Small apartments and homes offer plenty of charm, but they tend to be lacking when it comes to kitchen space. Luckily, there are tons of small kitchen ideas that maximize storage and efficiency. By thinking creatively about how to make the most of your tiny kitchen floor plan and utilizing whatever countertop and wall real estate you have, you can make even the tiniest of kitchens a space you enjoy cooking—and hanging out—in. Ahead, we’ve gathered 51 small kitchen design tips to help you maximize your space, be it a petite galley kitchen or just a single wall in an open-plan apartment. Whether you’re renovating and starting from scratch or just looking to refresh your existing space, read on to get your small kitchen in tip-top shape.1. Add a prep areaAdjustable Kitchen CartKaloh Storage CartsYou may not have space to expand or add a full island, so think about bringing in a slim rolling kitchen cart or bar cart to hold your mise en place or serve as extra counter space. Even a narrow console can work as a spot to set tools and ingredients on while you cook.2. Remove upper cabinetsHandmade Rustic Live Edge Floating Shelves“Open shelves are extremely functional and make it so much easier to access dishes and glasses,” says New York–based interior designer Jenny Wolf, adding that you should think about your kitchen architecturally, as it doesn’t always make sense to have upper cabinets—“especially if the ceilings are 10 feet high.”3. Get custom hardwareDesigner Catrina Stewart used red hardware to highlight the pantry in this London kitchen, as well as a tinted mirror and teal paint to fabricate an eye on the door that looks like it's winking when you open the doorFrench + Tye“I try to use hardware as statement pieces. It’s the jewelry you put on to complete the look,” says architectural designer Karen Williams, who serves as the creative director for St. Charles New York.4. Or opt for invisible hardware“When you lean up against the counter, you don’t want to feel a handle poking into your side. You also want a clean surface where you really see the materiality of [it]. We’ve worked a lot with Dada and have been generally seeing less hardware and more integrated pulls or touch-to-open cabinetry. It makes working much more efficient,” said designer Stephanie Goto.5. Get super organized inside your cabinetsExpandable Lid & Pan OrganizerShelf Risers, Set of 2For any small room (a kitchen or otherwise), getting organized is essential. When space comes at a premium, you can’t afford to waste any of it—even the hidden space inside your cabinets. Stock up on risers, lid organizers for your various pots and pans, spice-sorting systems, and anything else that will streamline and maximize your kitchen storage.6. Streamline dish dutysimplehuman Kitchen Compact Steel Frame Dish RackIf your small kitchen doesn’t have room for a dishwasher, making sure that the kitchen sink is both an efficient and tidy space is key. Consider adding in a compact dish rack, like this one from Simple Human, that drains directly into the sink and will never rust.7. Splurge on fun glasswareWave Glass PitcherSophie Lou Jacobsen Totem GlassesThere might not be room for much decor—so let your dishes do the talking. Unlike hefty serving pieces, colorful drinkware adds visual interest without bulk. Display arty stemware on an open shelf, or let a pitcher pull double duty as a countertop vase.8. Add a kitchen islandWhitmor Supreme Kitchen and Microwave CartFrench Kitchen IslandEven if your kitchen is on the narrow side, you can still bring in a small kitchen island for prep space and conversation. Consider a rolling island, which can be pushed out of the way once dinner is ready. “Don’t think if you have a tiny kitchen that you can’t have an island. You can; you just need to put it on wheels so that when you’re working and you need an island it’s there, and when the guests arrive you can push it over to the side or move it into the dining room or living room and let it be the bar,” says interior designer Ellen Cheever. Alternatively, choose an island with slim legs that you could pull a few stools up to and let it double as bar or breakfast seating.9. Use light colors to visually expand your small kitchenCookware SetThe reBoard“The lighter the kitchen, the larger it can feel,” Wolf says. “Sometimes, if there is a good view out a window, I like to focus on bringing the outdoors in and using nature to dictate the palette.” Keeping an especially light palette on countertops, backsplashes, walls, and millwork also helps a small kitchen feel more open. If you’re not in the market for a full renovation, consider the cooking tools that you always have out: Cutting boards, pots and pans, and linens can all lift a space if you opt for pieces in light shades.10. Double down on whiteCasafina Modern Classic Ceramic DinnerwareMade In Tabletop SetThe lightest palette of all, of course, is all white. “White paint will help spread and reflect light around, which also makes a space seem bigger,” says interior decorator and blogger Emily Henderson. If you have exposed shelving, create a wall of white by displaying white dish sets.11. Maximize floor space with a dining nookVera Pedestal Dining TableRound White Marble and Black Metal Bistro Side TableThe shape of the room can have just as big of an impact as the square footage. “It’s important to pay attention to the structure of your kitchen,” Henderson says. “If you have a small dining nook, then go for a round table that opens up floor space and seats more people than a square one would.”12. Pair utilitarian appliances with refined cabinetryAnza Concrete Espresso Machine“People who frequently cook want to maintain something visually appealing. For one client—a New York City lawyer who has eaten at virtually every major restaurant in downtown Manhattan—it wasn’t about being a show kitchen, but a foodie’s kitchen. It’s very utilitarian—he wanted a heavy-duty Wolf stove—yet we took care in the selection of the finishes. The white cabinets are glass, and the gray cabinets are lacquer—they really play with materiality. This way, it’s not too precious or too utilitarian,” said designer Goto. For those not in the market for a whole new range, consider a striking espresso machine, like this Brutalism-inspired one by Anza, instead.13. Think verticallyMagnetic Knife HolderJust can’t get rid of that timeworn cookbook or prized flea market find? “Installing pot racks, knife mounts, and open shelving above your stove will free up tons of space,” says Henderson.14. Build a storage benchInstagram contentThis content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

