Hello!

Welcome to The Saturday Morning Newsletter, a concise and casual digest of current events, optimistic news stories, and other interesting tidbits to round out your week. The concept is simple: 16 articles, essays, companies, ideas, podcasts, videos, or thoughts that caught my attention this week for their potential to significantly impact our future.

I want this to be a collaborative effort, so if you see examples of things that truly impact our future, let me know here. I’ll give you credit for sharing them.

If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with friends, colleagues, and family.

Let’s get started.

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#1: Radiant

Description: Radiant is a developer of portable nuclear microreactors.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Radiant recently raised $100M in venture capital funding. Radiant’s goal is to develop the world’s first factory-constructed nuclear microreactors. Their Kaleidos reactor will be 1 MW, a portable source of power that can be deployed anywhere in the world, connected to local energy grids—providing power directly to those that need it.

#2: Starfish Space

Description: Starfish Space is a satellite servicing vehicle developer.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Starfish Space recently raised $29M in venture capital funding. As the number of satellites in space continues to grow, satellite servicing is becoming increasingly important for maintaining sustainability and maximizing the value of space commercialization. Starfish Space’s solution is 10x smaller than comparable solutions and is significantly less expensive.

#3: Hula Earth

Description: Hula Earth is a startup monitoring biodiversity using satellites.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Hula Earth recently raised $1.7M in venture capital funding. Using satellites and Earth-based sensors, Hula Earth helps researchers, industries, and other entities monitor Earth’s biodiversity. There has previously been a large decline in global biodiversity and entities like Hula Earth are battling to understand and combat these trends.

#4: The Exploration Company

Description: The Exploration Company is a cargo delivery space capsule developer.

Why Is This Company Interesting? The Exploration Company recently raised $160M in venture capital funding. Their Nyx vehicle is a modular, reusable, and in-orbit refillable space capsule. The goal of their capsule is to carry cargo to and from space stations in low-Earth orbit and into the outer regions of space.

#5: Tokamak Energy

Description: Tokamak Energy is a developer of fusion reactors using magnet technology.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Tokamak recently raised $125M in venture capital funding. Tokamak is on the cutting edge of fusion technology, pushing to have a deployed reactor in the 2030s. Their goal is to create the next generation of high-intensity clean, renewable energy to power our futures.

PennEnvironment: Global Solar Capacity on the Cusp of Producing Enough Electricity to Power 100 Million Average US Households

The new data from the Global Solar Council estimates that the global installed solar capacity has reached 2 TW (equivalent to 2,000 GW, enough to power ~92M homes). In 2020, there was only 629 GW of solar capacity installed, meaning that roughly 2/3rds of our solar capacity has been installed in the last 5 years. What’s more, there’s an estimated 529 GW of additional solar capacity to be installed in 2024, another year of around 25% growth. The 2030 climate goals are for 11 TW of solar capacity to be installed, meaning a growth rate of 35-45% each year going forward (a lofty goal).

Bloomberg: US Unveils Plan to Triple Nuclear Power by 2050 as Demand Soars

The United States has previously signaled at COP28 that we want to triple our nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Now, in COP29, the US unveiled plans to deploy an additional 200 GW of nuclear energy capacity through the construction of new reactors, plant restarts, and upgrades to existing facilities. By 2030, an estimated 35 GW of new capacity will be operating. How? It’s unclear which entities will be spearheading this growth, but this sustained progress is in the right direction.

Environmental America: U.S. Aims to Expand Wasteful, Polluting Nuclear Power

The tripling of nuclear by 2050 has been called irresponsible by some. “Per dollar of investment, clean energy solutions – such as energy efficiency and renewable resources – deliver far more energy than nuclear power, and can come online faster and with less risk.” Opponents of nuclear don’t see a need to risk toxic meltdowns, wrecked landscapes, and contaminated drinking water when there exist cheaper, already popular renewable solutions.

AP News: Trump Has Vowed to Kill US Offshore Wind Projects. Will He Succeed?

In May, Donald Trump said, regarding wind energy, “We are going to make sure that that ends on Day 1… I’m going to write it out in an executive order. It’s going to end on Day 1… They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is… They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales.” Those familiar with the matter suspect that Trump will be unlikely to end existing projects and already built projects on day 1, but he might have more leverage over those still in the planning stage.

