Ginkgo Bioworks, a biotech company founded by Jason Kelly BS ’03, PhD ’08, Reshma Shetty PhD ‘08, Barry Canton PhD ’08, Austin Che PhD ’08 and Professor Tom Knight, is working to develop synthetic fragrances, reports Scott Kirsner for The Boston Globe.
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new approach to robotic gripping that incorporates reflexes to help grasp and sort objects. “The new system is built around an arm with two multi-joint fingers,” writes Heater. “There’s a camera on the base and sensors on the tips that record feedback. The system uses that data to adjust accordingly.”
Professor Yet-Ming Chiang of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) talks to NOVA’s Miles O’Brien about his research aimed at closing gaps in renewable energy availability when there’s no sun or wind. Through their company, Form Energy, Chiang and William Woodford PhD ’13 have developed iron-air batteries that can store electricity for up to 100 hours. “This is something that just a few years ago was considered impossible,” Chiang explains.
New Scientist reporter Grace Wade writes that MIT researchers have developed a non-invasive capsule the size of a raisin that electrically stimulates stomach cells, and could one day be used to “treat nausea, vomiting and lack of appetite in people with eating disorders, or those receiving treatments for cancer.”
Prof. John Gabrieli speaks with GBH host Jeremy Siegel about his research showing that standard autism diagnostic tests often prevent women and girls from receiving proper diagnosis and proper treatment. “It’s only in recent years that we've understood that autism can be expressed quite differently in females,” says Gabrieli. “And we need to know that so they get the right kind of help.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Senior Lecturer Malia Lazu spotlights American singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte and his political activism. “Instead of using his celebrity only for his own material gain, he spent much of that capital on political change,” writes Lazu.
Researchers at MIT have developed a mobile printer that could create microneedle patches for mRNA vaccine delivery. “These "microneedle patches" offer a range of advantages over traditional jabs in the arm, including that they can be self-administered, are relatively painless, could be more palatable to the vaccine-hesitant and can be stored at room temperature for long periods of time,” writes Daniel Lawler for Agence France-Presse.
Research Scientist Kazunori Akiyama speaks with Guardian reporter Hannah Delvin about the first image of a jet being launched from edge of black hole. “This is the first image where we are able to pin down where the ring is, relative to the powerful jet escaping out of the central black hole,” says Akiyama. ““Now we can start to address questions such as how particles are accelerated and heated, and many other mysteries around the black hole, more deeply.”
An international team of astronomers, including MIT scientists, have captured new images of black hole in a nearby galaxy, reports Jon Kelvey for Popular Science. “Going forward, astronomers plan to observe the black hole at other wavelengths to highlight different parts and layers of its structure, and better understand how such cosmic behemoths form at the hearts of galaxies and contribute to galactic evolution,” writes Kelvey.
A team of researchers have produced a new image of the black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87, reports Isaac Schultz for Gizmodo. “The new image shows a larger ring of accreted material than the first images of the black hole indicated. At the center of the ring is the black hole—or its ‘shadow,’ as scientists say, because the black hole itself cannot be imaged,” writes Schultz.
Scientists have captured a new image of M87*, the black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy, showing the “launching point of a colossal jet of high-energy particles shooting outward into space,” reports Will Dunham for Reuters. "This is what astronomers and astrophysicists have been wanting to see for more than half a century," explains Research Scientist Kazunori Akiyama. "This is the dawn of an exciting new era."
New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye spotlights how scientists have captured a new image of the black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy, bringing visibility to the “cooler outer regions of the black hole’s fiery accretion disk.” Research Scientist Kazunori Akiyama explained, “I’m really excited to see this result, because now we have a new tool to capture what is surrounding the famous E.H.T.’s black hole. We will be able to film how the matter falls into a black hole and eventually manages to escape.”
Researchers from MIT and Stanford have found that “artificial intelligence tools like chatbots helped boost worker productivity at one tech company by 14%” reports Jennifer Liu for NBC Boston. “The study is thought to be the first major real-world application of generative AI in the workplace,” writes Liu. “Researchers measured productivity of more than 5,000 customer support agents, based primarily in the Philippines, at a Fortune 500 enterprise software firm over the course of a year.”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Page about how supply chains are being adapted for changing market pressures. Companies “learned a lot of things that they didn’t think were possible. This means companies can do more than they thought was possible,” he said. “They have learned how to be nimble, and that may be the most important lesson.”
Prof. Alexey Makarin speaks with NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff about his research examining the impact of social media on teen mental health. "The body of literature seems to suggest that indeed, social media has negative effects on mental health, especially on young adults' mental health," says Makarin.