May 20, 20254 min readContributors to Scientific American’s June 2025 IssueWriters, artists, photographers and researchers share the stories behind the storiesBy Allison Parshall edited by Jen SchwartzJennifer N. R. Smith. Charles SmithJennifer N. R. SmithThe Social Lives of MitochondriaIn 2020, on a trip to Devon, England, Jennifer N. R. Smith (above) went swimming in the sea. Just as night fell, the water began to glow with light from bioluminescent algae. “It’s electric blue,” she recalls. “If you lift your arm up out of the water, it kind of sparkles all over your skin. It was the most magical experience I’ve ever had.” Smith, who had just finished a program in medical illustration, felt she had to draw this phenomenon immediately.Smith took inspiration from that experience to create her own style of illustration, which combines the traditional textures of collage and paper marbling with a technique called reverse stippling—pinpricks of light over a dark background. The technique evokes wonder in her for the natural world, with the dots representing more than just flecks of algae on her skin. “They could be the night sky or atoms, either the macro or the micro.”On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.For this issue’s feature story on the mysteries of mitochondria, by behavioral neuroscientist Martin Picard, Smith visualized the organelles’ zigzagging inner walls by using this illustration method to “turn the mitochondrion into a labyrinth.” Rather than explaining concepts to readers with her drawings, she tries to invite them in by inspiring a sense of awe. “If you can spark wonder within someone about a certain topic,” she says, “they will interact with it in a way that’s much more deep and authentic.”Alec LuhnRefreezing the ArcticIn February climate journalist Alec Luhn took four days and four planes to travel to Cambridge Bay in Canada’s Nunavut territory. It was his second trip to the Arctic Circle for Scientific American—in 2023 he went to Alaska to investigate why rivers in Kobuk Valley National Park were turning orange. This time, while reporting on efforts to refreeze parts of the melting Arctic to stall the worst effects of climate change, he was struck by just how fast the environment was changing.“This is the Northwest Passage—the holy grail of ocean exploration for 400 years,” Luhn says, referring to the famed sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Many colonial explorers died trying to navigate the ice-clogged sea lane, “but now that ice is melting to the degree that cruise ships go through the Northwest Passage every single summer,” and local Indigenous communities, he says, are struggling to maintain a way of life that depends heavily on sea ice for hunting, transportation, and more.As Luhn observed the efforts to refreeze the melting cap, he often thought about how this harsh environment has made a mockery of colonial expeditions’ efforts to bend it to their will. “And here we are now again, trying to bring our technology to bear on the forces of nature” to counteract the melting we continue to cause, he says. “Will we succeed this time?”Rowan JacobsenCan Sunlight Cure Disease?For the past few years science journalist Rowan Jacobsen has been fascinated by the effect of light on our bodies. “We tend to think of light as ephemeral,” he says, yet it is physical—we’re constantly bombarded by photons, little packets of energy. “There’s no way it couldn’t have a health impact, in a way,” he says. Indeed, research across fields of medicine has shown that people exposed to more light tend to have better health outcomes. In our cover story for this issue, Jacobsen explores new phototherapies for autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis.Jacobsen has written several books, on topics including oysters, truffles and chocolate. Food, he says, is a “clandestine” way to get people interested in the natural world. For his next book, about how light affects health, he recently embarked on a “self-experiment.” Jacobsen rented a 1962 Airstream in southwestern Arizona and spent a month without artificial light at night. After sunset “there’s nothing to do [except] lie out and look at the stars,” he says.Jacobsen had returned to his home in Vermont just before we spoke for this interview, and he reported feeling refreshed. “My energy and my focus were awesome,” he says, attributing the improvement mainly to the early mornings. “Less [artificial] light at night was good, but I think the bright sunlight in the morning was equally important.”Jay BendtScience of HealthJay Bendt fell into her illustration career “sort of backward,” she says. She had planned to take the path of many members of her family and become a doctor. But during her first year of college, she expressed interest in drawing on an administrative form and was unwittingly sorted into an art-focused track. “Being very young, I was like, ‘You know what, that actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea,’ ” she recalls. Bendt had grown up drawing in the age of DeviantArt, an online art platform popular in the 2000s, and had been inspired by the “magical girl” aesthetic of Sailor Moon and other anime. After graduating with a painting degree, she learned to integrate these interests with formal, conceptual skills to become a freelance illustrator.Bendt illustrates Scientific American’s Science of Health column, written by Lydia Denworth. This issue’s column about the impact of exercise on gut bacteria was a particular challenge. “Anything that has bacteria in it is one I need to think on more” to make it original, she says; it’s too easy to fall back on drawing little anthropomorphic cells. For editorial illustrations, Bendt picks a style that matches the story, but her personal work is unfailingly whimsical. “I try to make work that, once you’ve caught a glimpse, you have to look at it.”

