Weekly Piece of Future #144
From Finger‑Regrowing to Quantum Processors and Autonomous Kitchens
Hey there, fellow future-addicts!
Welcome to this week's edition of Rushing Robotics—your compass to the frontiers of science, industry, and imagination. From a single protein that could regrow lost limbs to quantum machines that now rival the world’s fastest supercomputers, we’ll highlight breakthroughs that reshape medicine, energy, and everyday life. Dive in, stay ahead, and let the future unfold before your eyes.
🤯 Mind-Blowing
Researchers at Texas A&M have uncovered that a single protein, FGF8, can rebuild an entire finger joint, marking a major leap toward full human limb regrowth. Meanwhile, MIT physicists have detected a unique superconducting gap in magic‑angle tri‑layer graphene, opening the door to higher‑temperature superconductors for energy and quantum technologies. In another breakthrough, scientists have reprogrammed stomach cells to produce insulin, achieving long‑term blood‑sugar control in diabetic mice—a potential paradigm shift for personalized diabetes therapy.
🔊 Industry Insights & Updates
Quantinuum’s Helios quantum computer now boasts 98 linked qubits, setting new benchmarks in fidelity and enabling real‑world simulations of high‑temperature superconductivity. The Jülich Supercomputing Centre used NVIDIA’s JUPITER to simulate a 50‑qubit universal quantum computer, marking a world‑first that paves the way for advanced quantum algorithms. France has deployed Hoxo, a humanoid robot capable of autonomous navigation and technical tasks inside a nuclear plant, enhancing safety and operational efficiency.
🧬 BioTech
Sentante’s robotic platform demonstrated the first human‑cadaver remote thrombectomy, proving that precision stroke care can be delivered from afar. Scientists have engineered conductive proteins that replace hazardous battery materials, promising safer implantable devices for everything from pacemakers to deep‑brain electrodes. A new method called Acoustically Targeted Chemogenetics (ATAC) uses focused ultrasound, gene therapy, and a drug‑activated “dimmer switch” to suppress seizure‑related brain activity without surgery.
💡 Products/Tools of the Week
Klavis AI is an open‑source platform that connects large language models and autonomous agents to thousands of business tools. Vibe3D is an AI‑powered rendering engine that turns 3D models into photorealistic images in seconds. Kento is a semantic caching layer that can cut AI usage costs by up to 40 %. MemMachine is an open‑source AI memory layer that gives agents persistent, context‑aware recall.
🎥 Video Section
Watch the Circus Group’s CA‑1 Series 4 autonomous kitchen in action. See Astribot’s all‑in‑one AI robot platform showcased at IROS 2025. And explore NAVER LABS Rookie 2, a new service‑robot innovation.
Every breakthrough—whether it’s a protein that can regrow a limb, a quantum computer that surpasses classical limits, or a robot that performs surgery from a distance—reminds us that the frontier of possibility is constantly expanding. As we harness AI to weave these innovations together, we’re poised to transform medicine, energy, and everyday life in ways we’re only beginning to imagine. Stay hungry, stay futurish!
🤯 Mind-Blowing
Single protein regenerates entire finger joint, fueling limb regrowth hopes as a Texas A&M team discovers FGF8 protein can regrow finger joints, bringing human limb regeneration closer to reality. Scientists at Texas A&M University have identified a crucial protein that can regrow an entire finger joint, a discovery that could one day make human limb regeneration possible. The breakthrough brings researchers one step closer to helping the 2.1 million Americans living with limb loss. The findings suggest that FGF8 can instruct cells to rebuild complex tissue structures, essentially overriding the body’s natural tendency to form scars after injury. These cells would normally undergo scar formation, but FGF8 tells them to do something else and they end up making five tissues. The ultimate goal, researchers say, is to identify all the biological signals required to fully regrow human limbs. Their expectation is that if we can figure out all the factors that regenerate a finger, then they could apply those factors anywhere on the rest of the arm, or even a leg, and regrow a limb.
Key evidence of unconventional superconductivity in magic‑angle twisted tri‑layer graphene (MATTG) has been observed by MIT physicists, potentially opening new avenues for higher‑temperature superconductors that could transform both energy infrastructure and quantum information science. The study, published in Science, involved directly measuring MATTG’s superconducting gap, which describes the resilience of the superconducting state at given temperatures. The gap’s distinctive shape—different from that of conventional superconductors—indicates a novel, unconventional pairing mechanism at work. This discovery was made possible by a cutting‑edge experimental platform that allows real‑time monitoring of the superconducting gap in two‑dimensional materials, enabling scientists to capture the dynamic evolution of superconductivity as it forms. The researchers plan to use this platform to further investigate MATTG, to extend gap mapping to other two‑dimensional systems such as twisted bilayer graphene and transition‑metal dichalcogenides, and ultimately to uncover robust, high‑temperature superconducting candidates that could be integrated into future technologies ranging from loss‑free power transmission lines to ultra‑fast, low‑power electronics.
