MIT engineers have manufactured a programmable computer fiber that can be woven into clothing and used to help monitor the wearer’s vital signs, reports Jennifer Ouellette for Ars Technica. “The long-term objective is incorporating fiber computers into apparel that can sense and respond to changes in the surrounding environment and individual physiology,” Ouellette notes.
Writing for Forbes, Paula Schneider, CEO of Susan G. Komen, highlights Prof. Regina Barzilay’s research using AI to detect breast cancer. “Using her own mammograms in her research at MIT, Dr. Barzilay demonstrated how AI could have detected her breast cancer much earlier, potentially improving her prognosis,” writes Schneider. “Studies show that incorporating AI into mammogram analysis boosts cancer detection rates by 20%, without increasing false positives. This is a significant leap forward, as early detection is key to a better chance at positive outcomes and survival.”
A new study co-authored by Prof. David Rand found that there was a “20 percent reduction in belief in conspiracy theories after participants interacted with a powerful, flexible, personalized GPT-4 Turbo conversation partner,” writes Annie Duke for The Washington Post. “Participants demonstrated increased intentions to ignore or unfollow social media accounts promoting the conspiracies, and significantly increased willingness to ignore or argue against other believers in the conspiracy,” writes Duke. “And the results appear to be durable, holding up in evaluations 10 days and two months later.”
New Scientist reporter Alex Wilkins spotlights how MIT researchers have created a “computer that can be stitched into clothes, made from chips that are connected in a thread of copper and elastic fiber.” U.S. Army and Navy members will be testing the use of the fiber computer to help monitor health conditions and prevent injury during a monthlong mission to the Arctic. Prof. Yoel Fink explains: “We’re getting very close to a point where we could write apps for fabrics and begin to monitor our health and do all kinds of things that a phone, frankly, cannot do.”
According to a new study co-authored by researchers at MIT, harnessing the damage suppressor protein found in tardigrades, a microscopic organism known for its resilience, could help ease the impacts of radiation therapy on cancer patients. “The Dsup protein, which binds directly to DNA and reduces radiation-induced strand breaks, immediately struck us as a promising tool to mitigate normal tissue injury during radiotherapy,” Prof. Giovanni Traverso explains to Corinna Singleman of Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.
Research Assistants Maisy Lam and Laura Dodds speak with Tech Briefs reporter Andrew Corselli about their work developing MiFly, a new approach that “enables a drone to self-localize, or determine its position, in indoor, dark, and low-visibility environments.” Dodds explains: “Our high-level idea was we can place a millimeter wave sensor on the drone, and it can localize itself with respect to a sticker that we place on the wall, a millimeter wave tag. This would allow us to provide a localization system in these challenging environments with minimal infrastructure.”
USA Today reporter Eric Lagatta spotlights how MIT engineers and scientists are sending three payloads into space, on a course set for the Moon’s south polar region. The payload includes a mini, thumb-sized rover dubbed “AstroAnt” that the MIT researchers designed to help monitor the larger space vehicle. “AstroAnt is designed to inspect external surfaces of spacecraft, and will also collect thermal data and measurements while the rover explores,” writes Lagatta.
After suffering a concussion during her sophomore year, senior Emiko Pope, a mechanical engineering major and midfielder on the MIT women's soccer team, was inspired to study the effectiveness of concussion headbands, reports Cathy Cecere for Mechanical Engineering Magazine. “After collecting data simulating concussions and testing multiple concussion headbands, my data revealed that certain concussion headbands can reduce the force of direct impact by up to 80 percent,” says Pope.
Eva Ponce, director of online education for the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, speaks with Financial Times reporter Rafe Uddin about how companies are integrating automation. “Labor shortages are a persistent theme and this is another driver for this investment,” says Ponce.
Diane Hoskins '79, a member of the MIT Corporation, has been named a CNBC Changemaker for her impact on the business world, reports Ian Thomas for CNBC. “Over her more than three-decade career at Gensler, she has risen up the firm’s ranks to now serve as its global co-chair alongside Andy Cohen, who Hoskins shares long-term strategy and day-to-day operations with and previously served as co-CEO with for nearly two decades,” writes Thomas. “Hoskins has also been at the center of the discussion around how workspace design intersects with employee performance and engagement, overseeing Gensler’s Workplace Survey and influencing how the industry at large designs offices and other spaces.”
Prof. Richard Binzel discusses how the risk posed by asteroid 2024 YR4 has now been significantly reduced based off new information gathered on the asteroid’s trajectory, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. The rapid de-escalation in risk is thanks to the “unsung, meticulous work by astronomers” who conducted a steady stream of follow-up observations of the space rock using telescopes across the globe,” Binzel explains. “I’m pleasantly surprised that we could reduce the probability numbers so quickly.”
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Bloomberg reporter F.D. Flam about tracking asteroid 2024 YR4. “It might seem like things are getting more dangerous or more scary, but what's really happening is we're making ourselves more and more secure,” says Binzel.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with NBC News reporter Denise Chow about the Torino scale, a method he developed for categorizing the risks posed by near-Earth objects. “The idea was to be as transparent as possible about what astronomers know,” says Binzel of the idea behind the scale.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new chip-based system capable of improving “how terahertz (THz) waves pass through silicon chips,” reports Rupendra Brahambhatt for Interesting Engineering. The researchers “applied a principle called matching, which involves reducing the difference between silicon (dielectric constant is 11) and air (dielectric constant is 1) so that more waves can travel through,” writes Brahambhatt.
Prof. Richard Binzel, creator of the Torino scale that NASA uses to measure the threat of incoming objects, speaks with Brandon Truitt of CBS Boston about his quest to track 2024 YR4, an asteroid that astronomers are closely monitoring to see how close it might come to Earth in 2032. “As we get more and more measurements, we keep tracking the asteroid, that uncertainty window, that broad range of where it could go it's going to shrink and shrink," says Binzel. "Until the Earth falls outside of that pathway, we're going to see these probabilities bounce around."