China’s $6000 Humanoid Robot by Unitree

Chinese startup Unitree Robotics has just unveiled its humanoid robot R1, priced at only $5,900 — a true game-changer in the world of robotics! 🤖

Weighing just 25 kg, R1 features 26 joints and a multimodal AI system capable of recognizing both voices and images.

Unitree already controls 60–69% of the global market for quadruped robots, with production costs up to 75% lower than industry giants like Boston Dynamics.

The launch of R1 comes just as Shanghai hosts one of the world’s largest AI forums, gathering top tech minds from around the globe.

Robots are becoming more affordable than smartphones. Soon, having a personal robotic assistant at home might be the new normal!

#Unitree #robots #China

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@makeitround_bot - that’s how we are making this round videos

A Giant “Canyon” on the Sun!

On July 15, the Sun unleashed a spectacular coronal mass ejection, creating a plasma structure that looked like a massive rift stretching 400,000 kilometers — about the same distance from Earth to the Moon! 🌕
An incredible phenomenon in our cosmic neighborhood!

#Sun #Astronomy #Space #Science

🧠 Human Mini‑Brains Flying a Virtual Butterfly!

Scientists have connected tiny lab‑grown brain organoids to a simulator — and they can pilot a virtual butterfly in real time!
These living neurons fire when the butterfly appears, steering its movements without traditional software.
It’s a glimpse into the future of biohybrid AI, where biology and computing merge. 🚀

Star link

“On the weekend, I was able to photograph Starlink satellites in the near Moscow region. The position of the sun above the horizon allowed me to capture them… “
@funscience #starlink

https://t.iss.one/funscience/7640

🔋 Ultrasound Tech Charges Implants Without Surgery

South Korean researchers have developed an ultrasound-based wireless charging system for medical implants like pacemakers — fully recharging in under 2 hours with no surgery required.

Using a new dual-layer piezoelectric module, the device captures nearly all ultrasonic energy, even what was previously lost. Tests showed a 140 mAh battery charged in 1h40min through 3 cm of water, and a 60 mAh battery in 1h20min through 30 mm of tissue.

🌐 Read more on TechXplore

📢 Neural connections in the fly: breakthrough research

Scientists have unveiled the first high‑resolution map of how motor neurons in the adult fruit fly’s ventral nerve cord (analogous to our spinal cord) connect to muscles controlling legs and wings.

✅ Using large‑scale electron microscopy, AI‑driven neuron segmentation, and genetically labeled tissues, they’ve reconstructed ~14 600 neurons and ~45 million synapses, creating a detailed motor‑neuron atlas .
✅ Modern nanotomographic imaging aligned with genetic markers allowed them to trace which motor neurons innervate specific wing and leg muscles, unlocking precise neural wiring during behaviors such as walking, take‑off, flight, and evasive maneuvers .
✅ They discovered that leg premotor circuits are modular: synaptic strength scales with motor neuron size, enabling hierarchical activation. Meanwhile, wing premotor circuits show flexible, non‑proportional wiring—ideal for dynamic steering and control during flight .

🧠 These fruit flies serve as a powerful model for understanding how central neural circuits coordinate movement with peripheral responses. The research combines cutting‑edge electron microscopy, advanced AI segmentation, and X‑ray tomography for an unprecedented neural wiring atlas. 🦋

🎥 See the process and visualizations in the video by Mr.Biyolog

The U.S. National Science Foundation has just unveiled a $100 million initiative to build a network of “programmable cloud laboratories” . These AI‑enabled hubs will let scientists design and run experiments remotely, with initial focus on biotechnology and materials science. The idea is to embed artificial intelligence across every stage of research — from planning and predicting outcomes to monitoring real‑time data and adjusting conditions, then speeding up analysis afterward .

The program plans up to six grants of $5 million per year for four years to universities, nonprofits and companies . NSF likens this to its historic investments in infrastructure such as NSFNET : a foundational move to accelerate automated science and keep the U.S. at the forefront of AI innovation.
Read more at: https://www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-invest-new-national-network-ai-programmable-cloud

#AI #CloudLabs #Science #Innovation

🩸 Artificial Blood That Saves Lives

A groundbreaking artificial blood product called ErythroMer can be stored for years and transfused to any patient — regardless of blood type — directly at the scene of an emergency. Developed in the U.S., this powder-based blood substitute only needs to be mixed with sterile water before use.

