Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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What if doing your chores were as easy as flipping a switch? In this talk and live demo, roboticist and founder of 1X Bernt Børnich introduces NEO, a humanoid robot designed to help you out around the house. Watch as NEO shows off its ability to vacuum, water plants and keep you company, while Børnich tells the story of its development — and shares a vision for robot helpers that could free up your time to focus on what truly matters. (Recorded at TED2025 on April 8, 2025)

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Watch more: https://go.ted.com/berntbornich.

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Si-based all-solid-state batteries face application challenges due to the requirement of high external pressure. Here, authors prepare a double-layered Si-based electrode by cold-pressing and electrochemical sintering that enables all-solid-state batteries operating free from external pressure.

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Physicists in Germany have performed the most accurate measurement of the mass of the fundamental particle neutrinos. The finding deepens physicists’ attempts to uncover laws of nature beyond even the best current theories.

The standard model of particle physics – the best theory which explains the fundamental forces and particles of nature – posits that neutrinos are massless. Experiments, however, suggest that they do have mass.

Measuring the neutrino mass could explain the limitations of the standard model and offer insights into new areas of physics and beyond.

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A team of Rice University researchers reported the first direct observation of a surprising quantum phenomenon predicted over half a century ago, opening pathways for revolutionary applications in quantum computing, communication, and sensing.

Known as a superradiant phase transition (SRPT), the phenomenon occurs when two groups of quantum particles begin to fluctuate in a coordinated, collective way without any external trigger, forming a new state of matter.

The discovery was made in a crystal composed of erbium, iron, and oxygen that was cooled to minus 457 Fahrenheit and exposed to a powerful magnetic field of up to 7 tesla (over 100,000 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field), according to a study published in Science Advances.

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A chemical injected before MRI scans to help create sharper images may cause some patients to experience a potentially deadly complication in rare cases, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico found that gadolinium – a toxic rare earth metal used in MRI scans – could mix with oxalic acid found in many foods to precipitate tiny nanoparticles of the metal in human tissues.

The research, published in the journal Magnetic Resonance Imaging, assessed the formation of these nanoparticles associated with potentially deadly health problems in the kidneys and other organs.

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GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and GPT‑4.1 nano are available now to all developers.

Through efficiency improvements to our inference systems, we’ve been able to offer lower prices on the GPT‑4.1 series. GPT‑4.1 is 26% less expensive than GPT‑4o for median queries, and GPT‑4.1 nano is our cheapest and fastest model ever. For queries that repeatedly pass the same context, we are increasing the prompt caching discount to 75% (up from 50% previously) for these new models. Finally, we offer long context requests at no additional cost beyond the standard per-token costs.

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An estimated 18,000 people in the United States annually suffer from new injuries to their spinal cords. Unfortunately for those afflicted, no FDA-approved therapy is currently available. Scientists at UC San Diego are looking into the body’s healing mechanisms for clues on recovery from spinal cord injury.

A new study by researchers in the Department of Neurobiology (School of Biological Sciences) has uncovered a source of potential hope in the form of a gene that is known to be involved in key developmental processes in various tissues. Receptor tyrosine kinase, or “RYK,” has been previously associated with the regeneration of axons, the long, thin extensions of nerve that transmit impulses. However, RYK, the researchers found, is involved in many more functions.

Professor Yimin Zou and colleagues have published surprising results that reveal that RYK expression inhibits wound healing, offering implications for new treatments for paralysis after spinal cord injury. Their paper, “Astrocytic RYK signaling coordinates scarring and wound healing after spinal cord injury,” was published April 10, 2025 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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