Empowering engineering teams with more tools for building AI factories, NVIDIA today announced a significant expansion of the NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint for AI factory digital twins, now available as a preview. The blueprint features new integrations across the AI factory power, cooling and networking ecosystems with industry leaders Delta Electronics, Jacobs and Siemens, joining existing partners Cadence, Schneider Electric with ETAP and Vertiv. This growing ecosystem unifies the design and simulation of billions of components required to build digital twins of AI factories. The expanded blueprint will equip engineering teams to design, simulate and optimize entire AI factories in physically accurate virtual environments, enabling early issue detection and the development of smarter, more reliable facilities. Built on reference architectures for NVIDIA GB200 NVL72-powered AI factories, the blueprint taps into Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) asset libraries. This allows developers to aggregate detailed 3D and simulation data representing all aspects of the data center into a single, unified model, enabling them to design and simulate advanced AI infrastructure optimized for efficiency, throughput and resiliency. The Omniverse Blueprint for AI factory digital twins unifies AI factory power, cooling and networking components in one simulation. AI Factory Ecosystem Teams With NVIDIA The Omniverse Blueprint for AI factory digital twins brings together diverse partners and tools to optimize the design, simulation, deployment and operations of AI factories. Today, NVIDIA announced that new partners are contributing to the framework. Siemens is building 3D models according to the blueprint and engaging with the simulation-ready, or SimReady, standardization effort, while Delta Electronics is adding models of its equipment. Because these are built with OpenUSD, users get accurate simulations of their facility equipment. Jacobs is helping test and optimize the end-to-end blueprint workflow. They join leaders in data center power and cooling solutions like Schneider Electric with ETAP and Vertiv, which contribute SimReady assets to populate the digital twin of the AI factory with 3D models of power, cooling and mechanical systems. “As AI factories continue to scale at an unprecedented pace, the energy demands they generate are reshaping the entire digital infrastructure landscape,” says Tanuj Khandelwal, CEO of ETAP. “Using the Omniverse Blueprint and SimReady assets, customers can test and optimize energy efficiency for the complexity and intensity of their AI workloads before even breaking ground.” Connections to the Cadence Reality Digital Twin Platform and ETAP provide thermal and power simulation, enabling engineering teams to test and optimize power, cooling and networking long before construction begins. These contributions help NVIDIA and its partners reshape how AI infrastructure is built to achieve smarter designs, avoid downtime and get the most out of AI factories. “Digital twins are fundamental to meet the escalating global demand for AI factories,” said Ben Gu, corporate vice president of R&D for multiphysics system analysis at Cadence. “The integration of the Cadence Reality Digital Twin Platform with the NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint transforms the entire engineering process to design AI factories more efficiently and operate them more effectively than ever before. We are excited to continue our full-stack collaboration with NVIDIA.” Building SimReady Assets for AI Factories The OpenUSD-based models within the blueprint are inherently SimReady, designed from the ground up to be physics-based. This is especially valuable for developing and testing physical AI and agentic AI within these AI factories, enabling rapid and large-scale industrial AI simulations of power and cooling systems, building automation and overall IT operations. SimReady standardization workflow enables developers to view standardized simulations of thermal airflow within a digital twin environment. A key enhancement to this blueprint is the SimReady standardization workflow. Originally developed as a SimReady standardization proposal to streamline NVIDIA’s internal creation of OpenUSD assets, this now publicly available, industry-agnostic resource offers standardized requirements and processes for developing SimReady capabilities. It empowers data center developers and owners to efficiently establish, optimize and rigorously test their own digital twins of critical infrastructure, particularly for electrical and thermal management within AI factories. A Smarter Road to AI Infrastructure The expansion of the NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint for AI factory digital twins marks a significant leap forward in how engineers design, simulate and build the sophisticated infrastructure required for industrial AI. By providing a unified and physically accurate digital twin, built on the robust foundation of OpenUSD and guided by SimReady standardization, this blueprint enables the industry to de-risk development, optimize performance and accelerate the deployment of next-generation AI factories. Learn more about NVIDIA Omniverse and preview the Omniverse Blueprint for AI factory digital twins. Watch the COMPUTEX keynote from NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, as well as NVIDIA GTC Taipei 2025 sessions. See notice regarding software product information. Featured image courtesy of Cadence, ETAP, Schneider Electric, and Vertiv.

