Sunday Special: An unlikely oceanic alliance

Welcome back, Superhuman. You probably weren't spending your weekend wondering how to text without using your hands, hear conversations in noisy rooms, or store tidal energy as hydrogen. But scientists were. This week brought breakthroughs in all these fields. Plus: footage of dolphins and orcas hunting together that's rewriting marine biology textbooks.

SCIENCE SUNDAY

The most interesting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs this week 

1. Scotland tests world's first tidal-battery-hydrogen power plant: The European Marine Energy Centre just pulled off something that's never been done before. Researchers successfully integrated tidal power, battery storage, and hydrogen production into a single coordinated system for the first time. The three-way integration smooths out tidal power's natural cycles and could unlock new ways to decarbonize hard-to-electrify sectors like aviation and maritime shipping that can't easily run on batteries alone.

2. Unlikely oceanic allies caught cooperating for the first time in stunning footage: Scientists have caught the first-ever footage of Pacific white-sided dolphins leading resident orcas to salmon, with both species sharing the catch. The unlikely partnership works because dolphins dive deep to locate fish targets, while orcas use their larger size to make the kill. For marine biologists, it's another reminder that ocean dynamics are far more complex than we thought. Watch the surprising partnership play out here.

3. New headphones filter out crowd noise, boosting speech clarity: University of Washington scientists have built AI-powered headphones that can identify speakers within 2 to 4 seconds by tracking turn-taking speech patterns. In early trials, the filtered audio scored more than double in clarity compared to the unfiltered sound. The tech could eventually shrink into hearing aids or earbuds, with all code available as open source.

4. Scientists invent skin patch that allows humans to text by tapping their skin: The soft, skin-like patch uses iontronic sensors to detect pressing patterns and vibration modules to send tactile feedback, encoding all 128 ASCII characters purely through physical sensation. For anyone who's fumbled with their phone while driving or wished they could text without breaking eye contact, this breakthrough potentially opens up avenues into genuine hands-free communication.

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NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. Board: A face-to-face gaming console that combines board games and video games into one platform. It packs 12 exclusive games into one console, turning any tabletop into an instant game night.

2. MontBlanc Digital Paper: A luxury e-ink tablet for handwriting. It comes with a pen that offers 4,000+ pressure levels, and syncs notes across phone and web apps.

3. Somnee 2.0: A sleep headband that uses neurostimulation that claims to help you fall asleep 50% faster and slash midnight wake-ups by a third.

4. Brisk It Origin 580: A smart BBQ grill that uses gen AI and Wi-Fi connectivity to automate cooking and create personalized recipes, and is integrated with an app that lets you adjust settings remotely.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in tech on socials and headlines this week

🌽 Future Ready: The future of agriculture is already knocking at the door. A video going viral on social media claims to show a fully-automated farm in China that plants, grows, and harvests crops without any human intervention.

🍔 AI McFail: McDonald's Netherlands just learned that AI-generated holiday ads hit different, and not in a good way. The fast-food chain pulled its 45-second Christmas commercial from YouTube after viewers slammed it as "cold" and "emotionless." Watch it here to judge for yourself.

🧑‍🎓 School’s in Session: An old clip of a young boy explaining higher dimensions has resurfaced on social media, sparking fascination amongst X users. It’s one of the clearest breakdowns we’ve ever seen of the complex scientific phenomenon.

📰 Paper Popper: Someone in Japan used LEGO to build a Technic machine that takes a flat sheet of A4 paper, automatically folds it into a perfect airplane, and launches it 2-3 meters through the air at an impressive speed.

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ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Cell Cure: Most Parkinson's treatments are like Band-Aids. They temporarily replace dopamine but don't really stop neurons from dying off. Now, scientists claim to have changed that. In a Phase I trial, they used stem cell therapy to reverse severe disability in a 37-year-old patient, dropping their Parkinson's score from 62 to 12 (resembling that of a healthy person). With further trials in the plans, the breakthrough could potentially shift the paradigm from symptom management to actual disease reversal.

Double Defense: Gonorrhea has developed resistance to almost every single antibiotic doctors have used against it. Now, the FDA has green-lit ‘gepotidacin’, and is expected to give the go-ahead to ‘zoliflodacin’ within days, finally giving doctors backup options after years of failed trials. Zoliflodacin cured 91% of patients in its pivotal study by targeting a different part of the bacterium's DNA machinery. For the 80M people infected annually, the breakthrough has come soon enough.

Tendon Trick: A new study claims to have found an interesting way to make workouts feel a lot easier. Scientists strapped vibrating devices to participants' Achilles and knee tendons for 10 minutes, then had them work out for three minutes. The vibrations altered how their brains processed exertion signals from muscles, making harder workouts feel much more manageable. If it scales, the breakthrough could potentially help people stick with exercise routines by reducing the mental barrier of difficulty.

SUNDAY SCIENCE TRIVIA

Where are all the aliens?

Don’t Cheat: You can read more on the strange phenomenon here or watch an explanatory video here.

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Zain and the Superhuman AI team

*Disclaimer: This is a paid advertisement for RAD Intel made pursuant to Regulation A+ offering and involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. The valuation is set by the Company and there is currently no public market for the Company's Common Stock. Please read offering circular and related risks at invest.radintel.ai