Carbon Brief: Analysis: China’s Emissions Have Now Caused More Global Warming Than EU

China’s historical emissions have now caused more global warming than all of the states of the EU combined. China is unlikely to ever overtake the United States’ contribution to global warming, however, Chinese emissions have grown significantly in the last decade. On the eve of COP29 talks, this information shows that some countries probably need to make a more significant effort than others to repair their environmental damages.

Space.com: The ISS Has Been Leaking for 5 Years. NASA and Russia Disagree on How to Fix It

NASA and the Russian space agency disagree about an ongoing leak’s risk to the ISS. They also disagree about the causes and solutions for the leak in the Russian module. NASA believes the structural integrity of the Russian module is failing and could lead to catastrophic consequences, whereas the Russians believe this catastrophic disintegration isn’t realistic. The ISS crew is in no immediate danger from the leak, however, the leak has been labeled a “top security concern” in the future.

SpaceNews: Space and Defense Sectors Brace for Potential Trump Policy Shifts

There are many significant changes in space and national security policy being proposed as Donald Trump prepares for a second term. Some potential changes are below:

• Increases in defense spending
• Strains on alliances
• Uncertainty in Ukraine conflict
• Rising tensions with China
• Elon Musk’s influence on space policy
• An “America First” approach to space policy
• Space National Guard and Space Command relocation

Pitchbook: Climate Startups Button Up For a Post-Election Freeze

“For the climate tech startups now navigating this stage, it’s going to be a rough six months. As the industry adjusts to a new energy policy regime under President-elect Donald Trump, there’ll be a chill in the air for project financing and major fundraising for companies in the line of fire.

Potentially on the chopping block are key provisions of the US Inflation Reduction Act, the budget of the Department of Energy, and Treasury guidelines on tax credits. Offshore wind and hydrogen projects are two areas that are thought by VCs to be especially precarious.”

“It’s going to be challenging,” said Abe Yokell, managing partner at Congruent Ventures. “My general advice is, make sure you aren’t raising right now.”

TechCrunch: In 2023 VCs Returned the Lowest Level of Capital to Their Investors Since 2011

The venture capital industry is facing a liquidity crisis as IPOs and M&A exits remain few and far between. In 2023, venture capital invested $86B into startups and only returned $26B to their investors in 2023, the lowest total since 2011. Is venture capital dead? The industry is sitting on large amounts of dry powder, waiting to deploy its funds to the proper companies. All of that money needs to go somewhere, and there’s a good chance that place is into the economy, righting this ship.

Law360: US Intellectual Property-Based Sanctions Could Be Imminent

The Protecting American Intellectual Property Act was signed into law in 2022, mandating a range of sanctions against entities and individuals identified by the president as having committed “significant thefts of trade secrets” belonging to U.S. persons. Without being utilized up until this point by the Biden Administration, some believe that the new Trump administration will use this law as a way to further put sanctions on some foreign entities accused of stealing U.S. intellectual property. Weaponizing intellectual property rights as such may not be the correct answer, others argue, but their voices may go unheard by this new regime.

New York Times: Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese

A new study states that nearly 3/4ths of all U.S. adults are overweight or obese. In 1990, around half of adults were overweight or obese, showing that the United States health on average is trending in the wrong direction, quite significantly. Both conditions can raise the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, and shorten life expectancy. Now, more than one in three children are overweight or obese.

Learning Leader: The Bannister Effect

For those of you who haven’t heard the story, here’s a quote from the article:

“From the beginning of recorded history through May 6, 1954, the fastest any human being had ever run a mile was 4:01.4. When it comes to pursuing excellence: the standard of “good enough” becomes a barrier that resists being broken. To chase excellence means to confront that resistance and push beyond it. So it was with the four-minute mile. Runners from across the globe had been focused on breaking that barrier for nearly 70 years, all to no avail. And then came Roger Bannister. The most remarkable aspect of Bannister’s barrier-breaking run of 3:59.4 was how unexpected it was for that runner on that day to be the one.”

This effect has now been dubbed the “Bannister Effect” after Roger Bannister, referring to a barrier previously thought to be unachievable which is then broken, enabling a mental shift in many others to break past the barrier shortly after.

Moral of the story: If a barrier seems unachievable, it may be, or it may just be that the right person hasn’t come along and broke it down for the rest of us. Maybe you’re that person.

See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,

Drew Jackson

Twitter: @brainwavesdotme

Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content are my own and do not represent the views of any of the companies I currently work for or have previously worked for. This content does not contain financial advice - it is for informational and educational purposes only. Investing contains risks and readers should conduct their own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Any sponsorship or endorsements are noted and do not affect any editorial content produced.