Techno-Optimist #6
Starship flight #4 scores a big win, China heads back to Earth with Moon rocks, abundant carbon is found in the early universe, AI finds a treasure trove of antibiotic compounds...and a lot more.
Welcome to the sixth edition of Techno-Optimist, and to the 58 new readers since last time, I’m delighted you found your way to a place with the latest exciting news and commentary on science, space, and tech without the negative bias so pervasive these days.
I’d like to remind everyone that Techno-Optimist is and always will be free to read. However, I deeply appreciate those of you who choose to become paid subscribers to support what I’m doing. One day, when this newsletter has grown by about three orders of magnitude (a guy can dream, right?), my plan is to make this my main gig, which will hopefully allow me the time to expand what I do here.
But for now, we’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s dive in.
"The shape, the destiny, the very survival of our species has always been dependent on technological advancement.
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Make more humans, make more tech.
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Conquer the galaxy, or die trying."
Starship Flight #4 most successful yet. SpaceX’s Starship flight #4 took to the skies on June 6th, with both booster and the upper stage making successful soft landings in their respective oceans (Gulf of Mexico for the booster, Indian ocean for the upper stage). The test ticked all the boxes SpaceX was hoping for, especially with the main Starship vehicle surviving reentry. It was also the first virtually continuous video of reentry into Earth's atmosphere ever. It did cut out briefly a few times, but always came back despite the one surviving camera cracking and becoming almost (but not quite) completely covered with debris. I was glued to my screen during the absolutely epic flight, especially the reentry—like something off a sci-fi movie. Probably the most incredible part was seeing that one flap slowly disintegrating, and thinking “we’re so done,” but then it held on all the way to a soft water landing. Can’t wait for flight #5, where the plan is for the landing tower arms to catch the booster. Elon Musk after the flight: “Today was a great day for humanity’s future as a spacefaring civilization! Nothing unites us more than working together towards inspiring objectives.” Indeed!
Watch the entire flight on SpaceX’s website here. Or on X here.
Liftoff: @SpaceX
Slow motion engine ignition and takeoff as seen from the launch tower: @SpaceX
Beautiful reentry plasma views: @SpaceX
Sci-fi looking video clip during reentry: @SpaceX
Clip of the flap disintegrating during reentry: @SciSimpAAG
Booster landing burn and soft splashdown: View 1. View 2.
An older clip from Elon Musk on why making life multiplanetary is important: @ElonMusk
Links for photos at top: @ElonMusk, @Cmdr_Hadfield, @AstroJordy
Chinese rover lands on dark side of the Moon, heads back with samples. China has already done a successful sample return mission from the Moon’s near side (facing Earth)—now the Chang’e 6 mission will be the first ever to bring back samples from the far side. The probe touched down on the Lunar surface on June 1st, taking its samples two days later (video). After launching back to Lunar orbit on June 6th, the capsule containing samples is expected to arrive back to Earth on June 25th. I have to say, again, kudos to the Chinese space program. Hopefully this motivates America & other Artemis Accord countries to ramp up our own activities in space. Seriously, if it wasn’t for SpaceX we’d be hooped. (@CNSpaceflight) (@planet4589) (Space.com)
Abundant carbon found unexpectedly early in the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has pushed back the record for the most distant (and therefore the oldest) galaxy known: a mere 290 million years after the birth of the universe—a new record, for now at least. While it blows my mind that we can see this, I don’t want to constantly mention new records in astronomy, otherwise I’d talk about little else. But what makes this one interesting is that the JWST also just detected carbon in another very old galaxy, “just 350 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest detection of any element in the universe other than hydrogen.” Not just a little bit either, but a “surprising amounts of carbon,” which of course is vital for life as we know it.
