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June 27^th 2025

💻 Technology

🇧🇪 Belgian engineer creates AR app that blocks real-world ads using AI and Snap Spectacles

Belgian developer Stijn Spanhove has built an experimental augmented reality app that detects and digitally blocks real-world ads using Snap Spectacles and Google’s Gemini AI. The app identifies branded content on items like billboards and packaging, covering them with red squares that can be customized with personal visuals. Though still in testing, the project shows how AR could let users control their physical visual environment in the future.

🇸🇪 Swedish researchers cut quantum computer amplifier power use by 90%, boosting scalability

Scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a pulse-operated quantum amplifier that reduces power consumption by 90%, addressing a key challenge in building large-scale quantum computers. The amplifier activates only during qubit readouts, minimizing heat and electromagnetic interference, which are major causes of computational errors. Published in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, this advance could help scale quantum systems for breakthroughs in AI, cryptography, and materials science.

🚀 Space

🇫🇷 French engineers unveil reusable VORTEX spaceplane to land like a jet, boosting space access

Dassault Aviation has introduced VORTEX, a reusable spaceplane designed to lift off on rockets and land on runways like an aircraft, aiming to provide Europe with independent space access. Supported by €30 million from France’s Ministry of Armed Forces, VORTEX will progress through unmanned and cargo versions before evolving into a passenger-carrying model. The spaceplane, announced at the Paris Air Show, combines space and aviation tech for missions from satellite servicing to space station ferrying.

🌎 Sustainability

🇨🇳 🇦🇺 Chinese and Australian scientists create biodegradable cooling film cutting energy use by 20%

Researchers from Zhengzhou University in China and the University of South Australia have developed a biodegradable cooling film that passively lowers surface temperatures by up to 9.2°C without electricity. Made from plant-based polylactic acid, the film reflects 98.7% of sunlight while allowing heat to escape, offering a sustainable alternative to energy-intensive air conditioning. Published in Cell Reports Physical Science, the durable, scalable film could reduce urban cooling energy use by over 20% in hot climates.

💊 Healthcare

🇺🇸 US researchers show smartwatches could cut virus spread by 50% with early illness detection

Scientists from Texas A&M and Stanford University have found that smartwatches can detect early signs of infection, like subtle temperature or heart rate changes, up to 12 hours after exposure - before symptoms appear. Their study, published in PNAS Nexus, suggests that using these alerts to prompt early testing and isolation could reduce the spread of diseases like COVID-19 by nearly half. This approach could also improve responses to flu, RSV, and future outbreaks.

🇨🇳 Chinese researchers develop AI that detects early-stage stomach cancer using simple CT scans

Alibaba's Damo Academy and Zhejiang Cancer Hospital have introduced 'Grape,' the first AI model to detect early-stage gastric cancer using non-invasive CT scans. Trained on the world’s largest dataset of stomach cancer images, the AI achieved 85.1% sensitivity and 96.8% specificity, outperforming human radiologists and offering a less invasive alternative to endoscopy. Published in Nature Medicine, this breakthrough could significantly improve early cancer detection in China and globally.

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Max

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