Episode 139: Advanced Robot Hearing - Christine Evers
In this episode, Claire Asher talks with Associate Professor Christine Evers about how robots can interpret their environment using sound, focusing on bio‑inspired machine listening that mirrors human auditory processing. Evers explains her work on integrating auditory neuroscience insights into deep‑learning audio models, which aims to create compute‑efficient, interpretable systems rather than relying on massive internet‑scale models. The discussion highlights the potential of these approaches to enable embodied auditory intelligence in robots, making them more capable of understanding and reacting to real‑world acoustic cues.
Pudu Robotics Launches PUDU T150 to Broaden Access to Light-Payload Industrial Automation
Pudu Robotics unveiled the PUDU T150, a 150 kg‑payload industrial delivery robot aimed at light‑load, high‑frequency logistics in factories and warehouses. The robot emphasizes rapid, plug‑and‑play deployment, requiring no site modifications and completing mapping in under ten minutes. Equipped with VSLAM...
Evernorth and Doppler Finance Collaborate to Power Institutional XRP Infrastructure
Evernorth, the publicly traded XRP treasury backed by Ripple and SBI Holdings, has formed a strategic partnership with Doppler Finance, a leading XRPfi infrastructure provider. The two firms will explore institutional‑grade liquidity deployment and treasury‑management frameworks on the XRP Ledger....
Market Unconvinced: KYRS Needs Functional Data
$KYRS +1% Nice science, market not convinced. KB407 shows delivery + CFTR protein in bronchoscopic biopsies, but no sweat chloride/NPD/FEV1. End of day, PD != clinical translation. Also a crowded CF GTx race = priced in. $FDMT 4D-710 (ppFEV1/LCI signals),...
Online Sales Grow 19% During Christmas in Portugal
Online shopping in Portugal surged during the 2025 Christmas period, with ecommerce transactions up 19% and total online spend rising about 14% compared with the same window in 2024. E‑commerce accounted for 18% of all sales transactions and 21% of...
XRAT Malware Targets Windows Users via Fake Adult Game
AhnLab Security Intelligence Center uncovered a campaign that disguises the open‑source xRAT (QuasarRAT) remote‑access trojan as a fake adult game on Korean web‑hard services. The ZIP archive contains a Game.exe launcher that first runs a legitimate game stub, then copies...
Rivvit Appoints Bret Bange as Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer
Rivvit, the AI‑driven data management platform for asset managers, announced Bret Bange as its new Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer. Bange brings over 25 years of experience in fintech, data services, and technology, most recently as CRO of Delta Data....
VALYGO ($VYO): Where Structure, Early Timing, and Opportunity Align
VALYGO (VYO) is launching an early‑access phase that prices the token roughly 50 % below its anticipated live market level. The project has already executed a permanent on‑chain burn of 1,000,000 VYO, reinforcing a fixed‑supply, founder‑locked token model. Built as a...
Samsung Warns of TV Price Hikes as AI Eats All the Chips
Samsung warned that ongoing memory‑chip shortages could force price hikes on its new TVs, especially entry‑level and mid‑range models. The shortage is driven by AI’s massive demand for high‑bandwidth DRAM and DDR5, which has diverted capacity from consumer‑grade memory. Samsung,...
Florida Community Bank Sanibel Captiva Partners with Jack Henry
SanCap Bank, a Florida community lender with over $1 billion in assets, has selected Jack Henry to modernize its core processing platform. The partnership will automate workflows, streamline operations, and preserve seamless integrations with third‑party providers. SanCap plans to open a...
Baby KJ Scientist Launches Startup to Scale Personalized CRISPR Therapies
Key scientist from Baby KJ team launches startup to scale personalized CRISPR medicines https://t.co/7RY4SKrx9Y via @Jasonmmast @ADeAngelis_bio
Retro Biosciences Starts a Safety Trial for an Autophagy Promoter
Retro Biosciences has initiated a Phase 1 safety trial of its small‑molecule autophagy promoter RTR242 in healthy volunteers in Australia. The drug is designed to restore lysosomal acidity, thereby enhancing cellular waste‑clearance mechanisms that decline with age. The study is randomized,...
