DTN 135: Boomtowns for Biotech

Plus: Acoustic wildfire defense, Starship's successful flight, self-driving drone-launching cop cars, ChatGPT erotica, advanced materials for fusion energy, artificial neurons interface with living cells, and more.

October 17, 2025

“Electrification drives superior economics versus fossil fuel alternatives. Electrons are fundamentally easier to store and transport than the oil we've been extracting and burning for the past century.”

“The monolithic gray buildings that have popped up around Holly Springs may not outwardly stir excitement. But they’re signs of a once-in-a-generation boon for the former plantation town, once dubbed the “poverty pocket” of wealthy Wake County. The drugmaker Genentech is spending $700 million to build here, while Amgen has pledged $1.5 billion to construct a manufacturing plant. And in September, pharmaceutical contractor FUJIFILM Biotechnologies opened the first phase of a $3 billion project that will create 1,400 jobs.”

EagleEye includes “helmet-native hardware” designed for the battlefield. Image: Anduril.

Since formalizing a partnership in May, Anduril and Meta have released their first hardware product together: an AI-powered mixed reality helmet named the EagleEye. The military helmet is part of a family of systems that includes a heads-up display, spatial audio, and radio frequency detection. EagleEye can display mission briefings and orders, overlay maps and other information during combat, and control drones and military robotics. Anduril already provides software for the Army’s existing mixed reality goggles, but the EagleEye has been under development since Anduril’s inception. (via The Verge).

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