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A revolutionary brain implant invented by a team of neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, and engineers can transform thoughts into speech. This technology will hopefully help people who cannot speak because of neurological conditions be able to communicate once more.

Gregory Cogan, a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine and one of the lead researchers in the project, explains: “There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak… But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome.”

Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s third-biggest automaker by sales, plans to build a facility in the U.S. where its air mobility division Supernal will make flying electric taxis intended to be used by commuters.

A prototype of the electric vertical takeoff and landing craft will be shown at CES in Las Vegas in January, Supernal Chief Executive Officer Shin Jaiwon said.

The eVTOL taxi will be capable of flying at 120 miles an hour (190 kph) and have capacity for one pilot and four passengers. December 2024 is the target for a test flight, with ambitions to start commercial service four years later, Shin said in an interview this week with Bloomberg News in Singapore.

Optical tweezers manipulate tiny things like cells and nanoparticles using lasers. While they might sound like tractor beams from science fiction, the fact is their development garnered scientists a Nobel Prize in 2018.

Scientists have now used supercomputers to make optical tweezers safer to use on living cells with applications to cancer therapy, environmental monitoring, and more.

“We believe our research is one significant step closer towards the industrialization of optical tweezers in biological applications, specifically in both selective cellular surgery and targeted drug delivery,” said Pavana Kollipara, a recent graduate of The University of Texas at Austin.

The most powerful telescope ever built.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope that has been designed to study the universe in infrared light. It is the largest and most powerful telescope ever built, and it is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
JWST was launched on December 25, 2021, and it is now operational. The telescope is located at the second Lagrange point (L2) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth.

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Kynikos Associates founder and legendary short seller Jim Chanos has highlighted the disparity between the public perception and actual performance of Tesla Inc. TSLA.

What Happened: In an interview with the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Chanos pointed out a common misbelief held by many Tesla admirers. He said the electric vehicle giant is seen as a multi-faceted entity — an AI firm, an alternative energy business, and a robotics organization.

This image, Chanos argues, is a result of Elon Musk’s compelling portrayal of Tesla as a future-focused company.

Imagine a skin cream that heals damage occurring throughout the day when your skin is exposed to sunlight or environmental toxins. That’s the potential of a synthetic, biomimetic melanin developed by scientists at Northwestern University.

In a new study, the scientists show that their synthetic melanin, mimicking the natural melanin in human skin, can be applied topically to injured skin, where it accelerates wound healing. These effects occur both in the skin itself and systemically in the body.

When applied in a cream, the synthetic melanin can protect skin from sun exposure and heals skin injured by sun damage or chemical burns, the scientists said. The technology works by scavenging free radicals, which are produced by injured skin such as a sunburn. Left unchecked, free radical activity damages cells and ultimately may result in skin aging and skin cancer.