The Latest from Darrell Etherington
Base Operations raises $2.2 million to modernize physical enterprise security
Typically when we talk about tech and security, the mind naturally jumps to cybersecurity. But equally important, especially for global companies with large, multinational organizations, is physical s
Immunai raises $60M as it expands from improving immune therapies to discovering new ones, too
Just two years after its founding, biotech startup Immunai has raised $60 million in Series A funding, bringing its total raised to over $80 million. Despite its youth, Immunai has already established
NASA will use Fitbits to help prevent spread of COVID-19 to astronauts and employees
NASA will provide 1,000 of its employees, including 150 astronauts, with Fitbit devices in a pilot program designed to see if they can help supplement efforts to keep these mission-critical personnel
Supersonic jet company Aerion partners with NASA on high-speed point-to-point travel
Aerion has been working on ushering in a new era of commercial supersonic flight for nearly a decade now, and the company just revealed that it has signed a new partnership with NASA to put that exper
Mount Sinai study finds Apple Watch can predict COVID-19 diagnosis up to a week before testing
A new study from Mount Sinai researchers published in the peer-reviewed “Journal of Medical Internet Research” found that wearable hardware, and specifically the Apple Watch, can effective
Swarm’s low-cost satellite data network is now available to commercial clients
One of the original startups that set out to create a low-Earth orbit satellite constellation to provide a data network here on Earth is now open for business: Swarm, which now operates 81 of its sand
LyteLoop raises $40 million to launch satellites that use light to store data
Soon, your cloud photo backups could reside on beams of light transmitted between satellites instead of in huge, power-hungry server farms here on Earth. Startup LyteLoop has spent the past five years
Reddit raises $250 million in Series E funding
Reddit has raised a new funding round, totaling $250 million. This is the company’s Series E round of financing, and it comes hot on the heels of renewed public attention on the site that has du
Isotropic Systems raises $40 million for a satellite antenna that could make the most of new constellations
U.K.-based Isotropic Systems has raised a $40 million funding in an “oversubscribed” round that the startup says will help it get its next-generation broadband terminal to the production p
Clubhouse is now blocked in China after a brief uncensored period
Thousands of Chinese users suddenly found themselves unable to access Clubhouse on early Monday evening as the country prepared to start the week-long Lunar New Year holiday. Inside WeChat groups, Clu
Here’s how Elon Musk’s $100 million Xprize competition for carbon removal will work
Elon Musk notified the world that he would be donating $100 million to pursue new technologies for carbon capture, methods through which carbon dioxide can be actively extracted from the atmosphere as
Google to offer heart and respiratory rate measurements using just your smartphone’s camera
Google is introducing features that will allow users to take vital health measurements using just the camera they already have on their smartphone, expanding to a whole new group of people health and
Space Cargo Unlimited looks to space to make wine grape vines more resistant to climate change
The commercialization of space isn’t just about what new sensors we can put into orbit on cheaper and smaller satellites — it’s also about studying and leveraging the advantages of a
23andMe set to go public via a Virgin Group SPAC merger
Genetics testing and genome research company 23andMe is set to go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) VG Acquisition Corp., a vehicle set up by Richard Branson and his
Vivino raises $155 million for wine recommendation and marketplace app
If you’re at all interested in wine, chances are you’ve turned to Vivino at least a few times for recommendations. The app and the company behind it have been helping people enjoy better w
Jeff Bezos will no longer be CEO of Amazon as of later this year
Amazon founder and current CEO Jeff Bezos will be transitioning to executive chair of the company sometime in Q3 of this year, with current AWS CEO Andy Jassy taking over the top executive role at the
SpaceX’s Starship prototype once again flies to great heights, and again explodes on landing
SpaceX has once again flown its Starship spacecraft, a still-in-development space launch vehicle it’s building in south Florida. This test was a flight of SN9, the ninth in its current series of
Rocket startup Astra is going public via SPAC
Rocket launch company Astra, which just reached space this past December with a test launch from Alaska, will be going public on the Nasdaq via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPA
SpaceX is aiming to fly the first all-civilian human space mission by the end of 2021
SpaceX has announced its first all-civilian private spaceflight mission, a high-priced galactic tourism launch that it hopes to fly by the fourth quarter of 2021. The mission, which will use SpaceX
bluShift Aerospace launches its first rocket powered by biofuels
New space startup bluShift wants to bring a new kind of propellant to the small satellite launching market, with rockets powered by bio-derived rocket fuels. These differ from traditional fuels in tha