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: 17 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.

---

#1: Merlin Solar

Description: Merlin Solar designs flexible, lightweight solar panels for various uses.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? Merlin Solar recently raised $31M in venture capital funding. Merlin’s panels have a rugged design optimized for durability and easy installation. These panels are perfect for mobile, off-grid, rooftops, and many more uses, providing further energy efficiency than traditional glass panels. Solar continues to experience large innovations, driving down costs and increasing use cases exponentially.

#2: Beyond Aero

Description: Beyond Aero is a developer of hydrogen-powered electric business jets.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? Beyond Aero recently raised $20M in venture capital funding. Working with a conceptual design currently, Beyond Aero is aiming to revolutionize business travel. Their design has significantly lower operational costs, reduced environmental impact, and enhanced reliability. It’s unclear how quickly this transition will be made at a large scale, but providing more efficient and sustainable solutions is always beneficial to the market at large.

#3: Planetary Technologies

Description: Planetary Technologies is a startup developing carbon removal technology based on ocean alkalinity.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? Planetary Technologies recently raised $11.4M in venture capital funding. Their technology is based on Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement, which includes adding an antacid to seawater that neutralizes CO2. This results in a safe, permanent removal of CO2, helping battle climate change by restoring the ocean’s vital chemistry.

#4: Redoxblox

Description: Redoxblox is an industrial heat startup that uses thermochemical energy.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? Redoxblox recently raised $30M in venture capital funding. The company is developing energy storage units that hold energy as both chemicals and as heat at high temperatures, allowing for continuous or on-demand discharge for industrial processes or electricity. Industrial heat is primarily dominated by fossil fuels, so having a renewable option is a significant innovation in the field.

The Cooldown: Scientists Create a Nuclear Battery That Can Power Devices for Decades

Chinese scientists are leveraging Americium, a nuclear waste byproduct, to generate electricity. As the molecule decays, it produces electricity. This new nuclear battery, which is smaller than an inch, is over 8,000 times more efficient than previous versions. Micronuclear batteries could power deep-sea explorations, space missions, or remote monitoring stations.

Environment America: Wind and Solar Energy Tripled in the US Over the Past Decade

According to the Environment America Research & Policy study, the United States produced more than 3 times as much solar, wind, and geothermal power in 2023 than we did in 2014. Growth was experienced in all 50 states. This historical growth has exceeded even the largest expectations, a trend that is expected to continue, meeting the COP28 goals.

Yale Climate Connections: Wind Power Microturbines for Homes, Public Parks, and More

You’ve heard of putting solar panels on your home. Now, people are trying to put wind turbines on your home. This doesn’t mean the huge wind turbines you see on hills or at the mouth of canyons, as there are new microturbine designs by a company called Aeroleaf. These designs look like curled leaves and can be installed in groups on a home or building. These devices can produce energy at night, a major limitation of solar panels (especially in rarely sunny areas). Maybe we’ll all have solar panels and wind microturbines on our homes in the future.

New York Times: Climate Change Is Making Disasters Deadlier. Here’s How Much.

A report released this week shows the 10 deadliest weather events over the past 20 years were made worse by climate change. “Many people now understand that climate change is already making life more dangerous,” said Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer at Imperial College London and co-founder of World Weather Attribution, the group that published the report. “What did not work yet is turning knowledge into action on a large enough scale.”

New York Times: How Are the World’s Trees Doing? A New Assessment Has Answers.

The first comprehensive assessment of the world’s trees was completed recently, finding that more than a third of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction. Countless species of other plants, animals, and fungi rely on these ecosystems. Trees are also fundamental to regulating water, and nutrients, and controlling carbon dioxide. This decline continues the trend of our world being significantly affected by climate change and human expansion.

