The following content is a selection from the recently published book, The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots, which was penned by the head of MIT CSAIL, Daniela Rus. Robots present a significant opportunity to magnify and expand human prowess. In the year 2009, I joined forces with biologist Roger Payne to employ drones fitted with cameras to examine whales and their life spans.
This same drone technology was utilized in the research of isolated tribes in the Amazon, allowing them to be monitored without the possibility of disease transmission from explorers who they had not developed immunity against. Additionally, we constructed a drone that could be launched from an autonomous vehicle, capable of flying ahead and around corners, providing the vehicle’s navigation system with a video feed.
The ability to pilot our vision around corners, over cliffs, and to places unreachable to us is already a reality. But imagine being able to extend all our senses such as sight, sound, touch, and even smell to remote locations and experiencing these areas in a more profound manner. The potential is limitless and utterly thrilling. The complete excerpt can be read here.
Studies on organoids formed from amniotic fluid reveal insights into fetal development. Innovation at its finest: As a fetus grows in the womb, it discards cells into the surrounding amniotic fluid. Recently, scientists have shown that they can use these rejected cells to nurture organoids or three-dimensional structures that exhibit qualities of human organs, specifically kidneys, small intestines, and lungs. These cells have been safely extracted without causing harm to the fetus.
