes might cause the orbits of planets in our solar system to wobble slightly, making their passage detectable. (@ExploreCosmos_)
Nuclear rides again. Nuclear power plants—perhaps better called radioisotope thermal generators—seem to be making a comeback. Which is wonderful, it’s just something I never thought that the bureaucrats and activists would allow. But it seems like they’re being dragged—some kicking and screaming—into reality, which reality dictates that we are going to need massive amounts of safe new reliable energy (i.e., not renewables) to keep our civilization moving forward, to lift the remaining billions out of energy poverty, and to power the insatiable demands of AI datacenters.
Headlining the resurgence is the news that Three Mile Island’s reactor 1 (decommissioned in 2019) will reopen by 2028, selling electricity to Microsoft in a 20 year contract at prices of at least $100/MWh. These high prices are worth it to Microsoft, who needs guaranteed, reliable power for its datacenters—and to meet its clean energy goals. Not to be completely outdone by private industry, the Department of Energy’s nuclear division just released a new report. Titled Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear, it make the case that nuclear is the way forward for abundant, clean, reliable energy. Honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air from what’s often a stifling bureaucracy.
It's not just government either, with 14 of the biggest banks in the world—including BofA, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman—recently pledging support for tripling nuclear capacity globally by 2050. Funding nuclear power plants (radioisotope thermal generators) has often been difficult due to the long build time and high up front costs, so this financing will be vital if the goal is tripling the amount of energy we get from nuclear.
There’s also a flurry of new reactors being announced, a few of which you can read about here, here, here, and here. (@energybants) (Mark Nelson) (Financial Times)
Galactic and intergalactic maps. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope, astronomers have created the most detailed ever map of the Milky Way, covering more than 1.5 billion objects. “We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,” said project lead Dante Minniti. The map is comprised of 200,000 images, covering an area of the sky far larger than any previous study. (ESO)
Stepping out to a larger scale, an international collaboration of astronomers has mapped the locations of over 1 million galaxies with a relative prevision of 0.3%, more accurately than before. (Phys.org)
Scaling up even more, researchers have mapped out gravitational “basins of attraction” in the nearby universe by compiling the distance and velocity of about 56,000 galaxies—nearby in this case meaning several hundred million light years. (SciTechDaily)
China update. Why do I talk so much about China? First, because a lot of what they’re doing technologically is genuinely impressive and therefore deserves to be in here. But also because I hope it motivates us here in the west (and America particularly) to do better. Lastly, because it's a threat. We do not want to cede the technological lead to China. Doing so will ultimately surrender the helm of civilization to them, allowing China to take it in a direction that best suits them. Which will not be a direction that maximizes freedom. That said, here’s some really cool stuff they’re working on!
Chinese company Deep Blue just did a spectacular vertical take off, landing, and explosion with their Nebula-1 vehicle. The drone footage is extraordinary, seriously worth watching. Very reminiscent of something SpaceX would do. (@AJ_FI)
China also just revealed a promo video for their new lunar EVA suit. They’re aiming to land humans on the Moon before 2030, probably in 2029. (@AJ_FI)
Not slowing down when it comes to astronomy either, China “plans to expand its gigantic 500-meter-diameter (1640 ft diameter) FAST radio telescope by adding 24 smaller telescopes with a diameter of 40 meters (131 feet) in the area surrounding FAST, taking advantage of the area's quiet electromagnetic environment.” Construction has already started, with the expansion expected to allow fresh insights into the radio wavelengths of the universe. (@AJ_FI) (Space.com)
Space
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3) is passing behind the Sun right now, and should reemerge for viewing on October 10th. It could be incredibly bright, easily visible to the naked eye, as it makes its closest approach to Earth on October 12th, when it’s expected to hit peak brightness. It should be visible just after sunset in the northern hemisphere for about two weeks. Make sure you catch it, because it won’t be back for another 80,000 years. Check out some other sky maps here. (Spaceweather) (Forbes)
