Hi friends 👋,

Happy Friday and welcome back to our 102nd Weekly Dose of Optimism.

We’re back at it again. While many VCs are off galavanting in Europe, we’re lucky that the researchers and scientists had a very busy week. They solved decades old math problems, got funding for quantum lasers, figured out how to edit genes in the microbiome, discovered a new super-Earth, and much more. These folks just can’t stop, won’t stop.

Let’s get to it.

Today’s Not Boring is brought to you by… Write of Passage

No single investment of time or money has improved my life as much as David Perell’s Write of Passage. Now, you can get David’s insights into writing for free with Writing Examples.

Writing is a multiplier. Whatever your passion or skill is, the ability to write about it clearly means your ideas and work will reach more people, and resonate with them more strongly. One well-written essay, read by the right people, can change your life. And writing that essay isn’t as hard as you think. 

David is obsessed with writing; more specifically, he’s obsessed with helping people become great writers.  His podcast, How I Write, is one of my favorites, because he asks questions that only an obsessive could, and the answers he pulls out of guests have changed the way I write. 

With Writing Examples, he’s delivering those insights straight to your inbox. David recently started the free weekly newsletter to study history’s greats and teach you how to write like they do. Writing Examples is jam-packed with lessons on writing, delivered in the way you wish you’d always been taught. 

I learned to be a better writer from David, and now you can too, for free. Trust me, Writing Examples will make you a better writer, and that will make you a better… everything.  

Subscribe to Writing Examples

(1) With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits

Ben Brubaker for Quanta Magazine

Today, the team declared victory. They’ve finally verified the true value of a number called BB(5), which quantifies just how busy that fifth beaver is. They obtained the result — 47,176,870 — using a piece of software called the Coq proof assistant, which certifies that mathematical proofs are free of errors.

Researchers have identified the fifth "busy beaver" number, BB(5), proving it to be 47,176,870 steps. A busy beaver number, denoted as BB(n), is a concept from theoretical computer science related to Turing machines. For a given number of states n, the busy beaver number BB(n) represents the maximum number of steps that any n-state Turing machine can take before halting, starting with a blank tape. In overly simple terms, it’s the maximum number of steps the most active simple computer program with a given number of rules can take before stopping.

Discovering busy beaver numbers is important because it shows the limits of what simple computer programs can do and helps researchers understand the boundaries of computation. The recently discovered 5th busy beaver number is much larger and more complex to find than the previous ones, highlighting the complexity and unpredictability of increasingly advanced computers.

You won’t see any new AI model or other advance system immediately working this research into products, but the discovery should influence theoretical CS and is just another example of what a motley crew of researchers can accomplish.

What makes the discovery even more amazing is that it was discovered a sort of decentralized team of amateur mathematicians — who in their free time from running software companies, completing dissertations and the like — decided to take on a decades old theoretical math problem. Starting to believe that motley internet research teams can solve any problem thrown at them.

(2) DARPA's military-grade 'quantum laser' will use entangled photons to outshine conventional laser beams

Owen Hughes for Live Science

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $1 million grant to scientists building a prototype "quantum photonic-dimer laser" that uses quantum entanglement to "glue" light particles together and generate a highly concentrated laser beam.

Frickin’ “laser” beams!

DARPA is funding the development of a "quantum photonic-dimer laser" that uses quantum entanglement to bind photons together, creating a highly concentrated and stable laser beam. The new “quantum laser” should be able to maintain strength and precision over longer distances, as compared to traditional laser beams. The new laser’s military applications are obvious — cutting through fog, advanced surveillance, etc…which is why DARPA is funding it — but a quantum laser would also have real world applicability in a number of fields such as quantum computing, telecommunications, and medical imaging.

So what is a quantum laser and how is it different from a traditional laser? A traditional laser works by exciting electrons in atoms, making them release photons in a synchronized way. These photons bounce between mirrors inside the laser, creating a concentrated beam of light. Quantum lasers, however, use a special property called quantum entanglement. It links pairs of photons together, so they behave like a single unit. This makes the light beam stronger and more precise because the linked photons help protect each other from interference.

After finishing up Dark Matter a couple of weeks ago, I can stop thinking about quantum entanglement. I guess the DARPA folks caught the series, too!

(3) Scientists edit the genes of gut bacteria in living mice

Gemma Conroy for Nature

Scientists have designed a gene-editing tool that can modify bacterial populations in the gut microbiome of living mice

Tummy issues might have an issue of their own to deal with.

Scientists used a gene 'base editor' to successfully modify a gene in over 90% of E. coli bacteria in the gut of living mice, without causing harmful side effects. Specifically, the base editor changed a DNA base (A to G) in the bacteria's gene that produces β-lactamases, enzymes responsible for E. coli’s antibiotic resistance. Essentially, we now have a gene editing tool capable of safely and effectively modifying bacteria in the gut microbiome.

While the team showed the base editor’s efficacy in targeting E. coli bacteria in mice, the same methodology could be used to target any number of bacterial strains or diseases in the gut microbiome. Importantly, the new methodology uses bacteriophage to reach gut bacteria and prevents the spread of the edited genes.

Our gut microbes could soon be getting a genetic upgrade, flushing our tummy issues down the toilet.

