After launching into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, “NASA's newest planet-hunter, the TESS space telescope, will observe roughly 85 percent of the sky to find planets orbiting bright, nearby stars,” writes Jay Bennett of Popular Mechanics. "Never underestimate how ingenious nature actually is," said MIT’s George Ricker, who is the principal investigator on TESS.
Writing in The Boston Globe, technology reporter Hiawatha Bray examines a bracelet designed by three MIT alumni that “functions like a personal thermostat, cooling you off when you’re hot or warming you up when it’s chilly.” Called Embr Wave, it offers a “sudden surge of heat or cold that makes us feel better, even though our core temperature has hardly changed,” Bray explains.
TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey profiles ReviveMed, a biotech startup out of MIT that turns drug discovery into a big data problem. “ReviveMed’s approach is a fundamentally modern one that wouldn’t be possible just a few years ago, such is the scale of the data involved,” writes Coldeway.
MIT researchers have developed “the first artificial system to mimic the way the brain interprets sound – and it rivals humans in its accuracy,” reports Samia Bouzik for NOVA Next. “The research offers a tantalizing new way to study the brain…[and] could boost some neuroscience research into the fast track,” writes Bouzik.
Rhod Sharp, presenter of Up All Night on BBC Radio 5, talks with Prof. Sara Seager about the functionality of TESS and the details of its orbit. “TESS has a very unique orbit, it’s like a giant ellipse,” says Seager. “The cameras are made to be very stable thermally, so little temperature changes don’t expand or contract different parts of the lens assembly, and thus mess up the image.”
WHDH highlights an MIT Libraries exhibit at the Maihaugen Gallery in memory of Officer Sean Collier. “On display at the exhibit is a collection of items left in the officer’s honor after he was killed in 2013,” 7 News reports. Condolence materials left with the MIT Police in 2013 and 2014 are also included.
Meghna Chakrabarti of WBUR’s Radio Boston talks with Sky & Telescope editor J. Kelly Beatty about what makes the launch of TESS, an MIT-led NASA mission to discover new planets, so exciting. “We should give a nod to the great minds at MIT,” says Chakrabarti, “because they had quite a significant role in the thought behind getting this satellite up in the first place.”
Postdoc Gabriel Leventhal has created a project to track how the microbes in a sourdough starter change as it gets shared around the world, writes Alex Kingsbury of The Boston Globe. To track the starter, “Herman,” each descendant is given a unique name and number before the samples are returned to the lab to track how the microbes evolve, Kingsbury explains.
A recent study co-authored by Assistant Prof. Danielle Li in Sloan found evidence to support the “Peter Principle,” which theorizes that the best employees do not always make the best managers, reports Rodd Wagner, a contributor for Forbes. The researchers concluded that “promoting based on lower-level job skills rather than managerial skills can be extremely costly.”
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will enter an unusual, highly elliptical orbit around the Earth to capture images of about 20,000 new exoplanet candidates, writes Robbie Gonzalez of Wired. "We are setting the stage for the future of exoplanet research—not just for the 21st century, but the 22nd century and beyond," says MIT Kavli Institute senior research scientist George Ricker, leader of the TESS mission.
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks to Jane Wakefield of BBC World Service about the importance of having conversations that focus on how AI will dictate the future. “What will happen, if the ultimate goal of AI actually succeeds?" Tegmark asks. "AI and other powerful technology isn’t evil, nor is it good. It is a tool that can amplify our ability to do whatever we want.”
Prof. Hugh Herr and his team in the Biomechatronics Group are developing prosthetics that “respond to neural commands with the flexibility and speed of regular limbs,” writes Eillie Anzilotti for Fast Company. In a process pioneered by the group, “doctors leave the tendons and nerve endings intact so they can continue to feed sensations down past where the human leg ends,” Anzilotti says.
An outgrowth of MIT’s delta v accelerator, Mayflower Venues offers those owning farm land the option to host weddings, while Mayflower handles details such as insurance and marketing. “Every single day, farm land is lost in New England,” co-founder and Sloan alumnus Sam McElhinney tells Katheleen Conti of The Boston Globe. He hopes his startup will help preserve undeveloped space and offset expenses associated with local farming.
A scholarship established in memory of MIT police officer Sean Collier will be awarded for the first time on April 19 at Collier’s alma mater, Salem State. Salem State Prof. Emeritus Ed LeClair tells Emily Sweeney of The Boston Globe that Collier was “an inspirational leader,” and remembers him as “an exceptionally good community police officer.”
James Gallagher of BBC News speaks with several experts about the microbiome and how diversity in gut bacteria is essential to health. “One thing that we're learning is, based on the microbiome, different people may need to consume different diets in order to get the same effect,” says Prof. Eric Alm.