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Elon Musk says Neuralink could start implanting chips in humans in 2022: People with severe spinal injuries would get the tech that the billionaire says could help them walk again

December 14, 2021

Elon Musk’s Neuralink is looking to start human trials of its brain chip in 2022
The news was shared by Musk on Monday while speaking during The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit
Musk said trials in monkeys have been successful, showing the chip is safe
Neuralink just needs FDA approval to start testing the chip in humans
People with severe spinal injuries would be the first to get the chip

Elon Musk claims his Neuralink, a brain-interface technology company, is less than a year away from implanting chips into human brains.

The news comes from the billionaire himself during a live-streamed interview with The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit on Monday, when asked about plans for the company in 2022.

‘Neuralink’s working well in monkeys and we’re actually doing just a lot of testing and just confirming that it’s very safe and reliable and the Neuralink device can be removed safely,’ Musk said.

AI

How DeepMind’s AI Helped Crack Two Mathematical Puzzles That Stumped Humans for Decades

December 14, 2021

By Shelly Fan

With his telescope, Galileo gathered a vast trove of observations on celestial objects. With his mind, he found patterns in that universe of data, creating theories on motion and mechanics that paved the way for modern science.

Using AI, DeepMind just gave mathematicians a new telescope.

Working with two teams of mathematicians, DeepMind engineered an algorithmthat can look across different mathematical fields and spot connections that previously escaped the human mind. The AI doesn’t do all the work—when fed sufficient data, it finds patterns. These patterns are then passed on to human mathematicians to guide their intuition and creativity towards new laws of nature.

“I was not expecting to have some of my preconceptions turned on their head,” said Dr. Marc Lackenby at the University of Oxford, one of the scientists collaborating with DeepMind, to Nature, where the study was published.

The AI comes just a few months after DeepMind’s previous triumph in solving a 50-year-old challenge in biology. This is different. For the first time, machine learning is aiming at the core of mathematics—a science for spotting patterns that eventually leads to formally-proven ideas, or theorems, about how our world works. It also emphasized collaboration between machine and man in bridging observations to working theorems.

Medical Breakthrough

Yale researchers develop mRNA-based lyme disease vaccine

December 14, 2021

Yale researchers have developed an mRNA vaccine that targets the antigens found in tick saliva in order to alert individuals to tick bites as well as prevent the tick from feeding correctly, thereby reducing its ability to transmit pathogens.

By Cate Roser

Yale researchers have developed an mRNA vaccine against lyme disease that triggers an immune response at the site of a tick bite and provides partial protection against the disease-causing bacteria.

In a paper published on Nov. 17 in the Science Translational Medicine journal, scientists studied specific ticks called “Ixodes scapulari” that carry a lyme-disease-causing bacteria called “Borrelia burgdorferi.”According to Gunjan Arora, one of the co-first authors of the paper and an associate research scientist at the Yale School of Medicine, lyme disease is the fastest-growing vector-borne illness in the United States, with close to half a million people affected every year. Currently, there are no commercially available vaccines for lyme disease. This novel vaccine is unique in that it targets the vector of transmission, the tick, rather than the actual pathogen itself. “Lyme disease is the most common Tick–borne human illness in the United States, leaving an urgent need for either therapies or preventative strategies, such as a vaccine,” Jacqueline Mathias dos Santos, a co-first author on the paper and a postdoctoral associate at the School of Medicine, wrote in an email to the News. “Our vaccine is unique in that we don’t actually target the pathogen, we target the vector … instead. This strategy can work for Borrelia because it takes around 24 hours of tick feeding for the pathogen to be transmitted. This offers a unique opportunity to disrupt transmission. Additionally, by targeting the vector, we don’t expect this to drive resistance by the pathogen.”

Tesla

Tesla launches $1,900 Cyberquad for Kids

December 14, 2021

You can’t get the Cyberquad yet, but your kids can!

By Stan Schroeder

Remember when Elon Musk promised a Tesla ATV called Cyberquad? Well, the actual Cyberquad isn’t quite here, but Tesla quietly launched something similar: the Cyberquad for Kids (yes, that’s the official name).

