AP reporter Seth Borenstein writes that Prof. Kerry Emanuel conducted an analysis of past hurricane trends and found that a number of U.S. metro regions may be overdue for large storms. ‘‘It’s just the laws of statistics,’’ explains Emanuel. ‘‘Luck will run out. It’s just a question of when.’’
Research affiliate Bina Venkataraman and Kari Smith of the MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections speak with WBUR’s Meghna Chakrabarti about preserving digital data. Smith explains that as an archivist she tries to ensure that information is preserved so that people “have that ability to go back and to look at things and to have those lessons learned over time.”
In an article for The Boston Globe, John Tirman writes about why people are fleeing countries like Libya, Syria, and Mexico. Tirman writes that much of the migration “results from unsustainable livelihoods, the disruption of traditional forms of agriculture, production, and government services that for decades provided adequate — in many cases, barely so — incomes in the developing world.”
Scott Kirsner writes for BetaBoston that the MIT team competing in the Amazon Picking Challenge finished second out of the 28 teams participating in the competition. Teams competing in the challenge developed robots that could pick items from shelves and drop them into a box.
Professor Kerry Emanuel weighs in on President Obama’s statements on the relationship between climate change and extreme weather events, writes Chris Mooney for The Washington Post. “In his remarks at the National Hurricane center, President Obama presented a balanced view of how climate change is expected to affect hurricanes,” explains Emanuel.
MIT researchers have created a tiny, self-assembling, origami robot that they hope could one day be small enough to enter the human body and perform medical tasks, reports Lauren Walker for Newsweek. “Driven by magnetic fields, the robot can travel on both land and water at the speed of three or four centimeters per second," Walker explains.
Jim Braude of WGBH’s Greater Boston shares an excerpt of a documentary on the building of the new memorial honoring MIT Officer Sean Collier.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Prof. Thomas Levenson writes about the dispute over the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii. “The dispute has been framed as the latest skirmish in the long-running campaign pitting science against religion. That’s a mistake,” Levenson writes.
MIT researchers have developed a robotic cheetah that can jump over obstacles while running, reports Sandrine Ceurstemont for New Scientist. “The robot spots obstacles in its path with its built-in lidar system, which can build up a picture of the object in its way from reflected laser light,” explains Ceurstemont.
MIT researchers have trained a cheetah robot they developed to make “flying leaps” over obstacles, reports Devin Coldewey for NBC News. The researchers behind the robotic cheetah aim to “build a ‘high-speed locomotion platform’ with the fastest land animal as its inspiration.”
The robotic cheetah developed by MIT researchers can now autonomously jump over obstacles, reports Nitya Rajan for The Huffington Post. “This is the first time a four-legged robot has used laser sensors to gauges the distance and height of obstacles in its way to plan its jump,” writes Rajan.
According to Fox News, MIT’s cheetah robot can now jump over obstacles up to 18 inches tall, which is more than half the robot’s height. “Our goal is to use this kind of robot to save lives in a disaster situation,” explains Professor Sangbae Kim.
Lauren O’Neil of CBC News reports on a new self-folding origami robot created by researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). The robot “could eventually become small enough to fold into the human body, perform medical tasks, and then dissolve itself when finished — all by itself,” O’Neil reports.
Allison Pohle reports for Boston.com on new algorithms that allow MIT’s robotic cheetah to jump over obstacles autonomously. “The cheetah first practiced its skills on a treadmill in a lab,” writes Pohle. “It then moved on to an indoor track, and is now being trained to jump while running on the grass.”
James Temperton writes for Wired about new developments in robotics, highlighting the MIT cheetah robot that can now autonomously jump over hurdles and the miniature origami robots developed by MIT researchers that can fold self-assemble, walk, swim and dissolve.