Human stomach cells have been engineered to produce insulin after being transplanted into mice, leading to effective blood sugar control—a leap that could make personalized, cell-based diabetes therapies possible. By activating a genetic “switch” in lab-grown stomach organoids, scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Peking University enabled the cells to function like insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells and, once inside diabetic mice, these new cells helped regulate glucose and lessen symptoms for several weeks. This paves the way for the future possibility of converting a patient’s own stomach cells to treat type 1 diabetes, potentially reducing the need for donor tissue and lifelong insulin injections, though further safety studies are essential before patient trials.
In Düsseldorf, a REWE supermarket now offers shoppers an unprecedented glimpse into the future of grocery shopping. Inside the store, a fully autonomous kitchen prepares fresh meals without any human cook. The Munich‑based robotics firm Circus SE has introduced its CA‑1 Series 4 system, a robot that sits in a glass box the size of a small bathroom. Its two arms move on cue from a touchscreen, grabbing ingredients from refrigerated bins, loading them into a pot, cooking on an induction burner, and delivering the finished dish to a take‑out window—all without a single human intervention. This self‑contained kitchen is the world’s first autonomous AI cooking robot embedded directly in a supermarket.
A battery‑free, flexible sticker that can turn any drinking cup into a smart health sensor has just been invented by a research team at the University of California San Diego, and the device promises to deliver instant vitamin C readings from the user’s fingertip sweat without requiring any external power source or intrusive medical test. The adhesive patch is designed to cling to the outer surface of a standard cup or bottle, and it quietly begins its work the moment the cup is lifted from the table. As the user grips the cup, microscopic droplets of sweat from their fingertip are drawn into the sticker by a porous hydrogel pad that is integrated into its polymer sheet; the pad’s capillary action ensures that even the smallest sweat traces are captured. Within just a few minutes of holding the cup, the biofuel cell embedded in the sticker converts the chemicals found in the sweat into an electric current, thereby generating enough power to run a custom circuit board that houses a dedicated vitamin C sensor. The sensor processes the sweat sample and, using a lightweight, low‑energy wireless module, streams the measured vitamin C level to a nearby laptop or smartphone over Bluetooth Low Energy. By providing a low‑cost, routine monitoring alternative to the roughly $50 blood‑draw tests that are currently required to check vitamin C status, the device offers users a seamless way to track an essential nutrient that supports immunity, tissue repair, and iron absorption without disrupting their daily drinking habits.
🔊 Industry Insights & Updates
Helios, Quantinuum’s most accurate quantum computer, now runs 98 fully linked qubits, setting a new benchmark for accuracy, fidelity, and scalability by fusing hardware and software. The system builds on its predecessor H2, nearly doubling the qubit count and pushing further into the quantum‑advantage regime, while also achieving the highest reported accuracy in the industry for commercial quantum computing. It has simulated high‑temperature superconductivity and quantum magnetism to demonstrate practical applications, and the solution is available through Quantinuum’s cloud platform and as an on‑premise deployment that can optionally integrate NVIDIA GB200 chips. Helios establishes a new precision standard with single‑qubit gate fidelity of 99.9975 % and two‑qubit gate fidelity of 99.921 %, the highest figures reported in any commercial system, and delivers 48 fully error‑corrected logical qubits at a 2:1 encoding rate—a result once thought impossible.
A landmark milestone was achieved when Europe’s first exascale supercomputer simulated a full 50‑qubit universal quantum computer for the first time, smashing the global quantum benchmark. The breakthrough, carried out by researchers at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) in collaboration with NVIDIA specialists on the newly launched JUPITER system, eclipses the previous 48‑qubit record also held by JSC scientists. It demonstrates the unprecedented power of JUPITER’s GH200 Superchips, which required roughly 2 petabytes of memory and the full orchestration of the system to faithfully replicate the physics of a real quantum processor. While a typical laptop can only manage about 30 qubits, this simulation serves as a proving ground for tomorrow’s quantum technologies, enabling exploration of algorithms such as the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and the Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithm (QAOA) before quantum processors are ready to run them reliably.
France deploys an AI humanoid robot inside a nuclear plant. The new machine, named Hoxo, was unveiled by Capgemini and Orano and introduced at the Orano Melox facility in Gard, France, to boost safety and streamline operations in nuclear power plants. Hoxo blends embedded AI, advanced sensors and autonomous navigation, enabling it to perform technical tasks while real‑time perception systems guide it through challenging environments. By replicating human movements, the robot assists operators with hazardous duties and redefines human‑machine collaboration, making nuclear plant work both safer and more efficient. The platform is agile and scalable, demonstrating how cutting‑edge technology can be integrated to solve industrial challenges.
