The US military is racing to develop shelf-stable blood products. In February 2007, a US military helicopter carrying blood to a field hospital was shot down in Iraq, killing all seven crew members, a reminder of the risks of transporting blood, which has a limited shelf life and is often in short supply. Now, a $73 million DARPA effort aims to create shelf-stable versions of plasma, platelets, and red blood cells.
The idea is to develop dried blood products that can be stored for long periods and deployed quickly on the battlefield. The project aims to have bags of dried blood products deployed in the field by 2029. But getting it all done will be tough, and researchers still have major questions about the safety and effectiveness of synthetic alternatives.
Elsewhere, We Lion New Energy, a Chinese company, is working on liquid-solid hybrid batteries that could pack more power into electric cars, boats and drones, offering greater energy density than lithium-ion batteries. In 2023, We Lion released a battery pack with EV-maker Nio that offered a range of over 1,000 kilometers. Now the company is developing batteries with even higher energy density, though scaling up production and competing on cost remain major challenges.
The newsletter also reports that the FBI has arrested an OpenAI engineer, accused of planting a covert camera-and-microphone device, allegedly discovered plugged into a TV's USB port.
Source: MIT Technology Review · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing