Why does drug discovery need to go to space? In this week's episode of GAEA Talks, the second of season five and the second filmed in our new London studio, Graeme Scott sits down with Dr Toby Call, founder of Mass Balance, former co-founder of Chronomics, and alumnus of the International Space University.

Toby explains why over forty percent of the proteins in the human body have no fixed structure, why this "dark proteome" includes some of the most important targets in cancer and Alzheimer's, and why AlphaFold and the rest of the current AI drug discovery stack cannot model them. He then makes the case for microgravity in orbit as the next great forcing function in biology, places that argument inside the wider story of the second space race, and brings it back down to earth with a clear-eyed view of sovereign AI, edge compute, and where the UK has to position itself over the next twelve to twenty four months. Essential listening for anyone building, funding or regulating the future of AI, life sciences or space.

Topics covered:

The dark proteome and why current AI hits a brick wall in drug discovery
Microgravity as the next great forcing function in biology
Space data centres, cosmic ray bit flips and the radiative cooling debate
Sovereign AI through the lens of a country, a company and an individual
The UK's innovation track record from Stephenson's Rocket to DeepMind
The AGI fear moment and the AI autonomous kill chains already coming out of Ukraine

Dr Toby Call on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobycallMass Balance: https://www.massbalance.bioGAEA AI: https://gaealgm.ai