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- October 10th 2025
October 10th 2025
The Weekly Brief
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October 10th 2025
💻 Technology
China has activated the world’s first large-scale commercial underwater data center off Hainan, housing servers in a 1,433-ton submerged cabin cooled naturally by seawater. Developed by Shenzhen HiCloud, the system lowers energy use and operational costs compared to land-based centers, making it ideal for AI and cloud services. As part of Hainan’s free-trade zone strategy, the project signals China’s lead in sustainable digital infrastructure and aims to scale to 100 underwater units.
⚡️ Energy
🇬🇧 UK researchers develop system to turn seawater into hydrogen fuel, aiming to replace marine diesel
UK scientists from Brunel University and startup Genuine H2 have developed a system that extracts hydrogen directly from seawater and stores it safely as a solid fuel for marine engines, producing only steam when burned. Backed by £1.44 million from the UK SHORE initiative, the technology eliminates the need for energy-intensive desalination and cryogenic storage, offering a cleaner, scalable alternative to diesel for ships. The breakthrough could play a major role in decarbonizing sea travel and building a global hydrogen fuel network.
🚘 Transport
🇺🇸 US researchers convert streetlights into EV chargers to boost access and cut infrastructure costs
Researchers at Penn State have demonstrated a scalable, cost-effective method to retrofit city streetlights into electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, offering a practical solution for urban residents without home chargers. In a year-long pilot in Kansas City, 23 modified streetlights delivered faster, cheaper, and more equitable charging by using existing municipal infrastructure. Published in the Journal of Urban Planning and Development, the study shows how this approach could accelerate EV adoption while reducing emissions and promoting accessibility across diverse neighborhoods.
🚀 Space
🇺🇸 US engineers unveil space-based cargo vehicle to deliver supplies anywhere on Earth in under an hour
Engineers at US-based aerospace startup Inversion have revealed Arc, the world’s first orbital delivery vehicle designed to transport up to 500 pounds of critical cargo from space to nearly any location on Earth in less than 60 minutes. The reusable spacecraft, unveiled at the company’s Los Angeles facility, is built for rapid-response logistics and hypersonic testing, offering maneuverable reentry and parachute landings without runways. With backing from NASA and participation in the MACH-TB 2.0 program, Arc could revolutionize emergency aid, defense supply chains, and atmospheric research.
📈 Investor’s Corner
Nanalyze, our go-to source for no-BS analysis on disruptive tech, released a few interesting pieces this week:
💉 Biotechnology
In a world-first, Chinese surgeons at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University successfully transplanted a gene-edited pig liver into a living human patient, with the organ functioning for 38 days and the patient surviving 171 days post-op. Published in the Journal of Hepatology, the case demonstrates that genetically modified pig livers can perform critical metabolic functions in humans, offering hope amid organ shortages. While complications remain, this milestone marks major progress in xenotransplantation research.
💊 Healthcare
Canadian scientists at the University of British Columbia have, for the first time, transplanted an enzyme-treated kidney into a brain-dead patient, successfully converting it from blood type A to universal type O. The innovation, detailed in Nature Biomedical Engineering, uses enzymes as "molecular scissors" to strip blood-type antigens from the kidney, reducing the risk of rejection and potentially making more donor kidneys available to all blood types. This breakthrough could drastically shorten transplant wait times, especially for type O patients who typically wait years longer for a match.
Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have created a nanoparticle-based cancer vaccine that trains the immune system to block tumor growth and spread, achieving up to 88% prevention across aggressive cancers like melanoma, pancreatic, and triple-negative breast cancer in mice. Published in Cell Reports Medicine, the vaccine combines dual immune stimulants to activate both innate and adaptive immunity, providing long-term protection and immune memory. The breakthrough could pave the way for multi-cancer preventive and therapeutic vaccines.
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Max
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