Earth may have had a ring system 466 million years ago, during the Ordovician Period—a time when all animal life was still confined to the oceans, and the land populated only by plants. The smoking gun was a series of 21 asteroid impact sites, all “located within 30 degrees of the equator, despite more than 70% of Earth's continental crust being outside this region.” Researchers believe this pattern was caused by an asteroid that passed inside Earth’s Roche limit, breaking apart and forming an equatorial ring around the planet, large pieces of which eventually fell from orbit and caused the impact pattern observed. (ExploreCosmos_) (Phys.org)
A new mission to study Neptune and its largest moon Triton has been proposed. Dubbed the Arcanum mission, it consists of multiple parts, together “designed to orbit Neptune and land on Triton, giving insight into both objects of interest in the system.” At the moment Arcanum has no space agency backing it, but I would love to see this—or something like it—take flight in the next few years. Some interesting news about Triton that makes a near term mission even more important is that shortly after its capture, tidal heating from Neptune likely caused it “heating rates orders of magnitude greater even than present-day Io.” The result would have been that Triton very likely had a thick atmosphere and warm ocean. It’s thought the moon still has a liquid ocean beneath an icy surface, could there be life down there? (Phys.org) (Astrobiology via @coreyspowell)
During its mission back in late 2022, the Artemis 1 mission made detailed measurements of radiation dosage while passing through the Van Allen belt. The newly published findings included that the capsule’s shielding “reduced radiation by up to 4x,” and that “a 90-degree turn during Orion’s flyby of the inner Van Allen belt reduced radiation exposure by 50%, offering key insights for future mission design.” It’s also good news Because the belt has “radiation characteristics similar to a solar flare,” meaning that crews should be safe in case one occurs. (@DrPhiltill) (Nature via @esaspaceflight)
India space updates: India has big ambitions in space, and though it lags behind China and the U.S., it’s making steady progress in the right direction. The Indian government has just approved “a number of major space projects,” including a lunar sample return mission, space station, a Venus orbiter, and the development of a reusable rocket. None of this is immediate, with timelines ranging from 2028 – 2040, but it’s nice to see. (SpaceNews) (@samirsinh189)
A new gravity study shows hidden structures on Mars, improving our understanding of the planet. “The density map shows that the northern polar features are approximately 300-400 kg/m3 denser than their surroundings. However, the study also revealed new insights into the structures underlying the huge volcanic region of Tharsis Rise, which includes the colossal volcano, Olympus Mons.” The huge magma plume underlying Olympus Mons found by the study could mean that the volcano isn’t actually dead, but might erupt again in the future. (Europlanet Society via @coreyspowell) (Space.com)
NASA’s SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) has detected water molecules “distributed across the Moon’s surface.” Previously it was thought that lunar water was limited to permanently shadowed craters, mostly near the poles. These more widespread water molecules may be “trapped within mineral grains or formed through interactions with the solar wind.” This could definitely make development on the Moon a lot easier. (@ExploreCosmos_) (Science Alert)
On September 29th, Earth acquired a second “mini” moon. It’s just temporarily captured asteroid (2024 PT5), and will only remain under Earth’s gravitational influence for a couple of months before heading back out deeper into space. This won’t be the last time we see it though, it will become a temporary second moon to us again in 2055. (Future Timeline) (Space.com)
SpaceX really is the safest way to fly if you’re going to space. In addition to its 4 parachutes, the Crew Dragon can also land propulsively using its engines if somehow the parachutes failed. It’s always good to have a backup. (@KenKirtland17)
A new type of Kevlar is being sent up to the International Space Station for testing. This material doesn’t stop bullets from a gun, but rather “cosmic” bullets, debris natural or man-made that could cause damage to the space station. The new version is 40% lighter than previous makes, while being just as tough. This sort of material is vital for protecting satellites and of course humans—something that will grow even more important as we venture out further and more frequently from Earth. (Space.com)
