title: Weekly Dose of Optimism #180
author: Packy McCormick
content_type: article
publication: Not Boring by Packy McCormick
published: 2026-02-13T13:07:33
source_url: https://www.notboring.co/p/weekly-dose-of-optimism-180
word_count: 3796
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Weekly Dose of Optimism #180
Brief
Weekly Dose #180 surveys major tech and science milestones: Isomorphic Labs' IsoDDE compresses drug-discovery search from months to minutes, outperforming AlphaFold 3 (2.3x on antibody–antigen) and rivaling expensive physics-based FEP+ for binding prediction, with first-in-human trials aimed for late 2026. DeepMind's Gemini 3 'Deep Think' demonstrates slow, deliberative reasoning (84.6% on ARC-AGI-2, 3455 Codeforces Elo) and produced lab-ready MoS2 growth recipes via automated equipment. Blue Water unveiled a 190-ft Liberty Class autonomous ship (10,000+ nm range, 150+ t payload) for serial commercial/Navy builds. A 45-nt ribozyme (QT45) that self-replicates strengthens the RNA‑world origin-of-life model.
Why it matters
Isomorphic Labs' IsoDDE AI drug-design engine outperforms AlphaFold 3 on hard protein-ligand tasks (more than 2x overall; 2.3x on antibody–antigen modeling) and beats Boltz-2 by ~20x; it predicts binding affinities better than FEP+ and has pushed Isomorphic to target first human trials by end of 2026.
Key details
- Google DeepMind's Gemini 3 'Deep Think' mode scored 84.6% on ARC-AGI-2 (next-best 68.8%), achieved a 3455 Codeforces Elo (top competitive tier, ~8th in the world) and 48.4% on 'Humanity's Last Exam'; it was used to design MoS2 thin-film synthesis recipes that produced >100 µm films via lab automation.
- Blue Water Autonomy announced the Liberty Class: a 190-foot autonomous steel vessel with >10,000 nm range and 150+ metric ton payload, built at Conrad Shipyard with private capital and targeting serial production of 10–20 ships/year; contrasts with China’s 2024 output (~1,000 commercial vessels) vs. US (8).
- Cambridge MRC researchers reported QT45, a 45-nucleotide polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize its complementary strand and self-copy using trinucleotide building blocks, resolving a long-standing RNA-world self-replication paradox and making spontaneous emergence of replicators more plausible.