MIT researchers have developed a new prosthetic device that allows amputees to feel where their limbs are located, reports Simon Makin for Scientific American. “What's new here is the ability to provide feedback the brain knows how to interpret as sensations of position, speed and force,” explains postdoctoral associate Tyler Clites.
The Economist highlights Prof. Michael Triantafyllou’s work studying how seals employ their whiskers to detect their surroundings. Triantafyllou is using the seal whisker as a model for developing an underwater sensor that would, “detect the wakes of natural objects, such as fish and marine mammals, and artificial ones, such as other robots, surface ships and submarines.”
Institute Prof. Thomas Magnanti will receive Singapore’s Gold Public Administration Medal for his “visionary leadership” at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), reports Jolene Ang for The Straits Times. Magnanti was cited for his work organizing the university in clusters, which “better supported the interdisciplinary nature of SUTD's programmes and strengthened SUTD's research capabilities.”
In an article for Popular Mechanics, Tiana Cline spotlights SoFi, an autonomous, soft, robotic fish that can swim alongside real fish. “SoFi has the potential to be a new type of tool for ocean exploration and to open up new avenues for uncovering the mysteries of marine life,” Cline notes.
Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney reviews “Imagined Communities,” a new exhibit of the photography of Mila Teshaieva at the MIT Museum. Feeney notes that, “Teshaieva is the latest in an impressive roster of contemporary European photographers brought to the museum by MIT’s Gary Van Zante, who curated the show.”
Edd Gent highlights MIT’s ingestible origami robot in this NBC Mach article on the ways origami is impacting science and engineering. “[T]he intricate folding patterns can be used to make complex mechanical systems,” like the MIT robot, which is “designed to unfurl and steer its way through the gut with help from external magnets,” writes Gent.
Steven Melendez of Fast Company reports on a new system from MIT researchers called Accountability of Unreleased Data for Improved Transparency, or AUDIT, which could help the public track police surveillance. “While certain information may need to stay secret for an investigation to be done properly, some details have to be revealed for accountability to even be possible,” says graduate student Jonathan Frankle.
MIT researchers have developed a sensor that can determine if cancer cells are responding to a certain chemotherapy drug. “Another potential use is to screen patients before they receive such drugs, to see if the drugs will be successful against each patient's tumor,” writes Li Xia for Xinhua.
In an article for Forbes, Moira Vetter spotlights MIT Solve’s focus on social innovators. “[W]hile the world’s challenges are not always investment-worthy to VCs, they are costly to the countries and communities that incur the cost of those challenges,” says Vetter. “The world needs a few less high-tech gadgets and a few more incentivized Solvers.”
Spencer Kelly of BBC Click tests Dormio, a wearable device that allows researchers to track a user’s consciousness in the state between asleep and awake. “[R]esearch shows that you have a ten times increase in the likelihood of solving a problem if you have a dream about that problem in a nap,” says MIT graduate student Adam Haar Horowitz.
Physics Today reporter David Kramer highlights how Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), an MIT startup, is on a mission to prove that fusion power is a viable energy source. “CFS benefits from decades of experience by MIT researchers working on high-field, high-plasma-density tokamaks,” notes Kramer.
Tim Brothers, who manages MIT's George R. Wallace Jr. Astrophysical Observatory, speaks with Joy Richard of WickedLocal about the upcoming Perseid meteor shower and the observatory’s annual viewing party. Brothers says the event is a great way to get nearby residents interested in space: They grab the opportunity to look through the telescopes, take a tour of the observatory, and look in awe at the 60 to 70 meteors per-hour.
In an interview with Wynne Parry of NBC Mach, Prof. Sherry Turkle expresses concern that household robots can interfere with children learning to understand and connect with one another. “There are skills of listening, of putting oneself in the place of the other, that are required when two human beings try to deeply understand each other,” Turkle explains.
An MIT study finds that rising temperatures due to climate change will make the North China Plain uninhabitable by the end of the century, reports Newsweek’s Brendan Cole. The area could experience heat and humidity that is “so strong that it is impossible for the human body to cool itself,” Cole explains.
Prof. Aviv Regev speaks with WBUR’s Karen Weintraub about her work exploring human cells. Regev says she was inspired to study the human cell as, “it’s this phenomenal entity that knows how to take many different pieces of information, make very quick and sophisticated decisions, act on them and continue on its way.”