The Saturday Morning Newsletter #42
Ubuntu, Rats, Japan, Acidity, Coral, 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: 5 minutes.
Let’s dive in!
#1: Proxima Fusion
Description: Proxima Fusion is a fusion reactor startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Proxima Fusion recently raised $150M in venture capital funding. Headquartered in Germany, their goal is to create a working fusion reactor in the 2030s, with demonstrations of net energy in 2031. They aren’t the most advanced fusion provider in Europe at the moment, but they have goals to become one.
#2: Quantum Space
Description: Quantum Space is developing space infrastructure vehicles.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Quantum Space recently raised $40M in venture capital funding. Their spacecraft, named Ranger, is designed to be the most advanced, maneuverable, and mission-adaptable platform ever. It’s modular, scalable, and flexible, fitting most, if not all, missions, while providing durability for years to come.
#3: Standard Nuclear
Description: Standard Nuclear is a producer of reactor-agnostic fuel.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Standard Nuclear recently raised $42M in venture capital funding. With this raise, Standard Nuclear emerged from stealth mode, with the goal of providing TRISO fuel to existing and developing nuclear reactors. Their compatibility with all reactor models will help strengthen the supply chain and provide stability.
#4: Impact Recycling
Description: Impact Recycling is a developer of recycling technologies.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Impact Recycling recently raised $4.5M in venture capital funding. Their plastic recycling technology separates post-consumer mixed plastic waste into two different outputs, both with 98% purity. This allows them to deal with ~60% of the total plastic waste produced, putting a large dent in existing waste buildup.
#5: Coral Vita
Description: Coral Vita is a coral reef restoration startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Coral Vita recently raised $8M in venture capital funding. They are the leader in commercial reef restoration, capable of growing new coral in months instead of the decades it takes to wait for ecological regeneration.
Constellation Energy: 20-Year Deal with Meta
Constellation Energy and Meta have signed a 20-year deal to purchase 1,121 MW of clean nuclear energy for Meta’s facilities. This continues to support Meta’s clean energy targets and helps provide many jobs for the local community.
The New York Times: Climate Change & Crops
Climate change continues to shrink crop yields, and these crop losses are only likely to worsen over time. Researchers have found ways to combat this: genetically altering crops to help them adapt to extreme temperatures. But the lack of funding and pushback from genetically modified crops stands in the way of these researchers.
The New York Times: World Bank Ends Ban on Nuclear Investments
Since 2013, the World Bank has had a ban on investing in nuclear power projects. Now, it has reversed this decision. Developing countries can now gain assistance with their industrialization without needing to burn fossil fuels in the process. This comes as members of the bank expect nuclear power to experience a large increase in global support.
The Wall Street Journal: EPA to Repeal Air-Pollution Standards
The EPA has proposed weakening its air-pollution standards on power plants, easing the environmental regulations on these plants. Now, these changes aren’t in effect yet (facing numerous legal challenges + approval challenges), but they could add another milestone on Trump’s agenda to push back much of the protections enabled by the Biden era.
The Guardian: Sea Acidity Reaches Critical Levels
Ocean acidification is caused when carbon dioxide is rapidly absorbed by the ocean, reacting with water molecules, leading to a fall in the pH level of the ocean. This fall can cause lasting damage to animals, plants, and other sea organisms. Scientists have found that we’ve passed a critical boundary of ocean acid, where we are in danger of lasting negative effects.
Space: James Webb Space Telescope New Discovery
Recently, the James Webb Telescope sighted a new galaxy, one formed just 280M years after the Big Bang, the earliest galaxy ever found. This is just another milestone in the long line of scientific advances brought by the telescope.
The New York Times: Japanese Moon Landing Failure
In 2023, Ispace, a novel Japanese space company, tried to land a robotic rover on the moon, but failed. Now, in 2025, the company has failed again after they lost contact with their spacecraft and have presumed it to have crashed into the northern hemisphere of the moon.
Martin Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology
In this publication, Heidegger warns that technology is not just a collection of tools (as it is often portrayed), but a way of seeing the world. He dubs the term “enframing” to describe technology’s power to frame everything (nature, resources, humans, time, etc) as “standing reserves,” ready to be ordered, manipulated, and consumed.
The Guardian: Systems Are Crumbling
In her article, Matei explains “hypernormalisation”, a term that describes the surreal state of living in a society where systemic dysfunction is evident, yet people continue their daily lives as if everything is normal. Doesn’t this sound almost exactly like the world we’re living in today?
Reddit: Curt Richter Experiment
Curt Richter experimented and found that rats, when placed in water, usually drowned within 15 minutes. If they were rescued once (even briefly), those same rats could swim for over 60 hours, driven by the hope of being saved again. Hope alone can push us way beyond our limits.
Philosophy Break: Ubuntu
I’ve written extensively about Ubuntu (an African meaning of life philosophy), but this view of it has been a new perspective for me.
The writer of this article places the idea of Ubuntu into a wealth context, describing how wealth is often measured individually, through the abundance of time or money (or both).
What if wealth weren’t an individual idea at all? Enter Ubuntu: wealth resides in the health and happiness of one’s community.
It’s very interesting to view Ubuntu this way. I agree with the author's position that while “it’s unlikely an Ubuntu-inspired culture will replace the individualism of western societies any time soon”, we can still benefit from the philosophy.
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.