Weekly Piece of Future #150
From Brain-Like Chips to Light-Speed AI and Robot Schools
Hey there, fellow future-addicts!
Welcome to this week's edition of Rushing Robotics! Merry Christmas to you and yours—hope you’re getting a little rest, a little joy, and maybe even a little time to geek out about what’s coming next. While many are unwrapping presents this week, the future is unwrapping itself at breakneck speed. From brain-inspired chips that compost when you're done with them to robots attending school alongside human teachers, this week's breakthroughs blur the line between science fiction and Friday morning headlines.
🤯 Mind-Blowing
Researchers built an artificial synapse from crab shells, bean fibers, and plant stems that learns like a brain then safely decomposes—directly tackling the e-waste crisis. Chinese scientists developed light-based AI chips that beat NVIDIA GPUs by over 100x on specialized tasks, computing with photons instead of electrons. In Beijing, a two-story robot "school" opened where humanoid androids major in factory work, home chores, and elderly care, learning through relentless repetition like children. And in a delightfully macabre twist, scientists transformed mosquito mouthparts into 3D-printing nozzles capable of lines thinner than a white blood cell.
🔊 Industry Insights & Updates
The business world is racing to turn these lab dreams into market reality. STMicroelectronics signed the semiconductor industry's first humanoid robot supply agreement, bringing Oversonic's RoBee workers directly into chip fabs worldwide. NVIDIA made a $20 billion strategic move, licensing Groq's inference chip IP and acquihiring key staff without buying the company outright—cementing its dominance while absorbing fresh talent. Surgeons in Kuwait and Brazil performed the world's longest remote robotic surgery link at 7,456 miles apart, with just 199 milliseconds of latency. Meanwhile, a new lensless imaging technique called MASI achieves sub-micron resolution without optics, turning sensor arrays into virtual giant apertures through software alone.
🧬 BioTech
Biology continues to reveal its deepest secrets while offering powerful new tools. The 4D Nucleome Project mapped over 140,000 DNA looping interactions, creating the most detailed 3D models yet of how chromosome folding controls gene expression. Researchers engineered bacterial patterns that hide messages until specific biochemical triggers reveal them, creating living encryption for anti-counterfeiting applications. And a robotic "click chemistry" platform synthesized and screened 700 metal-based antibiotic candidates in a week, discovering an iridium-based compound that kills MRSA-like bacteria while remaining non-toxic to human cells—potentially bypassing traditional resistance mechanisms.
💡 Products/Tools of the Week
Practical AI tools are making creative and business workflows faster than ever. Patternaly transforms text prompts into seamless, print-ready patterns in 19 art styles, generating 1–4 variations in 10–30 seconds with free and commercial licensing options. Spell from Spline creates full 3D worlds from text or images in minutes, producing editable Gaussian splatting/NeRF scenes ready for web, VR/AR, and games. Guideless automatically converts browser click-throughs into polished, branded video guides without manual recording or editing—perfect for product and support teams. We.Inc unifies websites, campaigns, and sales workflows in a single no-code dashboard, combining AI chatbots, social scheduling, and creative tools to replace multiple subscriptions.
🎥 Video Section
Enough reading—let's see these concepts in motion. This week's videos show humanoid robots wrapping gifts, learning to fold towels, cooking like humans, and Figure 03 showing off some wild new capabilities.
These threads—biodegradable computing, photonic AI, robot apprentices, and living cryptography—are weaving together into a tapestry of possibility that feels fundamentally different from incremental progress. We're watching the convergence of sustainability, intelligence, and biology into something that doesn't just change what we build, but how we exist alongside our creations. Stay hungry, stay futurish!
P.S. We're taking a short holiday break—your next dose of the future arrives in two weeks.
🤯 Mind-Blowing
A plant fiber-based artificial synapse was built to function like a tiny brain-inspired chip while safely decomposing after use, directly targeting e-waste and sustainability challenges. The UNIST research team in South Korea used biodegradable polymers and bio-derived ingredients such as shells, beans, cellulose acetate from plant stems, and chitosan from crab to form a small, layered device. When stimulated, the synapse releases sodium ions that behave like neurotransmitters, binding inside the structure so signals can persist without continuous power and enabling synaptic plasticity behaviors linked to learning. In testing described in the report, the device maintained memory for close to 6,000 seconds and was used to drive a basic heat-triggered robotic reflex, then was positioned as a route toward eco-friendly electronics that can return to nature.
Light-based AI microchips were reported to beat NVIDIA GPUs by over 100x on certain specialized generative tasks, signaling a fast, efficient alternative architecture rather than a drop-in replacement. Chinese researchers developed photonic chips such as ACCEL and LightGen that compute with photons through optical interference, unlike NVIDIA GPUs (including A100) that rely on electrons moving through transistors and deliver flexible, program-driven computing at high power and heat cost. The report says ACCEL is a hybrid photonic-analog electronic design linked to Tsinghua that can be made using established fabrication processes, including older SMIC technology, and has demonstrated performance on predetermined analog math suited to tasks like image recognition and low-light vision. LightGen, described as a fully optical chip reportedly includes more than 2 million photonic “neurons” and targets image-generation-style workloads such as style transfer, denoising, and 3D manipulation with far lower power use.
