MIT researchers developed a fully autonomous platform that can identify, mix, and characterize novel polymer blends until it finds the optimal blend. This system could streamline the design of new composite materials for sustainable biocatalysis, better batteries, cheaper solar panels, and safer drug-delivery materials.
Stanford Medicine researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool to help scientists better plan gene-editing experiments. The technology, CRISPR-GPT, acts as a gene-editing “copilot” supported by AI to help researchers—even those unfamiliar with gene editing—generate designs, analyze data and troubleshoot design flaws.
The model builds on a tool called CRISPR, a powerful gene-editing technology used to edit genomes and develop therapies for genetic diseases. But training on the tool to design an experiment is complicated and time-consuming—even for seasoned scientists. CRISPR-GPT speeds that process along, automating much of the experimental design and refinement. The goal, said Le Cong, Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology and genetics, who led the technology’s development, is to help scientists produce lifesaving drugs faster.
The paper is published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Over The Horizon
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I’ve just hopped on a video call with the CEO of Retro Biosciences, the Sam Altman-backed longevity company, when I mention it’s quite hot.
Joe Betts-LaCroix takes my passing comment as a cue to muse on the wonders of air conditioning, and how energy and heat were once synonymous — until they weren’t.
As a multi-hyphenate scientist, entrepreneur, and once-inventor of the world’s smallest computer, Betts-LaCroix is excited by paradigm change.
At the helm of what is essentially Altman’s playground for experimenting with pushing the limits of the human lifespan, Betts-LaCroix is hoping to engineer the same shift that air conditioning brought to hot summer days for your brain and body. Ideally, one day, decouple aging from decline and disease.
The experimental memory pill works by clearing out “gunk in the cells” linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, Betts-LaCroix said. If the pill works, it will restart stalled autophagy processes in the body, cleaning up damage, “especially in the brain cells,” he said.
In contrast, other new Alzheimer’s drugs, like Eisai’s Leqembi and Eli Lilly’s Kisunla, slow down cognitive decline by flushing out sticky amyloid plaques that are a hallmark of the disease.
The body movements performed by humans and other animals are known to be supported by several intricate biological and neural mechanisms. While roboticists have been trying to develop systems that emulate these mechanisms for decades, the processes driving these systems’ motions remain very different.
Researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and other institutes recently developed new biohybrid robots that combine living cells from mice with 3D printed hydrogel structures with wireless optoelectronics.
These robots, presented in a paper published in Science Robotics, have neuromuscular junctions where the neurons can be controlled using optogenetic techniques, emulating the neural mechanisms that support human movements.
A new military test has showcased potential that large drones can work as motherships for smaller loitering munitions. The plan could get a push following a recent air launch of a Switchblade 600 loitering munition (LM) from a General Atomics’ Block 5 MQ-9A unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
It marked the first time a Switchblade 600 has ever been launched from an unmanned aircraft.
The flight testing took place from July 22–24 at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Grounds Test Range.
Think twice about eliminating those pesky ants at your next family picnic. Their behavior may hold the key to reinventing how engineering materials, traffic control and multi-agent robots are made and utilized, thanks to research conducted by recent graduate Matthew Loges and Assistant Professor Tomer Weiss from NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing.
The two earned a best presentation award for their research paper titled “Simulating Ant Swarm Aggregations Dynamics” at the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium for Computer Animation (SCA), and a qualifying poster nomination for the undergraduate research competition at the 2025 ACM SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) conference.
Their study began with the observation that ant swarms behave in a manner similar to both fluid and elastic materials. The duo began work in the summer of 2024. Loges became interested in research after he took an elective class with Weiss, IT 360 Computer Graphics for Visual Effects, at the Department of Informatics. This was his first project and research paper.
OpenAI is rolling out the GPT-5 Codex model to all Codex instances, including Terminal, IDE extension, and Codex Web (chatgpt.com/codex).
Codex is an AI agent that allows you to automate coding-related tasks. You can delegate your complex tasks to Codex and watch it execute code for you.
Even if you don’t know programming languages, you can use Codex to “vibe code” your apps and web apps.
