Postdoc Maximilian Günther is the lead author on a paper showing that NASA’s TESS satellite has discovered three new exoplanets. “The exoplanets are of a type that does not exist in our solar system, being between the Earth and Neptune in size,” writes Daniel Clery for Science. “That makes the closely packed system, known as TOI-270, a good bet for answering long-standing questions about how such ‘super-Earths’ or ‘mini-Neptunes’ form.”
Aaron Schachter of WGBH’s On Campus Radio visits the Edgerton Center’s summer Engineering Design Workshop for high school students. [Doc Edgerton] “believed that it was a duty of engineers and scientists to communicate why we do what we do, the coolness of what we do, and the interestingness of what we do, to the general population, which includes students,” explains Ed Moriarty, who leads the workshop.
TESS, an MIT-led NASA mission, has discovered two gaseous exoplanets and one rocky exoplanet within a system known as TOI-270, reports New Scientist. “TOI-270 will soon allow us to study this ‘missing link’ between rocky Earth-like planets and gas-dominant mini-Neptunes, because here all of these types formed in the same system,” says postdoc Maximilian Günther, lead author of a paper on the new system.
A new MIT study shows that “China’s move away from fossil fuels would mean 2,000 fewer premature deaths in the U.S. by 2030,” reports John Fialka for E&E News. "It reminds us that air pollution doesn't stop at national boundaries," said Prof. Valerie Karplus, a co-leader of the paper.
The New York Times’ Dennis Overbye reports on a paper from MIT, which shows that NASA’s planet hunting satellite TESS has discovered three new exoplanets in a system 73 light-years from Earth known as TOI-270. “TOI-270 is a true Disneyland for exoplanet science because it offers something for every research area,” says postdoc and lead author Maximilian Günther. “It is an exceptional laboratory for not one, but many reasons.”
Profs. Daniel Rothman and Daniela Rus contributed to a Boston Globe piece exploring what the next big moonshot challenge should be. Rothman noted that, “We need to understand how the Earth system responds to environmental change,” while Rus expressed a desire to explore interspecies communication and the development of intelligent clothing.
Writing for Astronomy, Korey Haynes features Saydean Zeldin’s work at the MIT Instrumentation Lab designing software that allowed the Apollo astronauts to control the spacecraft engines. Haynes notes that Zeldin has had “a major hand in the way technology works today.”
A sensor developed by MIT researchers could make diagnosing sepsis easier, quicker and more affordable, reports Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch. Etherington explains that the sensor, which “employs microfluidics to detect the presence of key proteins in the blood,” could have “a huge potential impact, as sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals.”
Writing for STAT, Prof. Jonathan Gruber examines his research showing that while doctors have more information about different tests and treatments, they make decisions similar to their patients when receiving care. Gruber says this finding suggests that to improve health care decision-making, financial incentives and other approaches are needed that go beyond providing patients with more information.
Verge reporter James Vincent writes that researchers at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab have developed an algorithm that can transform selfies into artistic portraits. The algorithm is “trained on 45,000 classical portraits to render your face in faux oil, watercolor, or ink, “Vincent explains.
Writing for Astronomy, Korey Haynes spotlights Elaine Denniston, who was hired as a keypuncher at the MIT Instrumentation Lab, but went above and beyond, reviewing the Apollo code for errors. Denniston, who went on to become a lawyer, says that she “didn’t realize then that what I did was anything special. I typed, I found errors, I nagged people.”
Prof. Dava Newman speaks with WBUR’s Sharon Brody about the impact of the Apollo program on her own career and on humanity at large. Newman, who notes that the success of the Apollo 11 mission, “taught her to dream,” notes that, “if you're going to do the big, audacious engineering, technological, scientific breakthroughs? Well, you have to take risks.”
In an article originally written for Popular Mechanics for the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, MIT alumnus Buzz Aldrin makes a case for why Americans should aim to travel to the Moon again. “A return to the Moon offers a way to leverage an evolutionary expansion of our capability in space,” Aldrin wrote.
Prof. Max Shulaker has fabricated the first foundry-built silicon wafer, a monolithic 3D carbon nanotube integrated circuit, reports Samuel K. Moore for IEEE Spectrum. “We’ve completely reinvented how we manufacture this technology,” explains Shulaker, “transforming it from a technology that only worked in our academic labs to a technology that can and is already today working inside a commercial fabrication facility within a U.S. foundry.”
USA Today reporter Joshua Bote highlights Prof. Dava Newman’s work developing a skintight spacesuit called the BioSuit, which should provide astronauts greater mobility. The BioSuit includes “nucleated boron minitubes spun into thread and sewn into these stretchy suits – effectively protecting the human body from space radiation,” writes Bote.