A Palo Alto-based startup wants to start releasing iron particles into the exhaust stream of an ocean-going ship within the next 18 months.
Blue Dot Change hopes to determine whether the particles will accelerate the destruction of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
It is among a handful of small commercial companies that want to test whether the release of similar particles could slow climate change. But little is known about other effects of the release of the particles, including potentially dangerous ones. Read the whole story.
—James Temple
AI is dreaming up drugs no one has ever seen. Now we have to see if they work.
At 82, with an aggressive form of blood cancer that six courses of chemotherapy had failed to eradicate, “Paul” seemed out of options. His doctors enrolled him in a trial testing a new technology that matches individual patients with the drugs they need.
Two years later, Paul’s cancer was gone. The technology was developed by Exscientia, which is one of hundreds of startups exploring the use of machine learning in pharmaceuticals, with the shared vision of using AI to make drug discovery faster and cheaper .
AI is already changing the way medicines are made. It’s still early days for AI drug discovery, though, and there are plenty of companies that claim they can’t back it up. Read the whole story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
