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.
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.
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.
Steve Ginsburg of Reuters writes about the success of the MIT football team. “With 81 Nobel laureates having ties to MIT, the perception of the student body is one of bookish scholars. With 33 varsity sports, however, there aren't just a bunch of academics walking around the Cambridge campus just outside Boston,” writes Ginsburg.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for BetaBoston about the 3-D/4-D exhibition being presented at the MIT Museum. The displays are made up of 3-D printed materials that independently fold into new shapes.
Writing for The Huffington Post, Shane Paul Neil speaks with Professor Sandy Pentland about the difficulties of protecting personal information in the age of big data. “[Y]ou have to be prepared for losses, and focus on building a resilient defensive system that accounts for attacks on both computers and people,” says Pentland.
Cate McQuaid writes for The Boston Globe about “Reanimation,” a piece of performance art created by Professor Emeritus Joan Jonas. “This densely layered piece deploys drawing, video projection, and passages read aloud from the novel ‘Under the Glacier,’ by Halldór Laxness, the Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic author,” writes McQuaid.