Research affiliate Giovanni Traverso speaks with Ira Flatow of Science Friday about a new ingestible device powered by stomach acid. “When you start thinking about keeping a system inside of the body for a long time,” Traverso explains, “powering that system becomes a challenge, and that’s exactly what we tried to aim to address here with this study.”
Glenn Marshall of NBC Boston speaks with Tiera Guinn about working at NASA while earning her degree. “It’s really amazing,” says Guinn. "I feel like I actually have a hand in getting people to Mars someday.” Guinn’s advice for the next generation? “Whatever they think is impossible is very much so possible.”
Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes that the McGovern Institute has established a new center focused on autism research, thanks to a gift from Lisa Yang and Hock Tan ’75 SM ’75. Graham explains that the center will “focus on trying to make significant jumps through new technologies such as gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9.”
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that Prof. Ed Boyden is working on a new effort to develop technologies that would allow doctors to explore tumors using virtual reality. Boyden explains that he and his colleagues hope to use virtual reality to explore “what a tumor’s weaknesses are, and what makes it thrive.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn spoke with President L. Rafael Reif about the importance of allowing scientists around the world to collaborate. “It doesn’t matter if you were born in Pakistan or Somalia or whatever— scientists like to work with scientists,” explains Reif.
MIT is launching a center for autism research at the McGovern Institute with $20 million in funding from MIT alumnus Hock Tan and Lisa Yang, writes Barb Darrow for Fortune. Darrow writes that Yang told Fortune she was "greatly impressed by both the collegiality and focus of the institute's researchers.”
In a Huffington Post article, Prof. David Autor lists the pressing long-and short-term issues that economists will focus on in 2017. Among the long-term concerns are the effects of artificial intelligence and machine learning, which could potentially disrupt “the value of products produced using manual labor in the developing world.”
In this video, Prof. Leia Stirling and graduate student Alison Gibson speak with Wired about the vibrating boots they developed to help astronauts avoid obstacles. “To be able to provide technologies that can assist the astronauts and actually make a group of people have more capability, that’s really exciting,” explains Stirling.
Kelsey Atherton of Popular Science writes that MIT researchers have created a hydrogel robot that could be used to create “soft, gentle hands that can help surgeons when they’re working inside squishy, delicate human bodies."
Paula Rogo of Essence writes that MIT senior Tiera Guinn, who currently works as a Rocket Structural Design and Analysis Engineer for NASA, is making history before she graduates. “She is showing us that you can aim for the stars, literally,” writes Rogo.
CSAIL researchers Tuka Al-Hanai and Mohammad Ghassemi speak to the BBC’s Gareth Mitchell about their system that can detect the tone of a conversation. Ghassemi explains that this research will provide “the first steps toward feedback,” for people who struggle to read social cues.
A new study by Prof. John Van Reenen finds that Britain’s exit from the European Union could cause a “negative impact on gross domestic product per capita of almost four times that of previous estimates,” reports Lucy Meakin for Bloomberg.
CNBC reporter Karen Gilchrist writes that a study by Prof. John Van Reenen shows that Brexit could end up reducing the incomes of people living in Great Britain by as much as 9.5 percent. “The report points to a 6.3 to 9.5 percent reduction in GDP per capita with the U.K. outside of the EU's single market,” Gilchrist explains.
Boston Globe reporter Dan Adams writes that a new General Electric commercial featuring Prof. Mildred Dresselhaus imagines what it would be like if scientists were celebrities. The ad shows "adoring fans dressing up as Dresselhaus for Halloween, texting Dresselhaus emojis to one another, and chasing her down the street for a selfie.”
Prof. David Autor writes for The Huffington Post that imposing tariffs could slow the U.S.’s economic growth. A better solution, he writes, is smarter trade policy and to “aggressively enforce our current policies to protect intellectual property, enforce rule of law, and require equal treatment from our trading partners.”