Industrial AI is transforming how factories operate, innovate and scale. The convergence of AI, simulation and digital twins is poised to unlock new levels of productivity, flexibility and insight for manufacturers worldwide — and NVIDIA’s collaboration with Siemens is bringing these technologies directly to factory and shop floors, making advanced automation more accessible. Matthias Loskyll, head of virtual control and industrial AI at Siemens Factory Automation, joined the NVIDIA AI Podcast to discuss how Siemens’ work with NVIDIA is reshaping manufacturing, as the industry hits a turning point. Manufacturing companies are facing a shortage of skilled labor, widening skills gaps as experts retire and increased demand for resilient, efficient production. At the same time, AI advancements offer ways to automate tasks previously deemed too complex or variable for traditional programming — and digital twins open a path to designing and optimizing safe, efficient interactions between AI-powered robots and smart spaces. Siemens’ Inspekto, an AI-driven visual quality inspection system, enables even small manufacturers to automate defect detection in their production lines. Inspekto can be trained in under an hour using as few as 20 product samples, making it ideal for fields like electronics and metal forming. Meanwhile, automaker Audi is using industrial AI in its car body shops, where 5 million welds are made daily. Training AI models to automate weld-spot inspection and integrating them with Siemens’ Industrial AI Suite helped Audi achieve up to 25x faster inference directly on the shop floor, where the defects can be addressed. Siemens is creating an AI-driven vision software enabling robots to handle arbitrary, previously unseen objects. The company is also developing Industrial Copilots with NVIDIA NIM microservices to bring generative AI-powered assistance directly to shopfloor operators and service technicians. Loskyll noted that the Industrial Copilots will run on premises to keep sensitive production data secure while enabling rapid troubleshooting and process optimization. To learn more about the latest in industrial AI, watch the COMPUTEX keynote by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Hear more from Siemens at NVIDIA GTC Paris, running June 10-12. Time Stamps 1:00 – Overview of NVIDIA’s collaboration with Siemens. 5:00 – Challenges faced by manufacturing companies. 15:00 – How Inspekto makes automated visual quality inspection more accessible. 24:00 – How Audi achieved up to 25x faster inference with Siemens’ Industrial AI Suite. 37:00 – Future directions with industrial copilots and AI-enhanced robotics. You Might Also Like…  Yum! Brands, the World’s Largest Restaurant Company, Advances AI Adoption Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill, is partnering with NVIDIA to streamline order taking, optimize operations and enhance service across its restaurants. Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands, Inc. and president of Byte by Yum!, shares how the company is further accelerating AI deployment. Roboflow Helps Unlock Computer Vision for Every Kind of AI Builder Roboflow’s mission is to make the world programmable through computer vision. By simplifying computer vision development, the company helps bridge the gap between AI and people looking to harness it. Cofounder and CEO Joseph Nelson discusses how Roboflow empowers users in manufacturing, healthcare and automotive to solve complex problems with visual AI. NVIDIA’s Jacob Liberman on Bringing Agentic AI to Enterprises Agentic AI enables developers to create intelligent multi-agent systems that reason, act and execute complex tasks with a degree of autonomy. Jacob Liberman, director of product management at NVIDIA, explains how agentic AI bridges the gap between powerful AI models and practical enterprise applications.

From an extensive line-up of fun indie games to incredible blockbusters, the consistent quality of releases this year is something to behold. If you haven’t gotten lost in the gorgeous world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or discovered the brilliance of Cyrodiil in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, then maybe you experienced the Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5 for the first time. Such is the range of quality that I almost forgot about Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Dynasty Warriors Origins, and Steel Seed. The next six weeks will be even more enticing with Elden Ring Nightreign, Mario Kart World (and the Switch 2 launch), and the long-awaited Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The year’s second half is still TBD, with publishers doubtless scrambling to fill the void after Grand Theft Auto 6’s delay. However, with all the showcases coming in June, we could see several potential release date announcements. Amid all this hype, one game has seemingly slipped under the radar, made all the more bizarre by the time left before its release. We’re talking about MindsEye, an action-adventure title developed by Build a Rocket Boy, founded by Leslie Benzies of Rockstar North fame. It’s out June 10th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, and the initial trailer gave the vibe of a GTA-coded playground with all the explosiveness and action to appeal to the franchise’s fans. Or at least those who only want the explosiveness and action because that’s more or less what the “reveal gameplay trailer” from February showcased. Lots of running around. Lots of blowing up cars with guns. Some driving. Some blowing up of cars while driving. Honestly, the amount of vehicular destruction is borderline concerning. Of course, the developer later clarified that the narrative is more linear than emergent or sandboxy. However, we’re a little over three weeks out from launch, and the only gameplay seen thus far has been that trailer and two recent gameplay teasers. One shows protagonist Jacob Diaz gunning down some enemies in a sequence more than a little reminiscent of Trevor attacking The Lost MC’s hideout in GTA 5. Eventually, he pursues them through the streets while a dust storm is in effect. The second teaser is longer but less exciting, showcasing some driving through Redrock City at night. No overview trailer. No walkthrough of a mission. Not even much by way of what makes the gameplay of MindsEye special or unique. It’s a marketing strategy garnering attention almost exclusively for its lack of marketing. This isn’t to say that Build a Rocket Boy isn’t advertising something different with MindsEye. You may remember the studio’s first announced project, Everywhere, an MMO more geared towards acting as a content platform where users can create and share different experiences. It also consists of a few districts, each with gameplay elements like racing and third-person shooting, while ARCADIA, its editor, lets you create different components. All of this attracted skepticism, especially given the controversy surrounding Metaverse-style games. If you watch its trailer from last year, it’s seemingly going for a Fortnite-style content platform experience. And MindsEye? It’s purportedly an experience within Everywhere developed by the studio, likely to showcase what ARCADIA is capable of. But it can also be modified to create different versions of MindsEye to mess around in. Associate