“From 1 July, researchers funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be required to make their scientific papers available to read for free as soon as they are published in a peer-reviewed journal. That’s according to the agency’s latest public-access policy, aimed at making federally funded research accessible to taxpayers.”

“In a laboratory outside Cambridge sits a remarkable ‘biological computer’. Its 200,000 human brain cells, grown in the lab, lie on silicon circuitry that communicates their synchronised electrical activity on a screen to the outside world.

The CL1 device, about the size of two shoe boxes, was developed by Australian start-up Cortical Labs with the UK’s bit.bio, in a bid to create ‘synthetic biological intelligence’ — a new form of computing that could offer opportunities beyond conventional electronics and other developing technologies such as quantum…

Early applications of CL1 are in neuroscience and pharmaceutical research, discovering how different chemicals and drug candidates affect the brain cells’ information processing.”

From Nature.

“Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the automaker completed its first driverless delivery of a new car to a customer, routing a Model Y SUV from the company’s Austin, Texas, Gigafactory to an apartment building in the area on June 27.

The Tesla account on social network X, which is also owned by Musk, shared a video overnight showing the Model Y traversing public roads in Austin, including highways, with no human in the driver’s seat or front passenger seat of the car.”

From CNBC.

“Loading and unloading a truck is backbreaking, mind-numbing work that retailers and parcel carriers have tried to solve for years. Workers may not stay long in these jobs. Summers and winters are particularly grueling for anyone stuck in a metal trailer, slinging heavy boxes. Injuries are common…

Boston Dynamics, has designed a robot called Stretch, named for its flexible arm that can reach the top corners of a trailer. With a vacuum gripper covered in suction cups, it can lift boxes weighing up to 50 pounds.

DHL now has a total of seven Stretch robots in supply-chain facilities in three states and has trained nearly 100 associates to operate them. In Columbus, Ohio, one Stretch robot that DHL staff named ‘Johnny 5’ unloads around 580 cases an hour, almost twice the rate of a human unloader.

DHL in May signed an agreement with Boston Dynamics for 1,000 more robots. United Parcel Service is also increasing automation at its facilities, including for loading and unloading trailers—a move that will help the company cut costs, UPS executives said in April. FedEx has been testing and refining the truck-loading process in one of its facilities with robotics company Dexterity since 2023. Walmart also has introduced robots that can unload a truck.”

From Wall Street Journal.

“The automation of Amazon facilities is approaching a new milestone: There will soon be as many robots as humans.

The e-commerce giant, which has spent years automating tasks previously done by humans in its facilities, has deployed more than one million robots in those workplaces, Amazon said. That is the most it has ever had and near the count of human workers at the facilities.

Company warehouses buzz with metallic arms plucking items from shelves and wheeled droids that motor around the floors ferrying the goods for packaging. In other corners, automated systems help sort the items, which other robots assist in packaging for shipment. 

One of Amazon’s newer robots, called Vulcan, has a sense of touch that enables it to pick items from numerous shelves. Amazon has taken recent steps to connect its robots to its order-fulfillment processes, so the machines can work in tandem with each other and with humans…

Now some 75% of Amazon’s global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics, the company said. The growing automation has helped Amazon improve productivity, while easing pressure on the company to solve problems such as heavy staff turnover at its fulfillment centers.”

From Wall Street Journal.