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Category: transportation – Page 21

Pushing the limits of ‘custom-made’ microscopy: 3D imaging of light-sensitive samples now 1,000 times faster

EMBL tech developers have made an important leap forward with a novel methodology that adds an important microscopy capability to life scientists’ toolbox. The advance represents a 1,000-fold improvement in speed and throughput in Brillouin microscopy and provides a way to view light-sensitive organisms more efficiently.

“We were on a quest to speed up ,” said Carlo Bevilacqua, optical engineer in EMBL’s Prevedel team and lead author on a paper published about this in Nature Photonics.

“Over the years, we have progressed from being able to see just a pixel at a time to a line of 100 pixels, to now a full plane that offers a view of approximately 10,000 pixels.”

Self-driving lab transforms electronic polymers discovery

Plastic that conducts electricity might sound impossible. But there is a special class of materials known as “electronic polymers” that combines the flexibility of plastic with the functionality of metal. This type of material opens the door for breakthroughs in wearable devices, printable electronics and advanced energy storage systems.

Yet, making thin films from electronic polymers has always been a difficult task. It takes a lot of fine-tuning to achieve the right balance of physical and . Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have created an innovative solution to this challenge with artificial intelligence (AI).

They used an AI-driven, automated materials laboratory, a tool called Polybot, to explore processing methods and produce high-quality films. Polybot is located at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne.

Brain os And The (Re)Evolution of Human Intelligence

Everyone is talking about AI. Do you think it will surpass human intelligence? And what consequences will this have?

We need to focus primarily on how artificial intelligence will transform the workforce and job market. For instance, AI will be a key component of humanoid robots’ brains. Tesla is already producing them, and I believe that within the next 5 years, every automotive company is likely to produce their own version. This makes sense because automotive companies already have the assembly lines and engineering expertise to produce all the small components needed to build them. We’re already amazed by what AI can do today—imagine what it will do in 5 or 10 years, and then think about what it could do when integrated into a humanoid robot. It’s already confirmed through commercial orders with current manufacturers that major fast-food franchise chains and other chains, for example, in the transportation sector, will test humanoid robots within their processes. AI is already skilled in programming tasks and will soon be able to enhance itself.

Flagellar Motors: How Bacteria Achieve Nearly 100% Energy Efficiency

When discussing motors, most people think of those in vehicles or machines. However, biological motors have existed for millions of years in microorganisms. Many bacteria use tail-like structures called flagella, which rotate to propel them through fluids. This movement is driven by a protein complex known as the flagellar motor.

The flagellar motor has two key components: the rotor and the stators. The rotor, a large rotating structure anchored to the cell membrane, drives flagellum movement. The stators, smaller structures surrounding the rotor, contain ion pathways that transport protons or sodium ions, depending on the bacterial species.

A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.

Meet Devin

In today’s AI news, Backed by $200 million in funding, Scott Wu and his team at Cognition are building an AI tool that could potentially disintegrate the whole industry, at a $2 Billion valuation. Devin is an autonomous AI agent that, in theory, writes the code itself—no people involved—and can complete entire projects typically assigned to developers.

In other advancements, OpenAI is changing how it trains AI models to explicitly embrace “intellectual freedom … no matter how challenging or controversial a topic may be,” the company says in a new policy. OpenAI is releasing a significantly expanded version of its Model Spec, a document that defines how its AI models should behave — and is making it free for anyone to use or modify.

Then, xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, is set to launch Grok 3 on Monday, Feb. 17. According to xAI, this latest version of its chatbot, which Musk describes as “scary smart,” represents a major step forward, improving reasoning, computational power and adaptability. Grok 3’s development was accelerated by its Colossus supercomputer, which was built in just eight months, powered by 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs.

And, large language models can learn complex reasoning tasks without relying on large datasets, according to a new study by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Their findings show that with just a small batch of well-curated examples, you can train an LLM for tasks that were thought to require tens of thousands of training instances.

S new o1 model, which focuses on slower, more deliberate reasoning — much like how humans think — in order to solve complex problems. ” + Then, join Turing Award laureate Yann LeCun—Chief AI Scientist at Meta and Professor at NYU—as he discusses with Link Ventures’ John Werner, the future of artificial intelligence and how open-source development is driving innovation. In this wide-ranging conversation, LeCun explains why AI systems won’t “take over” but will instead serve as empowering assistants.

Meanwhile, when confronted with a constant stream of new AI tools, it can be stressful to make the best choice, especially with hype of “the next big thing. In the opening keynote from the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference, Gartner experts Autumn Stanish, Hassan Ennaciri and Roger Williams equip you with insights and guidance on the AI, cloud and platform trends.

