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11
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2023
DTN 029: Russia Returns to the Moon
The Big Picture
Russia launches first moon mission in nearly 50 years
“A rocket carrying a lunar landing craft blasted off Friday on Russia’s first moon mission in nearly 50 years, racing to land on Earth’s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft. The launch from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in the Far East of the Luna-25 craft to the moon is Russia’s first since 1976 when it was part of the Soviet Union. Only three governments have managed successful moon landings: the Soviet Union, the United States and China. India and Russia are aiming to be the first to land at the moon’s south pole.” (Associated Press)
Why Is It So Hard for Scholars to Launch Startups?
“University-based commercialization took off in 1980, when the Bayh-Dole Act allowed US universities to retain ownership of, and profit from, faculty inventions built using federal research funding. The profit is shared with faculty inventors and external partners. Academic technology transfer offices have since become well-oiled machines for patenting and licensing innovations, and also producing spinoffs. Tenure-track faculty typically assume advisory or consultant roles while students or other partners lead commercialization. Universities often allow a modest weekly time allowance or temporary leaves of absence to explore opportunities, and they may rent lab space to startups. Institutions sometimes take equity in faculty startups; according to a 2021 survey conducted by AUTM, which represents US technology transfer professionals, of the 124 surveyed universities with startups formed in 2021, 92 held equity in at least one. While existing support structures work reasonably well for faculty members dabbling in innovation, there is no long-term road map for more involved scholar-entrepreneurs, forcing many early-career scholars to eventually choose between one or the other.” (WIRED)
Deep Tech News
- Virgin Galactic successfully flies tourists to space for first time
- Killer Asteroid-Spotting Software Could Help Save the World
- Legions of DEF CON hackers will attack generative AI models
- NASA's deep space communications to get a laser boost
- AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine
- NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2
- A self-driving Uber killed a woman. The backup driver pleaded guilty
- Las Vegas approves 68 miles of underground transportation tunnels
- Planetary defense test deflected an asteroid but unleashed a boulder swarm
- Synhelion starts building solar tower for cement production
Peer Review
- Cement + Carbon Black + Water = Supercapacitor
- Scientists see first evidence of 'quantum superchemistry' in the lab
- A biochip that can be used to perform rapid genetic screening of thousands of molecules
- Quantum material exhibits 'non-local' behavior that mimics brain function
- How to change an asteroid into a space habitat, in just 12 years
- Bioengineered tool unmasks cancer cells
- Life Has Been Found Beneath Hydrothermal Vents for the First Time
Funding x M&A
- Autonomous sidewalk delivery company Serve Robotics raised $30M in funding
- BioFlyte, a biothreat detection firm, raised a $5.4M round
- ADARx Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotech company focused on RNA therapeutics, raised a $200M Series C
- Alltrna, a startup helping RNAs regulate the protein universe, raised a $109M Series B
- Georgiamune, a clinical-stage biotech company focused on oncology and autoimmune diseases, raised a $75M Series A
- Verdagy, a startup building electrolyzer tech for industrial markets, raised a $73M Series B
- Satim, a startup using AI to detect and identify objects in satellite imagery, raised a $2M round
- Autonomous-driving startup Pony.ai received a $139M investment
- Persist AI, an AI-driven drug formulation startup, raised a $4M seed round
Miscellanea
The Mystery Genes That Are Keeping You Alive / If it can be designed on a computer, it can be built by robots / Inside MIT’s nuclear reactor laboratory / Cult of the Dead Cow Wants to Save Internet Privacy with New Encryption Protocol / Venture-backed startups are failing at record rates / Serial murders have dwindled, thanks to improved technology / See where your house was 66M years ago / Is This The Dawn Of A ‘lithium OPEC’? / Iron And Rust Could Be The Secret To Storing Clean Power For Days / Floating solar on the equator could provide ‘limitless’ energy
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