game director Adam Whiting told Edge magazine likened it to Minecraft servers. “There are the official servers, but there are custom servers with wacky stuff. Maybe there’s a zombie apocalypse server you go on or one where they wipe the map of our story and characters and tell their own narrative using our tools.” There’s at least some potential, however small, of a sandbox-like experience kind of, sort of like GTA (but not really). There are also the bonus missions created with ARCADIA included in the Digital Deluxe Edition. So it’s possible, at least based on what Build a Rocket Boy is saying, to infuse MindsEye with more content to keep it going beyond the standard launch experience. How does it all work, at least in layman’s terms? Why isn’t the developer showcasing it in trailers or hyping up the same? It doesn’t seem like you need Everywhere to play MindsEye, seeing as it’s launching as a standalone product, but will that change down the line? To recap then: Not only does MindsEye not have any extensive official gameplay – and what we’ve seen thus far hardly seems all that special – but there’s an entire user-generated content side for it that Build a Rocket Boy hasn’t even touched on. Again, about three weeks out from launch. No pressure and all that, but if you’re charging $60 for an experience, the least you could offer is more extensive details and gameplay. And no, shooting cars and watching them explode isn’t going to cut it. Of course, some would give the benefit of the doubt to Benzies. On top of being the former president of Rockstar North, the core developer behind the Grand Theft Auto titles – including the upcoming GTA 6 – he’s been involved in every single one of Rockstar’s biggest releases. A producer on every title in the series, starting from Grand Theft Auto 3. An executive producer on Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire. A producer and game designer on Grand Theft Auto 5. At one point, Benzies was synonymous with Rockstar North almost as much as Dan Houser was with Rockstar as a whole. Maybe he’s earned some reprieve, given his illustrious history. However, remember that Grand Theft Auto 5, his last project, was released in 2013. Everywhere was announced in January 2017, starting development on Amazon’s Lumberyard engine before switching to Unreal Engine in 2020. It was slated to launch in 2023 but saw delays – in 2024, Build a Rocket Boy laid off an unknown number of employees. Though it began in Edinburgh, the developer has two other studios in Montpelier and Budapest. This isn’t implying that either project has seen development troubles, but with the long development cycle for Everywhere, you would expect a more concrete release window or assurance at this point. As for MindsEye, it was first teased in 2022, making it almost three years since. It’s possible that the developer won’t share anything until the final polishing stage. It could be going down to the wire, maybe announcing a last-minute delay if things don’t work out. The problem is that aside from these gameplay teasers and “narrative” trailers, which haven’t given us a reason to care about any of the characters, aside from that one dancing robot, there’s been very little communication from the studio this close to launch. It’s ironic considering how it touted this as a “meaningful, well-crafted story” or how the camera during high-speed driving would make you feel like you were in a Fast and Furious film. If that’s a tease for going into space at some point, it would be one of the few intriguing things in MindsEye. Finally, and I can’t emphasize this enough, not everyone sets out from the studio where they made their name to become a success. With all the talk around user-generated content, the launch of MindsEye may not be what defines it down the line. However, Build a Rocket Boy needs to detail what makes this a worthwhile experience on its own and fast. Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

A humanoid robotics startup co-founded by prominent artificial-intelligence futurist Ray Kurzweil said on Tuesday that venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will back its $100 million Series B funding round. The company, Beyond Imagination, will be valued at $500 million, and venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will be the round’s sole investor. Kurzweil is known for popularizing the term “the singularity,” when he predicted two decades ago that by 2045, artificial intelligence would surpass human intelligence and embark on a path of accelerating self-enhancement. These ideas, which once seemed like science fiction, are now viewed as mainstream by many technologists. Beyond Imagination is co-founded by scientist, entrepreneur and filmmaker Harry Kloor. The company has developed a humanoid robot—the Beyond Bot—and accompanying AI models that it intends to deploy in industrial settings such as factories, pharmaceutical plants and chip manufacturing facilities, said Gauntlet Ventures co-founder Oliver Carmack. The company has been testing its robots and is now looking for large enterprises into which they can be deployed, Carmack said, adding that he chose to back Beyond Imagination because of its potential to revolutionize U.S. manufacturing and address the projected global shortage of skilled labor. Major tech companies including Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla, alongside various startups, are rushing to make humanoid robots, and are betting that recent advances in AI will also lead to breakthroughs in robots and automation. In October last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that “a lot of progress” has been made with its humanoid robot, Optimus, which could perform many daily tasks. Progress on robots has been slow, however, as researchers have found that the language-related AI breakthroughs driving chatbot development have not necessarily helped with understanding of the physical world. Many companies are spending enormous sums to collect the real-world training data necessary to train models that can power robots. In addition to humanoid robots, Beyond Imagination is also developing Aura, which co-founder Kloor described as a universal operating system for intelligent manufacturing, allowing humans, robots and legacy machines to work together. Beyond Imagination has attracted an eclectic roster of advisers, including former Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and onetime Paramount Pictures chairman Jim Gianopulos. —Dawn Chmielewski and Anna Tong, Reuters