A robot “school” was launched in Beijing to train humanoid robots for factory work, home chores, and public-service roles using real-world practice environments. China opened the Phase II Beijing Humanoid Robot Data Training Center in Shijingshan district, a two-floor facility that replicates production lines and living spaces where robots practice tasks like sorting coils, picking parcels, cooking, and organizing bedrooms. The center’s director Zhu Kai said each humanoid is paired with two human trainers who repeatedly demonstrate tasks, arguing that robots—like children—need extensive repetition across scenarios to build functional intelligence. The project targets a key bottleneck in humanoid robotics: scarce standardized real-world data, and the facility is expected to generate millions of high-quality data entries annually while linking to similar centers in multiple cities. Robots can pick majors across manufacturing, home applications, elderly care, and 5G-integrated scenarios, and the report says trained systems have learned 20+ skills with success rates above 95%.
A “necroprinting” method was introduced that turns mosquito feeding tubes into ultra-fine 3D-printing nozzles, enabling line widths down to about 20 microns—slightly narrower than a white blood cell. A collaborative team from McGill University and Drexel University repurposed the proboscis of female mosquitoes as a biodegradable, high-resolution outlet that reduces clogging and pressure buildup thanks to its naturally evolved fluid-transport design. The researchers extracted proboscides from euthanized mosquitoes from ethically managed Drexel lab colonies, then detached each tube under a microscope and mounted it onto a standard plastic dispenser tip using resin. The team said the approach could reduce cost and waste compared with specialized metal or glass micro-nozzles and may support biomedical microfabrication and even delicate semiconductor handling.
Over 140,000 DNA looping interactions were charted to build one of the most detailed 3D maps yet of how human chromosomes fold inside the nucleus, offering new insight into gene control and replication. A team in the 4D Nucleome Project mapped chromosome architecture in two cell types—human embryonic stem cells and fibroblasts—because genome sequence alone does not explain how genes are switched on or off. Using multiple genomic assays to measure which DNA regions come into contact, the researchers integrated the results into an Integrative Genome Modeling (IGM) platform that generated 1,000 distinct single-cell 3D genome models. The dataset cataloged more than 141,365 regulatory looping interactions in stem cells and 146,140 in fibroblasts, showing how genes can interact with distant regulatory elements in three-dimensional space. The team also trained deep learning models to predict genome folding directly from DNA sequence, aiming to forecast how disease-linked variants may reshape 3D structure and affect function.
🔊 Industry Insights & Updates
Humanoid robots were set to enter chip factories after STMicroelectronics partnered with Oversonic Robotics to roll out RoBee for production and logistics operations. Announced on December 22, the agreement is framed as a first for the semiconductor sector: integrating humanoid systems directly into fab workflows across multiple ST sites worldwide. Oversonic executives described the move as a milestone that validates their vision for industrial and healthcare markets and demonstrates confidence in meeting semiconductor-grade standards for precision, safety, and uninterrupted operations. RoBee is presented as a certified humanoid for both industrial and healthcare contexts, built to work autonomously in complex environments using AI perception, real-time decisions, and multimodal interaction, including pick-and-place and factory data-gathering tasks that feed into production planning and monitoring.
Groq’s assets and IP were brought into a $20 billion non-exclusive licensing agreement, paired with an acquihire of key staff, expanding NVIDIA’s inference push without buying Groq outright. The report says NVIDIA will license Groq’s intellectual property and hire several top Groq employees. Groq is portrayed as a rival AI chip maker focused on LPUs—ASIC-style processors optimized for inference—arguing they can be more efficient than general-purpose GPUs for certain workloads. Jensen Huang was quoted saying NVIDIA will integrate Groq’s low-latency processors into its AI factory architecture to support more inference and real-time tasks, and emphasized that the agreement is not an acquisition of Groq as a company. Under the new structure described, Jonathan Ross and Sunny Madra move to NVIDIA, Simon Edwards becomes Groq CEO, and GroqCloud keeps running as Groq remains independent.
A world-record robotic surgery link was completed across 7,456 miles when operating rooms in Kuwait and Brazil performed live procedures with surgeons controlling instruments almost in real time. On September 23, 2025, the connection spanned 12,034.92 kilometers between Jaber Alahmad Hospital in Kuwait and Hospital Cruz Vermelha in Brazil using robotic platforms over a secure, high-bandwidth international network. The report says the network delivered an average latency of 199 milliseconds, 80 Mbps bandwidth, and 0.19% packet loss, enabling precise remote control without noticeable delays. Two procedures were carried out to prove two-way capability, with TAPP (transabdominal preperitoneal) hernia repairs performed first by a Kuwait-based team on a Brazil patient and then by Brazil-based surgeons on a Kuwait patient.