So what does this mean? Previous research had suggested that large quantities of carbon didn’t form until about 1 billion years after the Big Bang, so some work will need to be done explaining this, and ultimately astronomy textbooks will require some significant edits. It was “thought that the earliest stars produced much more oxygen than carbon,” said one of the study authors. Finding “that it [carbon] appears so early tells us that the very first stars may have operated very differently.” (@NASAWebb) (Webb Space Telescope) (University of Cambridge)
AI helps find treasure trove of antibiotic compounds. A human-AI research team just announced the discovery of close to 900,000 new antimicrobial peptides. They were found by sifting through over 60,000 metagenomes [Sidebar: a metagenome “is the recovery and complete sequencing of genetic material extracted directly from an environmental samples”] collected in places ranging from the human gut, oceans, and soil. Testing their new treasure trove will take time, but initial results in mice have already found some potent antibiotic candidates. The benefit of these antimicrobial peptides is they’re more targeted than traditional antibiotics (reducing side effects), harder for bacteria to develop resistance to, and are often more effective. It’s hard to overstate how incredible this is. A single study, using publicly available date gathered for other purposes, may have just given us enough material to deal with the growing problem of bacterial resistance—and this is just the beginning I’m sure. (Interesting Engineering)
Mini-roundup of recent progress against cancer. Spoiler, it’s good news: Phase 3 results for a new lung cancer drug showed 60% of patients with “no disease progression after 5 years,” versus just 8% on the existing standard of care treatment. Even better, a Phase 2 trial drug used against a type of colorectal cancer seems to have completely eliminated the cancer in all 42 patients who took it, with a “sustained complete clinical response” (no cancer) after more than two years. Lastly, a drug called THZ1 has been found to preserve heart health in mice treated with a common chemotherapy drug called doxorubicin. While effective against a variety of cancers, doxorubicin can cause heart cells to die, particularly bad as it’s often used to treat pediatric cancers. But if THZ1 works as well in humans, that problem could be mitigated. As an added bonus THZ1 was found to increase chemotherapy effectiveness. (IFL Science) (New Atlas) (MedicalXpress)
Space
Some more launch news for you: Boeing’s Starliner successfully launched to the International Space Station on June 5th. There’s a few small helium leaks to fix looks like, but this means the United States now has two launch providers capable of getting humans to orbit. Private Indian startup Agnikul made it to space for the first time. Their 3D printed rocket engine functioned well, and the plan is to eventually be able to lift around 300kg to LEO. Virgin Galactic took 6 people to the edge of space on the final voyage of their VSS Unity space plane. (@Boeing Space) (Payload) (Space.com)
Morning frost has been detected for the first time in the calderas and on the rims of the Tharsis volcanoes (Olympus, Arsia and Ascraeus Mons, and Ceraunius Tholus), the largest volcanoes in the Solar System. Color images and spectral observations both confirm the presence of frost during the colder seasons of the Martian year; and given that the volcanoes are not active (ruling volcanic outgassing out as a likely culprit) it means the frost came from water vapor in the atmosphere. This is particularly important because these volcanos are near the Martian equator, meaning there could be more water around than expected for future human explorers and settlers. (Nature) (Space.com)
NASA is moving forward with 9 companies and a dozen proposed studies aimed at providing private sector support on future Mars science missions. Categories include “payload delivery, communications relay, surface imaging, and payload hosting.” Also, a very cool space tug idea that involves a bigger spacecraft hauling a smaller one with it to Mars. (SciTechDaily)
While magnetic fields have been detected around plenty of stars in our own galaxy, now astronomers have managed to detect them around three huge stars outside it—in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Magnetic fields are key to understanding how stars change throughout their lifetime, including how the biggest end their lives as neutron stars or black holes. (SciTechDaily)
Speaking of magnetic fields, we’re starting to get a better picture of the Milky Way’s as well, which takes the form of gigantic magnetic donuts with radii almost 45,000 light years across. It’s remarkably difficult to determine the shape of the galactic magnetic field from the inside, and needed 30 years of data to make possible this new understanding of how our galaxy works. (@coreyspowell) (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Xona Space Systems just raised $19 million to help them build an alternative to the GPS (Global Positioning System) we all rely on. GPS and other similar systems are all government run, and are enabled by mostly older satellites. So much of our modern lives require a functioning GPS that having alternatives in an always uncertain world is important. (Payload)
AI, Energy, Engineering, & Physics
