In this week’s edition of The Prototype, we look at new findings about dark energy, the state of the quantum technology industry, using magnetic nanoparticles to fight cancer and more. You can sign up to get The Prototype in your inbox here.
Nearly a century ago, physicist and Catholic priest Georges Lemaître first put forward the idea of the Big Bang–the idea that the universe began as an explosion and has been expanding ever since. For decades, scientists assumed that our universe’s expansion would eventually slow due to the force of gravity. Then, about 30 years ago they discovered its rate of expansion is actually accelerating.
To explain this, physicists proposed “dark energy,” a catchall theory for whatever is causing the universes to expand over time. To further investigate the concept the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) was built. The instrument is used to survey distant galaxies billions of light years away to learn more about how dark energy works–taking advantage of the fact that the speed of light means we can actually look backwards in time at different epochs of the universe.
Now the results of a three year study of the universe have been published and they are confounding. It appears that the nature of dark energy changes over time, which doesn’t match the current model that predicts it to be constant. Scientists now wonder if dark energy evolves–and weakens–over time, instead of driving the universe’s expansion in a consistent way.
With new instruments for measuring dark energy coming on line this decade, scientists hope to get a better handle on what it is and how it changes over time.
Stay tuned.
Quantum Computing Companies Saw Over $1 Billion In Revenue In 2024
Quantum technology companies saw revenues of over $1.4 billion in 2024, according to a new report from trade group the Quantum Economic Development Consortium. Over $1 billion of those revenues came from quantum computing companies, while the remainder came from quantum sensing applications.
Collectively, the industry saw $5.7 billion in investment last year, according to the report, with $3.1 billion coming from the government and $2.6 billion from venture capital. The United States currently leads the world in the number of pure-play quantum tech companies, the report said, followed by the United Kingdom and Canada.
The report forecasts that over the next few years, revenues in both areas of quantum technology will triple, with quantum computing companies pulling in around $2.2 billion in revenue by the end of 2027 and quantum sensing hitting $915 million in 2028. Currently, the U.S. and Canada account for nearly half the global market for quantum computing, the report said.
That growth in quantum sensing —the application of quantum mechanics principles to measure magnetic fields, gravity and other data points — is expected to come from a variety of sectors. For example, the defense industry is interested in this technology as an alternative to GPS satellites. The healthcare industry wants to take advantage of the extreme sensitivity of the technology to develop better patient monitoring and diagnostic devices.
DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK: CANCER-FIGHTING NANOPARTICLES
Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a new type of magnetic nanoparticle that has the potential to fight cancer. The nanoparticles are joined with a special protein that causes them to move into ovarian tumors. Magnets are then used to heat the nanoparticles to high temperatures, killing the cancer cells. The scientists have so far successfully demonstrated use of the tech in mice.
FINAL FRONTIER: BUTCH AND SUNI RETURN TO EARTH
After a planned week-long stay on the International Space Station turned into nine months, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finally returned to Earth this week. They were joined on the return trip by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. After the SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, they were greeted by a pod of dolphins swimming nearby.
WHAT ELSE I WROTE THIS WEEK
In my other newsletter, InnovationRx, my colleague Amy Feldman and I looked at the policy uncertainty around vaccines, sex differences in GLP-1 drug side effects, the challenges of using AI to predict epidemics and more.
I filled in for my colleague Rashi Shrivastava on Forbes’ AI newsletter, The Prompt, where I wrote about Meta hitting a one billion download milestone for its open source LLM Llama, Google’s new AI models for robots, AI chatbots refusing to do work, and more.
On the Forbes YouTube channel, I sat down with my colleague Brittany Lewis to talk about the impact that the Trump Administration’s cuts are having on the scientific community, and how they have the potential to undermine America’s technological and economic prowess.
SCIENCE AND TECH TIDBITS
A star in the binary star system T Corona Borealis is expected to explode some time next week. It will be visible without a telescope for a few days if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. (Okay, technically it blew up 3,000 years ago, but it takes time for the light to get here.)
One day you might be able to listen to your phone privately, without headphones, thanks to audio engineering research published this week that shows how sound can be precisely directed using ultrasonic beams.
A French researcher was denied entry to the United States because he’d criticized Trump Administration policies regarding scientific research.
Brain computer interface company Synchron is partnering with Nvidia to develop an AI model trained on human neural activity to make it easier to develop new features for its hardware.
The greenhouse gas methane can be converted into biodegradable plastics thanks to a new fermentation process.
PRO SCIENCE TIP: SHARE MEALS WITH FRIENDS
If you’ve been feeling down lately, there’s a simple way that you can improve your own sense of wellbeing: call up some friends and grab lunch. Researchers at University College London report that people who regularly share meals report higher levels of life satisfaction and positive emotions compared to those who eat alone. In fact, the scientists go on to note that sharing meals is a better predictor of happiness than income or other economic factors.
WHAT’S ENTERTAINING ME THIS WEEK
Actor Bruce Willis turned 70 this week so I took the occasion to re-watch the film in which he gave his finest performance: Death Becomes Her. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this black comedy co-stars Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn and absolutely skewers the American obsession with looks and youth–which very much retains its relevance 33 years later. It includes some groundbreaking special effects utilizing early CGI techniques and features one of my all-time favorite Bruce Willis line readings. “I don’t want to live forever. I mean, it sounds good, but what am I gonna do? What if I get bored?” It’s currently streaming on Peacock.