TRS-80, Commodore 64. Early PCs have laughable specifications by today’s standards, but they inspired a lot of creativity. Take Jacob Anderson, owner of Beyond Ordinary Software, for example. He started programming a Commodore 64 as a tween by building character management tools for his Dungeons and Dragons game. The Commodore 64 was an 8-bit machine with the Basic programming language built in. “I was 11 years old and very isolated in a small town, so I didn't really have any exposure to the outside world and everything that was happening with the whole personal computer revolution,” says Anderson. “My dad was the janitor at the middle school, so I helped him clean. One evening, he sat me down in a math classroom that had a Commodore 64-style environment, so I started playing Artillery Duel. I noticed a button on the keyboard called, ‘Run Stop,’ and if you hit that key, the program stops executing and becomes a terminal. I hit that key by accident and typed “list” and I saw all the source code. I instinctively understood everything.” His uncle subsequently helped his family buy a Commodore 64 and peripherals for Anderson, including a dot matrix printer. He became obsessed, spending nearly all his time programming. However, in high school, his progress slowed as he discovered girls and did the things high school kids do. When he went to college on a US Navy ROTC program scholarship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), he discovered the program actually ran at The College of the Holy Cross in the evenings, which conflicted with his computer science schedule. Anderson chose to give up his three-year Navy scholarship to pursue a dual major in nuclear engineering and computer science. Since he had to figure out a way to pay for school, he got into the Science and Engineering Research Semester (SERS) program at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Applied Theoretical Physics Division, which develops novel applications of theoretical physics.  Related:At the time, Los Alamos was retiring its punch card mainframes and adopting modern software development practices. That was significant because at the time, the legacy software had been written in very old Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP).  When Anderson arrived for the SERS program, his advisor was John Hendricks, a Ph.D. nuclear engineer from MIT. Hendricks had Anderson running MCNP test problems to validate the physics that the problems were testing.  “I took the SERS program to complete my major qualifying project (MQP) at WPI, which was required for graduation. However, I felt that running test problems was a waste of time, so I voiced my concerns to my WPI advisor, John Mayer, and later to John Hendricks, who didn't appreciate my attitude,” says Anderson. “As a result, I planned to leave the SERS program and return to WPI to work on a different MQP.” Related:However, before Anderson could leave, Ken Van Riper, a Ph.D. astrophysicist from Cornell, met with him.  “[Ken] appreciated my perspective and offered me a project he was working on. I proposed developing a full GUI for it, and he let me take the lead. I stayed in the SERS program and completed the project, which became MUD—MCNP User Demonstration,” says Anderson. “MUD was a 3D graphics-based problem setup tool that could create MCNP input files, run MCNP and visualize the output as particle tracks. Nobody had previously developed a complete package with a simple ‘click the button’ approach. After I graduated from WPI, [Los Alamos] hired me as staff.” Next, he went to work at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), where he found himself working for the Department of Defense (DoD) again and PRAJA, a dot-com immersive experience company. It focused on 3D visualization tracking of people in complex environments. While at PRAJA, he was the project lead on FOX NFL GameTracker 2000 and PRAJA Football 99. After that, he founded Beyond Ordinary Consulting alongside corporate roles as President of AccessQuery, a web-based job search engine, and XPLive, a SaaS company. He also served as managing partner and later managing director of Totally Evil Entertainment. Related:Important Lesson CIOs Can Learn Vicariously One thing Anderson has learned along the way is that military personnel can benefit the tech industry. “Military personnel are often highly trained, but they're focused on a very unique niche, and they own that entire niche. Whatever their operational job was, they own it. And that’s somewhat unique, because in the [civilian world], most people take a job for a little while, and then they bounce. They're very scattered when it comes to their career choices,” says Anderson. “When you deal with technical people you want them well versed in their niche job. And that's where the DoD comes in very handy, because the people who get that role are going to know it inside, out and backwards. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to hire DoD people.” Those who worked for the DoD are very regimented because they must adhere to certain policies and rules. “Military personnel understand the playing field and limitations. They’re good at limiting themselves, and they also understand large-scale systems on a worldwide scale,” says Anderson. “A defense department in any country is enormous, much larger than entities in the private sector. They know how to compartmentalize and manage complex systems. Most people have a really hard time compartmentalizing at a world scale.” However, he says cultural IQ is the most important thing CIOs and other organizational leaders must understand and use to their advantage.“Because the DoD is world scale, you get experience with different cultures, different people from different parts of the world. As a result, you must learn to understand individuals from their cultural point of view. Otherwise, you’re just going to be frustrated all the time,” says Anderson. “The military is the same. It’s important to understand the nuances and respect them so you can engage people more effectively. The military personnel who aren’t good at that wash out early. The ones that are really good at it rise.” 

OpinionMay 20, 20254 min readA Good Workout Gets Your Helpful Gut Microbes in Shape, TooA workout boosts the fitness of your gut microbiome. This creates molecules that aids your immune system, metabolism, and moreBy Lydia Denworth Jay BendtThe idea that our workouts could benefit the trillions of microbes that live in our guts—bacteria and viruses that help our immune systems, metabolism, digestion, and other key bodily functions—isn’t obvious. At least it’s not as obvious as the connection between diet and the gut microbiome, as these microbes are called. But evidence is growing that an aerobic workout such as jogging can improve the health of the gut microbes, which in turn improves overall physical health. There are early indications that the relationship works the other way, too: a healthy gut microbiome seems to increase exercise capacity.“When people think about the gut, they default to diet and probiotics,” says Sara Campbell, an exercise physiologist at Rutgers University who specializes in gut microbiota. But now many scientists are “moving toward the reality that exercise can be beneficial for the intestines,” she says.A “healthy” microbiome usually means gut bacteria are abundant and diverse; exercise appears to affect both these qualities. The gut microbes of an elite athlete are more diverse than those of nonathletes or recreational athletes. But a more pertinent issue for health, says Jacob Allen, an exercise physiologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is “what the microbe is actually doing.”On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Aerobic exercise encourages activity in bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids, which provide essential support for physiological processes.One important finding is that aerobic exercise encourages activity in bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids, which provide essential support for physiological processes. Most fatty acid molecules consist of 16 or 18 carbons, but—as the name suggests—short-chain fatty acids