The Saturday Morning Newsletter #54
Catastrophe, Aztecs, IPOs, Dairy, Seas, and More
👋 Hello friends,
Thank you for joining this week's edition of The Saturday Morning Newsletter. I'm Drew Jackson, and today we're exploring 16 articles, essays, companies, ideas, podcasts, videos, or thoughts that caught my attention this week for their potential to significantly impact our future.
Before we begin: The Saturday Morning Newsletter by Brainwaves arrives in your inbox every Saturday, a concise and casual digest of current events, optimistic news stories, and other interesting tidbits about venture capital, economics, space, energy, intellectual property, philosophy, and beyond. I write as a curious explorer rather than an expert, and I value your insights and perspectives on each subject.
Time to Read: 6 minutes.
Let’s dive in!
#1: Xampla
Description: Xampla is a developer of plant-based alternatives to plastic.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Xampla recently raised $14M in venture capital funding. Their proprietary process begins with the natural plant proteins in abundant feedstocks, then unfolds the structure, and rearranges it into plant-based plastic alternatives. The applications are versatile, across many different sectors.
#2: Garage
Description: Garage is an online marketplace for essential life-saving equipment.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Garage recently raised $13.5M in venture capital funding. Garage runs an online marketplace for municipalities and first responders to buy and sell essential equipment like emergency vehicles and government surplus. They have options for auctions and appraisals of equipment.
#3: Terraton
Description: Terraton is a developer of biochar.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Terraton recently raised $11.5M in venture capital funding. They provide biochar businesses to farmers and those with agricultural waste. Their offering provides financing assistance, equipment, and a strategic playbook for launching an in-house biochar business (similar to a franchise model).
Description: Orbital Operations is a developer of high-thrust orbital vehicles.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Orbital Operations recently raised $8.8M in venture capital funding. Their first vehicle, Astraeus, is powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and optimized for long-duration in-space operations. It is designed to reach targets quickly across the orbital domain, filling a current gap in the market.
#5: RenewCO2
Description: RenewCO2 transitions CO2 into chemicals and fuels.
Why Is This Company Interesting? RenewCO2 recently raised $5M in venture capital funding. They employ electrocatalytic carbon utilization technology to turn CO2 into chemicals and other fuels. Their technology helps reduce reliance on oil markets and other fossil fuel sources by reusing what already exists in the environment around us.
Interesting Engineering: US Widens Nuclear Fuel Products, Reactor Development
The Department of Energy has made conditional commitments to provide HALEU fuel to three companies to meet near-term fuel needs, with the goal of supporting the testing of two advanced reactor designs. This pursuit is hoped to provide an actionable milestone in the American nuclear renaissance.
World Nuclear News: Aalo Breaks Ground for Experimental Reactor
Shortly after being selected as one of the advanced nuclear reactor projects receiving support from the DOE, Aalo Atomics has broken ground at a site in Idaho to start construction on its first experimental extra modular nuclear reactor. Their goal is to achieve criticality by mid-2026, an ambitious timeline in the world of nuclear.
New York Times: Humans Are Altering the Seas
A new study maps the ways human activity is reshaping oceans and coastlines around the globe. It finds that many of the Earth’s marine ecosystems could be fundamentally altered if activities like climate change, overfishing, ocean acidification, and coastal development continue. That equates to around 3% of the total ocean in 2050, with 12% of the nearshore ocean showing these issues.
New York Times: Scientists May Have Identified Reason for Declining Amazon Rain
The dry season in the Amazon rainforest continues to get drier over time. A new study found that around 75 percent of this decrease is directly linked to deforestation. The study also found that this tree loss was partly responsible for increased heat waves across the Amazon (accounting for around 16% of the increase in heat). Researchers are surprised at the extent deforestation is responsible for decreases in rainfall.
Wall Street Journal: Punishing Droughts Put Pressure on Meat and Dairy Production
Droughts continue to plague countries across the globe, leading investors to worry about increasingly high temperatures impacting water shortages. Meat and dairy farms rely on water to hydrate their animals, grow crops to feed them, and cool them off in the heat. It’s estimated that 2/3rds of livestock companies aren’t properly managing potential water shortages, leading investors to call for reworking of business models and strategic plans.
Space: SpaceX’s 10th Launch Success
SpaceX’s Starship rocket marked its 10th test flight this week. It’s the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. After a two-day delay due to ground systems issues and weather, the test launch went well, signalling a turnaround from the three previous failures this year.
Wall Street Journal: Future Space Habitats
New startups are creating structures that weigh less than previous spacecraft and are cheaper to launch. They will provide more volume for space inhabitants to live, work, and have fun, compared to the cramped International Space Station. The current space station is expected to be retired in 2030, so new solutions are beginning to come to market now.
Pitchbook: Navigating A New IPO Wave
Historically, the post-Labor Day window is a favorable time for IPOs. Despite ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainties, companies are still planning to go public, kicking off roadshows this week. Experts are hoping this starts the wave of companies that need to liquidate private backing.
Fortune: Strong IP Protections Are Crucial to America’s National Security
Experts advise that to counter rising geopolitical threats, we must stay ahead in defense-critical fields (AI, drones, quantum computing, weaponry). But innovation in these fields doesn’t come cheaply. Investors need to know IP protections are in place to justify the risk of the investment. Without these rights, we could cause a ripple effect throughout the rest of the process.
Next Big Idea Club: Aztec Philosophy
Traditions like Buddhism and Stoicism teach you to go inward, to still your mind through meditation and careful thought. In contrast, the Aztecs taught that you should go outward. Your mind is easier to steady if you start with your surroundings: your environment, your habits, your relationships. It’s an interesting perspective; I think the solution may be a combination of the two.
Not Boring: Why I Stopped Being a Climate Catastrophist
Packy wrote recently about researcher Ted Nordhaus, who wrote in 2007 about how if we continue to burn as many fossil fuels, the heating of the earth will cause sea levels to rise and the Amazon to collapse.
He’s recently revised his beliefs, explaining how, at the time of writing, he and other climate scientists believed that without intervention, usual emissions would lead to 5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the 21st century. Now, estimates have lowered to 3 degrees, not because we’ve done anything, but because “5 degrees never made sense in the first place.”
This is a funny set of events because, over the last decade, climate scientists have become much more outspoken about the truly negative effects of the climate (even though they’re actually less than we believed before).
This year, studies project that climate-related deaths will be at their lowest in recorded human history (per capita and absolute bases). That’s a cause for celebration.
However, he does reiterate: the climate disaster is still very much real, it’s still impactful on our lives, and it still needs a solution; it’s just not as dramatic as we previously believed.
See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,
Drew Jackson
Website: brainwaves.me
Twitter: @brainwavesdotme
Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content are my own and do not represent the views of any of the companies I currently work for or have previously worked for. This content does not contain financial advice - it is for informational and educational purposes only. Investing contains risks and readers should conduct their own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Any sponsorship or endorsements are noted and do not affect any editorial content produced.