Otus, the new supercomputer, launched this week at Paderborn University’s Center for Parallel Computing, giving Germany’s research community a powerful new ally. The advanced system, installed at the Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2), will enable scientists nationwide to run complex simulations and address major societal challenges through high‑performance computing. Paderborn University’s President, Professor Matthias Bauer, said the new infrastructure would strengthen national research capabilities. The file system—offering five petabytes of storage, 42,656 processor cores and 108 GPUs—was engineered by Lenovo in partnership with pro‑com Datensysteme GmbH. In addition to its computing power, Otus represents a significant step toward sustainability, featuring an indirect free‑cooling system that keeps the machine efficient year‑round and repurposes its waste heat to warm university buildings. The facility operates entirely on renewable electricity, keeping its operations carbon‑free.
🧬 BioTech
A trans‑Atlantic robotic stroke intervention literally bridged the Atlantic in an instant, ushering in the first demonstration that a clot can be removed from a brain vessel without the surgeon physically present at the bedside. After successfully performing the world‑first remote thrombectomy on a human cadaver, Dundee’s Professor Iris Grunwald proved that endovascular stroke care can be delivered from afar while maintaining true surgical precision. This feat was made possible by Sentante’s Lithuanian‑engineered robotic platform, which was controlled from Ninewells Hospital’s School of Medicine and conveys real‑time force feedback directly to the surgeon’s hands—an improvement over joystick‑based systems that lack tactile sensation.
Scientists achieved a landmark in sustainable bioelectronics by designing artificial proteins that can transport and store electrical charge, paving the way for implantable devices with superior safety. Using precise genetic editing, the researchers altered the DNA instructions that dictate protein production, thereby reconfiguring the protein’s structure to enable efficient electron flow. The resulting conductive proteins promise to replace the hazardous materials found in batteries and supercapacitors, opening possibilities for next‑generation medical tools, including pacemakers, glucose sensors, and deep‑brain electrodes for conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.
A nonsurgical method was developed to control seizure‑related brain activity using sound waves and gene therapy. The new approach, tested in animal models, focuses exclusively on the hippocampus—a region often linked to seizures—and enables researchers to regulate that activity later with an oral drug. The study demonstrates that a one‑time, targeted procedure can modulate specific brain circuits without affecting other areas. Low‑intensity focused ultrasound briefly opened the blood‑brain barrier, and the technique, called acoustically targeted chemogenetics (ATAC), combines ultrasound, gene therapy and chemogenetics. The goal is to give scientists the ability to selectively activate or deactivate specific neurons with a targeted drug, removing the need for surgical intervention. Engineered vectors deliver genetic instructions for an inhibitory chemogenetic receptor, a molecular “dimmer switch” that lets neurons respond to a drug designed to quiet overactivity.
💡Products/tools of the week
Klavis AI, an open‑source integration platform. Klavis AI employs advanced artificial intelligence to enable language models and autonomous agents to reliably connect to thousands of external business tools and platforms at any scale, making it ideal for enterprises and developers building AI‑powered applications. By abstracting away the complexities of authentication infrastructure and client library management, Klavis AI streamlines secure integration with deep access to hundreds of functions per app, allowing sophisticated agent workflows such as sales research across enterprise CRMs or communication platforms with minimal code. Its AI‑focused Model Context Protocols ensure agents can interact programmatically with real‑world data and workflows while offering prebuilt connectors, SDKs, and both hosted and self‑hosted deployment options, so teams can accelerate development.
Transforming 3D models from SketchUp and 3ds Max into photorealistic images in seconds, Vibe3D launches with a powerful AI‑driven workflow. Vibe3D is an AI‑powered interior design and rendering tool that transforms 3D models from software like SketchUp and 3ds Max into photorealistic images in seconds by leveraging artificial intelligence for automatic scene optimization and natural language editing allowing users to make instant design changes simply by typing instructions Its cloud‑based approach eliminates the need for expensive hardware and technical rendering knowledge making high‑quality 4K renders accessible to architects interior designers and studios of all sizes With features like context‑aware smart prompts one‑click editing and real‑time client iterations Vibe3D streamlines the visualization process accelerates project workflows and democratizes advanced 3D rendering through intuitive AI‑driven controls.
Kento is an AI semantic caching platform that cuts AI usage costs by up to 40%. It does this by spotting and saving repeated user queries. The platform sits between applications and AI models. It serves cached answers instantly for duplicate or semantically similar prompts. This means you no longer pay full rates for repeated questions. Response speed improves. API expenses go down. A dashboard tracks prompts, spending, and savings. Developers can see usage patterns. Integration needs only a single line of code. Kento works with all major LLM providers. Free and paid plans support scalable optimization.
MemMachine was released as an open‑source AI memory layer. It lets agents remember, learn, and adapt. The layer stores information from past interactions. It captures user preferences, goals, and procedural knowledge. AI uses this memory for contextual understanding. Personalized responses replace generic stateless outputs. Conversations become more relevant and engaging. MemMachine works with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and others. It can run on the cloud or on‑premise. This makes it suitable for developers and enterprises needing scalable, secure, compliant solutions. Its persistent memory turns agents into context‑aware collaborators.
This was really nice! Well put together and interesting. Good stuff :)