Another Flying Taxi Startup Faces Bankruptcy

Image: Lilium

The German company Lilium was founded in 2015 and has been developing small, electrically powered aeroplanes that can start and land vertically. They seemed to be doing well by all accounts, with impressive demonstrations of their prototype, about 1,000 employees, 700+ pre-orders, and more than $1.5 billion in investments. Nevertheless, last week, the company announced its insolvency. Stocks of the publicly traded company sharply dropped after. To make a long story short, the trouble is that the world has been built around fossil fuels. Any company aspiring to commercialise electrically powered flying machines needs to have enough breath to build the entire production line, from batteries to docking stations, along with it. There are few investors willing and able to take that much risk. Lilium simply ran out of money before they were done. The UK company Vertical Aerospace, which works on a similar product, ran into the same problem earlier this year. They were narrowly saved by a $50 million private investment of their CEO.

This episode of Science News covers black holes. That dark matter is made of black holes is an old idea that never worked well and yet never went entirely away. In a new paper, physicists have now proposed that microscopic black holes, even if not enough to make up dark matter, could leave holes in everything, including us. Let’s take a look. You can take the quiz here.

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The Best Beer Glass, According to Science

Optimal Beer Glass Shapes. Credit: C. Pellegrini

A Brazilian physicist has solved one of mankind's most pressing problems: What is the optimal shape a beer glass needs to have for it to stay cool while being consumed. The result, however, looks more like a cocktail glass than a beer glass. As the author notes, there is a good alternative: Drink quickly. Paper here.

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More Trouble for Quantum Computing Firm PsiQuantum

PsiQuantum is one of the leading quantum computing firms. They work with photonic computing and are confident that their machines will scale to sizes where they become commercially viable. The American company has said they will build their revolutionary devices both in Chicago and in Brisbane. Earlier this year, they received almost AU$ 1 billion in funding from the Australian government — and no one knows how it happened. News now emerged that a woman working for one of the Venture Capitalist Investors, Blackbird Ventures, also advised the government on its investment. I have a feeling that this will not end well.

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