May 27, 2023
It’s the seventh edition of The White Pill, our weekly round up of inspiring news from tech, medicine, space, energy, and engineering.
A ton of space news in this issue: we discuss a robotic snake that will explore geysers on a Saturnian moon, a LOT of Earth-moon news (planning for dust-free areas of operation, moon roads, melted regolith, lunar bricks, 3D printed habitats… i.e., your standard lunar fare), and the six super sci-fi projects NASA just granted funding to (one of them is described as developing “nearly silent electroaerodynamic thrusters for vertical takeoff and landing aircraft”).
Also included in this issue: details on some interesting engineering projects, such as a city-block-size vertical farming operation in Compton; news in medicine, like the fact that dementia may be caused by a virus, and as always, Fun Stuff at the end. Also: don’t miss the White Pill Investment Index (see last week’s here), where we track the big deals and interesting projects that got funded this week.
I spoke with 21 billionaires about california’s unprecedented asset seizure ballot proposition. here: their plans to leave, their efforts to fight back, and the future of tech in california
tipping culture has gone insane, and the ipads now ask for more money almost everywhere. how the hell did we get here and when will it stop?
the u.s. department of energy will invest $2.7b in america’s ability to finally create its own nuclear fuel, a feat we haven’t been able to pull off since the 80s