## Notes from 16 April 2026 [[2026-04-15|← Previous note]] ┃ [[2026-04-17|Next note →]] Things I came across today that I thought were worth noting: **Research Revival Fund** — Aishwarya Khanduja, Stuart Buck, Hiya Jain and the [[Analogue Group]] launched a small fund ($4k–$25k grants) focused on recovering research that disappeared not from lack of merit but from lack of infrastructure — bad timing, linguistic marginalization, institutional misalignment. The Analogue Group is a small organization working on experimental publishing and knowledge circulation; [Research Revival](https://researchrevival.org) is one of their initiatives, backed financially by [[Justin Mares]], an entrepreneur with a track record of funding unorthodox science. One of their stated interests is translating overlooked Soviet-era science — [people have noted online](https://www.laurenpolicy.com/p/weekly-link-roundup-1eb#:~:text=I’m%20particularly%20keen%20on%20their%20work%20on%20translating%20forgotten%2Dbut%2Dstill%2Drelevant%20Soviet%20work.%20I’ve%20had%20more%20than%20one%20conversation%20with%20people%20in%20the%20nuclear%20industry%20where%20someone%20told%20me%20that%20their%20technology%20was%20reliant%20on%20an%20obscure%20paper%20written%20by%20a%20Soviet%20physicist%20in%201970.) that critical pieces of nuclear technology trace back to obscure papers by Soviet physicists from the 1970s, papers that were never translated and barely circulated. **[[Sub-1¢-kWh Fusion Energy (1cFE)]]** — [[Astera Institute]] is a US-based private foundation with a $2.5B endowment oriented toward high-risk, long-horizon scientific bets. Their [1cFE](https://1cf.energy) initiative works backward from a price target (sub-1¢/kWh for fusion) mapping what physics, engineering, and financing conditions would need to hold for that to be achievable. They will publish their models, data, and negative results openly. Sub-1¢/kWh is an aggressive number (current solar utility projects land around 2–4¢/kWh under favorable conditions). ___ **[[Sistema Organizado de Moradia Acessível (Soma)]]** — Brazil has almost no tradition of affordable rental housing as an institutional product. Homeownership has historically dominated both policy and culture, which means the rental market for low-income families is largely informal, precarious, and unregulated. Soma attempts to build a replicable financial structure around cheap rental — companies like Dexco, Gerdau, and Movida [finance construction through market instruments](https://www.abrasca.org.br/noticias/sia-cia-1592-soma-projeto-inedito-de-locacao-de-moradia-popular-em-sp-totalmente-concebido-pelo-setor-privado), earn returns from tenant rent over the long run, and an NGO handles property management and social support. A recent development: [[Fundo FICA]] partnered with Soma to allocate 5 apartments in a newly inaugurated building for families earning up to 3 minimum wages. FICA is worth flagging separately. It's arguably the closest thing Brazil has to a [[Community Land Trust]] — a model common in the US and UK where land is held collectively to keep it out of the market, preserving affordability across generations. Five apartments is too small to draw conclusions, but the combination of Soma's financial structure and FICA's stewardship model is at least a interesting attempt to adapt that logic to the Brazilian context.