#140 - New Blood Tests, Biomanufacturing, and Ants Surpassing Humans!
Welcome to the Impact Labs Newsletter! If you like what you see and know others who would be interested in subscribing, send them this email and they can join the fam by signing up here! 😀
Impact Update
Fill out this form if you haven’t already!
And if you’re working on something exciting / seeking funding, fill this out! We’ll be submitting proposals to our funders next week!
In the News
💉 Vaccines usually have to be stored/delivered cold, but new chemical breakthroughs are enabling shelf-stable vaccines, which could be a game changer for public health.
☀️ Renewable energy additions grew 17% in 2024. This report highlights the economic and climate impacts of the energy transition.
🩸 A team at oxford has developed a new blood test that can detect many forms of cancer even at early stages.
🏭 Steel production accounts for a significant percentage of global emissions and pollution, but scientists in China have developed a method of manufacturing iron that could lead to a 3,600x increase in efficiency.
🏇 DeepSeek has become a hot topic and sparked renewed fervor in the already heated US-China AI race to dominance. Here’s a succinct summary of how DeepSeek is different.
Opportunities
“At FreeWorld, our mission is to end generational poverty and recidivism through economic mobility. We use a tech-forward approach to get returning citizens (folks with a criminal record) into living wage jobs–at scale.” They’re currently seeking a software engineer to join their team.
The Residency is an in-person 6-month program for builders, dreamers, and ambitious young people who prefer to create wonderful things rather than sit in a lecture hall. College dropout wannabes, rejoice! We’re huge believers in residencies as a means of replacing the traditional 4-year college experience. Living together in a small group with focused, dedicated individuals can be extraordinarily potent, and we have a feeling we’ll see more of this type of program emerge in the coming months and years. Tell them Impact Labs sent you when you apply!
Aclid aims to help scientists build safer and better biomanufactured products. They do this by providing security and safety products for responsible research. In this role, you'll play a key part in the early stages of a company advancing a new field and develop new tools to enhance the accuracy and speed of the platform, such as testing new sequence similarity tools. They’re currently on the lookout for a senior software engineer with some bio familiarity.
The Future of Life Institute is a nonprofit that works to reduce global catastrophic and existential risks facing humanity, particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence. They’re looking for a web dev.
“Gray Swan AI is on a mission to make AI safer. As a growing startup, we develop cutting-edge security solutions for AI systems, helping organizations ensure safety and reliability in their AI-driven products. We are seeking a versatile Software Engineer to join our team. This role involves building and refining user interfaces, backend APIs, and database systems, with a preference for candidates who can bridge the gap between frontend and backend development.” Application here.
What We’re Watching
Apparently, we got closer to the sun than over before last month. Pretty hot!
This sheet tracks all of Trump’s executive orders… :(
New IVF procedures are less invasive and cheaper.
Quotes We Love
“If you don't like someone's story, write your own.”
- Chinua Achebe
That’s all for now! See you in your inbox in another two weeks! ❤️