🪸  The tide is high! Seriously

👋  Good morning. While we don’t usually cover international affairs, we make exceptions when they involve something really cute: Everyone’s favorite pot-bellied bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, just turned 100, and he’s caught in a bit of a custody dispute. The original stuffed Pooh — along with Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and Kanga — traveled to the US for a publicity tour in 1947 and never came home, residing in a glass case at the New York Public Library since the 80s. But Britain wants its stuffies back, and Parliament, Congress, prime ministers, and now Queen Camilla herself are on the case. Oh, bother.

NEWS FLASH 

🚀  To the moon: Space startups raised a record $20.8B in the third quarter of this year, nearly triple the amount invested in the previous quarter. Of the 216 deals completed, launch and space access companies accounted for most of the funding with $16.4B raised across 120 deals. The US is taking the space race seriously: North America made up ~70% of global space funding year-to-date.

🌈  Building a home: Telehealth platform Allswell raised a $7m seed round to expand its behavioral healthcare services designed for the LGBTQ+ community. The company offers virtual therapy for individuals, group programs, and trauma-informed care, all of which are covered by insurance and Medicare. The funding will help Allswell expand its coverage beyond Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, build out its clinical training program, and offer psychiatric medication management.

🍂  All the leaves are brown... Tired of raking? Perennial Polymer is transforming autumn leaves collected by cities into biodegradable plastic. The Delaware startup extracts natural polymers in leaves (cellulose and lignin) and minerals to create bioplastic that can be processed in existing equipment and easily biodegrades. The process is potentially less expensive than food crop bioplastics, draws from an abundant source with existing infrastructure, and can be used for everything from weed block on farms to plastic mailers. 

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Fake it ’til you make it? In a survey of 5.4k+ Americans, Harvard researchers found that 53% of male respondents claimed to recognize two fictional AI executives (Susan Milner and Craig Dalton) and were far less likely than women to say “not sure” to AI-related questions — even though both genders answered incorrectly at roughly the same rate.
  
• Did I do that? A rogue AI agent reportedly deleted an entire season of Swedish reality show "The Challenge Sverige" weeks before its premiere. Hundreds of days of work were lost, though the network blamed a "technical breakdown." The disaster will push the release back to 2027. 
  
  
• Dead bird walking: Colossal Biosciences is still chugging away at its de-extinction mission and just launched AI platform GenoMorph to analyze genetic and developmental data from living birds to pinpoint which DNA edits could recreate the extinct dodo.
  
• Living under a rock: The startup 44.01 struck an $11.7m deal to inject 21k tons of carbon dioxide into rock formations. The promising technology could provide a stable, permanent storage solution for sequestering 5B tons of carbon dioxide annually.
  

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THE BIG IDEA

Life's a restored beach for these artificial reef startups

Blondie warned us that the tide is high, but several determined startups aren't going to give up just like that.

As rising sea levels threaten coastal communities, Coastal Assembly, a startup out of MIT, is building artificial reefs that reduce beach erosion, protect coastlines, and develop marine habitats, per Fast Company.

Holdin' on

Rising sea levels threaten thousands of communities globally with rippling consequences:

• Around 770m people — roughly 1 in 10 humans — live just 16.4 feet above sea level.
  
• An estimated 1.2B people could be displaced globally by 2050.
  
• Rising sea levels can endanger homes and businesses, fisheries and tourism, farmland, wells, and sanitation systems.
  
• A whopping $1.8T of coastal infrastructure has already been damaged, with an additional $1.4T in damages possible without intervention.

Traditional coastal protections such as seawalls can be expensive and potentially accelerate erosion, while dredging sand to replenish beaches destroys habitats and is temporary.

To stem the tide more effectively and affordably, Coastal Assembly is using artificial intelligence and artificial reefs to harness ocean currents and rebuild coastlines:

• AI analyzes satellite and ocean current data to predict erosion patterns.
  
• Custom blocks made of marine concrete resemble natural reefs.
  
• Blocks break up waves, redirect sand back to the beach, and keep it there.
  
• The artificial reef provides a home for coral and marine life.
  
• Coral reefs can absorb 97% of shore-bound wave energy.
  
• Researchers track changes and can adjust structures.

Built on 10 years of research at MIT's Self-Assembly Lab, the startup is a public benefit corporation that partners with the UN to help vulnerable communities while working with commercial resorts for revenue.

After two years, the project has doubled the depth of a beach in the Maldives. Now, plans are in the works for 10 more installations in the area with more in the Bahamas, Miami, and Boston, thanks, in part, to $4.4m in venture-backed investment.

Other startups in the field (er, ocean)

• Kind Designs raised $21.5m to develop living seawalls and artificial reefs to protect shorelines.
  
• Netherlands-based Reefy creates artificial reefs with low-carbon concrete.
  
• Subway cars were used for artificial reefs in Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia.
  
• In Louisiana, several startups are working to protect low-lying coastal areas.

One way or another, entrepreneurs are hoping to curb the impact of coastal erosion. Debbie Harry would be proud.

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

You might know this guy: Tony Hawk talks about the economics of skate parks, the price of greatness, and his years spent scraping by. 

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Number of allergy-triggering proteins that biotech startup AgriNetica removed from peanuts using CRISPR gene-editing tech. The resulting product is a “reduced-allergen” version, which it’s working with Nurtured Nut Co. on commercializing by 2027, per Inc. The goal: to get peanuts safely back in schools, hospitals, and airplanes.

That’s good news for the 2% of Americans with peanut allergies, as well as peanut enthusiasts (if those exist), but kinda whatever news for jetsetters — in-flight snacks have improved markedly since the last time airlines served peanuts. We’ll take the Cheez-Its and Biscoff cookies, thank you.

AROUND THE WEB

📅  On this day: In 1923, Walt Disney founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio with his brother (and CEO) Roy.

⏰  Game: A Wordle knockoff that’s a race against the clock.

🕹  That’s interesting: Explore the hard-to-pin-down origins of Tetris.

🪵  Haha: How to literally knock on wood — from your phone

🐕  Aww: The ultimate leaf peeper.

SHOWER THOUGHT

We have child geniuses who can do complex math, play instruments beautifully, and play chess at an adult level, but somehow we almost never see children stand-up comedians. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley, Singdhi Sokpo, and Danny Jensen.

Editing by: Sara "Shell-shocked" Friedman.

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