Weekly Dose of Optimism #115
AI Nobelists, TCR, Mice Longevity, Resilient Chips, Zap Energy, Robota
Hi friends 👋,
Happy Friday and welcome back to our 115th Weekly Dose of Optimism. It was another scary weather week down in the Southeast and we hope all of our readers in the impacted zones are safe and secure. I think it’s pretty safe, at this point, to say that this extreme weather is caused in part by climate change. We’re not going to get in the mud on what causes climate change or propose political solutions for addressing it, but we are optimistic that there are technologist and researchers working on solutions right now that will mitigate both the causes and effects of climate change in the future.
Let’s get to it.
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(1) AI Researchers Win Nobel Prizes
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 was awarded jointly to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks"
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 was divided, one half awarded to David Baker "for computational protein design", the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper "for protein structure prediction"
Big week for AI Researches winning Nobel Prizes.
First, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on neural networks. Hopfield is best known for creating the Hopfield Network, a form of recurrent artificial neural network that models associative memory. Hinton is a pioneer in deep learning; he significantly contributed to the development of backpropagation algorithms and deep neural networks. Both are considered founding fathers of the modern AI movement.
Over in the chemistry world, AI researchers also cleaned up. David Baker is a computational biologist celebrated for his pioneering work in computational protein design. He developed the Rosetta software suite, a powerful tool for predicting and designing protein structures and interactions. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, both of DeepMind, led the development of AlphaFold, an AI program that has made significant strides in solving the protein folding problem. AlphaFold provides accurate predictions of protein structures based solely on amino acid sequences, and has immense implications for biology and medicine, potentially accelerating drug discovery.
This year marked the first time in history that a scientific Nobel Prize was awarded to recipients whose work was largely grounded in artificial intelligence…and it happened twice, across both Physics and Chemistry. I suspect that, overtime, more and more breakthroughs that lead to such prizes will find their foundations in AI and that AI-first prize winners will be the rule and not the exception.
Meet your 2027 winner of the Nobel Prize in … Everything.
(2) TCR cell therapies vanquish solid tumors — finally
Charlotte Harrison for Nature Biotechnology
The FDA’s approval of the first genetically modified T cell therapy for treating a rare sarcoma is paving the way for next-generation therapies that tackle other types of solid tumors.
Man, more bad news for cancer. You just love to see it.
The FDA just gave accelerated approval to Adaptimmune's Tecelra, the first engineered T cell therapy to tackle solid tumors. Unlike traditional CAR-T therapies, which have primarily been effective against blood cancers, Tecelra employs TCR-T cells capable of recognizing and attacking tumors from the inside out by targeting intracellular proteins.
While Tecelra is designed to fight synovial sarcoma specifically, the FDA’s approval opens the floodgate for treating a variety of stubborn solid tumors. Right now, there are over 30 clinical trials underway for similar TCR therapies. TCR is unique in that it recognizes and attacks cancer cells by targeting specific internal proteins displayed on the cancer cell surface, unlike other therapies that only target proteins on the outside of cells. Cancers destroyed from within. These therapies can be both tailored to specific cancer-types and personalized to individual patients.
We love to see a good accelerated approval from the FDA, especially for a treatment against a disease like synovial sarcoma that has a just a 50% five-year survival rate. Fuck Cancer.
(3) Eating less can lead to a longer life: massive study in mice shows why
Elie Dolgin in Nature
The study, involving nearly 1,000 mice fed low-calorie diets or subjected to regular bouts of fasting, found that such regimens do indeed cause weight loss and related metabolic changes. But other factors — including immune health, genetics and physiological indicators of resiliency — seem to better explain the link between cutting calories and increased lifespan.
Eating less = live longer…feel like we all kind of intuitively understand this one. But the exact reason may not be as intuitive as you think.
A study of nearly 1,000 mice found that while calorie restriction and intermittent fasting led to weight loss and improved metabolism, these factors did not directly correlate with increased lifespan. Instead, mice longevity was more closely linked to traits like immune health, red blood cell function, and genetic resilience to the stress of reduced food intake…meaning the life-extending benefits of calorie restriction are driven by factors beyond just metabolic changes.
The takeaway: enhancing your resilience and immune function may be more critical for extending lifespan than simply cutting calories. Combine the two: eating less + bolstering your body’s immune system and you might just turn into Bryan Johnson.
