Researchers from MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Science will lead a new research institute focused on advancing knowledge of physics and AI, reports Jared Council for The Wall Street Journal. The new research institute is part of an effort “designed to ensure the U.S. remains globally competitive in AI and quantum technologies.”
A new tool developed by MIT researchers sheds light on the operations of generative adversarial network models and allows users to edit these machine learning models to generate new images, reports Daphne Leprince-Ringuet for ZDNet. "The real challenge I'm trying to breach here," says graduate student David Bau, "is how to create models of the world based on people's imagination."
On this episode of Freakonomics, Prof. Andrew Lo discusses the economics of drug development. “It’s important that we get the pricing of these vaccines correct so that they provide both a reasonable rate of return to investors who have risked their capital to develop these vaccines, while at the same time making sure that there’s no price gouging going on and that ultimately we provide access to everybody,” says Lo.
TechCrunch reporter Taylor Hatmaker writes that MIT researchers will led a new NSF-funded research institute focused on AI and physics.
Researchers from MIT and the University of Oxford have found that guidelines for social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic may need to be updated to account for factors such as ventilation, crowd size and exposure time, reports Akshay Syal for NBC News. "It's not just 6 feet and then everything else can be ignored or just mask and everything else can be ignored or just ventilation and everything else can be ignored,” says Prof. Lydia Bourouiba.
MIT researchers have created a new synthetic lining that could be used to help treat digestive diseases, reports Pratibha Gopalakrishna for STAT. “We wanted to develop a liquid system that is easier to take compared to tablets or capsules, but had enhanced capabilities,” explains Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
New Scientist reporter Alice Klein writes that MIT researchers have developed a synthetic glue that could be used to line the small intestine and help treat several conditions, including diabetes and lactose intolerance. “The researchers found they could control the uptake of different nutrients,” writes Klein, “by adding various substances to the synthetic lining.”
In an article for The Conversation, graduate student Silvia Danielak delves into her new research exploring why disaster management models often need to be adjusted to better serve the needs of different communities. “Paying attention to the urban disaster managers’ understanding of place-based risk sheds light on the continuously compounding vulnerability and lack of sustainable disaster risk reduction in communities at risk,” Danielak writes.
A new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that Covid-19 may shut down germinal centers, which help patients mount an antibody response. The findings “may help explain COVID-19 progression in the sickest cases and provide important insights to vaccine developers,” reports Jon Cohen for Science.
Gizmodo reporter Ed Cara writes that a study co-authored by Prof. Lydia Bourouiba argues that social distancing guidelines likely need to be updated in favor of a more nuanced approach. The researchers found that “rather than think exclusively about personal space,” writes Cara, “people should consider their circumstances.”
A team of MIT researchers tested several different techniques for action labeling in videos and found that “older, simple, two-dimensional convolutional neural networks—a type of neural network architecture that has been around for quite a while now—worked better than much more complex, models that try to analyze the videos in three dimensions,” reports Jeremy Kahn for Fortune.
A wireless system developed by CSAIL researchers can monitor movement and vital signs without using video, while also preserving privacy, reports Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch. “The system has the potential to be used at long-term care and assisted living facilities to provide a higher standard of support, while also ensuring that the privacy of the residents of those facilities is respected,” writes Etherington.
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart III examines the risks posed by voting by mail. “The greatest risks of voting by mail are voters’ own mistakes,” writes Stewart. “To minimize this problem, election officials can warn voters that a mistake on their absentee ballot means it won’t be counted — or they can design ballots and instructions using plain language.”
Prof. Sara Seager speaks with Judi Ketteler of The Boston Globe about her new book, “The Smallest Light in the Universe.” Seager shares that the night sky still conjures up the same feelings of "awe and wonder,” that she felt as a child. “The only difference is, I wonder about the planets around those stars. I wonder if anyone’s on those looking back at us from their planet.”
A study by researchers from MIT’s Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) finds antibiotic resistance in some types of bacteria may be reversed using hydrogen sulphide, reports Melanie Sison for SciDevNet. “This is a very exciting discovery because we are the first to show that H2S can, in fact, improve sensitivity to antibiotics and even reverse antibiotic resistance in bacteria that do not naturally produce the agent,” says Wilfried Moreira, a principal investigator at SMART.