Plus there’s also cytomegalovirus (CMV) which spreads a lot at daycares and causes lifelong infections with negative effects years later. https://denovo.substack.com/p/cytomegalovirus-the-worst-herpesvirus
Metacelsus
Karma: 1,456
Isn’t it exactly like nylon 6 vs nylon 66?
It’s hard to draw it out in the comment here but the repeating unit of Kevlar is: [C=O-NH-Ph-NH-C=O-Ph-]
and poly-PABA would be [C=O-Ph-NH-C=O-Ph-NH-]
where I’m using Ph as an abbreviation for a phenyl group.
No, I hadn’t been following any discourse about this.
Instead of using one molecule with two NH2 groups and one with two COOH groups, we can just use a molecule with an NH2 at one end and a COOH at the other end.
[...]The molecule in question—p-aminobenzoic acid—is fairly common in nature! You’re basically one reaction away from having kevlar skin.
That wouldn’t be Kevlar though, the structure would be different, and this has implications for the inter-strand hydrogen bonding that gives Kevlar its strength.
However I’m sure with some metabolic engineering a cell could make Kevlar biologically.
Silk and chitin are nature’s substitute for Kevlar, though not quite as strong.
The name “mythos” seems a bit too eldritch for my liking. Brings to mind Cthulhu.
Great post!
Regarding freezing immature eggs: depending on the IVF protocol used, the clinic may not be able to see if an egg is mature or not before they attempt to fertilize it. This relates to whether or not they remove the cumulus cells surrounding the egg before adding the sperm. Cumulus cell removal is standard in ICSI procedures (where the sperm is mechanically injected into the egg), but if you’re not doing ICSI, the clinic may not be able to separate the immature GV eggs from the mature MII eggs.So if you want to separate out the immature eggs and freeze them, and you’re not doing ICSI, you may need to ask the clinic to remove the cumulus cells a bit earlier.
Looks like the injunction has been issued: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/technology/anthropic-pentagon-risk-injunction.html
I’m still working on the biological path! (Making eggs from stem cells, embryo selection, etc.) I wish more talented people went this route instead of working on AI.
I’ve thought about this a few times but never got around to actually doing it, and now I’m motivated to do so. Do you have a list of recommended food to store?
That’s also why I’m not working on AI. But there are plenty of ambitious things to do where there’s huge upside and no plausible way the world will end if it goes wrong. (Like making human eggs super abundant, for example.)
It no longer surprises me when I see things like the same senator (here Ed Markey) opposing Jones Act repeal and also attacking Waymos.
Markey is also holding up reauthorization of SBIR grants because he’s been getting a lot of campaign donations from SBIR mills (companies that just apply for grants instead of doing anything useful; politely called “multiple award winners”) and the reauthorization would place caps on the number of grants that any one company can have at a time.
Yes, once stored in liquid nitrogen eggs will be fine indefinitely
This post is a good overview of near-term prospects for human biological enhancement, arguing that selection is more tractable than editing, and further that iterated selection has the potential to be exceptionally powerful. The biology is largely accurate as of the time of writing, although the claim “we can now do iterated meiosis” was premature. Since 2024 I’ve been working on refining my meiosis induction to improve epigenetics and also allow for iterated meiosis. As of early 2026, I’ve made significant progress but this still isn’t ready for use in humans. Sergiy has also made advancements in SuperSOX to allow more efficient reprogramming and epigenetic control.
I think this area of research is important for human flourishing in general, and may potentially help with the AI alignment problem depending on timelines (I know that these days many people’s central estimates are short, but there’s definitely high variance).
Followup work includes biological research (like what we’re doing at Ovelle Bio and what Sergiy is doing at Soxogen) and additional theoretical modeling of genetic optimization.
If any investors want to give More Dakka to in vitro gametogenesis research, my startup Ovelle Bio is fundraising! (I started this company last year after completing my PhD in IVG research, taking a synthetic biology approach.)
Generally I think that IVG won’t cause a major increase in society-wide fertility rates (which are mainly due to economic factors like housing, as you wrote), but paired with other technologies like embryo selection it will still make a big difference in humanity’s future. In other words, we may not get many more kids but the kids we do get will be much better.
Also: I’ve noticed there’s a huge variation in IVF prices at different clinics, even just within the USA. Some like CNY Fertility will do it for $6000 (though you have to travel to Albany NY) whereas most will be around $20000 and some even higher. It seems the market isn’t very efficient here.
There’s a duplicate on your list: this paper is listed twice via different sources:
What makes a good egg?
Thanks for explaining, I appreciate it!
Androgenetic haploid selection
As someone who hasn’t kept up much with the local jargon, what exactly does that mean?
My interaction with Michael Vassar thus far has been him offering to intro me to Grimes and Elon Musk, and then ghosting me. It seems he likes to make people think he’s well-connected, but his actual connections aren’t very deep.