range from just one to six.Of these smaller molecules, butyrate has emerged as an especially important link between exercise and the gut. It supplies energy for a variety of tissues, including the epithelial cells lining the gut, and it can reduce inflammation and improve the ability of cells to take in insulin. Our bodies naturally make a little bit of butyrate, but most is produced by microbes, and its output is boosted by aerobic exercise. (Very few studies have looked at the connection between strength training and butyrate levels, and those that have didn’t find the same effect.)This link between exercise and the gut was barely a glimmer in scientists’ eyes some 15 years ago, when exercise immunologist Marc Cook was a graduate student at the Urbana-Champaign campus. He knew exercise improved symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, particularly the type called ulcerative colitis. But scientists didn’t understand why. Cook turned to mice to investigate and found that if they ran on a wheel, they were protected against a mouse version of colitis. In addition, there was a sevenfold increase in beneficial bacteria in the lining of the rodents’ colons.In a 2018 study, Allen, Cook (who is now at North Carolina A&T State University), and others tested a gut-health exercise intervention in humans for the first time. They trained both lean and obese people, all of whom were sedentary, to exercise on a treadmill or bike. Everyone started at moderate intensity three days a week and increased to one hour of high-intensity exercise per session.After six weeks all participants showed increases in butyrate and two other short-chain fatty acids, acetate and propionate. They also got the expected benefits of exercise, such as reductions in fat mass and improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness. (All the effects were greater in lean people, a finding that the researchers don’t yet understand.) After a further six weeks in which everyone stopped exercising, microbes in the gut returned to baseline levels, and health benefits decreased.Researchers haven’t fully teased out which effects of exercise can be directly attributed to microbiota versus the other changes brought on by physical activity, but there is a clear difference in gut environment. “We know there’s a slight shunting of blood toward the muscles and away from the gastrointestinal tract during exercise,” Allen says. That causes a small decrease in oxygen in gut tissue. There are changes in pH and temperature within the GI tract as well. Each of these shifts could affect which microbes survive.Studies in humans are complicated by the enormous diversity of microbiomes from person to person and from group to group. Researchers are now trying to account for differences in response. Campbell is investigating variations by sex. Cook is studying the effects of short-chain-fatty-acid-producing bacteria in Black people, who have a high rate of hypertension. In a pilot study, he and his colleagues identified bacteria associated with high blood pressure in Black athletes, and they hope to identify a target for intervention.As for the effects of microbiota on exercise capacity, most of that evidence comes from mice. Animals dosed with antibiotics to kill off their microbiomes exercise less than mice with healthy microbiomes and reach exhaustion faster. Research has also shown that an intact gut microbiota contributes to more muscle development.This evolving research doesn’t change the standard recommendation for human exercise, which is to engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. But it adds strength to the arguments for doing such activity and may ultimately help explain why people respond to exercise differently. Someday there may even be a way boost the microbiome so that it responds better to time in the gym. Already, though, the science gives new meaning to the idea of gutting out your workout.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

TRS-80, Commodore 64. Early PCs have laughable specifications by today’s standards, but they inspired a lot of creativity. Take Jacob Anderson, owner of Beyond Ordinary Software, for example. He started programming a Commodore 64 as a tween by building character management tools for his Dungeons and Dragons game. The Commodore 64 was an 8-bit machine with the Basic programming language built in. “I was 11 years old and very isolated in a small town, so I didn't really have any exposure to the outside world and everything that was happening with the whole personal computer revolution,” says Anderson. “My dad was the janitor at the middle school, so I helped him clean. One evening, he sat me down in a math classroom that had a Commodore 64-style environment, so I started playing Artillery Duel. I noticed a button on the keyboard called, ‘Run Stop,’ and if you hit that key, the program stops executing and becomes a terminal. I hit that key by accident and typed “list” and I saw all the source code. I instinctively understood everything.” His uncle subsequently helped his family buy a Commodore 64 and peripherals for Anderson, including a dot matrix printer. He became obsessed, spending nearly all his time programming. However, in high school, his progress slowed as he discovered girls and did the things high school kids do. When he went to college on a US Navy ROTC program scholarship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), he discovered the program actually ran at The College of the Holy Cross in the evenings, which conflicted with his computer science schedule. Anderson chose to give up his three-year Navy scholarship to pursue a dual major in nuclear engineering and computer science. Since he had to figure out a way to pay for school, he got into the Science and Engineering Research Semester (SERS) program at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Applied Theoretical Physics Division, which develops novel applications of theoretical physics.  Related:At the time, Los Alamos was retiring its punch card mainframes and adopting modern software development practices. That was significant because at the time, the legacy software had been written in very old Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP).  When Anderson arrived for the SERS program, his advisor was John Hendricks, a Ph.D. nuclear engineer from MIT. Hendricks had Anderson running MCNP test problems to validate the physics that the problems were testing.  “I took the SERS program to complete my major qualifying project (MQP) at WPI, which was required for graduation. However, I felt that running test problems was a waste of time, so I voiced my concerns to my WPI advisor, John Mayer, and later to John Hendricks, who didn't appreciate my attitude,” says Anderson. “As a result, I planned to leave the SERS program and return to WPI to work on a different MQP.” Related:However, before Anderson could leave, Ken Van Riper, a Ph.D. astrophysicist from Cornell, met with him.  “[Ken] appreciated my perspective and offered me a project he was working on. I proposed developing a full GUI for it, and he let me take the lead. I stayed in the SERS program and completed the project, which became MUD—MCNP User Demonstration,” says Anderson. “MUD was a 3D graphics-based problem setup tool that could create MCNP input files, run MCNP and visualize the output as particle tracks. Nobody had previously developed a complete package with a simple ‘click the button’ approach. After I graduated from WPI, [Los Alamos] hired me as staff.” Next, he went to work at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), where he found himself working for the Department of Defense (DoD) again and PRAJA, a dot-com immersive experience company. It focused on 3D visualization tracking of people in complex environments. While at PRAJA, he was the project lead on FOX NFL GameTracker 2000 and PRAJA Football 99. After that, he founded Beyond Ordinary Consulting alongside corporate roles as President of AccessQuery, a web-based job search engine, and XPLive, a SaaS company. He also served as managing partner and later managing director of Totally Evil Entertainment. Related:Important Lesson CIOs Can Learn Vicariously One thing Anderson has learned along the way is that military personnel can benefit the tech industry. “Military personnel are often highly trained, but they're focused on a very unique niche, and they own that entire niche. Whatever their operational job was, they own it. And that’s somewhat unique, because in the [civilian world], most people take a job for a little while, and then they bounce. They're very scattered when it comes to their career choices,” says Anderson. “When you deal with technical people you want them well versed in their niche job. And that's where the DoD comes in very handy, because the people who get that role are going to know it inside, out and backwards. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to hire DoD people.” Those who worked for the DoD are very regimented because they must adhere to certain policies and rules. “Military personnel understand the playing field and limitations. They’re good at limiting themselves, and they also understand large-scale systems on a worldwide scale,” says Anderson. “A defense department in any country is enormous, much larger than entities in the private sector. They know how to compartmentalize and manage complex systems. Most people have a really hard time compartmentalizing at a world scale.” However, he says cultural IQ is the most important thing CIOs and other organizational leaders must understand and use to their advantage.“Because the DoD is world scale, you get experience with different cultures, different people from different parts of the world. As a result, you must learn to understand individuals from their cultural point of view. Otherwise, you’re just going to be frustrated all the time,” says Anderson. “The military is the same. It’s important to understand the nuances and respect them so you can engage people more effectively. The military personnel who aren’t good at that wash out early. The ones that are really good at it rise.” 

This home and gallery in Clapham, south London, reflects the owners’ vision for a versatile environment. We reworked the previously disconnected layout into an adaptable hybrid working/living condition, where everyday duties are easily integrated into the family’s lives, exploring the boundaries and flow between private and public spaces. We worked with what existed, developed an understanding of the potential to both reinvent and protect the building envelope, extending its lifespan. We provided a cost-effective and lower-carbon alternative that included the integration of the garden. The spaces were designed to allow family members to find their moments of peace and joy, whether in the gallery, the kitchen or the children’s bedrooms. The project aims to exemplify how well-planned, purpose-led design decisions can result in dynamic spaces, reflecting the young, creative family’s unique ‘living with art’ ethos and aspirations. Advertisement In the evening, the family gathers in the kitchen to cook, eat, play and unwind. Located in the basement, the open-plan area is illuminated by two bookended triangular oriel openings, bringing natural light into the lower-ground space. One is a triangular skylight, a corner for contemplation and play; the other is a door opening up to the garden outside. Amalia Skoufoglou, director, O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects   Project data Start on site April 2022 Completion Gross internal floor area 140m2 Construction cost £392,000 Construction cost per m2 £2,800 Architect O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects Client Tanya Grigoroglou and Rupert Worrall Structural engineer Entuitive Principal designer O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects Approved building inspector London Building Control Landscape consultant GRDN Main contractor TAT Building CAD software used Vectorworks Predicted design life 30 years   Architect’s choices  We knew from the outset that, to achieve the budgetary constraints, a lot of our usual exposing of ceiling beams or dressing of walls would not be possible. There are lots of flat plasterboard surfaces in the project and, knowing that the client wanted a lot of expression, we decided to experiment with colour and textures in the joinery. For example, a lot of experimentation and care went into the bespoke kitchen cabinetry, imported from Denmark by Brouns and Co, which was stained with linseed oil. There was no wastage in the new marble countertop, which determined the height of the splashback and the length of the units. Amalia Skoufoglou, director, O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects   Specification The client’s brief called for a resilient, yet playful, rich materiality that could combine with a restrained, pared-down aesthetic suited to displays of art. This meant that materials were considered at a very early point in the project. In a quest to find connections with the existing typical London stock brick, different textures and details were tested, some of which were a direct response, some of which were not. The lower ground floor, the most materially rich space, opening out onto a new garden patio, is paved in flamed granite sourced from Portugal, the most economically viable, geographically closest, natural stone that could be sourced. To provide a seamless transition, the same granite tile in a honed finish continues internally. There is an EPD-accredited green terrazzo tile in the two bookended triangles, emphasising the linearity of the space.Advertisement One of the bigger material statements on the ground floor is the fire surround, which is clad in made-to-order slabs from Granby Rock, a durable recycled terrazzo manufactured using 70 per cent recycled aggregates. Amalia Skoufoglou, director, O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects   Selected products Bathroom washbasin Kast Lux A1 on stand Master shower room DiscontinuedBathroom washbasin Kast Nilo Children’s bathroom kastconcretebasins.comBathroom tiles Topcer Tiles 96 × 96 × 8mm All bathrooms towerceramics.comBathroom faucets Crosswater MPro All bathrooms crosswater.co.ukLinseed oil (on birch plywood) Brouns and Co Kitchen cabinetry linseedpaint.comKitchen tap Vola 590H Kitchen vola.comTerrazzo tiles InOpera Group Pastine Verde Acido Kitchen floor inoperagroup.com Granite tile Marshalls paving Neso Kitchen and exterior patio marshalls.co.ukOak flooring Chaunceys Bristol Tectonic Throughout chauncey.co.ukIronmongery d line Arne Jacobsen Throughout dline.comFire surround Granby Rock Red Ground floor granbyworkshop.co.uk