In an effort to address the problems associated with children swallowing button batteries, MIT researchers have created an ingestible origami robot that can retrieve swallowed items and patch stomach wounds, reports Shanika Gunaratna for CBS News. Gunaratna explains that once “inside the body, the robot opens itself up and is steered by external magnetic fields.”
Hiawatha Bray highlights Prof. Amos Winter’s method for purifying groundwater as part of The Boston Globe's "Game Changers" section, which highlights innovators in a variety of fields. “We want to provide clean water to hundreds of millions of people throughout the developing world,” says Winter, “in a way that’s low enough in cost so it can be scaled up and sustained through free-market mechanisms.”
Prof. Daniela Rus and her team at CSAIL have developed an ingestible origami robot that can unfold itself in the body and retrieve items that may have been swallowed accidentally, like batteries. “The only thing a patient would have to do, in theory, is swallow — a bit like gulping down a spider to catch a wayward fly,” according to Ben Guarino at The Washington Post.
The Economist writes that MIT researchers have developed a new method for measuring changes in the world’s ice sheets, using earthquake sensors to monitor vibrations. “If more sensors are put into place, then Greenland’s ice sheets (and, presumably, those of other places) can be monitored on a daily basis.”
Jamie Ducharme at Boston Magazine writes about the new ingestible origami robots from researchers at CSAIL, University of Sheffield, and Tokyo Institute of Technology “that could be used to remove swallowed objects, patch stomach wounds, and deliver medication.”
A new paper co-authored by Economics Prof. David Autor looks at the impact of China on the polarization of US politics. “Voters in places that were more exposed to competition from Chinese imports became more likely to elect lawmakers with more extreme views between 2002 and 2010,” notes The Washington Post’s Max Ehrenfreund.
The Boston Globe’s Kathleen Conti profiles Rendever Health, a startup from two Sloan alums that is “developing virtual reality programs to provide entertainment in assisted living facilities, and down the road, to test and treat seniors for the effects of aging.”
Hashim Sarkis, dean of SA+P, speaks with Vanessa Quirk of Metropolis about MIT’s widespread presence at the 2016 Venice Biennale, the Institute’s approach to architectural challenges and its interdisciplinary ethos. “MIT thrives on what it calls complex societal problems,” says Sarkis. “And what better complex societal problems are there today than cities and architecture and the environment.”
New Scientist reporter Jacob Aron writes that MIT researchers have “created three simulated Turing machines with behaviour that is entwined in deep questions of mathematics. This includes the proof of the 150-year-old Riemann hypothesis – thought to govern the patterns of prime numbers.”
Bloomberg West broadcasts live from the MIT campus in a special segment highlighting cutting-edge research underway across campus and MIT’s role in driving innovation. “In general, technology can help people,” says Prof. John Leonard. “That’s one of the things I believe as an MIT professor is that technology can make the world a better place.”
During a special live broadcast from the MIT campus, President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang about MIT’s innovation ecosystem and the future of education. Reif explains that students come to MIT because “they want to use their skills to do something important for the world, to make the world better.”
Fortune reporter Katie Fehrenbacher features MIT startup Grove Labs in a piece about companies aimed at making our day-to-day lives more sustainable. Fehrenbacher explains that Grove's aquaponics-based gardening systems are aimed at providing “eco-minded customers a way to grow their own food.”
PBS NewsHour correspondent Miles O’Brien visits MIT to see the Hyperloop team in action as they work on building a prototype pod that would travel on a high-speed transportation system. O’Brien explains that the MIT team is “testing arrays of common magnets that would levitate the pod over an aluminum track.”
A new study by MIT researchers finds that student use of personal computing technology in classrooms has a negative effect on academic performance, reports Richard Adams for The Guardian. “The researchers suggested that removing laptops and iPads from classes was the equivalent of improving the quality of teaching,” writes Adams.
The PBS NewsHour highlights how one organization used tracking technology developed by Prof. Carlo Ratti to learn what happens to recycled electronic waste. “Tracking is really the first step in order to design a better system,” Ratti said. “One of the surprising things we discovered is how far waste travels.”