CBS Boston spotlights how Portal Instruments, an MIT startup, is bringing a needle-free injector to the market, which could change the way people take medicine. The device, “fires a pressurized spray to penetrate the skin, instead of piercing the skin with traditional needles.”
Boston Globe reporter Mark Shanahan spotlights Senior Lecturer Ken Urban’s new holiday song, “The Time of the Year.” “I had an idea to write a song that was truthful about the holidays — or at least more ambivalent than the stuff you hear in stores,” said Urban.
In an article for The Week, John Holden speaks with Prof. Kripa Varanasi about what inspired him to pursue a career science. Varanasi recalls how his mother, “was instrumental in driving my ambitions. She used to buy me amazing electronics kits when I was a kid.”
Research engineer Bryan Reimer speaks with Ashley Halsey of The Washington Post about the need for a national conversation to determine how safe driverless cars should be before they become more widely available. “Unless we have defined how safe is safe enough — and we are in agreement — the nature of politics is that fingers will point at each other,” says Reimer.
MIT researchers have developed a new technique to 3-D print genetically engineered bacteria into a variety of shapes and forms, reports Karen Hao for Quartz. The technique could eventually be used to develop such devices as, “an ingestible living robot that secretes the correct drug when it detects a tumor.”
Prof. Barry Posen writes in The New York Times about the possible outcomes of different planned military strikes against North Korea. “A combination of diplomacy and deterrence, based on the already impressive strength of South Korean and United States conventional and nuclear forces, is a wise alternative,” concludes Posen.
In a Boston Globe Magazine article about bioelectronic medicine, writer Jessie Scanlon highlights research by Profs. Ed Boyden and Daniela Rus. Boyden notes that by creating light-sensitive molecules, which can be switched on and off and inserted into neurons, “groups in academia and industry are using the tool to discover patterns of neural activity.”
The discovery of the oldest and most distant black hole ever detected has provided a team of astronomers new insights into our universe, writes Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. “In some sense, what we’ve done is determine with a high degree of accuracy when the first stars in the universe turned on,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
The discovery of the oldest and most distant black hole ever observed could provide scientists with insights into the early stages of our universe, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. “This object provides us with a measurement of the time at which the universe first became illuminated with starlight,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
MIT engineers have developed a method to 3-D print living cells into tattoos and 3-D structures, reports Danny Paez for Inverse. Paez explains that the researchers believe the technique, “could possibly be used to create a ‘living computer,’ or a structure made up of living cells that can do the stuff your laptop can.”
NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce reports that scientists have discovered the most distant supermassive black hole every discovered, and that the findings are shedding light on when starlight first appeared in our universe. "We have an estimate now, with about 1 to 2 percent accuracy, for the moment at which starlight first illuminated the universe,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
USA Today reporter Doyle Rice writes that a team of astronomers, including several from MIT, has discovered the oldest and most distant supermassive black hole ever detected. “The black hole resides in a quasar and its light reaches us from when the universe was only 5% of its current age — over 13 billion years ago,” explains Rice.
Researchers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have been awarded funding for two new programs aimed at addressing global challenges, according to Dewi Fabbri of Channel NewsAsia. Prof. Michael Strano will lead a project that uses sensors to monitor the health of plants, while Prof. Peter Dedon will focus on examining drug resistant organisms.
Co.Design reporter Katharine Schwab writes that MIT researchers have developed a tattoo made of living cells that activate when exposed to different kinds of stimuli. Schwab explains that in the future the tattoos could be designed, “so that they respond to environmental pollutants or changes in temperature.”
Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay highlights how a number of local arts organizations, MIT List Visual Arts Center, are presenting a series of exhibitions exploring the relationship between art and technology. As part of the series, the List will present “Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974-1995.”