Applications are now open for the 2027 Cohort of Brains Fellows! If you have an ambitious technical research idea (in any discipline) that is beyond the scope of an academic lab or VC-funded startup, we want to hear from you! spec.tech/brains

Creating new research organizations involves communicating deeply technical ideas to a huge range of people. @eileen_nakahata compiled the most important lessons on effectively conveying technical ideas gleaned over years helping fellows start coordinated research programs.

Will Plishker is developing a program that gives surgeons vision and skills beyond their innate human ability.

Victoria Chernow aims to transform mineral processing by developing technologies for “rock fractionation”: processes to extract and refine every compound in ore and tailings economically, slashing energy consumption and waste.

@ThomasTeisberg is building a robotic observatory for Antarctica and Greenland to reduce uncertainty in future sea level rise and monitor for early warnings of catastrophic tipping points.

@_SmrithiSunil is building tools to study biomolecular structure and function at atomic resolution inside intact cells and tissues.

@PaulLitvak is building an AI system that can weigh the balance of scientific evidence the way a careful, critical scientist would: flagging numbers that don’t add up, assessing methodology across entire bodies of research.

Leo McElroy is building the core software that engineering design tools are built on: constraint solvers, geometry kernels, and the connections between design and physical simulation.

@JBurrell_PhD is building a scalable engineered tissue platform to restore function after neurological injury or disease.

@JiwoonPark_ is building SAHA (Spatial Atlas of Human Anatomy), a global multi-institutional initiative to create the first comprehensive spatial maps of human tissue, charting how billions of cells are physically arranged across major organs.

@jrm_black is building Linnaeus, an AI-native screening platform that screens for hazardous DNA sequences using a suite of biological tools, aiming to mitigate the challenges to current biosecurity screening posed by advanced AI.

@DrChrisWilmer is building a universal electronic nose (e-nose) so machines can truly smell.

@rbhar90 is working to connect AI more directly with the physical world.

@ben_a_adler is designing next-generation antimicrobials by harnessing bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria.

Arila Atanassova-Barnes builds open turn-key solutions for renewable energy to reduce cost, establish local operating skills and enable peer-to-peer energy trading. (see more at @EIOT_energy)