KAILUA, Hawaii—The seaside streets bear the unmistakable look of a Hawaiian beach town, an oasis of palm trees, swimsuits and surfboards. Yet tucked behind a café where baristas make $11 lattes, young workers write code, design machinery and operate an industrial laser that can cut through a car door—all in service of the Airform, a heating and cooling system dreamed up by the engineering startup Normal Corp. Elsewhere on the island of Oahu, students at the University of Hawaii make equipment bound for the moon. In a yurt on a hill overlooking the surf on the North Shore, young scientists…

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