The week's developments in AI, quantum, and biotech, explained | 22.11.23

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This week was big for biotech: the UK was the first country to approve gene-editing therapy, AI learnt to predict heart disease from eye scans, and scientists successfully printed a robotic hand with bones and tendons. Are we ready for tech-integrated healthcare? Because if this week is anything to go by, it may be coming sooner than you think…

Plus, SpaceX’s Starship launch reached new heights for space exploration – despite still blowing up midair – and the quantum circuit switch of our dreams is on the horizon.

Keep reading to hear about these advancements, plus our best AI tools to hat, streamline, and create. 

- Charlie and the Research and Intelligence Team

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Innovation and Releases

🧬 The UK was the first country to approve gene-editing therapy, following successful clinical trials. The therapy is named CRISPR and is used to treat sickle-cell anaemia and β-thalassaemia, two inherited blood disorders. 

🚀 SpaceX’s second Starship launch was a major success, despite ending in midair destruction. The test demonstrated improved performance and stage separation, vital for future missions planned to Mars and the Moon. 

🫀This AI can predict heart conditions from retinal scans. Healthtech startup Toku’s new product, named CLAiR, is a first-of-its-kind non-invasive method to detect cardiovascular risks from eye scans. 

AI Tools of the Week

🗣️ Chat - Grok is Elon Musk’s conversational AI, aligned with his worldview, and equipped with a witty sense of humour. 

🌐 Streamline - Simplescraper lets you easily extract website data, convert into CSV or JSON format, and export to your chatbot for training. 

📹 Create - Twip will optimise YouTube content with AI generated scripts, realistic text-to-speech voice overs, and search engine optimization.

Latest Research

🦾 Researchers have printed a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons, a huge step in soft robotics. This advancement pioneers the creation of complex structures, made of both fast and slow-curing polymers, within a single printing process. 

🔌 Could this be the perfect ‘switch’ for quantum tech? Scientists have discovered unique switching properties in the metal purple bronze. It can transition between an insulator and a superconductor very fast, triggered by minute changes in light or heat.

🌊 Researchers have developed an AI formula to predict ‘monster’ waves, using 700 years of oceanographic records. This breakthrough will help understand and forecast potentially dangerous rogue waves - and bring benefits to the whole shipping industry.

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In case you missed it

This insane new tech lets you create web applications from drawings. Check out a step-by-step tutorial here:

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