⤴⤵ Up Wing/Down Wing #57

A curated selection of pro-progress and anti-progress news items from the week that was

In case you missed it ...

⚛️ Our fission-powered future: My chat (+transcript) with nuclear scientist and author Tim Gregory (Tuesday)

🏁 Mimicking China isn't how the US should race against China (Wednesday)

👪🐶 When the cries of children are replaced by the bark of dogs (Thursday)

🚀 Jim Lovell, 'Earthrise,' and Apollo 13 (Friday)

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⤴ Up Wing Things

🦠 AI-generated research promises novel antibiotics for drug-resistant bacteria. MIT researchers have used generative AI to design entirely new antibiotics capable of tackling drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA and gonorrhea. By computationally generating and screening over 36 million compounds, the team identified promising drug candidates with unique structures and mechanisms that disrupt bacterial membranes. One compound, NG1, successfully treated drug-resistant gonorrhea in mice, while another, DN1, cleared MRSA skin infections. Both were synthesized and shown to be highly effective in lab and animal models. The research marks a major step toward developing new antibiotics and addressing the global antimicrobial resistance crisis. (MIT News)

🚢 DARPA launches crewless ships. DARPA has taken a major step forward in autonomous naval technology with the christening of the USX-1 Defiant. Part of its NOMARS program, Defiant is a 180-foot USV (unmanned surface vehicle) built to operate for up to a year at sea without any human crew. Designed from the ground up without traditional features like bridges or passageways, it prioritizes reliability, redundancy, and autonomous refueling:

Along with the lightness and sleekness, the systems aboard Defiant are more like those of a deep-space probe, with an emphasis on reliability and redundancy that allows it to operate at sea for up to a year without human intervention. It can even refuel itself autonomously. Where a conventional ship would have technicians aboard for repairs and routine maintenance, Defiant can tolerate wear and tear on its system and can switch to backups as needed.

The result is a nimble, low-maintenance platform for missions ranging from sub hunting to harbor patrol — without putting lives at risk. (NA)

👄 Groundbreaking tech converts thoughts to speech. Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in brain-computer interfaces by decoding not only spoken words but also words people imagine saying. In a clinical trial with individuals affected by ALS, implants in the brain’s motor cortex captured electrical signals that AI translated into speech with up to 97.5 percent accuracy. Impressively, the system also decoded entire sentences from imagined speech, offering a less tiring and more natural way to communicate. This rapidly advancing technology holds great promise for empowering those with speech impairments to connect more easily. (NYT)

⚖️ AI enters the courtroom. Generative AI is beginning to play a supportive role in US courtrooms, with some judges using it to streamline routine tasks like summarizing case files, organizing complex documents, and drafting preliminary questions. These tools are helping ease heavy caseloads and improve efficiency, especially in courts facing significant backlogs. Judges are treating AI as a thought partner — offering speed and structure while still requiring human oversight. Judicial guidelines now outline practical uses such as legal research and transcript drafting, reinforcing that with proper checks, AI can enhance productivity without compromising legal standards. (MIT)

⚕️ Neural implants reduce chronic pain. A recent clinical trial shows promising results of personalized deep brain stimulation to ease severe chronic pain. Using implanted electrodes and AI-driven algorithms, the treatment delivers targeted brain stimulation in response to patients’ unique pain signals, resulting in an average 60 percent reduction in daily pain. According to doctors involved, the goal of the trial was primarily to reduce suffering among patients:

The theory behind the trial was that delivering stimulation in response to a patient’s distinctive pain signals (called a closed-loop system) could operate like “a thermostat for pain,” Dr. Shirvalkar said. Besides providing individualized treatment, it might avoid a possible pitfall of continuous stimulation, in which “the brain might adapt and learn to ignore it,” he said.

Participants experienced improved mobility, mood, and reduced reliance on opioid medications. This dynamic approach adjusts stimulation to provide relief only when needed. It represents a major advance over traditional continuous-stimulation methods. (NYT)