AI, Energy, Engineering, & Physics
Scientists have inscribed a special memory crystal with a full human genome, and placed it in the Memory of Mankind archive, inside a salt cave in Austria. The crystal is made of fused quartz—and can hold terabits of information, “withstand the high and low extremes of freezing, fire and temperatures of up to 1000 °C…withstand direct impact force of up to 10 ton per cm2 and is unchanged by long exposure to cosmic radiation.” The idea is that it could provide a blueprint to allow aliens to revive humanity in the future should we become extinct. Perhaps more likely, “the technology could also be used to create an enduring record of the genomes of endangered plant and animal species faced with extinction.” (Astrobiology via @coreyspowell)
Researchers at CERN have observed an extremely rare particle decay that doesn’t match up with the Standard Model of particle physics. The experiment observed the decay of charged kaons (also called K mesons), which are particles that contain only two quarks, instead of the usual three like protons and neutrons. These charged kaons (K+) are expected to “decay into a charged pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair (K+ → π+νṽ)” less than 1 in 10 billion times according to the Standard Model. Instead, observations found that it occurred about 1.3 times in 10 billion—seemingly not much, but a significant enough discrepancy that it needs explaining. It’s early yet, but possibilities include a new particle, or even new physics beyond the Standard Model. (IFL Science) (CERN EP Seminar)
Swiss engineers have built a crazy robotic hand that’s capable of dethatching from its arm, crawling over to an object and picking it up, then reattaching to the arm. It’s cool, maybe a tiny bit creepy, and potentially adds another useful skill to the burgeoning field of robotics. (TechCrunch)
AI is driving innovation independently, with Google’s DeepMind AI designing its own chips. AlphaChip is able to generate “superhuman or comparable chip layouts in hours, rather than taking weeks or months of human effort, and its layouts are used in chips all over the world, from data centers to mobile phones.” Yes, you read that correctly, this isn’t new (though a new paper was just published), and has actually been in use since 2020. The company says that “Future versions of AlphaChip are now in development and we look forward to working with the community to continue revolutionizing this area and bring about a future in which chips are even faster, cheaper and more power-efficient.” (Google DeepMind)
New cement inspired by the structure of human bones is 5.6x stronger, and also far tougher, than conventional cement. It’s another great example of technology imitating nature, where engineers were inspired by cortical bone in the body, which “consists of elliptical tubular components known as osteons, embedded weakly in an organic matrix. This unique architecture deflects cracks around osteons. This prevents abrupt failure and increases overall resistance to crack propagation.” (Interesting Engineering)
While I don’t mention EVs and batteries much, sometimes an advance catches my eye. Panasonic Energy says that it’s developed an EV battery with 500% more power that would significantly boost vehicle range. Their 4680 batteries aren’t just on the drawing board either, and are set to begin production in the spring of 2025 at their Wakayama factory in Japan. (Interesting Engineering)
Boston company Jura Bio just announced that they’ve taken protein design and manufacturing via AI to the next level. Instead of ‘just’ creating new proteins in silico, they do it in the test tube, translating “quadrillions of designed and generated antibody sequences” into the physical world, while reducing by a trillion-fold “the cost of synthesizing AI-designed proteins.” Essentially, they take the same method of introducing controlled randomness (in order to create new proteins) that happens in the generative model, and deploy it during physical protein synthesis. For this one I’d suggest checking the two sources, it’s pretty epic. (Jura Bio via @EliWeinstein6)
Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg just introduced the Orion glasses, the company’s “first pair of augmented reality glasses.” At the advanced prototyping stage right now, they look more like a regular pair of glasses than wearing a screen over your face like some other approaches have taken. The glasses are “designed to show text messages, video calls, and even YouTube videos directly in the user’s field of view,” integrating the physical and virtual worlds. The tech behind it is certainly cool, but we’ll see whether consumers view it as more than an novelty or toy. (Meta) (Interesting Engineering)
