Professor Eats Uranium on Live TV

January 20, 2025 | Read Online

Happy MLK day and welcome to Issue #30 of the Tech Fizz newsletter!

From space-bound solar stations 🛰️ to a quantum leap in Schrödinger-inspired computing ⚛️, the future is unfolding fast. China plans to harvest limitless energy from orbit ⚡️, while physicists are rewriting the rules of quantum stability. Meanwhile, ancient Britain’s power dynamics 🏋️‍♀️, cosmic sulfur mysteries, and a record-breaking qubit bring fresh insights into our past and future. Let’s dive in.

🧠 Brain Blast
Hot tech discoveries and breakthroughs from last week

Bloch sphere, representation of a qubit.
Source: ATDIGIT

Solar Station: China is setting its sights on space-based energy with an ambitious plan to construct a massive solar power station in orbit. By positioning solar panels beyond Earth’s atmosphere, the station would avoid energy losses caused by atmospheric interference, allowing it to generate more power annually than all of Earth's oil reserves combined. However, a timeline for the project has yet to be disclosed.

Quantum Cache: Drawing inspiration from Schrödinger’s cat, physicists have made a breakthrough in quantum computing. Leveraging the concept of "superposition," they utilized antimony atoms to store quantum information. Unlike conventional qubits, which operate in just two states, antimony can maintain eight, significantly enhancing error resistance.

Boss Babes: Genetic research has revealed that certain regions of Iron Age Britain were matrilineal—a first in European history. DNA evidence indicates that men relocated to their wives’ communities after marriage, with property and leadership roles passing through the female lineage.

Error Erasure: MIT has set a new benchmark in quantum computing. By using a superconducting qubit known as fluxonium, researchers achieved an unprecedented single-qubit fidelity of 99.998%. This dramatic reduction in quantum errors marks a major step toward making quantum computing more reliable and practical.

Peek-a-Boo: Scientists have long puzzled over the apparent disappearance of sulfur in dense star-forming clouds. Recent findings suggest that at low cosmic temperatures, sulfur binds with ammonium to create ammonium hydrosulfide—a salt that clings to space dust and debris. This discovery may explain why sulfur remains trapped in solid form rather than staying in a gaseous state.

📸 Industry Snapshot
A candid look at layoffs and venture capital funding

On January 13th, the Latino-focused fintech startup, Alza, shut down and laid off all of its employees. Reason for the shut down has not been disclosed.
On January 14th, Meta laid off 5% of its global workforce as a way to weed out low-performing workers and prepare for an "intense" year.

🏥 Truveta, a healthcare data platform, raised $320M on January 13 to reach a valuation of $1B.

🚀 Stoke Space, a developer of reusable rockets, raised $260M on January 15.

🧬 Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology and genetic engineering company that uses gene editing technology to de-extinct species, raised $200M on January 15 with TWG Global as the lead investor to reach a valuation of $10.2B.

🔐 Phantom, a crypto wallet platform, raised $150M on January 16 with Paradigm as one of the lead investors to reach a valuation of $3B.

📱 Social Cues
What's poppin' in tech on social media

Bezos Blasts Off: Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos nearly 25 years ago and a key competitor to SpaceX, successfully launched its first New Glenn rocket on Thursday.

Radioactive Bite: The 1980s were truly a different era. A 1985 video of physicist Galen Windsor casually eating uranium on live television to demonstrate its supposed safety has resurfaced, sparking curiosity and debate among Reddit users.

Brad Pitt Swindler: Fraudsters using AI deepfake technology posed as Brad Pitt to swindle a French woman out of $850,000, raising growing concerns about the risks of digital deception.

Faraway Farming: A recent study suggests that cultivating crops on the Moon could be significantly easier than on Mars, making lunar colonization slightly more feasible for future settlers.

Blast from the Past: A vintage Sony camera has gone viral on Reddit, with its hilariously oversized memory card offering Gen-Z a glimpse into the pre-SD card era of digital storage.

😎 Only Good Vibes
A boost of positivity to jumpstart your week

Memory Reset: The Neuralyzer from Men in Black might not be pure fiction anymore—scientists have discovered a method to overwrite negative memories with positive ones. By reinforcing happy cues over distressing memory patterns during sleep, this technique could offer new hope for individuals dealing with trauma, PTSD, and other mental health challenges.

Wildlife Web: Researchers are deploying electronic tracking devices on animals to create a vast data network—essentially an "internet for animals." This system could provide real-time insights into wildlife behavior, aiding in the prediction of disease outbreaks, earthquakes, and other natural events.

Nano Novelty: Chinese scientists have made a major advancement in Parkinson’s research. By utilizing gold-coated nanoparticles infused with antibodies and peptides, they can precisely target damaged dopamine cells, potentially reversing the disease. Early trials in mice have shown significant neurological improvement.

Battling Blindness: Researchers have identified two promising compounds that could help treat retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that causes blindness in over a million people worldwide. Unlike existing treatments, these new compounds are less toxic and more stable in light. Though human trials remain a distant goal, this marks a crucial step toward more effective vision-saving therapies.