NBC News
"Our ears contain an elaborate system of chambers that convert mechanical energy into an electrochemical signal, much like a battery...Now a new wireless microdevice can actually run on that scant energy."
In the Media
Boston Herald
"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said today it will receive $25 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development as part of a new five-year project designed to fight poverty by developing and evaluating useful technologies for global communities."
Boston Business Journal
Boston Business Journal reporter Mary Moore writes that the, “Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Thursday that it is expected to receive $25 million from the United States Agency for International Development for a new anti-poverty project.”
Science
Science reporter Erik Stokstad writes about the U.S. Agency for International Development’s announcement that a select group of universities, including MIT, has been awarded grants to create “development labs” aimed at improving health and reducing poverty in developing countries.
BBC News
"One of the biggest efforts to rethink the airplane is being conducted by Nasa’s Subsonic Fixed-Wing program, a collaboration between the US aerospace agency and industrial partners including Boeing, GE, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Pratt & Whitney, as well as academic institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
The Boston Globe
"The long summaries increased what is known as the 'service time' for the queue, said Richard Larson, an MIT professor who is a specialist in the science and psychology of waiting in line, known as queueing theory. He estimated that the ballot questions accounted for 90 percent of the service time at Massachusetts polls, as most voters know which candidate they are voting for."
Popular Science
"Many have wondered (and theorized) what it would be like to travel at the speed of light, but over at MIT’s Game Lab developers are envisioning what it would be like if light moved at the speed of you."
New Scientist
"The black hole at the centre of our galaxy isn't growing old gracefully."
Boston Herald
"A new algorithm developed by an MIT professor and his student can predict, hours in advance, which Twitter topics will be the subject of a sudden explosion in tweets."
Popular Science
"There's a small electrical charge living in your cochlea, and it can power electronics."
CNN Money
"The AgeLab's work is eclectic -- one of Coughlin's research specialties is the driving ability of older people -- tapping fields from engineering to psychology to find insights into ways people can live better as they age."
Popular Science
"If you don’t have legs, you can propel yourself by deforming your body. Earthworms do this through peristaltic locomotion: The muscles in one body segment contract while others relax, which creates a traveling wave that moves them forward. Our robot, Meshworm, moves this way, using wires for muscles." -MIT's Sangbae Kim
Wonkblog (Washington Post)
"Many Americans can already pay their utilities online and bank online. Why can’t we vote over the Internet as well?"
Scientific American
"Sun-dimming industrial pollution in China or signs that greenhouse gases trap less heat in the atmosphere than expected may help explain an apparent slowdown in global warming since 2000, experts say."
Boston Magazine
"First, a poll’s margin of error is there because we can’t ask everyone in the country who they are voting for every day."