“My biggest issue with defense startups today is the pitch that these companies are going to build everything. Everyone wants to say they build the entire system from tip to tail because it is sexy to show the entire end product. Defense is a components based business. Producing components is sexy because that is how you make money.”

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

Brain-computer interface trials are taking off

“Over the past couple of years, the number of BCI trial volunteers has soared. This year, China became the first country to approve a BCI for medical use. Advances in technology are allowing engineers to provide more features than ever. BCI research is properly taking off.

In 2024, Michelle Patrick-Krueger, then at the University of Houston, and her colleagues published a roundup of all trials of BCIs conducted between 1998, which is when they believe the first device was implanted, and the end of 2023. They identified 21 research groups that, among them, had trialed BCIs in a total of 67 volunteers.

Since 2024, when Patrick-Krueger's paper was published, the number of people who have been implanted with a brain electrode has more than doubled, according to Vansteensel. "My current estimation would be around 150 people," she says."

--MIT Tech Review

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"At a June 15 event at Astrobotic headquarters, the company revealed its Griffin-1 lander. The company is completing final work on the lander before shipping it to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California for environmental tests in the next few weeks.

After those tests are complete, Griffin will return to Astrobotic for final integration work before shipping to Florida for launch preparations. The lander is projected to launch in the fourth quarter of this year on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Griffin will deliver 10 payloads from six nations to the moon, led by the FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) robotic rover from Astrolab. The 500-kilogram rover will be the heaviest commercial payload landed on the moon to date.

"This is the first infrastructure-class lander going to the surface of the moon," said John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic. "This lander will be part of the cornerstone of building up the moon base."“ (Via SpaceNews)

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• Channel Robotics raises $2.5M Seed+ for a handheld AI-enabled endoscopic robotic platform

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