China’s Digital Yuan Gets Interest, Mirrors Traditional Deposits
10 Chinese banks to pay interest on digital yuan Interest-bearing CBDC arrives: China enabling yield on digital yuan through banking partners. Question: Does this accelerate adoption or blur lines between central bank money and commercial deposits? Note the yield is low...
Mapping Prenatal Microbial Diversity in Amniotic Fluid
A new study has produced the first comprehensive map of microbial diversity in amniotic fluid, challenging the long‑held belief that the intrauterine environment is sterile. Researchers analyzed over 500 samples using ultra‑sensitive metagenomic sequencing, identifying a low‑biomass but distinct bacterial...
Know the FDA Process: Key to Biotech Investment Success
Investors should understand the #FDA regulatory process well. Here is a quick summary At each step investors should ask themselves if the company is developing things in a way that will satisfy the FDA Until a drug is approved the FDA is...
How Trump's Institutional Investor Homebuying Ban Could Impact Loans
President Trump is pushing bipartisan legislation to bar large institutional investors from buying single‑family homes, echoing a Democratic effort to improve housing affordability. Data shows institutional owners hold roughly 0.4% of the nation’s single‑family inventory, with only 2% of investor‑owned...
Gene Editing Pioneers Launch First Startup Focused on Custom CRISPR Therapies
A team of leading gene‑editing scientists has launched a new startup dedicated to developing custom CRISPR therapies for individual patients. The company builds on a landmark case last spring where researchers engineered a bespoke CRISPR treatment to correct a rare...
Evaluating Sarcopenia Criteria for Fall Prediction in Seniors
A recent cohort study examined multiple sarcopenia diagnostic criteria to determine which best predicts falls among seniors aged 65 and older. Researchers compared the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2) algorithm, the SARC‑F questionnaire, and simple performance...
Etiometry’s AI Platform Delivers Measurable Results for Hospitals
Etiometry reported a landmark year in 2025, unveiling platform upgrades that now incorporate high‑resolution waveform data and securing its 10th FDA clearance for enhanced cybersecurity. The AI‑driven solution supported clinical decisions for more than 425,000 patients, earning the Digital Health...
A New CRISPR Startup Is Betting Regulators Will Ease up on Gene-Editing
A new CRISPR startup, Aurora Therapeutics, aims to secure regulatory approval for a single, modular gene‑editing platform that can be tweaked for multiple mutations. Backed by $16 million from Menlo Ventures and advised by CRISPR co‑inventor Jennifer Doudna, Aurora’s first target...
ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026: How to Apply?
The Royal Observatory’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition opened for entries on 5 January 2026 and will close at noon GMT on 2 March. The contest accepts adult and youth submissions across eight themed adult categories and a single youth...
Creative Realities Launches Digital Drive-Thru 2.0
Creative Realities unveiled Digital Drive‑Thru 2.0, a modular digital menu‑board platform designed to streamline installation, maintenance, and scaling for quick‑service restaurants and other drive‑thru venues. The system reduces installation complexity, complies with municipal regulations, and lets operators add or adjust components...
AI-Powered Truman Show Operation Industrializes Investment Fraud
Security firm Check Point uncovered an AI‑driven investment fraud that stages a "Truman Show"‑style reality for victims. The operation uses unsolicited SMS and ads to lure targets into WhatsApp groups populated by AI‑generated experts and fake members who showcase fabricated...
Rhea Space Activity Applies Optical Navigation to Military Rendezvous Missions
Rhea Space Activity, a Washington‑based startup, was selected by SpaceWERX’s Sustained Space Maneuver Challenge and awarded a $1.9 million SBIR Phase‑2 contract to adapt NASA’s AutoNav optical navigation for military use. The company is developing Vanguard, a software suite that adds...
$15 Billion Pig Butchering Scam Boss Chen Zhi Extradited to China
Chinese authorities extradited billionaire Chen Zhi and two associates from Cambodia to face charges linked to the Prince Group’s $15 billion Bitcoin‑based pig‑butchering operation. The joint China‑Cambodia investigation uncovered forced‑labour scam compounds, seized the largest cryptocurrency haul in history, and triggered...
