Human Meat Robots at the Gym & on Mars, Plus: Protein Cubits & Glass Sand

💉 CGMs: Silicon Valley’s new status symbol

For years, the continuous glucose monitor (CGM) was strictly for people with diabetes, a necessity rather than a piece of aspirational wellness tech. Now these little plastic discs seem to be popping out of the arms of everyone at my upscale San Francisco gym, a sign of a growing popular obsession with the quantified self, and investors’ thirst to capitalize on the lucrative consumer wellness space. Science News’s Sujata Gupta reports on how the popularity of blood-sugar tracking among non-diabetics is on the rise. The evidence to back the benefits is still playing catch-up.

🍭 MAHA sweetens the pot

What are CGMs? These devices contain a small sensor that is inserted just under the skin on the arm or abdomen, to measure glucose levels in the fluid in spaces between cells. The sensor collects data on blood sugar levels and wirelessly transmits it to a tracking app. Maintaining a blood sugar level between 70 and 140 milligrams per deciliter is generally considered ideal for a non-fasting individual. Levels higher than this, marked by frequent spikes or prolonged periods above this range, have been linked to increased risks of cardiovascular disease and can also cause symptoms like fatigue and anxiety.

People with diabetes use CGMs to determine their need for supplementary insulin. It’s still not well established how important these readings are for those without diabetes. Doctors don’t yet have a rubric to translate numbers into actionable advice. But what is clear is that the market is growing. The CGM devices market size was estimated at $13 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD $49 billion by 2033. Much of the growth can be attributed to the fact that in 2024, the FDA approved the sale of CGMs without a prescription. Another factor may be endorsements from wellness influencers including Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. surgeon general. Means is an insider in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement and cofounder of a company that sells a CGM-related app.

🎰 The big players are already winning

Some public companies are already cashing in on this trend. While traditionally focused on the diabetes market, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and Dexcom (NASDAQ: DXCM) have seen significant growth fueled at least in part by the expansion of their CGM systems into broader wellness applications. Abbott’s prescription-only FreeStyle Libre, for instance, generated over $1.6 billion in Q2 2024 alone, demonstrating robust growth of nearly 20% year-over-year. Similarly, Dexcom reported 15% year-over-year revenue growth to hit $1.157 billion in the second quarter of 2025.

🍯 Startups on the sweet spot

While the giants hold the device market, a new class of startups is building the data platforms and software that aim to make CGM insights actionable. It’s worth noting that all of these companies include disclaimers that users should consult with medical professionals for safest results.

• Levels Health, the aforementioned company cofounded by Casey Means, pairs prescription CGMs sold by Abbott and Dexcom with an app and coaching to provide metabolic insights. It has raised a total of $67 million, with a $10 million funding round closing in August 2024. [An interesting aside: while this may not have any bearing on the company’s profitability, some legal and ethics experts have raised conflict of interest concerns related to Means’s business activities.]
  
• Signos focuses on using CGM data for weight management. The company has raised a total of $37 million, with its most recent Series B round of $20 million closing in October 2023.
  
• Nutrisense: This platform provides CGM sensors along with access to a registered dietitian. They’ve raised over $30 million to date, most recently from a 2022 Series A round.
  
• Veri: This Finnish CGM platform was recently acquired for an undisclosed amount by Helsinki-based Oura, developer of a smart ring that tracks wellness data. Prior to the acquisition they’d raised about $12 million.

In this age of the quantified self, it seems sweetness is to be avoided at all costs.

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🔴 A breath of fresh air: making Mars habitable

The future of living on Mars could take many different forms. But every scenario requires a non-negotiable innovation: the ability to breathe. SN’s Aaron Tremper reports on some of the possible routes to make the Red Planet’s atmosphere breathable for humans.

🫁 Respiration inspiration

Shaping Mars’s air to our needs goes beyond abundant oxygen. On Earth, gases like carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor create the greenhouse effect where our atmosphere traps heat. With its comparatively lower gravity, Mars isn’t able to hold onto an atmosphere thick enough to retain heat, which would allow water to exist in liquid form.

Scientists have devised several approaches to thickening Mars’s atmosphere with carbon dioxide. In order to jump-start the greenhouse effect, future Martians could extract CO₂ from Martian minerals, polar ice caps or from below its surface. Another possibility entails triggering volcanic eruptions, pumping out CO₂. Redirecting asteroids, as NASA’s DART spacecraft did in 2022, could assist in creating these eruptions.

And when it comes to sufficient free oxygen that isn’t chemically bonded to other elements, oxygen-producing microbes like cyanobacteria could do the trick. Genetically altering these organisms could help them withstand extreme Martian climates.

💨 Atmospheric innovation

SN’s article estimates that space agencies trying to get humans to Mars could succeed within the decade. As such, the market for terraforming Mars and other planets is wide open, whether it’s cultivating plants, creating temporary and long-term habitats for humans, or transforming foreign soil into useful building materials.

👨‍🚀 Planet startup

Companies are aiming to lay the foundation for not just breathing but living on other planets.