(4) Solution-processable ordered defect compound semiconductors for high-performance electronics
Wang et al in Science
Solution-processable semiconductors hold promise in enabling applications requiring cost-effective electronics at scale but suffer from low performance limited by defects. We show that ordered defect compound semiconductor CuIn5Se8, which forms regular defect complexes with defect-pair compensation, can simultaneously achieve high performance and solution processability.
Last week, I spent a few hours listening to the Dwarkesh podcast with Dylan Patel and Jon from Asionometry. The two-hour pod covered the semiconductor industry from top to bottom: etching specialization all the way up to the geopolitical implications of chip manufacturing. Highly, highly recommend listening. And while I feel a bit smarter on chips after listening, what was made abundantly clear to me was that chips are super, super complex — likely the most complex thing that we humans make — and that neither I, nor anyone in the world, really has a complete understanding of the full-stack. So take my summary of this new chips breakthrough with a grain of salt:
Researchers have created a new semiconductor material called CuIn₅Se₈ that can be produced cheaply and in large quantities. Surprisingly, they improved its performance by deliberately adding and organizing defects inside the material, which actually helps electricity flow more efficiently. Talk about turning a weakness into a strength. This breakthrough overcomes previous limitations of defective materials, enabling the creation of high-performance electronics like faster computer circuits and sharper display screens at a lower cost.
I’m not exactly sure if and when this material will flow into chip commercialization, but especially after listening to that podcast, I have a newfound appreciation for all of the research and work that goes into chips and the importance of seemingly little breakthroughs like have in pushing the industry forward.
(5) Zap Energy shows off its new fusion power prototype, Century
Tim De Chant for TechCrunch
Zap is taking a unique approach to fusion power known as sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch. Instead of using magnets or lasers to squeeze the plasma, it sends a bolt of electricity through a plasma stream. That current generates a magnetic field that compresses the plasma — the pinch — and ends up with fusion.
Zap Energy announced its $130M Series D funding and unveiled “Century,” a prototype fusion reactor that uses sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch technology to advance toward commercial fusion power. Sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch — that’s a mouthful — sends an electric current through a plasma stream to generate a magnetic field that compresses the plasma—leading to fusion—without the need for the most cutting-edge magnets or highest-powered lasers. This approach, the thinking goes, will not only let Zap achieve breakeven energy generation, but do so in a way that is commercially viable.
You can learn more about the approach from Zap’s Ryan Umstattd and Derek Sutherland on the Fusion Founders episode of Age of Miracles:
Achieving reliable, and commercially viable fusion is the holy grail. We’d essentially be able to harness the power of the sun to power all of our current and future energy needs using abundant fuel, cheaply and cleanly. We’re still a bit of a ways off from that though, both scientifically and economically. We’re rooting for the startups like Zap that are pushing the ball forward here towards a Q>10 future.
Bonus: Telsa Robotaxi and Robovan
Packy here. Last night, a little past our bedtimes here on the east coast, Tesla unveiled prototypes of two long-anticipated products — Cybercab and Robovan — while Optimus robots (teleoperated, but still) poured drinks and played rock, paper, scissors.
Live from Warner Bros. in Hollywood, the event was very near-term sci-fi featuring technology we’ll actually be able to use. The Cybercab is slated for 2026 at ~$30,000.
The Robovan, which will seat 20 and looks like an Neo Art Deco train, doesn’t have an estimated lunch date or price tag. Both will be capable of autonomous driving, which will only get better and better over time.
Musk also mentioned predicted that at scale, Optimus robots would be $20-30,000 and could do everything from washing your dishes to watching your kids. He said he thinks that it will be the biggest product ever, and if it can do what he says, it’s hard to imagine that won’t be the case.
What’s beautiful about all of these products — whenever they come — is that the vision is a world in which AI frees humans up to do more of the things we love doing by taking repetitive, undifferentiated tasks out of our hands. Folding clothes, packing the kids’ lunches, and staying fully engaged for an hour on the morning commute are things that need to be done, but not things that we need to do. That seems like a pretty sweet spot for AI to help us out.
For someone who’s not good at anything, Elon keeps lucking into some pretty cool things!
Have a great weekend y’all.
Thanks to Tegus for sponsoring! We’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.
Thanks for reading,
Packy + Dan
Excellent as always!
Thanks for sharing. Nice collection of news.