The small, four-wheel ATV has a lithium-ion battery that gives it 15 miles of range and a top speed of 10 mph. It has a full steel frame, cushioned seat, adjustable suspension, rear disc brakes, and LED light bars on the front.

Visually, the Cyberquad for Kids looks pretty cool, and is probably a good indication of what the Cyberquad for grown-ups is going to look like when it finally launches (presumably alongside the upcoming Cybertruck). Tesla says it’s suitable for kids age 8 and up, with the maximum weight capacity being 150 lbs.

Robots

S’pore team turning cockroaches into life-saving cyborg bugs at disaster sites

December 14, 2021

The cockroaches can distinguish between human and non-human subjects with 87 per cent accuracy.

By Clara Chong

SINGAPORE – COCKROACHES ARE KNOWN TO INFILTRATE HOMES THROUGH THE TINIEST OF GAPS, AND THIS INNATE ABILITY NOW HAS ENGINEERS IN SINGAPORE WORKING TO TURN THE PESKY INSECT INTO AN ALLY OF RESCUERS AT DISASTER SITES.

ONE VARIETY OF THE INSECT, IN PARTICULAR, HAS THE TEAM AT NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY (NTU) EXCITED – THE MADAGASCAR HISSING COCKROACH.

ON AVERAGE, AN ADULT IS 6CM LONG, 2CM LONGER THAN THE LOCAL VARIETY.

THE SPECIES IS LARGE ENOUGH FOR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR HIROTAKA SATO AND HIS TEAM AT THE SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING TO EQUIP THE BUG WITH A 5.5G “BACKPACK” CONSISTING OF SEVERAL SENSORS, INCLUDING THOSE THAT CAN WARN OF THE PRESENCE OF GASES SUCH AS CARBON DIOXIDE.

THE CYBORG BUGS ALSO CARRY A SMALL INFRARED CAMERA THAT CAN DETECT LIFE BY PICKING UP TEMPERATURE SIGNATURES. THE IDEA IS TO RELEASE A TEAM OF THEM AT A DISASTER SITE.

PROF SATO’S RESEARCH, WHICH STARTED FOUR YEARS AGO, IS BEING CONDUCTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SINGAPORE’S HOME TEAM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AGENCY (HTX) AND ENGINEERING FIRM KLASS ENGINEERING AND SOLUTIONS.

Robots

Segway makes its first foray into sidewalk robot delivery with Coco partnership

December 12, 2021

By Rebecca Bellan

Segway sees a future for sidewalk delivery robots and is now preparing to be the burgeoning industry’s go-to manufacturer.

The company, which has supplied electric scooters for almost all of the major shared micromobility operators, is partnering with Los Angeles-based delivery robot startup Coco to build 1,000 partially automated, remotely piloted sidewalk robots. Coco will begin deploying the robots in Los Angeles and two other U.S. cities during the first quarter of 2022.

This new shipment of Coco 1 robots, as the company is branding them, will add to its existing fleet of 100 Coco 0 units, a “box on wheels” that the company first built to prove out its business model. Coco has also placed an order for an additional 1,200 vehicles, which it expects to be able to deploy by May or June 2022, pending potential contracts, according to Sahil Sharma, SVP of vehicles at Coco.

Segway has been conducting R&D on robotics for years, and even formed a dedicated division in 2016. That was the same year the company unveiled its Loomo robot, which is basically a scooter base with a little robotic head that includes an Intel RealSense RGB-D camera, speech recognition and self-driving capabilities.

Space Flight

NASA backs Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station

December 12, 2021

Alexa, book me a ticket to low Earth orbit.

By A. Tarantola

Following October’s news that Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceflight company planned to build its own commercial space station in low Earth orbit, NASA announced on Thursday it has selected the program for funding through a Space Act Agreement to further develop the the station’s design. The funding is part of NASA’s Commercial LEO Development program, which aims to “develop a robust commercial space economy in LEO, including supporting the development of commercially owned and operated LEO destinations.”

