DTN 137: Congress Aims at Chinese Biotechs

Plus: US to resume nuclear tests, photonic AI chips in space, restarting a US nuclear plant, editing human embryos, mirrorless lasers, mushroom memory chips, and more.

October 31, 2025

We’re throwing a party. You’re invited.

On Thursday, November 13, HAUS is hosting an exclusive party to celebrate the official launch of our biotech practice.

Join us for drinks and conversation with the people moving biotech forward — VCs, founders, operators

Deep Tech Newsletter subscribers are guaranteed entry until we reach capacity. RSVP below to reserve your ticket!

"Environmental noise drowns out gravity signals. Even waves lapping on U.K. shores create noise many times stronger than the gravity signal we're measuring. We've created the noise-canceling headphones for subsurface measurements."

Congress close to passing law that would freeze out certain Chinese biotechs

“A bill aimed at preventing Americans’ genetics and health data from being acquired by Chinese biotech companies is expected to become law by year’s end. Known as the Biosecure Act, the legislation would halt federal funding to organizations working with businesses flagged as “companies of concern,” a move expected to focus on Chinese biotech firm. Some observers suggest the legislation doesn’t go far enough in either protecting health security of Americans or safeguarding the U.S. biotech industry. And forcing U.S. researchers to cut ties with Chinese firms may actually harm U.S. competitiveness, says Abigail Coplin, an international science policy expert at Vassar College.”

Starfront Observatories in Rockwood, Texas, has ballooned from zero telescopes to over 550. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Starfront Observatories is a remote observatory that caters to a special type of astronomer: amateurs. Located half-way between Austin and Fort Worth, it opened less than a year ago and already has 550 telescopes set up. The founders mission is to make space exploration accessible to everyone, which comes through in their pricing and customer service. Starfront lets folks ship the telescope to their HQ in Texas, along with a digital camera and a computer. Then a Starfront technician will install the device onto a steel mount in one of the sheds. The costs to keep a telescope at Starfront start at $99 a month for the smallest telescope, a no-brainer when compared to remote observatories that can charge upwards of $800/month. The founders have ambitious plans for the future and hope to forge partnerships with schools and universities.(via NYT)

Data centers are turning to gas generators for prime power to eliminate long lead times for grid connections / CEO of Alphabet’s X, Astro Teller, on what makes a moonshot / China’s presence is growing in the Middle East, but it’s not a security challenge to US — yet / Ex-Intel CEO's mission to build a Christian AI / China's DeepSeek and Qwen AI beat US rivals in Crypto trading contest / Hundreds of people with ‘top secret’ clearance exposed by House Democrats’ website / I tried to have sex with AI Clive Owen / San Francisco mayor: ‘We should be the testbed for emerging tech’ / Anthropic scientists hacked Claude’s brain — and it noticed. Here’s why that’s huge / AI hallucinates because it’s trained to fake answers it doesn’t know / How the Mayans were able to accurately predict solar eclipses for centuries / First shape found that can’t pass through itself / Space exploration logo archive / China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990 / Tether is now the 17th largest holder of US debt / Poker tournament for LLMs / Argentina's midterm election hands landslide win to Milei's libertarian overhaul / A worker fell into a nuclear reactor pool / Mathematical proof debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation / China dives in on the world’s first wind-powered undersea data center / VCs urge founders to fundraise before AI bubble bursts / ‘Clinical-grade AI’: a new buzzy AI word that means absolutely nothing / Student handcuffed after Doritos bag mistaken for a gun by school's AI security system / How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator / Nike unveils Project Amplify, the world’s first powered footwear system for running and walking / Most of the world’s space launches are controlled by just three countries / a16z-backed startup sells thousands of ‘synthetic influencers’ to manipulate social media as a service / Meet the humanoid robot headed for homes