DTN 136: The Sodium Ion Battery Revolution

Plus: Google measures quantum echoes, money pours into dual use startups, AI-designed compounds kill drug resistant bacteria, solution to the CIA's Kryptos sculpture, using jet engines for data centers, and more.

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HAUS: The Deep Tech Agency
October 24, 2025

"There's significant investment in carbon capture, but ultimately all that captured carbon ends up stored in the ground with no tangible return on investment precisely because carbon utilization has been economically unviable."

The Sodium-Ion Battery Revolution Has Started

“The cost of sodium battery materials is much lower than for any lithium battery. There are no resource bottleneck materials like cobalt or lithium to contend with. In addition, aluminum can be used for electrodes, whereas lithium requires copper for one of the electrodes. Carbon or graphite and separator materials will be similar, but in all other respects, sodium has much lower material costs. Compared to LFP, sodium does not require phosphorous, a substance that is almost exclusively sourced from one state in north Africa, nor lithium, a relatively abundant but more expensive substance than sodium. LFP cannot compete on material costs or temperature range, and both BYD and CATL expect to phase it out first in energy storage."

The Prima implant is composed of photovoltaic cells and measures 2mm x 2mm x 30µm. Photo: Science

Science Corporation is working to cure age-related macular degeneration—one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, which previously had no cure—using brain-computer interfaces. Its Prima system, a combination of a retinal implant composed of tiny photovoltaic cells (think solar panels) and special glasses, restores a person’s ability to see by refilling the “black hole” in their vision with lost visual information. In a clinical trial, the team assessed 32 people over the age of 60 who had the Prima implant for at least a year. The results were promising: after 12 months, the implant had meaningfully restored vision in 26 participants, allowing them to read words, numbers, and letters again. Because the Prima retinal implant is powered entirely by light through its tiny solar panels, it operates wirelessly—a significant advancement over earlier vision implants that required cables. Science Corporation was founded by Max Hodak, who was formerly president and cofounder of Neuralink. (via Inc.)

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