(4) Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Exoplanet LHS 1140 b with JWST/NIRISS

Cadieux et al from Universit´e de Montr´eal

Our JWST observations of LHS 1140b rule out the mini-Neptune scenario, placing it firmly in the super-Earth category.

Hell yeah. We may have another super-Earth!

Using the James Webb Space telescope, a team of scientists studied LHS 1140b, a planet 48 light years away and has decided it’s a potential super-Earth. A super-Earth is a type of planet larger than Earth but significantly smaller than Neptune, and is typically typically characterized by rocky compositions and potentially habitable conditions. The recent observations led the team to rule out LHS 1140b as mini-Neptune and to label it as a potential super-Earth.

LHS 1140b is 1.73 times larger and 5.6 times heavier than Earth, and was found to likely have a thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere. This observations hint at LHS 1140b possibly having an ice world-like surface with an ocean on its dayside. Together, the atmosphere and potential ocean, make LHS 1140b a promising candidate for habitability. Now when I say habitability, it’s not like we can just shoot humans up there to build a civilization — it would take our most advanced spacecraft over 100,000 years to reach LHS 1140b — but understanding habitability deepens our understanding of potential for life elsewhere in the universe.

Bonus: A.I. Helped Spot a Copper Bonanza. It Could Transform More Than Mining.

Max Bearak for The New York Times

On Thursday, their company, KoBold Metals, informed its business partners that their find is likely the largest copper discovery in more than a decade. According to their estimates, reviewed by The New York Times, the mine would produce at least 300,000 tons of copper a year once fully operational. That corresponds to a value of billions of dollars a year, for decades.

Packy here. In April, I wrote a Deep Dive on Earth AI, a Not Boring Capital portfolio company that is exploring and drilling for critical metals. Its AI model predicts the location of deposits, and its drilling platform verifies them 4x faster and 4x more cheaply. It’s a killer combo: the company has already made three discoveries when a traditional explorer is successful if it makes just one.

In that piece, I mentioned another mining startup, KoBold Metals, writing:

That leaves KoBold, which is by far the most legitimate and fascinating of the startup competitor set. Founded in 2018, the company raised $195 million at a $1 billion post-money valuation from a16z, Breakthrough Energy, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and T. Rowe Price last year…

While its site touts its exploration efforts, interestingly, it seems to be focused midstream on the development stage. Last year, it acquired the potentially very large Mincomba Copper deposit in Zambia, and is currently exploring and drilling onsite to prove feasibility on the deposit. The company’s President, Josh Goldman, said that it looks to be similar to the Kakula mine across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo in size and grade, which is notable because that mine produced nearly 400,000 tons of copper last year, which would translate to $3.6 billion in annual revenue at a copper price of $9,000 per ton.

It looks like the potentially very large mine has turned into a very large mine. Yesterday, The New York Times reported that KoBold’s feasibility studies found deposits that would support at least 300,000 tons per year, the largest copper mine discovered in the past decade. A third party report that The Times viewed was slightly more conservative, but in line with that number.

To put the discovery in perspective, it’s enough copper for 100 million EV batteries over the next two decades of production. And at 300,000 tons per year at current prices of $9,695 per ton, it represents a roughly $3 billion annual revenue opportunity for KoBold for decades to come.

Seeing the news made me happy for a number of reasons.

First, it’s a solid proof point that mining companies can use modern technology to make valuable and previously overlooked or uneconomical discoveries. As The Times wrote, “The area of Zambia where it was found is known for copper. In fact, its name is Copperbelt Province. Still, nobody had been able to home in on this mile-deep vein until KoBold did, right under everyone’s noses.”

Second, it’s another great example of Robert Zubrin’s maxim: “There are no natural resources. There are only natural raw materials. It is human creativity that transforms raw materials into resources through technological innovations.”

Third, it shows that investors can make real money investing in Techno-Industrials, companies that use modern technology to take on large, established industries and win. Mining is one of the most underinvested categories in tech, but if KoBold is able to successfully mine its Zambian deposits, let alone many others it’s currently exploring, the category may produce one of the biggest outcomes in recent venture memory.

The more successful Techno-Industrials, the more money there will be for entrepreneurs who want to go after the really big, hard problems, even if they look nothing like the big tech winners of the past couple decades.

Bonus: Neuralink Update

Just Elon being Elon, amiright?

Musk and some of the Neuralink team jumped on an awkwardly-positioned video presentation of sorts to deliver some pretty mind-blowing updates on the company’s progress and future plans.

In terms of progress, at this point we’ve all seen the videos of Noland Arbaugh playing videos games and surfing the web using only his brain. The team has identified some improvements from that first implant and has plans to start working with more patients. Looking forward, Neuralink presented plans for vision restoration, prosthetics interfacing, and generally scaling up the number of patients it’s able to serve.

Specifics of the update aside, it’s still wild that Musk is able to get into the weeds like he did in this video. The guy runs the world’s largest EV and private space companies, as well as the world’s most dizzying social media platform (among some other side bets like xAI and The Boring Company.) I sometime complain that I have to dedicate a couple of hours a week to writing a newsletter while also running a small creatine gummy company. Some folks just really do be built different.

Have a great weekend y’all. Thanks to Write of Passage for sponsoring!

We’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.

Share

Thanks for reading,

Packy + Dan