Space.com: NASA Generated $76B for the US Economy in 2023

A NASA study found that NASA’s activities in 2023 contributed $76B to the US economy, around 3 times NASA’s budget in 2023. NASA’s large activities in 2023 included its Moon to Mars initiative, climate change research, technology development, and more. Granted, this is NASA studying itself here so there could be bias present, but if true (or even partially true), NASA is having a large effect on our economy which is fantastic for the future of space commercialization.

NASA: Back on Earth: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 Mission Splashes Down Off Florida

After launching March 3rd on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station, astronauts spent 232 days aboard the space station, splashing down this week to conclude their science mission aboard the ISS. What were they doing? “Research and technology demonstrations included conducting stem cell research to develop organoid models for studying degenerative diseases, exploring how fuel temperature affects material flammability, and studying how spacelight affects immune function in astronauts.”

Space.com: US Space Force Awards SpaceX $730M to Launch 9+ National-Security Missions

The United States Space Force awarded SpaceX $733M to cover 7 launches for the Space Development Agency (SDA) and one set of missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). In this evolving era, for many countries and many national security offices, it is imperative not to leave defense capabilities on the ground.

Wall Street Journal: With Dreams of a Lunar Outpost, China Takes New Risks in Space Race With U.S.

China is signaling a growing appetite to increase high-risk missions to quickly close the gap with the United States in the pseudo Space Race 2.0. China plans to be a global power in space by 2030, with plans to reach the Moon by 2030. To begin this initiative, China recently sent 3 new astronauts to their space station to participate in further space-based experiments and research.

Lexology: Intellectual Property: The Wealth Engine No One is Talking About

Intellectual property drives a large portion of the S&P 500 valuations. The bulk of wealth, both for companies and individuals, mainly comes from intellectual property. When politicians traditionally discuss the “rich” and/or “wealthy” and subsequent taxes on their income or wealth, they tend to focus on traditional assets - real estate, stock, and income, without acknowledging the value of intellectual property. It’s hard to value intellectual property, however, which is why it often isn’t considered in the discussion, yet it probably should be considered.

Iowa State Daily: The Uses of Philosophy

I’m always a fan of philosophy, so I would recommend this read. As people look for answers in today's world, a world where wrong answers usually get the most screen time, there is no good method to find happiness. Our society and culture have been and will continue to be ideological, hence the need for abstract solutions and explanations. Enter philosophy. I’d recommend the read as it’s a solid viewpoint on how philosophical thought works in the world we live in, especially given how rapidly the world has changed recently.

Interesting Engineering: US Approves Huge Lithium Mine to Produce EV Batteries for 370,000 Cars Annually

The United States federal government approved a permit by Ioneer for the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project. This mine will boost the United States’ critical mineral production levels, supplying materials for batteries for over 370,000 EVs yearly. This will help promote the renewable energy and sustainability trend beginning at the infrastructure level.

Reddit r/trolleyproblem: Game Theory

With the recent TikTok trend of “double it and give it to the next person”, people have been expanding this premise into many things it was not originally intended for. My favorite of which has been the following:

The trolley problem, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is traditionally the following (explained by Wikipedia): the series usually begins with a scenario in which a runaway tram, trolley, or train is on course to collide with and kill a number of people (traditionally five) down the track, but a driver or bystander can intervene and divert the vehicle to kill just one person on a different track.

This new version, incorporating the “double it and give it to the next person”, is set up quite similarly, except it’s a set of repeating games, wherein the first person can choose to pull the lever and kill 1 person, or choose not to, which doubles the number of people for the next person and so on. The scenario doesn’t end until someone pulls the lever, so in theory, it could go on forever if no one ever pulls it. It’s a wild thought that combines ethics and game theory.

If you were the first person, what would you choose?

See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,

Drew Jackson

Twitter: @brainwavesdotme

Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com

Submit any interesting articles/links for The Saturday Morning Newsletter here.

Thank you for reading The Saturday Morning Newsletter by Brainwaves. Please ask your friends, colleagues, and family members to sign up.

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.