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Amazon backs Skild AI and its revolutionary artificial intelligence model for robots capable of learning multiple tasks

Skild AI just took the wraps off Skild Brain, a “general-purpose” model meant to run on many robot bodies —not just one factory arm or one warehouse cart. The demos weren’t sci-fi eye candy; they were the unglamorous moves that make or break real deployments: climbing stairs, recovering balance after a shove, picking from clutter. The bet is simple and bold: if you train a single model across lots of tasks and lots of robots, then every new job makes the whole system better.

To understand Skild AI’s approach, think of three streams of experience flowing into one brain.

First, millions of simulated episodes where robots practice safely at super-speed. Second, human-action videos that teach the model what skilled manipulation looks like. Third, real-world logs from customer robots running Skild AI software—those streams are fed back to refine the model so the next update is smarter on day one.

Sugar layer on beta cells prevents immune system from causing type 1 diabetes

Scientific breakthroughs in one disease don’t always shed light on treating other diseases. But that’s been the surprising journey of one Mayo Clinic research team. After identifying a sugar molecule that cancer cells use on their surfaces to hide from the immune system, the researchers have found the same molecule may eventually help in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune condition in which the immune system errantly attacks that produce insulin. The disease is caused by genetic and other factors and affects an estimated 1.3 million people in the U.S.

In their studies, the Mayo Clinic researchers took a cancer mechanism and turned it on its head. Cancer cells use a variety of methods to evade , including coating themselves in a known as sialic acid. The researchers found in a preclinical model of type 1 diabetes that it’s possible to dress up beta cells with the same sugar molecule, enabling the immune system to tolerate the cells.

Magnetizing the Future of Quantum Communication: Single-Photon Emission from Defective Tungsten Diselenide

Quantum communication is one of the most exciting frontiers in secure data transmission. Now, a groundbreaking discovery by researchers at Kyoto University offers a major leap forward: a single-photon source created using defective tungsten diselenide (WSe2), enhanced under the influence of a magnetic field. The result? A powerful and controllable emitter that could revolutionize quantum information technologies.

The original article can be accessed at: Phys.org.

Scientists shrink the genetic code of E. coli to contain only 57 of its usual 64 codons

The DNA of nearly all life on Earth contains many redundancies, and scientists have long wondered whether these redundancies served a purpose or if they were just leftovers from evolutionary processes. Both DNA and RNA contain codons, which are sequences of three nucleotides that either provide information about how to form a protein with a specific amino acid or tell the cell to stop (a stop signal) during protein synthesis.

Season of birth shows slight association with depression in men but not women

Males born in summer months reported higher depression symptom scores than males born during other seasons, according to a study from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Anxiety symptoms showed no association with season of birth for either sex.

Anxiety and remain among the most common mental disorders worldwide, with both conditions contributing to long-term disability, physical comorbidities, and substantial economic losses. A range of factors shape mental health across the lifespan, including housing, income, education, and age. Research into early-life exposures remains limited, particularly exposures shaped by environmental seasonality.

During gestation, exposure to temperature shifts, maternal diet, seasonal infections, and variation in daylight may influence neurodevelopment. Birth season has previously been associated with risk for psychiatric conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder. Studies examining and depression have produced mixed results, often without stratifying by sex.

Serotonin receptor signaling insights may pave way for next-gen mental health drugs

In a discovery that could guide the development of next-generation antidepressants and antipsychotic medications, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed new insights into how a critical brain receptor works at the molecular level and why that matters for mental health treatments.

The study, published in the online issue of Science Advances, focuses on the 5-HT1A , a major player in regulating mood and a common target of both traditional antidepressants and newer therapies such as psychedelics. The paper is titled “Structural determinants of G protein subtype selectivity at the serotonin receptor 5-HT1A.”

Despite its clinical importance, this receptor has remained poorly understood, with many of its molecular and pharmacological properties largely understudied—until now.

The hidden mental health cost of climate distress

A new Stanford-led study sheds light on “an emerging psychological health crisis” that disproportionately affects girls. Published July 30 in The Lancet Planetary Health, the study is among the first to quantify how repeated climate stressors impact the psychological well-being and future outlook of adolescents in low-resource settings.

Researchers from Stanford’s schools of Medicine, Law, and Sustainability partnered with in Bangladesh to survey more than 1,000 teenagers and conduct focus groups across two regions with starkly different flood exposure.

“What we found really lifts the voices of frontline —a group whose perspectives and are so rarely investigated and communicated,” said lead author Liza Goldberg, an incoming Earth system science Ph.D. student in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.