• UP Catalyst: This Estonian company founded in 2019 produces carbon materials from carbon dioxide. In 2021, they received over $58,600 of seed money from the ESA Business Incubation Centre program specifically to develop oxygen production methods for Mars. In April 2025, they raised over $21 million, bringing their total funding to over $31 million.
  
• Interstellar Lab: Founded in 2018, this Delaware-based startup develops AI-powered biospheres that might support plant cultivation in space. Funding from NASA in August 2024 brought in $750,000, bringing their total funds raised to $9.2 million.

While the path to Mars remains unclear, humans are determined to forge the path ahead one breath at a time.

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⚛ Biological qubits: unleashing a protein’s quantum nature

Quantum bits, or qubits, typically comprise materials like diamond or silicon. But new research explores how biological materials, specifically fluorescent proteins, can also create qubits, Emily Conover reports for SN.

🧬 A squishy computer?

As the basis of quantum computing, qubits are the quantum counterpart to a classic binary bit in standard computing. Qubits can have a value of either 0 or 1, like binary bits. Notably, they can also have a value of both 0 and 1 at once in what’s called a quantum superposition, endowing them with different abilities.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have made a qubit from a fluorescent protein, measuring just 3 nanometers in diameter. Specifically, the qubit is made from a part of the protein called the fluorophore, which fluoresces when hit with laser light. The researchers beam a laser onto the protein, then tweak it with microwaves and observe its fluorescence to unlock a quantum property called spin.

The researchers showed they could manipulate that spin and cycle between a qubit’s two values. Most qubits won’t operate at climates above ultracold, but these biological qubits performed at room temperature in certain environments, potentially providing flexibility.

💻 Quantum’s promise

Quantum computing holds immense promise for everything from drug discovery to financial modeling. These biological qubits in particular could perform as sensors for making precise, delicate quantum measurements of conditions like magnetic fields and temperature inside of living cells. These capabilities could help usher in new types of medical imaging.

👫 Qubit by qubit

While biological qubits are still far from daily applications, let alone scaling for consumers, more traditional quantum computing startups abound.

• Alice & Bob: This French Series B quantum computing company was founded in 2020. They’re developing codes that help recover information lost when qubits lose their special quantum properties. In January 2025 they raised over $117 million from 9 investors in a Series B round, bringing their total funds raised to $162.6 million.
  
• QuamCore: Founded in 2022, this Israeli Series A company focuses on scaling quantum computing by finding ways to pack qubits more densely while managing heat from the electronics that control them. Over 4 funding rounds they’ve raised $39 million, most recently through a Series A round with 8 investors in August 2025.

Just as with proteins and their latent quantum powers, with the right preparation the quantum industry could unlock worlds of innovation.

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🍾 From bottles to breakwaters

A rising tide lifts all boats, but a warming one threatens to sink a few. As climate change accelerates coastal erosion, Jude Colman reports for SN on an elegant potential answer to this problem: repurposed glass.

🏖️ Sand and bog

What’s the story? Researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans targeted the Bayou Bienvenue, a southeast Louisiana swamp, for an experiment. They teamed up with recyclers to create “glass sand” to restore beaches and wetlands in the area. (Note to the uninitiated: glass and sand are not the same!) The manufactured sediment successfully traps fine-grained soil to create a stable foundation for native plant life. The result? A natural, self-sustaining barrier against wave energy, which could buffer the area from being wiped out in a hurricane. To scale the project, more studies are needed to determine the optimal grind size and ratio of glass to soil for use in different coastlines. To that end, the team is expanding its research to include other local coastal areas.

📉 Sinking costs, not coasts

The financial returns of this circular economy venture are twofold. First, recycling and repurposing bottles and other glass products addresses the massive problem of glass waste, which in the U.S. often ends up in landfills due to the logistical and economic challenges of traditional recycling. Second, transforming the output into sand offers a cost-effective, durable, and environmentally sound alternative to traditional coastal protection measures, such as seawalls, which can be prohibitively expensive and often damage local ecosystems.

🗑️ Trash to treasure

Venture capital is flowing into clean tech startups working on everything from new recycled material applications to automated sorting.

• Glass Half Full, the Louisiana-based glass recycling startup mentioned above, was cofounded by Tulane University undergraduates (and has a lively TikTok presence). In addition to the coastal restoration project, they sell glass jewelry and provide glass recycling pick-up and drop-off services and arrange for glass collection at local events. They’ve raised a total of over $6.5 million, most recently from a seed round in 2024.
  
• Vitriform3D was founded by a team of Ph.D. students from the University of Tennessee to upcycle pulverized glass as a feedstock for large-scale 3D printing. The company was accepted into the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Innovation Crossroads program. Per their recent pitch deck, the company has raised over $1.4 million to date.
  
• AMP Robotics, while not specifically focused on the downstream uses of recycled products, is making waves in the waste management industry for its AI-powered sorting devices and services. They’ve raised over $266 million to date, most recently from a $91 million Series D round in 2024.

Instead of a message in a bottle, we might be finding our coastal future in one.

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