MIT researchers have developed a new 3-D printing method that allows users to alter the printed object, writes Amelia Heathman for Wired. The new printing method enables users to “add polymers that alter the material's chemical composition and mechanical properties.”
Boston Globe reporter Andy Rosen writes about a new MIT study examining how the brain perceives rhythm that finds people tend to reorganize random series of beats into familiar patterns. “We think that these biases on rhythm, they probably are really important to how you hear music,” explains Prof. Josh McDermott.
Writing for The Boston Globe, grad students Alon Cohen, Sunoo Park, and Adam Sealfon explain the history of steganography, the act of hiding messages in other forms of communication, and provide readers with a puzzle to crack. While computers have taken steganography to new heights, messages are still “legible only if you know — or can figure out — where and how to look.”
In an article for Salon about extreme weather, Paul Rosenberg highlights a new study by MIT researchers that shows climate change could cause California to “experience three more extreme precipitation events per year by 2100, although the number could be reduced by half that if aggressive policy measures are pursued.”
In an article about how employers can help encourage their workers to learn new skills, The Economist highlights how “MIT has launched an initiative to conduct interdisciplinary research into the mechanics of learning and to apply the conclusions to its own teaching, both online and offline.”
Prof. Emanuel Sachs, who is credited as one of the inventors of 3-D printing, discusses the manufacturing method’s origins and its increasing popularity with Meghna Chakrabarti of Radio Boston. Sachs explains that 3-D printing is an increasingly popular academic tool because “it takes so long to make prototypes any other way and…3-D printing really enables people to make.”
MIT researchers have created a new strong, yet lightweight material by using a 3-D printer to fuse flakes of graphene into a sponge-like object, reports Nick Kwek for BBC News. “The newfangled product could be used in the construction of airplanes or buildings,” says Kwek.
MIT researchers have used computer models to turn flakes of graphene into 3-D structures, creating one of lightest, strongest materials, writes Nicola Davison for CNN. "Once they combine and fuse together, all the flakes contribute to the strength of the overall structure," research scientist Zhao Qin explains.
Melvin Konner writes for The Wall Street Journal about new MIT research that shows mobile-money services helped lift at least 194,000 Kenyan households out of extreme poverty. The researchers found that the services significantly helped women, and estimated that mobile banking “induced 185,000 women to switch into business or retail” from farming, and increased saving.
MIT researchers have found similarities in how the brains of babies and adults respond to visual information, reports Courtney Humphries for The Atlantic. “Every region that we knew about in adults [with] a preference for faces or scenes has that same preference in babies 4 to 6 months old,” explains Prof. Rebecca Saxe.
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Dominic O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Today program about innovation, climate change and the importance of scientific research. On how MIT researchers bring innovations to the marketplace, Reif explains what is needed is “a desire to impact society in a positive way.”
Inside Higher Ed reporter Carl Straumsheim writes that researchers from MIT and Harvard have released the latest findings from an ongoing study analyzing learner engagement and behavior in 290 MOOCs. Among other findings, researchers found that “about one-third (32 percent) of the people who participate in edX MOOCs work or used to work as teachers.”
Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, discusses his new book, which examines how to cope with technological change, with Meghna Chakrabarti of Radio Boston. Ito stresses the importance of agility, explaining “you have to spend that energy that you used to spend planning and learning and knowing everything in completeness to developing an ability to know what’s going on.”
Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear spotlights the work of Glenn Silva, who has hand-painted the names of hundreds of employees and departments on doors around MIT. Silva says he enjoys hand-lettering “because it gives you a lot of peace of mind, and you are focused on what you’re doing.”
Researchers at MIT have fused flakes of graphene into a sponge-like shape, creating one of the strongest lightweight materials, writes James Temperton for Wired. Flakes of graphene were compressed using heat and pressure, then 3-D printers were used to create a “strong, stable structure similar to some corals” for stress tests.