MIT researchers have made electrical recordings of individual brain cells, which may provide insight into human intelligence, reports Hannah Osborne of Newsweek. Researchers discovered that human cells have fewer ion channels, which allow electrical currents to enter and exit cells, potentially increasing “the resistance of human dendrites, making the cell better at processing information,” explains Osborne.
MIT was ranked the number one college in the nation by WalletHub, reports WHDH-TV. WHDH notes that “MIT had the highest return of educational investment, along with the highest post-attendance median salary, according to the study.”
Fortune reporter Aaron Pressman highlights how Prof. Julie Shah is working on making human-robot collaboration on the assembly line more effective through the use of collaborative robots, dubbed cobots. Pressman writes that Shah “is working on software algorithms developed with machine learning that will teach cobots how and when to communicate by reading signals from the humans around them.”
Popular Science reporter Rob Verger highlights how an MIT spinout and MIT researchers are developing tools to detect depression. “The big vision is that you have a system that can digest organic, natural conversations, and interactions, and be able to make some conclusion about a person’s well-being,” says grad student Tuka Alhanai.
MIT startup Nesterly is connecting young people looking for cheaper rents with older residents looking for assistance at home, reports Dugan Arnett for The Boston Globe. Arnett explains that Nesterly “works roughly on the principles of a dating app, with searchable online profiles and features that help work out details of a lease.”
MIT researchers have found that the large size of neurons in the human brain allows for electrical compartmentalization, which may contribute to the human brain’s complex cognitive capabilities, writes UPI reporter Brooks Hays.
UCLA Prof. Leonard Kleinrock, an MIT alumnus, speaks with PC Mag reporter S.C. Stuart about his work developing the mathematical theory of packet networks during his graduate studies at MIT. Kleinrock recounts how “that was a golden era at MIT and elsewhere in the research groups in the sixties, and I'll be forever grateful to ARPA's enlightened funding culture.”
Axios reporter Joann Muller spotlights Rivian, an electric-vehicle startup founded by MIT graduate RJ Scaringe. “If Rivian succeeds, the sharing of its technology could be one of the biggest reasons,” writes Muller. “Imagine companies like Amazon, Starbucks or Apple launching their own mobility fleets on top of a generic platform.”
IEEE Spectrum reporter Mark Anderson highlights how Prof. Jeehwan Kim’s research group has developed techniques to produce ultrathin semiconducting films and harvest the materials necessary to manufacture 2-D electronics. Anderson explains that the group’s advances could make possible such innovations as high-efficiency solar cells attached to a car’s exterior and low-power, long-lasting wearable devices.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Eric Lander, president of the Broad Institute, argues for enabling cancer patients to become actively involved in cancer research. “Patients must have an active voice in decisions. Patient data should never be sold,” Lander writes. “Researchers anywhere should have rapid access to the de-identified clinical and genomic data, to ensure that anyone can make discoveries.”
Prof. Mark Harnett has found that each individual cell in the human brain could operate like a mini-computer, reports Clare Wilson for New Scientist. Wilson explains that “the study has revealed a key structural difference between human and mouse neurons that could help explain our superior powers of intelligence.”
Prof. Angelika Amon received this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her “contributions to finding significant solutions to curing human diseases,” while Profs. Chenyang Xu, Daniel Harlow, Matt Evans and research scientist Lisa Barsotti received New Horizons Prizes for “early-career achievements in their respective fields,” reports Xinhua.
MIT researchers have developed a way to prevent the theft of sensitive data hidden on a computer’s memory, writes TechCrunch’s Zack Whittaker. Storing sensitive data in different memory locations creates “clear boundaries for where sharing should and should not happen, so that programs with sensitive information can keep that data reasonably secure,” explains graduate student Vladimir Kiriansky.
EdX and seven partner universities are now offering nine fully fledged master’s degrees starting at just $9,000, reports Forbes contributor Josh Moody. “Existing industries are evolving while new fields are emerging, and there is a clear demand for the advanced knowledge needed to succeed in this new workplace,” says MIT Prof. Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX.
The Media Lab’s Open Agriculture Initiative is releasing a Personal Food Computer, which uses the same algorithms as the lab and is “capable of growing four plants at a time,” reports Howie Kahn of The Wall Street Journal. Research scientist Caleb Harper hopes the PFC technology, which will be piloted in Boston-area schools, “will expand our knowledge of cultivation on a rapidly changing planet.”