Cofounder Elementa, ex Machine Phase Systems.| Engineering the tools of the singularity one atom at a time. x Blockstream, ZeroKnowledgeSystems. Jedi master.
Hoth Bantha Tank š Dagobah
Joined March 2007
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In early 2024 my friend and former cofounder of Blockstream @MarkFriedenbach approached me with the most fantastical, ambitious and meaningful idea Iād ever seen. What if we could rebuild our world atom by atom, end scarcity and achieve the sci-fi powered dreams of programmable nanotechnology?
Austin Hill retweeted
UCLA-led study finds amino acid extends quantum properties above room temperature
Researchers led by UCLA and the California NanoSystems Institute found that a quantum behavior called a commensurate charge density wave, normally confined to extreme cold, can persist up to roughly 135 F in a stacked material of tantalum disulfide and the amino acid arginine. The effect appeared as a happy accident during later analysis of an earlier molecule-screening study. Two other amino acids tested did not show the behavior at room temperature.
The team built repeating vertical stacks with two arginine layers between single tantalum disulfide layers, then used vibration, electrical, thermal and structural measurements alongside computer simulations. Arginine fits into the crystal matrix like a puzzle piece, and its size and electron distribution appear to explain why it works. This is a rare case of molecular chemistry tuning the electronic behavior of an inorganic crystal.
With further work, the combination could support energy-efficient computer memory built on quantum properties rather than conventional electron flow. The findings also hint at rational design: start from a desired property, such as superconductivity, and identify or engineer molecules to achieve it, widening the design space for advanced materials to include other molecules of life.
nanotechnologyworld.org/postā¦
Austin Hill retweeted
Spin defects in materials like diamond and silicon carbide are promising qubits for quantum sensing, but modeling their full optical cycle ā especially internal conversion, where energy dissipates as atomic vibrations ā has long been computationally out of reach.
Researchers at UChicago PME have developed a framework that captures this process across hundreds of atoms. Applied to the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond, it matched spectroscopy data; applied to a divacancy in silicon carbide, it revealed that internal conversion makes a substantial, previously overlooked contribution to the excited-state lifetime, resolving a long-standing theory-experiment discrepancy.
Built into the open-source WEST code, the method could sharpen predictions for quantum materials ā and extend to energy conversion and storage systems.
nanotechnologyworld.org/postā¦
Austin Hill retweeted
A new study in Nature Nanotechnology shows that applying voltage to a four-layer graphene stack can slide its layers into a different atomic arrangement, switching the material between nonmagnetic and magnetic states. Crucially, the change is nonvolatile: once the layers shift, the new state persists without continued power, and the transition can be reversed repeatedly. Rather than breaking strong chemical bonds, the Cornell-led team exploited the weak van der Waals forces between layers, offering a far less energy-intensive route to restructuring a material. The researchers say this electrical "rewriting" of crystal structure could one day control not just magnetism but superconductivity and other quantum states, pointing toward reconfigurable quantum materials and new forms of memory.
nanotechnologyworld.org/postā¦
Austin Hill retweeted
Nanotechnology, creating and manipulating matter at the atomic scale, will be one of the most interesting frontiers unlocked by superintelligence
40 years ago today, October 8, 1986, Foresight Institute was incorporated on a single typed page in Washington, DC.
Co-founders Christine Peterson and Eric Drexler shared a conviction: to take seriously the technologies that could significantly enhance the human condition, back the people whose work is too ambitious or too interdisciplinary for legacy institutions, and give them somewhere to find each other.
Follow story in thread.
Austin Hill retweeted
Wow! This is straight out of one of my favorite sci-fi books by Neal Stephenson, āThe Diamond Ageā!
In that 1995 novel, matter compilers are these nanotech fabricators. They take digital designs plus molecular stock from a utility network called the Feed and then assemble finished goods like food, tools, and more complex objects, almost like these Atomic machines!
What a crazy time; every hard sci-fi seems to be becoming reality!
After six years in stealth, Atomic Machines is out. Our mission: on-demand, universal command of matter. First beachhead: the Matter Compiler, an AI-native manufacturing system that builds working micro-machines from code alone. No per-product tooling. No process development. Different code, different machine.
Austin Hill retweeted
What if,
for any scientific claim,
you can search 100M+ papers to find the strongest evidence for and against it
ā”ļøin 1 second?