ErythroMer is made from hemoglobin extracted from expired donor blood, encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles that mimic red blood cells. This innovation could revolutionize emergency medicine and dramatically improve survival rates in critical situations. ✨

#Biotech #EmergencyMedicine #Innovation #ArtificialBlood
@Science

Automaker Geely has completed the deployment of its satellite constellation, successfully putting 11 communication satellites into orbit. 🌌

Though a recent initiative, it already has the potential to transform vehicle management. Owners will now be able to unlock and control their cars in the most remote locations using nothing more than a modern smartphone, such as one from Huawei.

Neural Network That Predicts Your Reaction to a Video

Meta has developed a unique neural network called TRIBE, capable of predicting how your brain will respond to a video — even before you hit the play button, and without any brain scanning!
This 1-billion-parameter model analyzes video, audio, and text to precisely determine which areas of the brain will be activated.

TRIBE was trained on 80 hours of TV shows and movies, enabling it to correctly predict more than half of brain activity patterns across 1,000 brain regions. It performs especially well with multisensory information — where vision, sound, and language interact — outperforming traditional models by 30%.

Interestingly, the system showed high accuracy in the frontal lobes, responsible for attention, decision-making, and emotional reactions to content. This opens new possibilities for developing methods aimed at maximizing viewer engagement at the neural level — which could make “doomscrolling” even more addictive.

In short: input — a video; output — information on which brain regions will light up. Multimodality really amplifies the effect!

https://github.com/facebookresearch/algonauts-2025
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22229

@science

💊 MIT researchers use AI to fight drug-resistant bacteria

Scientists at MIT are turning to generative AI to outsmart one of the greatest medical threats of our time — antibiotic resistance.

🔬 Instead of searching traditional chemical libraries, the team generated over 36 million hypothetical molecules and screened them using graph neural networks, which analyze atoms and bonds as interconnected graphs.

⚡ Key results:
• 24 molecules were selected and synthesized
• 7 showed strong antibacterial activity
• 2 proved so effective they cured infected mice

🧪 The top candidates are NG1 and DN1:
• DN1 successfully eliminated MRSA skin infections in mice
• NG1 wiped out drug-resistant gonorrhea

💡 What makes this breakthrough unique is how AI opens entirely new “chemical space,” beyond the reach of existing catalogs — giving scientists a way to discover novel compounds faster and more cost-effectively.

MIT researchers believe this approach could spark a “second golden age of antibiotics.”

📌 Read more: MIT News

@Science #AI #Biotech #Antibiotics #DrugResistance

🌀 AI Reinvents Gravitational Wave Detection

At Caltech, physicists are pushing the boundaries of how precisely we can measure gravitational waves — tiny ripples in space-time caused by black hole collisions and other cosmic cataclysms. Their tool: the LIGO detector, capable of spotting changes smaller than a billionth of an atom. Yet even LIGO has limits.

This year, researchers turned to AI-driven optimization. Instead of conventional symmetric designs, the algorithms proposed bizarre, seemingly chaotic setups — almost like “hallucinations.” After months of testing, one such design boosted LIGO’s sensitivity by 10–15% — a breakthrough that could accelerate discoveries for years to come.

Inspired by this success, a team at the Max Planck Institute created an AI named Urania to design new optical configurations. Not only did it find better solutions, it also rediscovered a forgotten Soviet law from the 1970s, impossible to implement back then — but finally realized in 2025, thanks to AI. 🚀

We may truly be entering a new era of physics.

🔗 Read more on WIRED

#AI #Physics #GravitationalWaves #LIGO

🌊 The Great Mobula Ray Migration

From April to August and November to January, the coast of Baja California, Mexico, witnesses a breathtaking natural spectacle: the mass migration of mobula rays.

These elegant creatures travel in vast groups, chasing seasonal blooms of plankton and seeking suitable breeding grounds. The sheer scale and beauty of these migrations make them one of the ocean’s most mesmerizing events.

#MarineBiology #Oceans #Wildlife #Nature #Science

🧬 AI just made proteins that can turn back cellular aging 50× faster

OpenAI created proteins that rejuvenate cells 50× more effectively

OpenAI, together with Retro Biosciences, developed a new model — GPT-4b micro — designed for protein engineering.

The model helped create new variants of the Yamanaka factors — proteins that turn ordinary cells into stem cells.

Result: a 50-fold improvement in reprogramming efficiency compared to natural proteins.

The new proteins, RetroSOX and RetroKLF, differed from the originals by over 100 amino acids, yet worked better in 30–50% of cases.

Most importantly — they showed improved ability to repair DNA damage, which is directly linked to cellular rejuvenation.

In experiments on human fibroblasts from donors over 50, within just 7 days more than 30% of cells began expressing pluripotency markers.

Forget Ozempic. In a couple of years, we might be injecting lifespan extensions instead.
Like in the movie In Time.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t end like The Substance. :)

#OpenAI #Longevity #Biotech

@science