Finance Complaint List Issues New Scam Alert List, Urges Victims to Report Fraud to FBI, SEC, FTC, and FinanceComplaintList.com
Finance Complaint List has released a public alert naming dozens of alleged crypto and investment scams, including a fake Elon Musk “XA” token pre‑sale and wallet‑drainer schemes. The organization urges anyone affected to file complaints on its website and to...
US Business Banking Start-Up Valt Applies for Bank Charter
US fintech startup Valt has filed an application with the OCC and FDIC for a national bank charter, aiming to launch a fully digital business bank headquartered in Eagle, Idaho. The founding team, comprising former US Bank executives and seasoned investors,...
The Cyber Express Weekly Roundup: Schools, Hacktivists, and National Cyber Overhauls
The first week of 2026 saw a wave of cyber incidents spanning education, activism, corporate, and government sectors. Higham Lane School in England shut down after ransomware crippled systems for 1,500 students, while Australian insurer Prosura faced unauthorized access exposing...
Melody: AI‑Powered Multilingual Humanoid Girlfriend Unveiled
Meet Melody—The #AI-Powered, Multilingual Humanoid Girlfriend by @MarioNawfal #Robotics #Technology #ArtificialIntelligence #MI #ML #Innovation https://t.co/z82k3I9Clf
CoinUp Announces Release Of Its 2025 Report Card：From Growth to Compliance, the Rise of Second-Tier Exchanges
CoinUp released its 2025 Report Card, showing rapid user expansion to over 10 million across 200+ countries and peak daily trading volume of $5 billion. The exchange posted $500 million in reserves with a 100 % proof‑of‑reserves audit, zero major security incidents, and secured...
Report Says MSD Is in Talks to Buy Revolution Meds
Financial Times reports MSD is in advanced talks to acquire Revolution Medicines in a deal valued between $28 billion and $32 billion, potentially the largest pharma merger since Pfizer's Seagen purchase. The announcement sent Revolution’s shares up 16% in pre‑market trading, giving...
Why Mortgage Calculators Are Essential for Smarter Property Decisions in the UK
Mortgage calculators have become essential tools for UK property buyers and buy‑to‑let investors, offering real‑time estimates of borrowing capacity, monthly repayments, and required deposits. By instantly modeling interest‑rate scenarios, stamp duty, and ancillary fees, they enable users to assess rental...
How a Bridging Finance Calculator Helps Estimate Short-Term Funding Costs
Bridging finance calculators provide quick, online estimates of short‑term loan costs by inputting loan amount, interest rate, term, and payment type. They deliver projected monthly interest, total interest, and repayment figures, helping investors, developers, and SMEs gauge feasibility before committing....
MaestroX Redefines Title Technology with Human-Guided AI, Built by Real Search Experts
MaestroX announced the expansion of its human‑guided AI platform, designed to modernize the entire title workflow while retaining expert judgment. The solution blends advanced AI with decades of search‑professional experience, covering document intake, data extraction, cover searches, vendor coordination, and...
Danske Bank UK Appoints Dr Fiona Browne as Head of AI
Danske Bank UK has named Dr Fiona Browne as its new head of AI. Browne comes from academia, having taught data analytics and applied AI at Ulster University. The appointment signals the bank’s push to embed advanced analytics across its...
50 Best Free Cyber Threat Intelligence Tools – 2026
The article curates a list of the 50 best free cyber‑threat‑intelligence (CTI) tools available in 2026, spanning data‑feeds, analysis platforms, automation frameworks, and IOC‑parsers. It highlights open‑source projects such as MISP, OpenCTI, and IntelMQ, as well as real‑time feeds like...
Nvidia Hires Google Cloud Marketing Leader as Its First CMO
Nvidia has appointed Alison Wagonfeld, a longtime Google executive, as its first chief marketing officer, starting in February. The move formalizes Nvidia’s marketing function as the company deepens its role in the AI economy. Wagonfeld previously built Google Cloud’s marketing operation...
CareCloud Brings Wellsoft to Urgent Care with Affinity Deal
CareCloud announced that Affinity Urgent Care has adopted Wellsoft, its award‑winning emergency department information system, extending CareCloud’s emergency‑grade documentation platform into the fast‑growing urgent‑care market. The deal follows CareCloud’s 2025 acquisition of Medsphere, which added Wellsoft to its portfolio alongside...
