DARPA exploring growing bio structures of "unprecedented size" in microgravity
42 comments
·March 4, 2025xeonmc
7thaccount
Might also have something to do with the war in Ukraine completely changing our understanding of modern warfare. Defense projects take decades to design and build and now out doctrine is somewhat impacted by how effective drones are proving to be.
Freedom2
Could you clarify what this means? Is this some inside HackerNews reference I'm unaware of?
malwrar
Starcraft is a real-time strategy game, and Zerg is one of three factions you can play in the game. Zerg units are individually weak but cheap compared to the other factions, so Zerg players typically compose swarms of disposable units when staging and conducting attacks. It’s also quicker to make large swarms, since there isn’t a sequential build queue for Zerg unit construction. It makes for a pretty interesting switch in mindset compared to the other sides, where there is much more emphasis on preserving one’s units. Some of the more obnoxious strategies, like the Zerg rush, have become memes among gamers.
NickC25
>Zerg units are individually weak but cheap compared to the other factions
And fast. So. fucking. fast.
I hate playing against Zerg.
nntwozz
This is also apt:
The term "Zerg Rush", or "zerging", is now commonly used to describe sacrificing economic development in favor of using many cheap, yet weak units to overwhelm an enemy by attrition or sheer numbers.
— Wikipedia
ziddoap
It's a StarCraft reference.
https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Zerg
"The Zerg Swarm is a terrifying and ruthless amalgamation of biologically advanced, arthropodal aliens. [...] They are named "the Swarm" per their ability to rapidly create strains, and the relentless assaults they employ to overwhelm their foes."
bluSCALE4
Zerg is a playable race in the game Starcraft. They are bio units where everything you build is biological.
jdaodjsi
This is one of the three main factions in StarCraft. Think hiveminds and bugs.
Havoc
Hilariously obvious that someone's pet project got tacked on there at the end. Kilometer wide structures please - or alternatively can you make us a tube of bio glue to fix punctures?
JumpCrisscross
Whoever is doing DARPA’s PR and, apparently GR, since I guess federal agencies have to do that now, deserves a raise.
jordanb
EP: Elon Pandering, an essential function for any agency these days.
nulld3v
LOL as much as I disagree with Elon's current stint in government, this is probably among the most tame projects in DARPA's portfolio.
arolihas
doesn't sound very efficient to me
lovich
what is GR?
azemetre
Guessing government relations, similar to PR being public relations.
JumpCrisscross
Yup. Lobbyists are outside your org. GR coördinates their messaging.
Falimonda
Can we / will be ever be able to grow bioengineered coral at an accelerated rate with a desired growth structure/direction in space?
daveguy
Accelerated rate with equivalent integrity probably requires some engineering tricks nature hasn't "figured out" yet. Given nature has had a few billion years of massively parallel processing of the original genetic algorithm, it's unlikely. Especially considering ASI is a pipe dream. Also, sea creatures use buoyancy to their advantage.
Maybe we will find other structure development systems from combining existing pieces of biologic systems. But that's also unlikely, because biologic systems are so incredibly entangled (to use a software concurrency/complexity term).
That said, it is an awesome research direction, just for the novel construction techniques potential.
PaulHoule
This is a theme in "The Web Between the Worlds" [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Web_Between_the_Worlds
card_zero
Wow, there's some serious zeitgeist going on there:
This novel was published almost simultaneously with The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke. Through an amazing coincidence the two novels contained many similarities. Both protagonists are engineers who have built the world's longest bridge using a machine named the "Spider", both of whom are hired to build a space elevator, and both engineers modify their Spiders to produce a crystalline fiber.
It's like the simultaneous invention of calculus. People are conduits for independently-living ideas.
Telemakhos
The idea of spider webs in space was explored long before, in the second century AD, by Lucian of Samosata in his _Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα_ or "True Stories." Spiders run webs from the sun (land of the Heliots) and the moon (the Selenites) so that a vast space battle can be waged on a plain between them.
dekhn
I initially downvoted this because it sounded ludicrous and couldn't be true, but indeed, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_True_Story
Always fun to see stuff written almost 2 thousand years ago about life on other planets.
itishappy
"A clear case of plagiarism? No — merely an idea whose time has come." - Clarke
fooker
If you have spent time in academia, this concept is ever present.
Somehow all the academics in a particular field all over the world just happen to agree on a narrow set of ideas to explore next.
Most of science happens like this, yes even the Newtons and Einsteins of the world explored ideas in this narrow frontier of next ideas. There used to be exceptions in the distant past but modern science does not tolerate exceptions.
dekhn
I can't remember the source (xkcd?) that drew any individual scientist's contribution as a tiny little bump on the edge of a huge circle.
It's not talked about it much outside of research groups, but for any field, there is a small number of people who are currently pushing the boundaries, and they all read each other's papers and have a good idea of what the next question to ask is. It can often be a race to engineer an experiment that convinces the reviewers that your article should be published first. It's a sort of cooperation/competition that moves the field forward faster. These areas often move so fast that nobody even bothers to write down the current problems, it's just sort of talked about in person.
Put another way, the successful discoverers are the ones looking for their keys at the end of the streetlight: "Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that's where the light is. It has no other choice." (Chomsky). Few if anybody looking where there is no light discovers anything (even if it's sitting there in the dark), or at least, nobody believes them unless they provide significant evidence (like building a new lamp)
glenstein
When you say "exceptions" I can't tell if you mean to be hinting toward something like new-agey crystals, or something more like DARPA bio structures, or something else entirely. What is the frontier of unexplored knowledge that is forbidden by academia?
moelf
this. Even something as singular as the prediction of the Higgs boson was ~simultaneously reached by different groups(!) of people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_PRL_symmetry_breaking_pap...
pegasus
Calculus I can understand, but the kind of coincidence GP describes is much harder to explain.
transistor-man
I'm here to welcome the era of bamboo based spaceships
ceejayoz
There's a little one in orbit right now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LignoSat
(although that's magnolia wood, not bamboo)
itishappy
I for one am prepared for our evolution into the Ousters.
If you haven't read the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, go read it. It's worth it.
Henchman21
I immediately thought of the Templar’s tree ships. Clearly time for a re-read!
null
kazinator
We kind of have microgravity on Earth under water, which provides apparent reduced weight due to buoyancy. Coral reefs and all that.
Underground root/rhizome structures are also bio structures existing in a kind of microgravity since they are firmly supported by the surrounding soil they are packed into.
paxys
Yeah, but getting these structures into space is 99% of the challenge. Best to build them there to begin with.
dimator
[flagged]
9283409232
Any department that is responsible for paying Elon Musk has a better chance than others that stand in his way. USAID was investigating musk and CFPB were in the way of his X Pay nonsense. He gets a lot of money from the DoD so if anything they will have their budget increased.
Between this and the drone-swarm command experiment from yesterday, seems like whoever is heading DARPA mains Zerg in StarCraft.