Year: 2023

A California-based startup, Varda Space Industries, co-founded by a SpaceX veteran, made an exciting announcement as it successfully deployed its inaugural satellite, W-Series 1, into orbit. The company’s mission revolves around kickstarting the mass production of materials in space, either those impossible to manufacture on Earth or those that can be developed faster and with superior quality in microgravity conditions.

Excitement filled the air as Varda tweeted, “The world’s first space factory’s solar panels have found the sun, and it’s beginning to de-tumble,” shortly after the satellite was launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-8 mission on Monday, June 13.

The W-Series 1 satellite is situated within Rocket Lab’s Photon platform, a satellite solution also contracted by NASA for two upcoming Mars missions. Varda’s satellite launch is a crucial step in the company’s testing campaign to determine the feasibility of leveraging its satellite solution for pharmaceutical development in space.

The company was established by Will Bruey, a former SpaceX avionics engineer, and Delian Asparouhov from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Varda’s primary objective is to enable the mass production of specific products in space. This goal has become increasingly achievable with the rise of private launch service providers like SpaceX and Rocket Lab, which have significantly enhanced accessibility to space in recent years.

In an unprecedented move, robots may soon be competing with astronauts for space-related tasks. Gitai, a Japanese robotics startup, has secured a new funding round of ¥4 billion ($30 million) to advance its mission of creating a workforce of space robots. The Tokyo-based company aims to significantly reduce the cost of space operations and minimize the risks to human life through the development of its remote-controlled space robots, as reported by Bloomberg.

The emergence of companies like SpaceX, with their partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket, has revolutionized the space industry by substantially lowering transportation costs to orbit. Gitai’s CEO, Sho Nakanose, discussed in an interview with Bloomberg TV how the company envisions the next frontier to be a substantial reduction in the cost and risk associated with space operations through the use of robotic workforces. Nakanose explained that Gitai’s robot arms and rovers have the potential to reduce operational costs for space missions by “100 times,” making them suitable for deployment on celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars.

Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur behind SpaceX, is not limiting his ambitions to space exploration. His tech startup, Neuralink, aims to venture into the realm of the human brain. Recently, the company received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to commence trials for implanting brain chips in humans.

While the exact start date of the trials is unknown, there is considerable excitement surrounding Neuralink’s development of a brain-computer interface. In just two years, the company’s valuation has skyrocketed from $2 billion to approximately $5 billion, according to Reuters. Although it may be years before widespread implementation of Neuralink’s technology, investors remain highly interested in its potential. Analyst Daniel Ives from Wedbush Securities remarked that as Neuralink proves its use cases and execution, investor attention will likely intensify. Given Musk’s track record with successful ventures like Tesla and SpaceX, the tech world is eagerly watching Neuralink’s progress in the coming years.

Neuralink’s primary objective in conducting human trials is to eventually enable individuals with paralysis to control computers or phones solely through brain activity. The Neuralink 1 implant, about the size of a large coin, consists of multiple chips, a wireless battery, and other electronics, all hermetically sealed. The implant includes ultra-thin threads that penetrate directly into the brain. Signals from the implant are transmitted via Bluetooth to a brain-computer interface (BCI), which can facilitate tasks such as controlling an onscreen cursor or manipulating a robotic limb. Musk has likened the device to a “Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires that go to your brain.”

Octopuses have developed a remarkable defense mechanism to safeguard their delicate nervous system against extreme temperature variations. They possess the extraordinary ability to rapidly recode key proteins in their nerve cells, ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of critical neurological activities even during drastic temperature drops. This exceptional adaptation is made possible by their capacity to edit RNA on the fly, a superpower observed in select species of octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish.

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Marine Biological Laboratory, led by marine biologist Joshua Rosenthal, have shed light on this unusual strategy through their recent study published in Cell. They highlight that while genetic information is typically considered fixed, environmental factors can influence the encoding of proteins. In cephalopods, this phenomenon occurs on a significant scale. Rosenthal explains, “RNA recoding gives organisms the option to express a diverse quiver of proteins when and where they choose. In cephalopods, most of the recoding is for proteins that are really important for nervous system function, so the natural question is, are they using this to acclimate to changes in their physical environment?”

A team of scientists from Radboud University has achieved a groundbreaking feat by developing synthetic molecules that closely resemble real organic molecules. Led by Alex Khajetoorians and Daniel Wegner, the collaborative effort has resulted in the ability to simulate the behavior of genuine molecules using artificial counterparts. This breakthrough enables researchers to manipulate molecule properties in unprecedented ways, shedding new light on how molecules undergo changes. The team’s remarkable findings have been published in the journal Science.

Emil Sierda, the lead experimenter at Radboud University, shared the origin of their groundbreaking idea, stating, “A few years ago, we had this audacious idea of constructing a quantum simulator. Our goal was to create synthetic molecules that closely resemble real ones. To achieve this, we developed a system capable of trapping electrons. Electrons envelop a molecule like a cloud, and we utilized these trapped electrons to construct artificial molecules.” The results they obtained were astonishing, with Sierda remarking, “The similarity between our artificial creations and genuine molecules was striking.”