Earlier this month tech company Cradle came out of stealth, announcing their goal of “building reversible cryo technologies.” As co-founder Laura Deming described it, “think the hibernation pods you see in space movies for long-term travel – we want to build that.” They’re just getting started, but have already managed to get electrical activity from cryopreserved neural tissue. The goal is to move up to successfully freezing and thawing organs, then whole animals like mice, and eventually humans. Especially if we’re always limited by the speed of light, cryostasis (aka cryosleep) could be important on trips lasting decades or centuries. (@LauraDeming) (PackyM)
Last time I talked about an AI driven lab finding new materials. Here’s two more: Self driving (AI) labs were used by group of research teams to shorten the time needed to discover new materials for organic solid-state lasers—valued for their high efficiency and color adjustability—from years to a few months. In another breakthrough, machine learning was used to optimize the faster creation of iron based superconducting magnets. They succeeded, creating the world’s strongest to date, which could help bring down the costs of MRIs and other technology like aircraft or even fusion power plants. This trend isn’t going to stop, and I think we’ll soon see a cornucopia of new advanced materials generated in large part by AI enabled labs. (SciTechDaily) (Interesting Engineering)
Night vision goggles are cool, but limited from more widespread use by their cost and bulkiness. That could change with a newly developed “thin infrared filter for night vision that can be integrated into everyday eyewear, allowing simultaneous viewing of the infrared and visible light spectra.” Applications range widely, from photography to law enforcement to increasing driver and pedestrian safety in low light conditions. Besides that, who wouldn’t want one purely for the awesomeness factor? I definitely do. (SciTechDaily) (Advanced Materials)
Engineers at a Florida university have discovered how to keep hypersonic jet engines stable during operation. Hypersonic jets would fly at least 5x faster than the speed of sound, with this particular design potentially enabling travel at Mach 17, around 13,000 mph (~20,900 kph). The trick is that hypersonic engines have to keep a continuous explosion going in order to work, which is what the lab figured out how to stabilize. “It was exiting that now we have the world’s first stabilized ignition wave,” noted the professor running the project. (@DrPhiltill) (Fox 13)
Giving robots an electronic “skin” has taken a big step forward. Teams in China & Singapore have built a multilayer construction dubbed 3DAE-Skin that “can sense different types of forces at a resolution similar to its human counterpart.” When combined with their deep learning algorithm the skin was able to determine the ripeness of fruit and freshness of pastry by touching them, much as a human might do. (Singularity Hub)
Medicine
Neuralink isn’t the only company working on brain-computer interfaces. Precision Neuroscience has just made a new record, implanting 4,096 electrodes in a patient’s brain. This higher number “allows more data to be transmitted to and from the brain,” improving the interface. Their method is minimally invasive, with the array laying on and conforming to the contours of the brain’s cortex without causing damage. (Interesting Engineering)
About 5% of Americans are missing teeth, with the numbers being far higher in older adults. What’s the solution? Grow new teeth! In September, a human trial of the drug that can regenerate teeth will begin in Kyoto Japan, aimed at regrowing missing molars. It’s worked well in animals so far, and the hope is for the treatment to be commercially available by around 2030. (New Atlas)
Gene therapy for treating deafness in children has had some remarkable results lately, restoring hearing in one ear. But things haven’t stopped there, with hearing now restored in both ears for five children. From the lead study author: ‘When they realized that Yangyang could hear for the first time, "the whole family cried" including Yangyang's mother and grandmother.’ Giving hearing to children who have never heard a sound in their life is just about the best use of science and technology I can think of; we really do live in an age of medical miracles. (Medical Xpress) (@IterIntellectus)
Xenotransplants (organ transplants from another species into humans) are moving forward, with a man in China becoming the first to get a genetically modified pig liver. So far the recipient is reported to be doing well. As we get better at doing this it could make huge strides towards solving the shortage of organs needed for transplant. (Nature)
A naturally occurring antiviral compound effective against influenza has been discovered in the human gut (produced by some of our native gut bacteria). Animal tests with a synthetic version of the molecule reduced both viral loads and lung inflammation, both important markers that will hopefully lead to human testing soon. They also tested it against Covid-19 in animal models, with similar positive results. (SciTechDaily)
Asthma may soon be a thing of the past for some with a new discovery using a modified cancer therapy. About half of asthma cases are driven by cytokines, signaling molecules controlling inflammation. Cytokines are vital for the body’s normal operation, but in asthma their levels can get too high, causing the symptoms so many suffer from. By engineering one’s own T-cells, researchers created a CAR-T therapy (often used against blood cancers) to target the excess cytokines. Results were pretty spectacular, “providing sustained suppression of lung inflammation and relieved asthma symptoms for more than a year in mice.” (Interesting Engineering)
