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Feed your curiosity with Nautilus — a science newsletter for thinkers, seekers, and the endlessly curious. Each week, we bring you beautifully written stories at the intersection of science, philosophy, and culture. From the physics of time to the psychology of awe, our essays, interviews, and ideas dive beneath the surface and linger in the mind.

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Table of Contents

• This Week's Patent News

• Weekly Statistics

• Main Article

• Trivia (question)

• Featured Inventor

• Today in Patent History

• Our Features

• Centurion Patentors

• Trivia (answer)

• Recommendations

This Week's Patent News:

1. GSK and Pfizer Settle RSV Vaccine Patent Dispute. GSK and Pfizer have resolved their global legal battle over RSV vaccine patents. GSK accused Pfizer’s Abrysvo of infringing on its Arexvy-related patents. Under the settlement, Pfizer will pay royalties to GSK and now has a global license. All lawsuits have been dismissed.

2. Genprex Licenses Glioblastoma Therapy Patent. Genprex signed an exclusive license with UTHealth Houston for a gene therapy targeting glioblastoma. The patent covers the use of REQORSA®, Genprex’s lead drug, in treating brain tumors. Early research shows it reduces tumor growth and cell migration.

3. USPTO Director Vacates PTAB Semiconductor Ruling. The USPTO director overturned a PTAB decision involving onsemi and Texas Instruments. The case concerned semiconductor patents and procedural fairness. It was sent back because discovery requests were improperly denied.

4. Congress Reintroduces Patent Eligibility Reform Bill. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025 was introduced in both the House and Senate. It aims to clarify what kinds of inventions can be patented, especially in biotech and software. The bill responds to confusion caused by recent Supreme Court rulings.

5. Moleculin Strengthens Patent Protection for Cancer Drug. Moleculin Biotech received two new U.S. patents for its drug Annamycin. The patents extend protection until 2040 and cover how the drug is prepared and delivered. Annamycin is being developed for leukemia and lung metastases and has FDA fast track status.

Leading companies may start with a groundbreaking idea, such as Kodak’s first camera or Google’s humble search engine. But sustaining success requires more than nostalgia; it demands adaptability. Enter the acquisition, which allows stability to borrow agility’s sparkle. Acquiring startups brings fresh talent, cutting-edge innovation, and chaos. Corporate giants like Amazon or Apple did not dominate because they clung to their roots; they grew by absorbing ideas, technologies, and entire companies.

Of course, this strategy is not without its challenges. The clash of corporate bureaucracy and startup scrappiness can feel like pairing a marathoner with a sprinter. Yet, when managed well, this unlikely union breeds resilience. The steady hand of stability keeps the wheels turning while the nimble energy of a startup ignites new directions.

So, here is to the perfect blend, where startups teach stability to dream big again, and stability reminds startups that great ideas need structure to thrive. Ultimately, corporate agility is not just about acquisitions; it is about embracing the best of both worlds with a wink and a handshake.

Please scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to find out.

The Magnetic Disruptor: How Jian-Ping Wang Is Reinventing the Future Without Rare Earths

A native of China and graduate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang has spent decades unspooling the mysteries of magnetism. His pioneering research on nanomagnetics, spintronics, and magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) earned him accolades from the IEEE, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and the Information Storage Industry Consortium. If your smartwatch is smart, there's a decent chance you can thank some of his innovations.

But perhaps his most significant breakthrough wasn’t about speed or scale. It was about sovereignty.

At a time when China controls 92% of the world’s rare earth refining, and is tightening that grip, Wang’s discovery of Iron Nitride magnets, entirely free of rare earth elements, promises to rewrite the global supply chain. His spin-off, Niron Magnetics, is producing these “Clean Earth Magnets” with materials that are not only domestically sourced but widely available. In an era of geopolitical friction, that’s not just disruptive, it’s patriotic.

These magnets, boasting the highest known magnetic flux and extraordinary temperature stability, are already catching the attention of industries from EVs to MRI machines. They're also catching the attention of policymakers looking to escape dependence on foreign-controlled minerals.

Wang is more than a scientist in the lab. He’s a builder. As director of both C-SPIN and SMART, two of the largest U.S. research centers on spintronics, he assembled teams that explored the frontiers of magnetism for national security and next-gen computing. And as a professor, he’s graduated 38 Ph.D. students in Minnesota alone, fostering the next generation of minds who’ll inherit a planet that desperately needs smarter, cleaner tech.

He’s also got a sense of humor and humility. In 2014, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal named him one of their "Titans of Technology," not bad for a guy who once coined a new alloy, Minnealloy, like it was just another Tuesday in the lab.

Wang’s rare blend of academic rigor and startup grit is a model of how science can serve the world, without burning it out. In fact, the next time your EV goes farther, your device runs cooler, or your supply chain runs smoother, you might just have a magnet from Minnesota to thank.

And that magnet may not be rare, but the mind behind it most certainly is.

His patented device used a compression-expansion cycle, forcing air to cool as it expanded, which in turn could chill water and produce ice. While his machine was rudimentary by modern standards, the principle foreshadowed the vapor-compression refrigeration system still in use today.

Unfortunately, Gorrie’s invention was commercially unsuccessful during his lifetime. Skepticism from the scientific community and a lack of financial backing left his ideas largely unrealized. He died in relative obscurity in 1855.

But history caught up. Today, Dr. Gorrie is celebrated as the father of modern refrigeration and air conditioning, and his legacy lives on in every hospital, supermarket, and sunbelt home. A statue of him even stands in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall.

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Congratulations to last week's Centurion Patentors!
We are excited to welcome the following inventors into these prestigious patent clubs:

For more info about their research & patents, click here