A new technique developed by MIT researchers for capturing waste heat that can be used to produce electricity has been named one of 10 World Changing ideas by Scientific American, reports Ryan Bradley. “This is something attractive,” says Dr. Yuan Yang, a postdoctoral associate at MIT, “because low-grade heat is everywhere.”
Researchers at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a vision-correcting display that modifies the screens of smartphones or tablets to eliminate a user’s need to wear glasses, writes Rachel Nuwer for Scientific American. “The screen can correct for myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and more complicated vision problems,” she explains.
BostInno’s Elise Harmon writes that a $15 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to MIT could “help pave the way for a comprehensive cybersecurity policy.” The gift to MIT is part of $45 million in total to MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley as part of the foundation’s Cyber Initiative.
Forbes reporter Susan Adams examines a new study co-authored by MIT Prof. Evan Apfelbaum that looks at how diversity impacts the performance of stock traders. The researchers compared groups of ethnically homogenous and diverse traders and found that “traders in the diverse group did a 58% better job at correctly pricing assets.”
Prof. Robert Langer speaks with Trisha Gura of Science about his work as an engineer and entrepreneur. Says Langer of how he became an entrepreneur, “I could see that by having these little companies, you could make an enormous impact.”
MIT’s Daniel Weitzner speaks with BetaBoston’s Nidhi Subbaraman about a new cybersecurity policy initiative supported by the Hewlett Foundation. Weitzner explains that researchers will examine what kind of laws and public policy are needed to make “[technologies] more trustworthy.”
Boston Globe reporter Callum Borchers writes about how MIT researchers have developed a new coating that could reduce the risk posed by ingesting batteries. The battery has “been shown in lab tests to deactivate an ingested battery without compromising its performance in electronic devices,” writes Borchers.
Klint Finley reports for Wired on Carduino, a device created by MIT graduate student Josh Siegel that allows users to customize their cars. “This tiny device plugs into an automobile diagnostics port, letting you equip your car with all sorts of tools you otherwise couldn’t,” Finley explains.
Gov. Deval Patrick posthumously awarded the Trooper George L. Hanna Memorial Award for Bravery to MIT Police Office Sean Collier, reports Alyssa Edes for The Boston Globe. This year’s awards honored 25 police officers from across Massachusetts for their response to the Boston Marathon bombings.
“The Age Lab has been studying this issue for more than a decade, with the help of a donated red Volkswagen New Beetle it calls “Miss Daisy” that it turned into a simulator car filled with technologies geared toward testing older drivers,” writes Boston Globe reporter Nidhi Subbaraman of the MIT Age Lab’s work to examine distracted driving.
Henry Grabar of Salon writes about MIT graduate student Mariaflavia Harari’s paper examining the influence that a city’s shape has on desirable urban characteristics. Harari found that a city having a circular shape "is a kind of urban amenity, like a subway line or a movie theater, that people will pay for,” Grabar writes.
Jane Peterson of The New York Times examines MIT’s research and academic efforts in Singapore. Prof. Thomas Magnanti explains that the Institute’s collaboration with the Singapore University of Technology and Design helps MIT achieve its mission "to create knowledge and educate students to improve the world.”
USA Today reporter Tracy Moran writes about the use of environmentally friendly materials in constructing buildings, highlighting Prof. Rolland Pellenq’s work to make concrete more sustainable. “His work has proven that reducing the ratio of certain materials can make concrete nearly twice as resistant to fractures while cutting concrete emissions by as much as half,” writes Moran.
Brendan Borrell writes for Scientific American about how MIT researchers have engineered the DNA of E.coli to detect and record environmental information. “Building gene circuits requires not only computation and logic, but a way to store that information,” says Prof. Timothy Lu. “DNA provides a very stable form of memory and will allow us to do more complex computing tasks.”
Scientific American reporter Charles Choi writes that MIT researchers have uncovered evidence that magnetic fields played a role in forming the early solar system. "Magnetic fields can introduce viscosity into the disk, essentially making the gas in it more sticky," explains MIT graduate student Roger Fu.