Sunday Special: A Google Earth for the human body

Welcome back, Superhuman. When doctors told Australian tech entrepreneur Paul Conyngham that his rescue dog Rosie only had a few months to live, he decided to take matters into his own hands. With some help from an unlikely ally, Conyngham claims to have stumbled upon something special, and now has scientists’ undivided attention.

SCIENCE SUNDAY

The most interesting scientific and technological breakthroughs this week

1. A man used ChatGPT to build a cancer vaccine for his dying dog: When tech entrepreneur Paul Conyngham's dog Rosie was given months to live, he turned to ChatGPT to find a cure. Using AI to identify Rosie’s tumor mutations, he then partnered with scientists from UNSW to create a custom mRNA vaccine. The vaccine reportedly shrank Rosie’s tumor by half. If true, it could be a landmark moment for personalized medicine through software. Watch Conyngham walk through the unbelievable story here.

2. Scientists just built Google Earth for the human body: Scientists have unveiled the Human Organ Atlas, a freely accessible 3D portal which lets you explore 56 real human organs down to a single cell — all via a standard web browser. Early results are already yielding significant advancements: scientists can now count every filtration unit in a kidney, improve brain surgery, and track the damage caused by COVID-19 to lung blood vessels. You can take the tool for a spin here and explore the human body in unprecedented detail.

3. The T. rex may have American roots: Scientists have long debated where the T. rex's lineage came from. Now, a 74M-year-old leg bone unearthed in New Mexico may be the strongest evidence yet that it evolved in the American Southwest. The bone belongs to a tyrannosaur estimated to be about 50% heavier than any known rival from the same era, and bears a striking resemblance to T.rex itself. Scientists believe further excavation will turn up more material, potentially enough to formally name an entirely new species.

4. We might finally know why cats always land on their feet: It's one of nature's most mysterious tricks, and has left scientists stumped for years. Now, a new study may offer an explanation. The secret could lie in cats' upper thoracic vertebrae, which can rotate a full 360 degrees. The flexibility lets cats spin their front half toward the ground, then twist their lower body to match. Cats also appear to have a right-side bias, consistently rotating that direction when dropped. The full model is still being worked out.

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NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. Jiffy 75 Split Keyboard: A split ergonomic keyboard that reimagines the familiar 75% layout, letting users separate the two halves to promote a more natural typing posture and reduce wrist strain.

2. Nuttii E-Coffee: A portable espresso maker designed for travel. It shows real-time brewing data on a built-in OLED display and heats water without an outlet.

3. KikFin Shark: The first underwater jet-pack designed for hands-free propulsion. You steer by tilting your head and control speed with a wireless glove remote.

4. Spout Monolith AWG: A compact water generator that uses technology from NASA to harvest water straight out of the air.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in science & tech on socials this week

☠️ Urn Encore: Talk about being morbid. Spotify just launched a $495 urn that plays your favorite songs after you pass away, with the gadget garnering major traction on social media. See it here. (We tried to verify whether this is a joke but it looks like they’re serious).

🥬 Plant Puffs: A surreal video showing a plant breathing in real-time for the first time has just resurfaced on social media.

🤖 Scam Central: A video seems to show a creator running a large bot farm that earns up to $5,000 a day by streaming fake “live” footage around the clock, tricking viewers into believing it’s real and collecting donations and platform payouts. Check out their insane setup here.

🪳 Creepy Crawlies: Social media users were stunned after a post claimed that NATO is testing AI-equipped cyborg cockroaches designed to spy on enemy targets. Watch them in action here.

🐟️ Dirt Nap: A 1935 documentary captured an extraordinary moment. Surreal footage shows an African lungfish awakening after spending months buried alive in dried mud.

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ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Mind Over Matter: China just approved the world's first commercial brain-computer interface device, cleared for clinical sale, a wireless neural implant that helps paralysis patients control a robotic glove. The system reads brain signals through minimally invasive electrodes and translates them into hand movements for patients. Clinical trials showed significant improvements in grasping ability. With Neuralink still in trials, China just planted its flag in one of medicine's most consequential races.

Trip Tweak: Psilocybin, a psychedelic, has shown real promise for treating depression, but the hallucinations put it out of reach for many patients. Scientists say they’ve now created modified versions of psilocin (the active compound produced when psilocybin is metabolised in the body), that releases more slowly in the brain. In mice, psilocin triggered far fewer psychedelic-like effects than standard psilocybin. If it holds up in humans, it could unlock psychedelic-based medicine for millions of patients.

Hair Hair: Scientists claim to have overturned decades of biology textbook wisdom about how hair grows. Rather than being pushed out from the root, they found that hair is pulled upward by cells in the outer root sheath, which spiral downward to generate an upward pulling force. When researchers disrupted actin, the protein enabling this cellular movement, hair growth dropped by over 80%. The finding could potentially open new avenues for treating hair loss.

SUNDAY SCIENCE TRIVIA

Galileo’s Famous Experiment

Don’t Cheat: You can watch footage of the groundbreaking phenomenon in action here or read about it here.

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Zain, Faiq, and the Superhuman AI team