⤴⤵ Up Wing/Down Wing #55

A curated selection of pro-progress and anti-progress news items from the week that was

In case you missed it ...

⤴ The welcome Up Wing tech-optimism of 'The Fantastic Four' (Tuesday)

🎇 Mark Zuckerberg's vision of 'personal superintelligence' (Wednesday)

✨ AI and the future of R&D: My chat (+transcript) with McKinsey's Michael Chui (Thursday)

⚔ The AI Revolution vs. chaotic US economic policy (Friday)

---

⤴ Up Wing Things

☀ First ever fusion power deal marks beginning of new energy era. Helion Energy, a Washington-based startup with $1 billion in private backing, has begun construction on the first US fusion power plant intended to supply electricity to Microsoft by 2028. This groundbreaking deal is the first-ever commercial agreement to purchase fusion energy — marking a big step toward making fusion a real-world power source. Helion uses a unique approach that could generate electricity directly from the fusion reaction:

Replicating the energy generation of stars, the most common fusion reactor approaches seek to use temperatures of 100 million degrees Fahrenheit or more to fuse isotopes of hydrogen together within enormously powerful magnetic fields. . . Helion aims to use superheated fuel to produce fast-pulsed reactions that rhythmically change the surrounding magnetic field, directly generating electricity. The approach, if mastered, would eliminate the need to contain and convert fusion heat into much lower temperatures in order to power turbines . . .

Investor interest is growing fast, with more than $9.7 billion now backing fusion startups worldwide. (E&E)

💉 FDA approves groundbreaking HIV shot. In a historic step forward, the FDA has approved the first HIV prevention drug proven to offer nearly 100 percent protection with just two shots a year. The medication, called Yeztugo, works by blocking the virus from entering healthy cells and could dramatically reduce new HIV infections. Drugmaker Gilead is partnering with the Global Fund to make it available at no profit in low-income countries, aiming to reach up to two million people. This breakthrough could finally turn the tide on the decades-long HIV epidemic. (NA)