Thatās now possible with Evidence API! š
paperclip.gxl.ai/evidence-apā¦
For example, does drinking coffee reduce diabetes risk?
New parallel gate entangles NV Diamond qubits 10 times faster at room temp phys.org/news/2026-09-parallā¦
Austin Hill retweeted
Your body has 1,000Ć more protons than the observable universe has stars.
If a Planck unit were the size of a grain of sand, a proton would stretch to Alpha Centauri.
You may be small, but you hold universes within you. These vast scales may seem disconnected, yet they relate to your body.
Austin Hill retweeted
1,000 tiny robots. One collective mind. š¤Æš¤
Researchers at Hanyang University have developed magnetic microrobot swarms that can self-assemble and work together to perform tasks that would be impossible for a single micro-robot.
Each robot is tiny and simple. But when hundreds or even 1,000 units move together, the swarm can:
š¹ Carry loads up to 350Ć the weight of one robot
š¹ Climb and overcome obstacles
š¹ Unclog tube-like structures
š¹ Manipulate liquid metal
š¹ Connect and disconnect wires
š¹ Guide small organisms
The swarm is controlled through rotating magnetic fields, allowing the robots to change their collective configuration depending on the task.
The research was led by Kijun Yang, Sukyoung Won, Jeong Eun Park , Jisoo Jeon and Prof. Jeong Jae (JJ) Wie at Hanyang University. The work was published in Device.
The really interesting part?
Instead of making one robot more powerful, they make thousands of simple robots work as one.
Could swarm robotics eventually transform medical robotics and micro-scale manufacturing? š
š„ Media: Hanyang University
ā ļø This content is shared for informational purposes only. CTO Robotics Media is a media platform and does not own or develop the technology shown. Credit belongs to the original creators.
#Microrobotics #SwarmRobotics #HanyangUniversity #Robotics #MicroRobots #MagneticRobotics #RobotSwarm #MedicalRobotics #RoboticsResearch #FutureOfRobotics #Engineering #CTORoboticsMedia ī
Austin Hill retweeted
From a research question to candidate materials.
Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro worked with Xiaomiās materials researchers to explore new MOF designs for capturing PFAS ā reviewing literature and patents, proposing and checking design hypotheses, and running computational ādry-labā experiments to identify promising candidates for further validation.
The team estimates a 10Ć productivity gain, shortening the R&D cycle from one month to 2ā3 days.
As Prof. Jinhu Dou of Peking University put it: āIn my view, its work on this projectāfrom literature review to materials design and computational evaluationāwas on par with that of a well-trained doctoral researcher.ā
Read the full case study:
mimo.xiaomi.com/blog/mimo-v2ā¦
#XiaomiMiMo #XiaomiMiMoV26 #AIforScience #XiaomiAI
Austin Hill retweeted
š©ŗš©āāļøMetasurfaces have transformed nanophotonics by enabling full vectorial control of light's amplitude, phase, and polarization within subwavelengthāthick structures, allowing functionalities unattainable with traditional refractive optics. achieving broad achromaticity and multifunctional operation on one flat platform is still a major challenge for imaging applications using metasurfaces.
Austin Hill retweeted
In this essay I argue the quantum migration debate is far more nuanced than just "freeze or don't freeze vulnerable bitcoin." Rather, it's a question of how to minimize total property-rights violations if ECDSA no longer reliably proves rightful ownership.
bitcoinmagazine.com/print/thā¦
Austin Hill retweeted
And check out this essay from Emery Rosansky, our VP of GTM at First Round, whoās spent almost 20 years in sales. Sheās the GOAT and youād be learning from her directly in the program. She shares a preview of one of the super tactical training sessions here, along with why First Round started Sales Combine: firstround.com/sales-craft
Austin Hill retweeted
Contrarian career advice: This is an EXCELLENT time to go into sales. So many of the best / hottest AI companies will tell you how hard theyāre working to find good sellers... because no one actually believes AI is replacing AE roles any time soon (sorry to all the sf billboards out there that suggest otherwise).
Obviously, as a candidate, itās hard to break in if you donāt have the right logos or years of experience on your resume. As AI makes the mechanics easier to pick up, the team @firstround is betting we can teach high-potential talent the uniquely human parts of the craft.