Biotech & Agriculture
Researchers have found a gene in rice that gives resistance to blast disease, a fungal pathogen that attacks rice—a staple for billions—and also started infecting wheat in the 1980s, causing damage to a crop that billions more rely on. Let’s engineer this into our rice and wheat asap! It’ll improve food production and security and also cut down on the need to spray fungicides on crops. (Phys.org)
Weird & Wonderful
In a bit of a public relations oops, park staff added a pipe to ensure year-round flow of water from the Yuntai Mountain Waterfall, the tallest uninterrupted waterfall in China. The “small enhancement” was discovered by a hiker, who posted a video on social media, which then went viral. It raises an interesting point though, why not? We need more natural wonders, and what's wrong with a natural/artificial hybrid? Done right, it's still just as beautiful. Let's just be honest about it. (BBC)
Orcas have been attacking and sinking yachts off the coast of Europe over the past four years, now we finally know why. It’s not “the planet revolting against us” as some have hinted; turns out, they’re just young hooligans goofing off. The behavior developed in a single group of orcas, and likely results from a combination of their natural playfulness, and more free time resulting from abundant food in the area after the recovery of bluefin tuna—this orca pod feeds exclusively on the fish. With a more assured food supply, the whales have more time for “hobbies.” While distressing for the humans aboard, from the orca’s perspective, this isn’t an attack at all, the mostly juvenile whales are just spending some free time playing with a fantastic floating toy. (New Atlas)
Photos & Videos
Check out this beautiful video of a plasma plume erupting from the Sun’s surface, then falling back onto it—having failed to escape our star’s gravity. (@RyanJFrench) (Interesting Engineering)
Have a look at the photos from the 2024 Milky Way Photographer of the Year, they’re all stunning. This one is my favorite, taken in Jordan’s Wadi Rum Desert, also called the Valley of the Moon. (Capture The Atlas)
Recommendations & Reviews
Today, I’m reviewing Atlas, a movie I recently watched on Netflix. Overall, I’d say it’s a really good B movie sci-fi adventure—quite entertaining. What made me choose it for today though is its portrayal of artificial intelligence. On the surface, it's a familiar plot [warning, serious spoilers ahead]: a rogue AI wants to destroy most of humanity in order to "save" it. So a special team, helped by a brilliant scientist with trust issues is sent in to stop him. Netflix labels it as dystopian sci-fi, but beneath a thin dystopian veneer, it's actually very techno-optimist.
To stop the rogue AI, our heroine must "sync" with the friendly AI running her combat mech suit, enabling them both to become more and do more than either could alone. When they finally defeat the evil AI, his last words are basically that humans are weak and how she needed another of his kind to help beat him. To which she replies that yes, she did, and it worked because Smith—her AI—is the better version of artificial intelligence, embodying what the bad guy should have been.
A future where AI is in many ways “human,” imbued with empathy and trying to help their human counterparts become better and do more is a future I’d like to see. My only real gripe with the movie is that they have the technology to reach the Andromeda Galaxy in less than 2 days, so why aren’t they colonizing thousands of new worlds??!? Yes, there’s a deadly evil AI threat out there, but a one planet civilization is vulnerable.
I’m going to veer off on a tangent that the movie’s writers probably didn’t intended; though, as art has often been a vehicle for criticizing negative ideologies, perhaps they did. The villain plans to eliminate most of humanity and then lead the survivors to a better, more sustainable way of life—because he sees himself as superior—after glimpsing humanity's negative impacts: war, slavery, environmental destruction, climate change, etc. Now what does that sound like?
It almost perfectly reflects the ideology of degrowth, of both population and economy, championed by prominent environmentalists from Paul Ehrlich to Jane Goodall. If you do a quick Google of how to minimize your climate impact, you’ll often find advice to “have one less kid” as the most impactful thing you can do for Mother Earth. Portraying that “decel” position as antihuman and ultimately bad for the environment too is refreshing to see.
In summary, Atlas is definitely a techno-optimist flick that says a future is possible where AI makes us better instead of destroying us. It comes out strongly against those who want deceleration, degrowth, and less people. Humans are a good thing, AI (done right) is a good thing too.
Give it a watch, let me know what you think.
That’s all for today, 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
Another great issue @Owen Lewis. One thing that is striking is just how methodical the Chinese space program is.
Every launch achieves a major milestone and there have been no significant failures since the 1990s. I have no doubt that when China says that they will have a person on the Moon by 2030, that it will be achieved.
In the global return to the Moon, the question is less about who will get there first than about who will do it in a sustainable fashion.