Space Flight

Rocket Lab Reveals First Details of Neutron Rocket, a Real Rival of SpaceX’s Falcon 9

December 12, 2021

Neutron’s nosecone will not disconnect from the rocket’s body after releasing the upper stage.

By Sissi Cao

NEUTRON WILL BE ABOUT ONE THIRD SHORTER THAN A FALCON 9, BUT WILL WEIGH TWO THIRDS LESS.

New Zealand space startup Rocket Lab has been busy working on a large reusable rocket called Neutron since the company went public on Nasdaq in March. On Thursday, Rocket Lab revealed the first details about the rocket, which could be a serious rival of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in future commercial launch market.

Neutron belongs to a category called medium-class launch boosters. It’s designed to be 131 feet tall and 23 feet in diameter with a maximum payload capacity of 15,000 kilograms (33,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. (For reusable launches, Neutron will be able to carry up to 8,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit.)

While it’s not quite as big as Falcon 9, which stands at 230 feet tall and can lift up to 22,800 kilograms (50,000 pounds) of payloads to low Earth orbit, it’s powerful enough to launch many cargo missions Falcon 9 is currently used for.

Energy

The First U.S. Vessel Powered by a Hydrogen Fuel Cell

December 11, 2021

The Sea Change vessel that will operate in the San Francisco Bay Area.BAE

The system eliminates diesel fuel use and reduces engine maintenance.

BAE Systems recently announced that it has successfully installed a zero-emission propulsion system in the first U.S. hydrogen fuel cell powered marine vessel, the Sea Change.

BAE Systems provided its HybriGen Power and Propulsion solution to Zero Emission Industries for integration on the Sea Change vessel that will operate in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Sea Change project is funded and owned by SWITCH Maritime, an impact investment firm building the first fleet of zero-carbon, electric-drive maritime vessels for adoption by existing ship owners and operators.

DNA, Science & Technology News

$17 million will launch trial of CRISPR cure for sickle cell disease

December 11, 2021

Mark Walters of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland explains how a CRISPR cure for sickle cell disease would benefit patients.

By Robert Sanders

A small clinical trial of a CRISPR cure for sickle cell disease, approved earlier this year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has received $17 million to enroll about nine patients, the first of which may be selected before the end of the year.

The funds — $8.4 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and $8.6 million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) — were awarded to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, which will coordinate the four-year clinical study in collaboration with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA.

The trial will be among the first to apply CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology in humans to snip out the mutated beta-globin gene that causes the disease and replace it with the correct version, which should cure the patient and prevent the painful symptoms and early death that accompany the disease.

This will be the only trial to deliver the Cas9 enzyme and the correct beta-globin gene into a patient’s stem cells without using a virus. The therapy, referred to as CRISPR_SCD001, involves inserting the beta-globin gene and Cas9 enzyme into stem cells via electroporation after the cells have been removed from the patient’s bone marrow. The corrected stem cells are then reinfused to multiply and repopulate the patient’s bone marrow.

drones

Meet SNAG: Tiny bird-inspired drone-robot hybrid can fly through the air before perching on branches – and could be used in search and rescue missions

December 11, 2021

By JONATHAN CHADWICK

SNAG is a 3D-printed robotic bird with landing capabilities inspired by a falcon
It has a motorized claws that can take-off, land and grasp a variety of branches
Engineers claim SNAG could be used for wildlife monitoring and search & rescue
Tests in an Oregon forest have shown it can land and take off from tree branches

Engineers have created a falcon-inspired robot that can take-off, land and grasp branches just like a real bird – and even catch objects in the air.

Developed by a team at Stanford University, SNAG (stereotyped nature-inspired aerial grasper) replicates the impressive grasp of peregrine falcons.

In place of bones, SNAG has a 3D-printed skeletal structure – which took 20 iterations to perfect – as well as motors and fishing line in place of muscles and tendons.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Futurati Podcast with Corey Hoffstein

December 10, 2021

Watch on Youtube

Listen on the Futurati Podcast website
Corey Hoffstein is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Newfound Research as well as an enthusiast of cryptocurrencies and various crypto projects. Newfound is a quantitative asset management firm seeking to help investors proactively navigate the risks of investing through better diversification.