Readers, can you believe it’s the ninth issue of the White Pill, where we round up all the most fascinating, evocative, inspiring developments in space, tech, medicine, engineering, and big ideas?

Nick and I had a good time putting this one together. Our excellent news this week is about something very promising that happened when a Yale-led research team tried a new therapeutic approach to lung cancer. In space news, we have an incredibly interesting new study connecting frequency of supernovae to the origin of life on Earth, a new theory about the interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua, a stunning image of Saturn ring ice towers, super detailed new pics of the Sun’s surface, and more.

After this week’s White Pill Investment Index, where we track funding going to companies doing interesting, forward-thinking things, we discuss a telomere-related advance in aging science and a potential link between schizophrenia and lupus, among other things, in our section on medicine. After that, in our energy and engineering section, we go over a new electric RV on the market, new tech that could enable solar space farms, a $46m DOE grant, and a gene drive for stray cats.