Medicine
In a world first, type 1 diabetes has been reversed (cured) in a 25 year old woman by transplanting reprogrammed insulin producing cells derived from her body’s own stem cells. After 75 days she was able to stop taking insulin, and has remained free from needing it for over a year. “I can eat sugar now,” the woman who lives in China said to Nature, “I enjoy eating everything — especially hotpot.” This follows a similar study earlier this year where a man with type 2 diabetes was effectively cured of his disease by a similar process. It’s hard to overstate the significance of this, we’re on the verse of seeing diabetes eliminated. (Nature via @IterIntellectus)
Neuralink has received FDA approval for human testing with their Blindsight device. As its name suggests, Blindsight will restore sight to those who have lost it, even if their optic nerves are gone. “Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.” Elon Musk made sure to set expectations, saying that at first it will provide only low resolution, but that eventually it could be “better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge.” (@elonmusk)
One of the biggest problems for rare diseases is lack of interest in developing treatments, as the number of people affected is often small, making treatments difficult to fund. A new AI model from Harvard Medical School is working to change that by identifying existing medicines that could treat these rare diseases. Repurposing existing drugs means that they can be used to treat patients far sooner and more affordably than creating new ones from scratch. And it takes advantage of the fact that “most medicines have multiple effects beyond the specific targets they were originally developed and approved for.” (Harvard Medical School)
A gene therapy for hemophilia B (a bleeding disorder causing problems with clotting) approved by the FDA back in April has been seeing incredible results, where adults with the disease had “their number of bleeding episodes drop by an average of 71 percent after a single infusion of gene therapy.” That’s just the average, over half of patients in a recent study didn’t have any bleeding one year later. (Science Daily)
A new and effective antimalarial drug called MED6-189 has been developed that’s effective against otherwise drug resistant malaria, and also against other parasites. The compound appears to target multiple pathways in the malaria organism, which is helpful in slowing down the development of future resistance. Great news, though I still think the best way to deal with malaria and other mosquito borne diseases is to gene drive the vectors—a relatively small number of mosquito species—into extinction. (SciTechDaily)
For the first time in decades, a new schizophrenia drug with a different mode of action than current approaches has been approved by the FDA. KarXT targets muscarinic receptors in the brain that “relay neurotransmitter signals between neurons and other cells. Activating these receptors dampens the release of the chemical dopamine, a nervous-system messenger that is central to the hallmark symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations and delusions.” In trials, KarXT improved systems and also improved cognitive function—while sidestepping many of the troublesome side effects plaguing older drugs. (Nature)
Biotech & Agriculture
Spanish scientists have engineered a crop that can join Golden Rice at the table. Golden Lettuce has “30 times more nutrients than the regular green stuff,” getting its color from high levels of beta-carotene, which gives carrots their color. Beta-carotene is a vital precursor for our bodies to convert into vitamin A, and is needed for everything from healthy vision to a functioning immune system. Many poor places in the world don’t get enough vitamin A, so eating this Golden Lettuce could be a great way to affordably improve health. (@simonmaechling) (New Atlas)
Interstellar Lab, a company working to “commercialize biopharming platforms combining AI, advanced hardware and bioscience to supply plant-based ingredients at scale on Earth and in Space” has unveiled their newest invention: A biopod offering 200m2 (2150ft2) of space with multiple modules allowing a wide range of crops to be cultivated. Something like this would be extremely useful on space stations, the Moon, or on Mars. (@InterstellarLA)
