Singularity Hub

Chronicling the technological frontier with coverage of the breakthroughs, players, and issues shaping the future. By @singularityu.

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

If it scales, regions currently locked out of lithium production by infrastructure costs could build smaller, solar-powered refineries close to the rock itself — shifting a three-country chokepoint into a distributed global supply chain. Full story: https://t.co/8Dd6D0TGxq

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

74% of the world's lithium comes from three countries. An MIT startup thinks a process discovered during a bathroom renovation could break that stranglehold. 🧵

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

It runs below 100°C, produces no toxic fumes, and recovers lithium at 99% purity — plus alumina and silica as usable byproducts rather than waste. The chemicals can be reused. They call it nose-to-tail mining.

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

One woman entered a gene-editing trial with an LDL cholesterol level of 190 and no remaining treatment options. Two weeks after a single infusion, her level was 50.
https://t.co/8cSM4PiXe8

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

full article from @theinformation featured on This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through May 23) https://t.co/3tzwFEH8IP

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

SpaceX just made its IPO prospectus public. The target valuation: $1.75 trillion. What the filing actually reveals about the business is worth understanding before that number gets repeated uncritically. 🧵

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

That's not necessarily irrational. Visionary bets have paid off before. But the prospectus makes the structure of that bet explicit. Investors buying at the headline number are paying roughly $1 trillion for things that haven't happened yet. Whether that's the right trade is the actual question.

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

Whether sodium establishes a lasting commercial foothold may depend more on geopolitics than chemistry. But a battery that performs competitively, costs less, and can be sourced almost anywhere changes the calculus for energy storage at scale.
Full story: https://t.co/SvNSYTwO99

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

Lithium has a supply chain problem. Sodium doesn't — it's cheap, abundant, and found everywhere on earth. New research suggests sodium-ion batteries are now performing in ways that should make the battery industry pay attention. Here's what the data shows. 🧵

[Singularity Hub @singularityhub]

The world's dominant battery manufacturer just announced a timeline for mass production of sodium-ion cells. A major Chinese automaker already has one on the market. The technology is moving from research to road faster than the industry expected.