So weāre launching the @firstround Sales Combine: Weāll train you up for FREE and put our name behind you when we make the intro to companies like @notion, @fal, @Rillet, @Gumloop, @Serval & @Verkada.
More below, apply by 10/3: firstround.com/sales-combine
Austin Hill retweeted
A molecular dynamics simulation of a working-fluid transport rotary actuator, a collaborative work with @mooreth42 .
GitHub Repo: github.com/Computational-Matā¦
Austin Hill retweeted
Hey everyone! The Bitcoin Collectible Card Game (@BitcoinCCG) that I've been developing for nearly six years is finally available!
I would be very happy if you bought and played it, or simply collected the cards. I've put a lot of time and effort into its design and creation, and I hope you love it just as much as I do.
bitcoin-ccg.roguesignal.io/
Austin Hill retweeted
Thanks @akshansh_mishra for showing the C60 motor like this!
A molecular dynamics simulation of a working-fluid transport rotary actuator, a collaborative work with @mooreth42 .
GitHub Repo: github.com/Computational-Matā¦
Austin Hill retweeted
THE PENTAGON JUST FLEW 4 HOURS OVER THE PACIFIC WITH GPS OFF.
QUANTUM SENSORS NAVIGATED.
September 4th, a Defense Innovation Unit test with Honeywell. An Embraer 170 flew 4 hours and 23 minutes from Puget Sound to Alaska, over open ocean, without GPS. The aircraft navigated by reading Earth's magnetic field.
The result was an 89% better position accuracy than the backup navigation systems it flew against. The data ran on stock tablets, not a rack of classified hardware but consumer devices.
Earth's crust has a magnetic fingerprint, unique at every location, mapped decades ago. A magnetometer sensitive enough can read that fingerprint and match it to the map, position without any signal at all. Nothing to jam, nothing to spoof, because you're not receiving anything. The sensitivity required is what quantum sensing delivers.
Over water is MagNav's hardest test, the crustal signal is weaker and the maps are thinner. Passing there, for four-plus hours, is the difference between a lab demo and an operational capability.
Chain this to the money, the Pentagon launched Project Farseer in June. $200M to move quantum sensing into the force, clocks, gravimeters, magnetometers, with prototypes demanded in months, not years. Three months later, a quantum-sensed aircraft crossed the Pacific corridor without GPS. The program and the proof are arriving together.
GPS jamming is now routine over the Baltic, the Middle East, and Ukraine. Every plane, ship, and missile depends on a signal weaker than a lightbulb that adversaries switch off daily.
$INFQ $IONQ $QNT
Fascinating news about Iboga micro dosing and myelin repair.
Everyone knows ibogaine as the flood dose.
One overnight session in a clinic in Mexico or Costa Rica, and an opioid addiction that survived years of methadone gets interrupted by morning.
That's the story that made ibogaine famous. It's not the story that will make it matter.
The man in Germany who canceled his own euthanasia never took a flood dose.
He was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's at 41, and bedridden by 51. Electrodes already drilled through his skull. What put him back on a bicycle was small, rising, daily doses over four weeks at the University of Zurich.
That's a microdosing protocol.
Roughly 50 Parkinson's patients have gone through it now. About half improved, mostly those with the genetic form of the disease. Half is not a cure. But half is a signal, and it came from a dosing strategy almost nobody in this field takes seriously.
Here's why that's worth sitting with.
The flood dose gets attention because of what you feel. Hours of autobiographical review, the waking dream, the reset.
But the finding Gary Wenk wrote up in Psychology Today isn't about an experience. It's about transcription.
Ibogaine switches on the genes and proteins that rebuild myelin, the insulation wrapped around every wire in your brain.
Myelin doesn't rebuild overnight. It rebuilds over weeks.
So the real question is whether the flood dose is the medicine and the weeks after are just recovery, or whether sustained low-dose exposure is the mechanism and the flood dose is simply the version we stumbled onto first.
Zurich is betting on the second one.
Two things before anyone gets ideas.
Ibogaine strains the heart. Cardiac screening and monitoring are not optional at any dose. And the half-life is long enough that stacking it with other psychedelics within a few days is a real risk, not a theoretical one.
It's also still Schedule I in the US, even with Texas putting $50 million behind clinical trials.
But if the mechanism is myelin, then duration matters more than intensity.
That changes what a protocol should look like.
The trip was never the treatment.