Not enough people realize what a miracle the Green Revolution was. For most of human history the agricultural land required to feed a person remained pretty constant, then suddenly with the development of better crop varieties and inventions like artificial fertilizer it dropped. Even though there are more humans on Earth than ever before, we’re likely approaching (and may have already reached) peak agricultural land—meaning that in the future we will use less land to feed even more people. (Human Progress)
Existing vertical farms have mostly focused on producing various greens, but Plenty Richmond Farms is planning to produce over 4 million pounds (1.8 million kg) of strawberries “grown indoors vertically in 30-ft-tall (9-m) towers,” using less than an acre of land. The plan is for the berries to hit grocery store shelves early next year. (New Atlas)
Weird & Wonderful
Bacteria are the epitome of weird and wonderful. Contrary to the central dogma of biology—that “one gene can code for only one protein”—researchers have found that bacteria can physically flip a segment of DNA and completely change their genetic identify. This genetic inversion is similar to reversing the word dog to god, entirely changing its meaning. Doing this can do anything from turn a gene on and off, to creating an entirely different protein. The researchers who discovered it remember seeing the data and thinking, “No way, this can’t be right, because it’s too crazy to be true.” But it seems that it is true, though so far scientists aren’t sure what causes it. (Science Daily)
Sometime between 4000 BC and 7000 BC, an ancient artist made a picture of two people swimming. While that doesn’t seem so unusual, the area today is part of southwest Egypt, part of the larger Sahara Desert. The painting in the Cave of Swimmers is another line of evidence that the area was once lush and filled with water, during a time known as the Holocene Climate Optimum. Imagine if parts of the Sahara were green again, maybe we should take a serious look at seaflooding. (Live Science)
Over 300 new Nazca Lines have been identified in Peru using AI, adding significantly to the 430 already known. Properly visible only from the air, the new Nazca lines were found by the AI over 6 months of scanning images for previously missed patterns. Honestly, some of them look straight out of Pixar’s Monsters Inc. (The Debrief)
Photos & Videos
Some more beautiful photo’s from the Polaris Dawn Mission during their 5 days spent in space. You can check out an incredible video of the capsule going through multiple orbits here. (@PolarisProgram)
Andrew McCarthy has managed to take a spectacular show of Saturn rising past the Moon’s edge—done from the top of a Hawaiian volcano. (@AJamesMcCarthy)
Check out this cool video of mitochondria crawling around in a cell, it’s pretty incredible. (Nature via @Orangeroad2017)
Though Humpback whales only eat krill, occasionally it seems like seals can get in the way. Don’t worry, this harbor seal managed to escape unharmed with quite the story to tell—“You’re probably wondering how I got into this mess.” (IFL Science)
SpaceX has recovered the Starship flight 4 Superheavy booster from the bottom of the ocean. “Like the ruins of a futuristic, long-dead civilization,” Elon Musk later said. I hope that goes in a SpaceX museum. (@elonmusk) (Space.com)
Breathtaking image of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3). Incredible that “mere” dust and gas catching sunlight should be so beautiful. (Sky Vistas via @coreyspowell)
Recommendations & Reviews
Should You Be Able to Experiment on Your Own Cancer? That’s the title of a new piece by
in his newsletter, . It chronicles the story of a virology and immunotherapy researcher found out she had cancer, and that traditional treatments weren’t going to work. So she did some research, and injected herself with some oncolytic viruses—types of viruses that attack cancer cells. It worked, and the cancer shrunk enough that it became operable, likely saving her life. She and her medical team wrote up a paper using her experience as a case study, but multiple journals refused to publish, citing ethical concerns around self experimentation—particularly that it might give other people the “dangerous” idea of trying something not approved to save their own lives. Give the article a read, it goes into a lot more depth, including the history of scientists using themselves as experimental guineapigs. (Uncharted Territories)
For all you kids and kids at heart out there, NASA Astrobiology has created a 9 issue graphic series about the history of astrobiology for National Comic Book Day. You can download and read them from here. (@NASAAstrobio)
That’s it for this edition, but Techno-Optimist will be back in your inbox a fortnight from now. Thank you all for reading—and until next time, keep your eyes on the horizon.
-Owen
Really exciting stuff this week. Nazca lines amaze me.