Weekly Newsletter

The Blockchain #

Blockchains in Context
An easy to understand article about blockchains by a core contributor to Ethereum. Ethereum aims to create an understandable, general-purpose system for creating and enforcing contracts on the web. Potential applications of this system are more varied than you might initially expect. This picture breaks down areas in which Ethereum could prove an effective tool.

Medicine and Biology #

Can we end the war on Cancer?
The author of this piece answers the title question with an optimistic outlook. Argues that the primary barriers to defeating cancer are institutional, not scientific.

Biologists Discover Bacteria Communicate Like Neurons in the Brain
Compares a bacterial colony’s communication network dynamics to that of the human brain’s. While the authors seem to be interested in using this to kill bacteria, I’m interested in exploiting this to control bacteria. I imagine using a programming interface to generate electrical signals that manipulate bacteria to do all sorts of interesting tasks.

Business #

Reinventing the Company
An interesting take on the the future of public and private companies. Unfortunately, I don’t understand this area of the market particularly well. I’d like to rectify that, however. If you have thoughts on this article or the trends it predicts, I’d love to hear them.