A new software-driven optical technique achieved sub-micron imaging without lenses by separating measurement from synchronization, turning sensor arrays into a virtual giant aperture. Developed at the University of Connecticut by Professor Guoan Zheng and colleagues, the system—called Multis Aperture Synthesis Imaging (MASI)—takes cues from the Event Horizon Telescope’s synthetic aperture method, but solves visible-light alignment problems by shifting synchronization into computation. Coded sensors placed at points in a diffraction plane each capture raw diffraction patterns, after which algorithms reconstruct the complex wavefield per sensor, propagate and pad the data, and iteratively phase-synchronize the set for coherent merging. The approach removes the need for strict interferometric alignment that has historically limited optical synthetic aperture systems and enables high resolution, wide field of view imaging from several centimeters away.
🧬 BioTech
The most detailed “4D” maps yet of how human DNA folds and moves over time were created, revealing how genome shape helps control which genes switch on or off. Scientists at Northwestern University, working with the international 4D Nucleome effort, built high-resolution views of the genome’s three-dimensional organization across time, focusing on human embryonic stem cells and fibroblasts to capture development- and function-relevant states. The research describes DNA not as a linear string but as loops, compartments, and domains that physically position genes near or far from regulatory elements, influencing cell identity, development, and disease processes. By integrating multiple complementary genome-mapping technologies into a single dataset, the team reported identifying more than 140,000 chromatin loops per cell type and mapping the molecular components that anchor those loops and shape gene regulation. The study also introduced computational tools that can predict genome folding from sequence, aiming to help researchers anticipate how disease-linked variants may reshape 3D organization and affect gene expression.
Bacterial patterns were created that hide messages until the right biochemical trigger reveals them, offering a new approach to secure information and anti-counterfeiting. Researchers reported a multilevel encoding system in Advanced Functional Materials that uses specially designed photodynamic nanoparticles and light exposure through a photomask to kill bacteria in illuminated regions while leaving shaded regions alive to form precise “living codes.” The nanoparticles combine a light-sensitive molecule (MeO-TSP), fatty acids that intensify reactive oxygen species production under white light, and a protective polymer shell that helps bring the particles close to bacterial membranes for efficient cell destruction. Once patterned, different bacterial species reveal different messages depending on the chromogenic substrate provided, enabling Morse-code and QR-code style outputs, including decoys that only decode correctly with the proper biochemical cue.
Hundreds of metal-based antibiotic candidates were synthesized and screened in about a week using a robotic “click” chemistry platform, producing a standout iridium-based lead that kills bacteria while staying non-toxic to human cells. A team led by Dr Angelo Frei at the University of York’s Department of Chemistry used automation to combine almost 200 ligands with five different metals, generating over 700 metal complexes far faster than months of manual lab work. After testing all 700 for antibacterial activity and toxicity, the researchers identified six potential lead compounds and highlighted one iridium complex with strong activity against bacteria including MRSA-like strains and a high therapeutic index for further development. The work argues that three-dimensional metal complexes can interact with bacteria differently than conventional “flat” carbon-based antibiotics, potentially bypassing existing resistance mechanisms, and cites CO-ADD data suggesting metal complexes can have a higher antibacterial hit rate without added toxicity.
💡Products/tools of the week
Patterns were produced as seamless repeats using Patternaly’s AI Pattern Generator for Seamless Designs, a web-based tool that transforms basic text prompts into print-ready designs. Patternaly lets users pick from 19 art styles, generate 1–4 variations in about 10–30 seconds, preview patterns on product mockups, and export high-resolution PNG files. Patternaly also offers a free option, while paid plans add commercial rights for broader usage.
Scenes were generated in minutes from text prompts or images with Spell, an AI-powered scene generator from Spline that creates full, stylized 3D worlds with renderable volumetric outputs such as Gaussian splatting/NeRF. Spline built Spell to produce editable, production-ready environments that can be refined and exported for web, VR/AR, games, and prototypes through its browser-based editor.
Walkthrough videos were created automatically from browser click-throughs with Guideless: AI Documentation & Video Guides, turning captured flows into polished, branded video guides in minutes. Guideless built the product so product, support, and enablement teams can produce consistent how‑to videos without manual recording, editing, or scripting.
Websites, campaigns, and sales workflows were unified in one dashboard with We.Inc, a 5‑in‑1 no‑code software suite positioned to help businesses build, market, and sell from a single platform. We.Inc combines core capabilities like website creation, AI chatbots for lead capture/qualification, social scheduling, and AI creative tools to reduce the need for multiple subscriptions.
Really impressive curation of biotech breakthroughs here. The automated click chemistry platform for screening 700 metal complexes in a week kinda shows how far miniaturization and automation have come in drug discovery. I've worked with traditional high-throughput screening setups before, and getting that kind of throughput without sacrificing compound diversity was always the tradeoff. What seems noteworthy is how thee iridium compounds interact with bacteria through 3D geometries instead of flat structures, potentially sidestepping the usual resistance pathways entirely.
Wow, that crab shell artificial synapse totally blew my mind. Only you could connect decomposition with brilliant AI, brilliant as always!