Random VC and science

Woah, we’re halfway there, wo-ah, choppin’ up fi-ber

That’s one nice upcycling approach by One Bio:

• made a plant fiber structure database

• thought out an expansion: cleaving those polysaccharide fibers into oligosaccharides using a mixture of catalyst (Fe³⁺) and hydrogen peroxide (patent)

• those fibers can be added in abundance to food, as they’re odorless and tasteless

Looks like a great start:

• can potentially be used to compose custom fibers for targeted microbiome modulation

• possibly collaborate with other alt-food companies like e.g. Solar Foods (will I ever shut up?) to produce a Matrix-style nutritious stuff (but tasty?)

Climate tech is…not climate tech?

An interesting strategic (we’ll face this sooner than later) piece on climate technology. Some uneducated thoughts:

• Investors and people alike are putting too much faith into the “climate tech” label, and the moral/social implications of it - not the competitive edge

• In reality, we should be happy solving the problem and building enablers/infrastructure for it - not an ‘anything related to’ but ‘anything that potentially helps us not fry/freeze/choke & drink coffee during the next 50 years’

• Oh and yeah - not using policies/tariff cuts for an advantage, but being competitive and sustainable

• There was a point about ‘climate tech’ overshadowing issues nonrelated to CO2 capture, e.g. biodiversity or even sturdier crops. Or, say, some agtech startups like Ohalo (their ‘boosted breeding’ tech is indeed interesting and able to impact the climate)

  

• Hence and because of the macro-VC-trend, some of the thoughts were on further specialization, e.g. ‘synthetic biology’ - it rings reasonable esp. given the recent post; but come on, anyone forbidding from having more assessors/advisors + identifying more synergies?

• I’ve wanted to retort on the ‘and Tesla is also green’ with the battery manufacturing trope, but got caught in a mythbusting article. Sooo it’s all ✅… Also, we’re having emerging tech like sodium-ion (sodium, not lithium), lithium-sulfur (higher energy density) and solid state (even higher density but scaling is complex) that may change the landscape further.

  

Inhale science, exhale startups (found a Deep Science Ventures review)

Trying to bridge science and startups to bring more deep tech impact to the world - what can be better? The peeps at DSV thought the same way - and made a PhD program catered to spew out sci-ups (a term I’ve just made up to describe startups growing out of research/papers).

So, Winnie Wambugu from Kenya settled on getting a World Food Foundation grant and being on the verge of becoming an agtech-preneur after unsuccessful job search (hint: similar to this video). Yet, she found DSV program and mentions that it helped tremendously. Let’s map the factors:

• doing both research and entrepreneurship in one pack

• networking with fellows and the companies/funds

• a personal brand

• synergies

For a firm like DSV, that thing is marvelously in line with “catch good and energetic teams the earliest + nurture them” → so it’s early scouting + possible investing at essentially zero valuation + positive impact/fulfillment + a growing network of funds, founders, etc.

Let’s not forget one of deep tech’s benefits - it’s not that prone to “our API wrapper NFT agent startup is experiencing tough times 🥺”, as it’s literally bringing the change into the world:

Noise and cojones

Remember me telling you to read this in silence? Las pelotas desperately crave silence, and shun noisy environments! (Or maybe not, shh..)

Here are the proofs:

Not only that, but noisy environment at home can contribute to type 2 diabetes (can be caused by shit life syndrome → you’re living in a noisy environment & you don’t have the means to rent in a better one)

Workplace noise exposure also contributes to testosterone decreases in 👷. Causal-correlational questions here, too:

Some fun life factor-testosterone level correlations

Higher education → ⬇️ T

A semi-explanatory theory may be higher testosterone, while fueling motivation and grit (broscience pubmed master here writing, lads), also increases impulsivity and decreases self-control potential → why should I even spend hours in the classroom/studying?

Underweight → ⬆️ T

• While obesity is usually connected to lower T (via fat cells enhancing aromatase activity etc.), we may make a far-fetched assumption that current weight scales are in for an edit?

• Or the other way round, as having high testosterone is making one leaner: could losing fat mass/being sporty (not the gym, rather dancing/hiking or physical activity at work) settle someone in the ‘slightly underweight’ category

Smoking → ⬆️ T

There’s a debate on whether this may be caused by nicotine, cotinine and other tobacco alkaloids inhibiting aromatase:

More convincing is that women who smoke also seem to have lower estrogen levels → but yeah, don’t consider smoking to become the testosterone-ridden Chad. Please.

Cadmium and lead levels → ⬆️ T (WTF?)

Weird as hell; may be problems with study design, or a hormetic response - e.g. no lead/cadmium-intoxicated, but quite a lot in the ‘a tad higher than the third cohort’ category. Would love to access the violin/candle plot at least…

Noise, lead and conclusions

Let’s add all that noise/T connection to the fact that we’re better off touching/seeing the grass and greenery... Hey, chad-rats were born with increased green/blue exposure in their parents! The usual chad-rat (actually myostatin-knocked out):

If so - would one be better off living in a green, quiet neighborhood with great views? Nah, no way…

And the biggest secret? Living in a good, rich country:

No fukn way. Yet the Happiness Report weirdly claims that, can you imagine?

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