Important Innovations

Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs Using AI To Discover New Pharma Drugs                                  Source:  Google & Stock AI Images AI Could Accelerate Development & Cut Costs of New Drugs Google's innovation incubator Alphabet is putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work for the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs.  Alphabet has launched a new company Isomorphic Labs in the UK to deploy advancements made by Alphabet's DeepMind AI to predict the shape of proteins with "incredible accuracy".  DeepMind's AI uses a model called AlphaFold2 to predict breakthrough proteins and their shape in the human body.  This capability is said by experts to be critical in the development of breakthrough drug therapies.   What Is the Significance of Alphabet's Move? It has great significance on a number of levels.  This fascinating development moves Google and Big Tech deeper into the healthcare industry.  The big hope and expectation are that AI will cut the t

Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs Using AI To Discover New Pharma Drugs                                  Source:  Google & Stock AI Images AI Could Accelerate Development & Cut Costs of New Drugs Google's innovation incubator Alphabet is putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work for the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs.  Alphabet has launched a new company Isomorphic Labs in the UK to deploy advancements made by Alphabet's DeepMind AI to predict the shape of proteins with "incredible accuracy".  DeepMind's AI uses a model called AlphaFold2 to predict breakthrough proteins and their shape in the human body.  This capability is said by experts to be critical in the development of breakthrough drug therapies.   What Is the Significance of Alphabet's Move? It has great significance on a number of levels.  This fascinating development moves Google and Big Tech deeper into the healthcare industry.  The big hope and expectation are that AI will cut the t

  Loon Subsidiary Being Shut Down                                                  Source: Loon Not Commercially Viable Google's parent company Alphabet has decided to shut down its internet balloon services company after concluding that the business of using high altitude, large balloons to deliver the internet is not commercially viable.  In a way, the decision is a surprising one because the technology works.  Alphabet founded Loon in 2011.  And it has successfully delivered internet services to disaster areas and to Kenya.  But the company says it could not find a way to get the costs low enough to "build a sustainable, long term business". Great Intentions The goal and purpose of Loon was to bring connectivity by high flying balloons the size of tennis courts to global, underserved areas that are too remote or difficult to connect with broadband.  That proved to be too expensive. Loon certainly made every effort to make it work. It conducted years of  testing with ba

  Loon Stratospheric Balloon Internet                                                Source:  Alphabet's Loon Loon Already Operational for Kenya Loon is one of Alphabet/Google's most fascinating projects.  Loon delivers  high speed, broadband internet from high altitude balloons in the stratosphere. Loon is operational and beaming internet services into Kenya.  This is a very different approach to low cost, broadband internet systems like Elon Musk's Starlink which is satellite based..    Internet From the Stratosphere Not Space  Loon's internet delivery service is coming in to customers from wireless internet balloons, developed by Alphabet, Google's parent company.  And it is in direct competition with SpaceX's Starlink, the ambitious, growing mega-constellations of low-Earth orbit satellites, being launched by CEO Elon Musk to provide the world with inexpensive, high speed internet. Musk has launched nearly 800 small satellites, now in low Earth orbit, and ha

  Reopens to the Public in Phoenix After COVID                                                       Source:  Waymo Robo Taxis Hitting the Road Waymo's autonomous, robo taxi ride hailing service is open to the public in Phoenix.  The company has put years of autonomous driving research on the line to operate Waymo as a revenue producing business.  Waymo has a serious tech pedigree.  It is a business unit of Google's parent company Alphabet. Driving Plans With No Human Attendants Today, Waymo driverless minivans with no human attendants on board resumed operations for members of Waymo One service in Phoenix. In the spring, operations were suspended because of the COVID pandemic.  Now, within a few weeks, there will be open access for anyone who downloads the smartphone app and wants to hail a Waymo ride within a 50 square mile radius of Phoenix.  Next step will be to offer the service within a 100 square mile area of Phoenix.  The company has hopes of expanding operations beyond

COVID-19 Accelerating Autonomous Deliveries Source:  Waymo Big Investor Money Pouring In COVID-19 is accelerating a big shift in the global autonomous driving industry.  Business is booming in the autonomous delivery of packages, not the autonomous driving of people.  Companies like self-driving technology company Waymo are enjoying a huge boom in its business of package deliveries and a big influx of capital from investors. Fresh Capital Big players like Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, are getting a big jump in funding.  Waymo now has $3 billion in fresh capital after expanding its first funding round.  It just raised $750 million in mid May.  According to Reuters' analysis, investors have poured $6 billion into two dozen companies involved in autonomous deliveries in the past seven months.  The technology ranges from drones to big, autonomous trucks. Global Phenomenon:  Future of Travel.   The growth in autonomous deliveries i

Leads Investment in New Biotech focused on Therapies for Coronary Heart Disease Source:  Stock Image of Gene Editing Goal: Therapies to Safely Edit Human Genome to Permanently Reduce Heart Disease Risk Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.  Alphabet's venture capital arm GV is leading a $58.5 million investment to launch Verve Therapeutics.  Verve, based in Cambridge, MA, has been founded by a renowned team of researchers in cardiovascular genetics and gene editing.  They are developing therapies that involve editing the human genome to permanently reduce the risk of heart disease.  The company will use the funding to go into early stage testing of its therapies on animals. Verve's Focus The company says it will develop treatments only by editing adult cells so that the effects of genetic manipulation can't be passed on to future generations.  Also, it plans to focus on adults at risk of coronary artery disease. Their Approach Verv