In this week’s edition of The Prototype, we look at a federal program to bring advanced semiconductor R&D to Florida, a quantum computing milestone for biotech, a new way to get forever chemicals out of the water supply and more. You can sign up to get The Prototype in your inbox here.
The tech sector drives the U.S. economy, which in turn is undergirded by the semiconductor chips that power servers, computers, phones and more. Even though these chips are mostly designed domestically, they’re not made in America: Nearly 90% are imported.
That’s an issue that Tawny Olore wants to help fix. She’s the CEO of the Florida Semiconductor Engine, one of 10 regional networks backed by a two-yer, $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
Half of that money is going towards research and development, for which it has five major projects. These include developing improved hardware security, designing 6G chips for the next generation of mobile internet and a project to build cryogenic, superconducting chips for AI and other forms of advanced computing.
The other half of the spend is geared towards workforce development programs to ensure that there are people with the skills needed for the jobs the Engine hopes to bring back to the U.S. For example, it helped to develop an Associate’s Degree for semiconductor engineering at Valencia College. The program, which is enrolling its first students this Fall, will train students to work in cleanrooms and operate the delicate equipment used to make chips.
“That’s really important and shouldn’t be diminished by the research and development projects that are so cool,” Olore said. “You’ve got to have people there to be able to fill those jobs.”
Stay tuned.
IBM Hit A Biotech Quantum Milestone
Last month, IBM rolled out its framework for building a “fault-tolerant” quantum computer–one that can solve practical problems with low rates of error caused by the physics of its operations–by 2029. One major part of that is understanding what business problems exist that quantum computing can play a role in solving, Jamie Garcia, director of algorithms and partnerships at the company, told me.
One potential: drug development. IBM has been working with biotech company Moderna since 2023, finding new techniques to predict the structures of messenger RNA (mRNA), which is at the core of Moderna’s Covid vaccine and a number of other therapies it’s developing.
Figuring out how to use mRNA, which helps tell your body which proteins to make, is a complicated process. There are countless ways to code mRNA to make the same protein. For the Covid vaccine, for example, there are about 10^623 different possibilities. But the code is not enough–the order in which that code is arranged also affects how the final mRNA molecule is physically structured, which affects things like how durable it is and how large or small a dose might be–that’s crucial for what arrangement will work best as a drug.
“That is sort of a combinatorial optimization issue that blows up really big, really fast,” Garcia said. For conventional computers, it would take centuries to solve them with brute force–even using AI models–because the hardware has to consider each possibility one at a time. That forces programmers to use shortcuts by simplifying the math to rougher approximations. A quantum computer, by contrast, can tackle portions of the problem in parallel–which makes for ultimately better calculations.
Using quantum algorithms based on ones IBM had previously developed for financial problems, the two companies were able to successfully predict the structure of an mRNA sequence that was about 60 nucleotides long, which is at the upper limit of what a conventional computer can do. While that’s much smaller than the sequences used for drugs, Garcia said that IBM’s quantum computer will be able to predict bigger and bigger structures as the company builds out its capabilities.
“We’re really excited about these results,” she said. “And I think we’re just going to keep finding the next generation of algorithms to really start checking the box when it comes to RNA problems.”
DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK: NEW MATERIAL CLEANS FOREVER CHEMICALS FROM WATER
Researchers at the University of Utah have invented a new material that can clean Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from water sources. PFOA belongs to the family of “forever chemicals” that can contaminate soil and water without breaking down, and exposure to it can cause cancer. The new zirconium-based material not only attracts and absorbs PFOA, it also lights up when it does so, letting any engineers know that the forever chemical is present in a body of water. The cleaning material is also reusable–PFOA can be removed with conventional processes. This combination “makes it a versatile and practical solution for water treatment and environmental monitoring,” lead author Rana Dalapati said in a statement.
FINAL FRONTIER: SOUTH KOREA PLANS A MOON BASE
In a public hearing earlier this week, South Korea’s space agency laid out a roadmap for its exploration of space, The Korea Times reported. The agency is making its own plans to establish a permanent moon base by the year 2045. To help it get there, it will develop its own capabilities to launch and land humans on the lunar surface by 2040.
WHAT ELSE I WROTE THIS WEEK
In my other newsletter, InnovationRx, Amy Feldman and I looked at Sarepta’s showdown with the FDA over its gene therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the FDA’s new top drug regulator, a biotech company’s strategy to fight cancer, a startup’s therapy chatbot, and more.
SCIENCE AND TECH TIDBITS
Astronomers found an object in the outer solar system that seems to be moving in sync with Neptune. About 56 miles in diameter, it circles the Sun once for every ten times it takes the eighth planet. The orbits are in sync at this ratio despite being millions of miles apart, something that hasn’t been seen before by scientists.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have discovered a way to repair DNA that’s been damaged by environmental stress, which could one day lead to prevention of afflictions like arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.
Around 10 million people live with HTLV-1 infection, which can lead to inflammatory diseases or even forms of cancer, but it currently has no treatments or vaccines. However, new research with mice suggests that existing HIV drugs could help prevent both transmission and disease.
Street noise is one of the most annoying parts of city life, but Swiss scientists may have a solution: they’ve invented a mineral foam that can dampen street noise and is easier to install, since it’s about four times thinner than conventional sound absorbers.
PRO SCIENCE TIP: GET YOUR 7,000 STEPS A DAY
It’s long been a common rule of thumb to aim for 10,000 steps a day for optimal health, which can be a challenge for those who are stuck at their desks for work all day. But a new study suggests that you can get the same benefit with nearly one-third fewer steps. In a review of 57 different studies conducted in over ten countries, the researchers’ analysis found walking around 7,000 steps a day reduced the risk of dementia and type two diabetes, and had other benefits as well. Which is not to say that getting 10,000 steps a day is bad–but 7,000 seems to represent an inflection point: the benefits accumulate quickly up to that point. Beyond it, the health benefits are more modest.
WHAT’S ENTERTAINING ME THIS WEEK
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the “Scopes Monkey Trial”—in which schoolteacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. So I kicked back and watched Inherit the Wind, Stanley Kramer’s adaptation of the play of the same name, which is a fictionalized version of the Scopes trial. It’s an absolutely mesmerizing courtroom drama that’s still painfully relevant today, featuring a thunderous performance by Spencer Tracy as defense attorney Henry Drummond. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime right now.
