DTN 053: Northrop Grumman Plans Lunar Railroad

The Big Picture

Surgeons Transplant Pig Kidney into a Patient

“Surgeons in Boston have transplanted a kidney from a genetically engineered pig into an ailing 62-year-old man, the first procedure of its kind. If successful, the breakthrough offers hope to hundreds of thousands of Americans whose kidneys have failed. So far, the signs are promising. Kidneys remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood. The new kidney began producing urine shortly after the surgery last weekend and the patient’s condition continues to improve, according to physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, known as Mass General. He is already walking the halls of the hospital and may be discharged soon.” (The New York Times)

Deep Tech News

• Constellation Energy’s $900M Green Bond is First in U.S. Directed at Nuclear Power
• Musk’s Neuralink shows off first implant patient: "‘like using The Force’
• DoorDash begins piloting drone deliveries in the US
• AirMyne taps geothermal energy to scale direct air carbon capture
• Northrop Grumman to Develop Concept for Lunar Railroad
• World’s First Commercial Seaweed Farm In An Offshore Wind Farm
• SpaceX building a network of spy satellites for U.S. intelligence, report says

JPEG of the Week

Each flare contains about 1 kilogram of salt material components and can take up to three minutes to burn and shoot into the right clouds. After the seeding agent is introduced into the cloud, the droplets increase in size, surpassing the cloud’s capacity to sustain them against gravity, resulting in their release as raindrops. (via Andrea Dicenzo/CNBC )

Peer Review

• How do we tell future generations about highly radioactive nuclear waste repositories?
• RNA deserves its own massive counterpart to the human genome project, NASEM Health and Medicine Division researchers argue
• Team proposes using AI to reconstruct particle paths leading to new physics
• Polska Akademia Nauk research shows plant-based polymers can disappear within seven months
• New technique from 美国德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校 measures psilocybin potency of mushrooms
• 四川省国际医学交流促进会 advances and applications of nanoparticles in cancer therapy
• Cleaning up environmental contaminants with quantum dot technology - American Chemical Society
• 英国诺丁汉大学 quantum tornado provides gateway to understanding black holes
• ‘A landmark moment’: scientists use AI to design antibodies from scratch
• A simple, scalable methods from University of Michigan College of Engineering using light to 3D print helical nanostructures
• Earth received a message laser-beamed from 10M miles away in NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration test
• Powerful new INRS France tool ushers in a new era of quantum materials research
• AI from 英国牛津大学 and 英国曼彻斯特大学 reveals prostate cancer is not just one disease

Funding x M&A

• U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) invests $44M to advance a clean, reliable electric grid
• With backing from NATO Innovation Fund, OTB Ventures will invest $185M into European deep tech
• Cure51 raises a €15M seed round aiming to crack the code on cancer survival
• Carlsmed , an AI-enabled personalized surgery Medtech company, raises $52.5M in a Series C
• Poseidon Ocean Systems , a full-service aquaculture engineering and support company, announces $20.75M in a Series B
• Engrail Therapeutics , a precision neuroscience company, closes $157M in a Series B
• Hippocratic AI , a company building a safety-focused Large Language Model for healthcare, raises $53M Series A funding at $500M valuation
• Flosonics Medical , a leader in wearable medical ultrasound, raised $20M in a Series C
• Dutch Innatera raises €15M for mass production of processor that mimics human brain
• Portal Biotechnologies, a cell engineering platform company, announces a $5M pre-seed round
• Capstan Therapeutics , a biotechnology company advancing in vivo reprogramming of cells, raised $175M in a Series B
• Clasp Therapeutics launches with $150M to pioneer precision immuno-oncology using next-generation T Cell engagers
• Buzz Solutions , an AI company that inspects and protects critical energy infrastructure, raises $5M in funding
• AI startup Cohere seeks $5 billion valuation in latest fundraising
• Loyal announces $45 Million Series B financing to continue development of first FDA-approved dog lifespan extension drug for veterinary use
• Profluent , an AI-first protein design company, secures $35M
• Firestorm Labs, an Unmanned Aerial System manufacturer, announces $12.5M in seed funding
• Relation Therapeutics, a biotechnology company leveraging computational and experimental approaches to drug discovery, raises $35M in seed funding
• ThinkSono , a medical technology company specializing in ultrasound AI guidance solutions, raises ￡2.1M in funding

Miscellanea

Two men are charged with trying to sell Tesla battery trade secrets / Deep Geothermal Can Solve the Need for Baseload Power / Why adversarial AI is the cyber threat no one sees coming / Guiding Principles for the Church of Jesus Christ’s Use of Artificial Intelligence / Possible TikTok ban has U.S. science communicators on edge / Hiring booms at SpaceX and Blue Origin making it hard for NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration to attract talent / Cosmic cleaners: the scientists scouring English cathedral roofs for space dust / The singing UCI Nobel Laureate who nearly bombed Nevada / DNA tests are uncovering the true prevalence of incest / Encyclopaedia Britannica Seeking $1 Billion Valuation in IPO / A new technique to work out a corpse’s time of death / ‘I know someone who played noughts and crosses on one’: meet the top surgeon who burned his initials on a patient’s liver / 80-year-old man pleads guilty to genetically engineering giant hybrid sheep in 'audacious scheme,' DOJ announces / The economics of pirate radio / In Cleveland, mushrooms digest entire houses: How fungi can be used to clean up pollution / The News Business Really Is Cratering / From luxury bunkers to tactical vehicles, the ultra-rich are preparing for the Big One / To Delay Death, Lift Weights / Why Oregon’s Drug Decriminalization Failed