During this CBS Radio segment, Sam Litzinger spotlights a new model developed by MIT researchers that would allow sensor-enabled vehicles to travel safely through intersections without traffic lights. Litzinger explains that the researchers have developed “what amounts to a central nervous system that can connect intersections with an incoming vehicle.”
Researchers have developed a new gravity map of Mars using data compiled by NASA spacecraft, reports Merrit Kennedy for NPR. Postdoc Antonio Genova, lead author of the study, explains that the technology used to examine Mars is similar to how "a doctor uses an X-ray to see inside a patient."
New Scientist reporter Jacob Aron writes that researchers analyzing data gathered about Pluto by the New Horizons probe have found that liquids may have existed on Pluto’s surface. The researchers also mapped Pluto’s climate zones and found that some regions are both arctic and tropical. "There is no analogue to that here on Earth,” said Prof. Richard Binzel.
MIT researchers have found that communication between vehicles could ease traffic at intersections, writes Thomas Tamblyn for The Huffington Post. The researchers found that by communicating with one another, vehicles could maintain safe distances, removing the need for traffic lights.
Prof. Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, has been honored with a 2016 Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education, writes Ruth Hammond for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Agarwal was cited for his “leadership in the development of massive open online course, or MOOCs.”
Terri Rupar reports for The Washington Post that researchers from MIT’s Laboratory for Social Machines have analyzed Twitter conversation surrounding the Supreme Court vacany and found that “people are definitely seeing the vacancy and Obama's nomination as issues for the 2016 election.”
A new study by MIT researchers examines the difficulties American entrepreneurs face in trying to scale their companies, according to The Economist. The researchers found that while “the American economy is still producing plenty of the right sort of firms, with lots of growth potential…fewer of those firms seem to grow big.”
MIT researchers have shown that memories can be restored using optogenetics, findings that could help treat Alzheimer’s. According to The Economist, the findings provide evidence “about how memories are lost during the early stages of the disease and may point to how…those memories might be brought back.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Visiting Lecturer Irving Wladawsky-Berger highlights MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy competition, which honors organizations focused on inventing a “more sustainable, productive, and inclusive future for all by focusing on improving economic opportunity for middle- and base-level income earners.”
A new study conducted by MIT researchers suggests that optogenetics could one day be used to help stimulate lost memories in Alzheimer’s patients, reports Ashley Welch for CBS News. Walsh writes that the researchers have “found evidence that ‘lost’ memories may just be inaccessible, with the potential to be retrieved.”
National Geographic reporter Wendy Koch writes that colleges are developing ways to produce their own energy, highlighting MIT's efforts to become energy independent and reduce emissions. “There’s an emerging movement in higher education toward resiliency,” says Julie Newman, director of MIT’s Office of Sustainability. MIT’s plans will enable the university to “withstand anything that happens around us.”
At a recent seminar at MIT, alumnus J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, managing culinary director for SeriousEats.com, demonstrated how to sear a piece of steak, writes Peggy Hernandez for The Boston Globe. “Lopez-Alt’s ‘Searing and Roasting’ presentation last week was part of a symposium complementing MIT’s ‘Kitchen Chemistry’ course,” explains Hernandez.
Alumna Tish Scolnik, CEO of GRIT, speaks with Justine Hofherr of Boston.com about how an MIT class inspired her career. Scolnik explains that the idea for GRIT, an MIT startup that produces wheelchairs that allows users to traverse rugged terrain, “started back at MIT as a class project.”
In an article for CNN about Instagram accounts that highlight scientific developments, Esra Gurkan features the MIT account. Gurkan writes that the MIT Instagram account combines “both science and beauty, providing unique views of the amazing architecture found on their campus and, of course, the quirks and ingenuity of being a student there.”
In an article posted by Scientific American, Sara Reardon writes that MIT researchers have shown that patients with Alzheimer’s can still form new memories and that lost memories could potentially be recalled using optogenetics. The findings “may allow more targeted stimulation, especially once researchers understand what happens to memories after they leave the hippocampus.”