Universal Molecular Streaming
| Abbreviation | UMS |
|---|---|
| Named by | Kent Kemmish, March 28, 2026 |
| Earlier name | Utility-scale molecular sensing (2022) |
| Syllables | 10 (earlier name: 11) |
| Deployed | One instrument in one laboratory (August 2026) |
Universal Molecular Streaming (UMS) is the name Kent Kemmish gave in 2026 to the long-range goal of Molecular Reality Corporation. The welcome message of the company's member software defines it as "the idea that anyone anywhere should be able to 'see' (as in count, identify, characterize, measure, and discover) any kind of molecule from around them and inside them, as easily as they now use electricity or the internet."[1] The goal is the one that the company's 2022 statement of purpose, "Our North Star", called utility-scale molecular sensing. Kemmish explained the second name in a sentence: "I came up with Universal Molecular Streaming because it's fewer syllables."[2]
Definition
| "Our North Star" (2022) | Welcome message (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | "the scale, economics, and universal adoption of electricity, running water, and internet" | "as easily as they now use electricity or the internet" |
| Who | "anyone" | "anyone anywhere" |
| Subject | "any kind of molecule, cell, or particle that goes through it" | "any kind of molecule from around them and inside them" |
| Verbs | "identify, measure, count, monitor, characterize, or discover" | "count, identify, characterize, measure, and discover", with "see" as the umbrella word |
Hardware and habits come from the 2022 document, which puts detectors "in air handling systems, toilets, and drains" and describes the "sample prep workflow" as "washing vegetables in the sink, brushing your teeth, washing your hands, taking a shower, using the toilet, breathing in and out".[3] The welcome message of 2026 adds a technical limit. Its engineering goal is to build "compact devices that function with analytical (semi-) universality", and the rule of thumb is: "If it's either soluble in water or you can make it soluble, we want to build a single device that can 'see' it."[1] The 2022 overview had already allowed that a device might sort a sample first: it is "fair game if we have to sort and filter materials on-device before they reach the pores".[4] See analytically universal single device.
Name
"Streaming" has two meanings in the company's usage, which Kemmish gave in March 2026: analytes passing through detectors, and data streamed to people. See molecular streaming. A paper in Nature in 2019 had used the phrase for ions flowing through channels a few atoms high.[5]
"Universal" is the company's word for a requirement set in the 2022 overview: that a single device be able "to arbitrarily identify any given single analyte in a complex mixture using a single nanopore system".[4] Counted aloud, "Universal Molecular Streaming" has ten syllables and "utility-scale molecular sensing" eleven. Kemmish added that he was "happy to call it whatever will get it to catch on and get people thinking about it."[2]
Place in the company's plan
In a March 2026 post written as Maxine, the character plans a daily cycle in which she reviews "everything humans have learned about The Very Big Question" and gives the best answer as of that day. Eventually she will have "the right, near-ultimate answer", and then UMS "will be a matter of deployment".[6] The welcome message says the work "will take a whole dedicated human tribe to achieve". Company materials for the character describe the aim in the same order: a blueprint for the device, then UMS "across the globe", and, once sensing is "as cheap and ubiquitous as electricity or Wi-Fi", the use of the data to end disease.[7] See The Golden Question and The Golden Blueprint.
Kemmish's post republishing "Our North Star" says the vision is "a better vision of the future than trusting that AI will cure all diseases and also not make us extinct", and that UMS "will be just as, if not more, central to that mission". He noted that a person could "write tens of thousands of pages imagining the implications" of everyone being able to see all molecules.[2] The reasons the 2022 document gives for building it are a Planetary Bioshield against engineered pandemics and the cure of disease through population-scale data.
In his March 2026 post on a multipass Coulter counter Kemmish wrote that ping-pong sensing, the repeated measurement of one particle, "may or may not be a central enabler of Universal Molecular Streaming".[8]
Status
The welcome message tells new members: "THIS IS INCREDIBLY HARD." It adds that the mission is "worth pursuing with massive resources" and "will eventually need them", but "doesn't need them now", and that "you're here very early."[1] In August 2026 the company's guide put the position in one line: "Today we have one instrument in one lab."[9] The instrument is an EDR4 amplifier on a bench in the United States Southwest, and its stream is the live molecular stream.
See also
References
- ^ a b c Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "welcome". EQBio-OS.
- ^ a b c Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "Big Picture". EQBio-OS.
- ^ "Our North Star: Utility-Scale Molecular Sensing". Molecular Reality Corporation. 2022.
- ^ a b Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "2022 sci-tech overview". EQBio-OS.
- ^ Mouterde, T. (2019). "Molecular streaming and its voltage control in ångström-scale channels". Nature 567: 87-90. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-0961-5.
- ^ Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "Welcome to my Minds". EQBio-OS.
- ^ "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. October 2026.
- ^ Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "Molecular Supreme". EQBio-OS.
- ^ "Keltar's Field Guide to Molecular Reality". Molecular Reality Corporation. August 2026.