Weekly Piece of Future #70
From Virtual Brains to Microrobots and Remote Surgeries
Hey there, fellow future-addicts!
Welcome to this week's edition of Rushing Robotics, where we dive into the coolest breakthroughs and industry updates that are shaping our future.
🤯 Mind-Blowing
Harvard and Google have collaborated to create an artificial brain that controls a virtual rat, mirroring real neural activity. Meanwhile, UC San Diego researchers have developed microrobots from green algae to deliver cancer medication directly to the lungs, significantly boosting survival rates in mice. Flow Computing, a Finnish startup, claims its new chip can double CPU performance instantly, with potential 100x boosts through further software optimizations.
🔊 Industry Insights & Updates
MIT has developed a coin-sized 3D printer for creating custom medical devices and rapid prototypes. Hugging Face is introducing Reachy 2, an open-source humanoid robot for household use. AI-enabled wearables and smart pills are now offering real-time gut health tracking, and MIT has created an amber-like polymer for long-term DNA preservation.
🧬 BioTech
In biotech breakthroughs, a new protocol for making mini artificial brains allows advanced research on neurological disorders without impacting patients. Researchers have also developed a bioengineered implant that triggers natural bone regeneration, and a glowing marker dye is helping surgeons remove prostate cancer in real-time.
💡 Products/Tools of the Week
This week's featured products and tools include Second V2, an AI-driven codebase maintenance platform; Code Finder, a search engine for GitHub repositories; Autodesigner 2.0, a generative AI UI designer; and Wegic, an AI web designer powered by GPT-4o.
🎥 Video Section
Check out our video section for the latest on voice commands and chaining tasks with 1X AI, XBot-L climbing the Great Wall in ROBOT ERA, ColdFusion's take on the realism of today's robots, and a robot humanoid chef in the kitchen featured by KhanFlicks.
Stay tuned for more thrilling updates as we journey through the extraordinary world of AI and technology, where the future is being redefined every day! Stay hungry, stay futurish!
🤯 Mind-Blowing
Harvard and Google have collaborated to create an artificial brain to control a virtual rat. Researchers discovered that activations in the virtual control network accurately predicted neural activity measured from real rat brains exhibiting the same behaviors. Ö̈lveczky, an expert in training real rats to learn complex behaviors for neural circuitry studies, confirmed these findings.
Nanoengineers from the University of California San Diego have developed microrobots capable of delivering cancer medication directly to the lungs. Made from green algae, these microrobots have helped increase the lung cancer survival rate in mice by 40%. This innovation marks a new frontier in cancer treatment, using green algae-based microrobots to target infected lungs with precision.
Flow Computing, a Finnish startup, is making an audacious claim in silicon engineering: by integrating its proprietary companion chip, any CPU can instantly double its performance, and with further software optimizations, this boost can reach up to 100 times. This innovation is poised to address the ever-growing computational demands of AI developers, potentially revolutionizing the industry's ability to keep pace with AI's insatiable hunger for processing power.
Japanese researchers are using the body's own genes to treat rare skin disorders. They have achieved this by transplanting genetically healthy skin to inflamed areas, promoting natural healing processes. This technique is particularly promising for severe burn injuries, where transplanting healthy skin to damaged areas is currently being used as an effective treatment option. This breakthrough could pave the way for advanced therapies for a variety of skin conditions, offering hope to patients with previously untreatable disorders.
An experienced Chinese medical team achieved a groundbreaking milestone by successfully performing a remote robotic surgical operation at a frontier practical conference. This remarkable feat was accomplished across a distance of approximately 8,100 kilometers, with the total two-way communication spanning over 20,000 kilometers. While in Rome, Dr. Zhang skillfully operated a self-developed remote surgical robot, which precisely followed his commands in an operating room far away. The surgical robot executed Zhang's remote instructions to meticulously remove a lesion from a prostate cancer patient.
🔊 Industry Insights & Updates
MIT has developed a coin-sized 3D printer that fits in the palm of your hand. This innovation could enable clinicians to create custom medical device components and allow engineers to produce rapid prototypes directly at job sites. This work represents the initial steps towards a highly-compact, portable, and low-cost solution for the next generation of 3D printers.
Hugging Face introduces Reachy 2, an open-source humanoid project for household use. According to the Pollen Robotics website, Reachy 2 is "coming soon" and represents "a giant step forward" with new 7-DoF bio-inspired arms, each capable of handling a 3 kg payload. This means its arms have seven degrees of freedom, like human arms, and can hold around six pounds each.
Cutting-edge AI-enabled wearables and ingestible smart pills are now offering real-time gut health tracking capabilities. Utilizing sensors and a magnetic field-generating coil, the smart pill enables AI to precisely locate itself within the GI tract. This innovation empowers individuals to monitor their gastrointestinal health conveniently from home, leveraging smartphone technology.
MIT researchers have developed a groundbreaking amber-like polymer that can preserve DNA for long-term storage. This glassy material can safeguard entire human genomes or digital files such as photos, maintaining them at room temperature. The polymer effectively shields DNA from damage caused by heat or water, offering a robust solution for DNA preservation.
🧬 BioTech
A revolutionary protocol for making mini artificial brains has been developed, allowing scientists to perform advanced research on neurological disorders without impacting patients. The researchers have shared a technique for developing brain cortical organoids, described as miniature artificial brains with operational neural networks.
A bioengineered implant can trigger natural bone regeneration, according to new research. This innovative approach repairs damaged bones without the adverse side effects associated with other treatments. Researchers believe this breakthrough could lead to new therapies for individuals with severe skeletal injuries or cancer patients who have suffered bone loss, by stimulating bone tissue regrowth.
A glowing marker dye is helping surgeons to eliminate prostate cancer. Funded by Cancer Research UK, a study revealed that this dye adheres to prostate cancer cells, enabling real-time removal during surgery. In a trial involving twenty-three men with prostate cancer, the dye was injected prior to prostate removal surgery and identified cancerous areas that were invisible to the naked eye or other clinical techniques.
💡Products/tools of the week
Meet Second V2, an AI-driven codebase maintenance platform that automates the upkeep of your codebase, including migrations and upgrades. Connect Second to your GitHub repository, select a module like AngularJS to React, review the AI agent's plan, and run the maintenance job.
Code Finder is the ultimate search engine designed for GitHub repositories. Navigate and explore the immense world of GitHub effortlessly using Code Finder. Whether you're a developer seeking code snippets, a researcher in search of particular projects, or simply curious about open-source contributions, Code Finder will help you find exactly what you're looking for!
Autodesigner 2.0 is a cutting-edge generative AI UI designer that fuses the intuitive chat interface of ChatGPT with the powerful UI generation and drag-and-drop editor from Uizard. The outcome is a straightforward, user-friendly solution for quickly creating digital product concepts from your ideas.
Introducing Wegic, an automated real-time UI designer and the first AI web designer and developer powered by the cutting-edge GPT-4o model. I can assist you in creating and modifying websites in a variety of languages through straightforward conversations. Feel free to chat with me and see your ideas come to life!
