Sunday Special: Star Wars-inspired Airbike takes flight

Your next road trip may not be a “road” trip at all. A Polish company took a page from Star Wars and unveiled a flying motorcycle this week. Meanwhile, a man injected himself with copious amounts of snake venom over 2 decades to create the strongest possible antivenom.

P.S. The Sunday Special is designed to help you discover the most important scientific and technological breakthroughs outside of AI. Our regular AI and Tech updates will resume as usual on Monday.

SCIENCE SUNDAY

The most interesting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs this week

Sky Cruiser: The next time someone cuts you off in traffic, you may be able to fly right over them. Polish firm Volonaut unveiled a Star Wars-styled Airbike that can zip through the sky at speeds of up to 124 mph. The hover-bike weighs 7x less than a conventional motorcycle thanks to advanced carbon fiber materials and 3D printing, while offering riders an unobstructed 360-degree view. Here’s some footage that shows the jet-propelled vehicle gliding through valleys and forest ridgelines.

Tick Tock: After years of painstaking research, scientists have developed "one of the most precise atomic clocks ever created" using an alkaline metal called cesium. It’s reportedly so precise that if it had started ticking when the dinosaurs existed more than 100M years ago, it would only be off by less than a second today. This isn't just scientific vanity — the clock’s state-of-the-art accuracy means it could potentially serve as a benchmark for timekeepers across the world.

Bootstrap Biology: Scientists have traditionally been limited to using naturally-occurring DNA sequences for gene therapy, but researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation just shattered that constraint. Using AI to design synthetic DNA, the scientists successfully controlled genes in healthy mammalian cells for the first time. It’s essentially like "writing software but for biology," potentially allowing ultra-precise control over which cells get treated, making future treatments more effective with fewer side effects.

Hole Houdini: Modern engineering faces a huge problem. Tiny gaps in structural materials can create weak points, leading to wider structural failures. Now, scientists have built a mechanical "invisibility cloak" that makes these tiny gaps effectively invisible to physical forces. Instead of patching weak spots, the technique involves placing special microstructures around the gaps to reroute pressure. This new approach could make structural designs in airplanes, cars, and civil infrastructure safer and more reliable.

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NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. Saga HoloBike: A holographic training bike for immersive indoor rides. It packs a panoramic light-field display to simulate a 3D trail ride — no VR headset required.

2. Everday Steam Closet: A collapsible steam closet that refreshes, sanitizes, and dries your clothes in under 30 minutes. No washer or dryer needed — just plug it in and add water.

3. Bigscreen Beyond 2: A VR headset with wide FOV and deep customization. It packs micro-OLED displays for vivid color, zero motion blur, sharp focus, and comfort.

4. HOTO Air Pump Pro: A portable high-speed electric air pump that inflates a car tire from 0 to 35 psi in under 5 minutes. It packs four preset modes, a smart auto-stop for precise inflation, and a 12-lumen light for low visibility.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in tech on socials this week

📒 Space Relic: A Redditor claims they may have found lost nuclear rocket blueprints at a flea market, including handwritten calculations about patented nuclear propulsion technology for Mars missions in the 1960s-70s.

🌀 Spinning Spectacle: A Reddit user has seemingly created a holographic fan that displays industrial products in 360 degrees. “Watch me taking a closer look and getting hit in the face by the fan,” one commenter joked.

🧑‍⚕️ Surgical Spectacle: A viral video is giving Redditors a peek into the marvels of modern medicine. It shows doctors using augmented reality and tractography (a 3D modeling technique) to visualize the brain in real time during surgery, improving precision and safety.

🌌 Snow Globe: The James Webb telescope has apparently discovered the coldest exoplanet ever — a super-Jupiter orbiting a white dwarf star, located 81 light-years from Earth.

ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Venom Veteran: Scientists have developed an "antivenom cocktail" that protects against 19 deadly snake species, thanks to a hyperimmune man who injected himself with snake venom 856 times over 18 years. The scientists combined the man’s antibodies with an inhibitor drug, creating a mixture that offers full protection against 13 snakes and partial protection against six in mouse trials. Snake envenomation leads to over 100,000 deaths annually, and this breakthrough offers hope for a more powerful antidote.

Mind Over Mouse: An ALS patient, who’s also the third-ever recipient of the Neuralink brain chip, just showcased the chip's capabilities by editing and narrating an entire YouTube video using only his brain signals. The implant in his motor cortex contains over 1,000 electrodes that interpret his intentions to control his cursor. The breakthrough signals a potential revolution in accessibility tools that could one day transform how all of us interact with our devices. Catch the video here.

Surgical Shortcut: University of Maryland surgeons recently made medical history by removing a spinal tumor through a patient's eye socket. During a different procedure, the surgeons spotted a rare tumor strangling the patient’s spinal cord. When conventional methods proved too risky, the team came up with an entirely new surgical technique that involved threading through the tumor through the eye with millimeter precision. The case could open new possibilities for treating previously inoperable conditions.

Cardiac Comeback: Scientists have developed a gene therapy that doesn't just slow down heart failure — it actually reverses it. The team demonstrated an “unprecedented” breakthrough by restoring the heart protein cBIN1, reversing heart failure in pigs during a six-month study period. With plans to apply for FDA approval for human clinical trials this fall, the breakthrough could potentially offer hope to the 6M Americans living with what has been considered a largely irreversible condition.

SUNDAY SCIENCE TRIVIA

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