Inside AE Industrial Partners
In this episode, Tom Patton interviews Kirk Konert, Managing Partner at AE Industrial Partners, about the firm’s role in advancing the space industrial base and its view of space as essential infrastructure for the global economy. Konert explains AEI’s investment...
St John Ambulance Partners with Simpson Associates to Build the Foundations for Data Transformation
St John Ambulance has teamed with data‑transformation specialist Simpson Associates to deploy a Microsoft Fabric‑based data lake. The initiative tackles legacy system fragmentation by consolidating data silos and delivering a single version of the truth across the charity. Early work...
Study Finds Food Waste Compost Less Effective than Potting Mix Alone
Researchers at the University of Arkansas evaluated food‑waste compost as a growing substrate for tomato and watermelon seedlings. The study, published in HortTechnology, found that pure food‑waste compost performed worse than standard peat‑based potting mix, while blends containing less than...
Bone Marrow Immune Cell Map Boosts Survival, Relapse Prediction in Multiple Myeloma
Researchers created a single‑cell immune atlas of bone‑marrow cells from 337 newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients, profiling nearly 1.4 million plasma and immune cells. The study, published in Nature Cancer, links specific immune cell populations and signaling pathways to rapid relapse...
MCSP Buyer’s Guide: 6 Top Managed Cloud Services Providers — and How to Choose
Managed cloud services providers (MCSPs) handle migration, monitoring, security, and cost‑control for public, private and hybrid clouds, letting organizations offload day‑to‑day operations. Selecting an MCSP is fraught with trust issues, as service‑level agreements are hard to verify until incidents occur,...
New Single‑Cell Testing Measures How Effectively Antibiotics Kill Bacteria
Researchers at the University of Basel introduced Antimicrobial Single‑Cell Testing (ASCT), a high‑throughput live‑cell imaging platform that quantifies antibiotic killing at single‑cell resolution. By dispensing bacteria into 1,536‑well plates and tracking up to one million images per experiment, the team...
YUBIT Exchange and BSX Protocol Sign Strategic MoU to Advance Education-Driven CeDeFi Trading
YUBIT Exchange and BSX Protocol have signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding to launch a CeDeFi framework that blends education, execution, and on‑chain economics. The partnership integrates BSX’s structured learning and staking mechanisms with YUBIT’s perpetual futures platform, issuing Future...
Eleveight AI Deploys NVIDIA B300 Blackwell GPUs in Armenia
Eleveight AI has installed NVIDIA’s new B300 Blackwell GPUs at its AI‑focused data center in Gagarin, Armenia, becoming one of the first sites worldwide to run the latest accelerator. The deployment supports AI training, inference, generative models and enterprise workloads,...
ElevateFi Launches Next-Generation Decentralized Staking and Rewards Network on Polygon, Targeting Sustainable Wealth Creation
ElevateFi has launched a next‑generation staking and rewards ecosystem on Polygon, featuring the sEFI token that compounds a 0.3333% yield every eight‑hour epoch. The platform introduces a 15‑tier SpiderWeb rewards network with percentages from 10% down to 4%, alongside a...
HSBC Hires Valderrábano as International Wealth and Premier Banking Chief Commercial Officer
HSBC has appointed Valentín Valderrábano as Chief Commercial Officer for International Wealth and Premier Banking, effective 20 February 2026. The role will steer strategy execution, wealth‑led growth, and the integration of digital and physical channels. Valderrábano arrives from Citibank, where he served...
The Role of Initial Access Markets in Ransomware Campaigns Targeting Australia and New Zealand
The 2025 Threat Landscape Report shows a sharp rise in initial‑access sales targeting Australia and New Zealand, with 92 documented compromised‑access listings. Retail accounts for roughly one‑third of incidents, while BFSI and professional services together make up over half. The market...
ITRS Acquires Digital Experience Monitoring Specialist IP-Label
ITRS, a real‑time monitoring leader for financial services, announced a definitive agreement to acquire French digital experience monitoring specialist IP‑Label. The deal adds DEM technology to ITRS’s portfolio and deepens its foothold in Europe. IP‑Label’s platform will integrate with ITRS’s...