We close out with expert panel, at AI House, led by Moderator Mina Al-Oraibi, The National delves into how a globally integrated AI ecosystem can revolutionize smart cities by enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and citizen well-being. Panelists include; Thomas Pramotedham Presight, Juan Lavista Ferres, Microsoft AI For Good Research Lab, Guillem Martínez Roura, International Telecommunications Union, and Anna Gawlikowska, SwissAI.

Continue reading “Meet Devin” | >

Which AI Agent Is The Best? This New Leaderboard Can Tell You

In today’s AI news, Galileo launched an Agent Leaderboard on Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform where users can build, train, access, and deploy AI models. The leaderboard is meant to help people learn how AI agents perform in real-world business applications and help teams determine which agent best fits their needs.

In other advancements, Bloomberg reported Friday that xAI is canvassing existing investors, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Valor Equity Partners for the round, which would bring xAI’s total raised to $22.4 billion, according to Crunchbase. Bloomberg also noted that discussions are ongoing and that the terms of the fundraising round may change.

Ve done mobile app development will know how challenging it can be to deliver the right kind of experience on a smartphone. + And, while speaking with former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Wednesday, Oracle cofounder and executive chairman, Larry Ellison said that while government organizations collect massive amounts of data, it is highly fragmented, making it hard to feed it into an AI model.

In videos, the Imagination in Action video series from Davos 2025 is being uploaded and we’re featuring the sessions in today’s newsletter. First we dive into an in-depth panel discussion featuring AI visionaries Max Tegmark, Demis Hassabis, Yoshua Bengio, Dawn Song, and Ya-Qin Zhang. In this engaging conversation, the experts unpack the distinctions between narrow AI, AGI, and super intelligence …

And, an expert panel explores how regulation can drive innovation in AI, featuring perspectives from panelists: Robert Mahari, JD-PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School, Pablo Arredondo, Vice President of CoCounsel at Thomson Reuters and Founder of Casetext, Part of Thomson Reuters, Julia Apostle, Partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Gabriele Mazzini, Fellow at MIT Connection Science and Architect of EU AI Act.

Then, join AI pioneer Andrew Ng as he breaks down how artificial intelligence is moving beyond the hype to deliver tangible business results.

In this exclusive conversation with Link Ventures’ John Werner at Davos 2025, Andrew explains how AI innovations are saving costs—from making ships 10% more fuel efficient to boosting profitability in pricing analytics and legal compliance.

Continue reading “Which AI Agent Is The Best? This New Leaderboard Can Tell You” | >

Another robotaxi operation heads to Texas and Archer scores $300M for its defense mission

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!

Raise your hand if you’re exhausted by the firehose of information coming from every direction. Yeah, me too.

At TechCrunch, we’re focused on helping readers (that’s you!) become informed; that’s different than blasting information your way. Instead, we work to answer the “Why should I care?” question and provide important context.

UNIST’s Breakthrough Additive Enhances Lithium-air Battery Efficiency and Lifespan

A team of researchers has unveiled an innovative additive that significantly enhances the lifespan and efficiency of lithium-air batteries. This advancement, announced on Feb. 10, potentially more than doubles the driving range of vehicles compared to those using traditional lithium-ion batteries. The research was spearheaded by Prof. Kwak Won-jin from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), in collaboration with Prof. Seo Seong-eun from Ajou University and Prof. Chen Shuming from Oberlin College in the United States.

Lithium-air batteries, known for their high energy density, use lithium as the anode and oxygen from the air as the cathode, offering up to five times the capacity of conventional lithium-ion batteries. However, these batteries face challenges due to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during operation, which can degrade battery components and reduce efficiency. The newly developed additive, a ‘redox mediator’ named BAC, addresses these challenges by maintaining a consistent charging voltage level of 3.5V, even after exposure to singlet oxygen, a particularly reactive form of oxygen.

The redox mediator, although comprising only 5% of the battery electrolyte’s weight, plays a crucial role in determining the energy efficiency and lifespan of lithium-air batteries. By reducing the voltage required for charging, the BAC mediator enhances energy efficiency and minimizes battery overload, thereby extending its lifespan. Researcher Lee Hyun-wook, the first author of the study, explained, “We were able to develop such a redox mediator through a design method that analyzes the molecular stereostructure.”

Adrenomedullin hormone as key driver of insulin resistance in obesity-linked type 2 diabetes

A recent study published in Science investigates the underlying mechanisms of endothelial insulin resistance involved in obesity-associated diabetes.

What causes insulin resistance?

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the body cannot adequately produce or use insulin, a hormone that facilitates the transportation of glucose from the blood into cells for energy. The activation of insulin receptors, which are highly expressed on the luminal side of endothelial cells, induces endothelial nitric oxide (NO)-synthase (eNOS) activity. Subsequently, NO-mediated vasodilation allows insulin to reach metabolic target cells including adipocytes, skeletal muscle cells, and hepatocytes.