Inverse reporter Passant Rabie spotlights how a team of MIT researchers have developed three strategies aimed at deflecting asteroids headed for Earth. “If you have enough time and you want a high probability of success, what you do is you send three missions,” explains Prof. Olivier de Weck.
Using a new algorithm, MIT researchers have discovered an antibiotic that can treat drug-resistant bacteria, reports Madhumita Murgia for the Financial Times. “There is still a question of whether machine-learning tools are really doing something intelligent in healthcare,” says Prof. Regina Barzilay. “This shows how far you can adapt this tool.”
Forbes contributor Vivienne Decker highlights Ten Little, a children’s shoe company co-founded by MIT alumna Fatma Collins MBA ’11 that is aimed at making it easier for parents to find shoes that fit properly and provide the necessary support. Collins explains she was motivated to start the company after searching for shoes for her daughter “left me thinking there must be a better way.”
Quanta Magazine reporter Dana Najjar writes that new findings from LIGO researchers challenge longstanding assumptions about neutron stars.
MIT researchers have found there may be shortages of cobalt if the heavy metal is not refined and recycled more efficiently, reports Donna Lu for New Scientist. The researchers found “global demand for cobalt will rise to between 235,000 and 430,000 tonnes by 2030 – an amount that is at least 1.6 times the world’s current capacity to refine the metal, as of 2016 figures.”
Popular Mechanics reporter Jennifer Leman writes that a team of astronomers, including MIT researchers, has captured a series of images illuminating the surface of a golf-ball shaped asteroid called Pallas. The researchers found that Pallas “may have a mottled surface because of its curious orbit.”
TechCrunch reporter Darrell Etherington writes that MIT researchers have developed a framework for determining the best course of action to take to deflect an incoming asteroid. The researchers developed a “decision map” that takes into account “the mass and relative momentum of an approaching asteroid, as well as the expected time we have before it enters into a so-called ‘keyhole.’”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi writes for The Wall Street Journal about how the coronavirus could cause supply chain disruptions. “The best course of action for companies is to analyze possible outcomes in the context of known supply-chain risks based on historical precedents,” writes Sheffi, “and to take precautionary measures that minimize exposure to future disruptions.”
WBUR’s Cristela Guerra highlights a new exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center called “Colored People Time.” The exhibit “turns time on its head,” Guerra explains, and “dives into questions of race, colonization, and reparations."
Prof. John Sterman speaks with Emma Smith of CBC about how Nova Scotia’s plan to switch from oil to wood for heating some public buildings will speed up climate change. “Turns out that wood and coal have about the same amount of carbon per unit of useful energy in them, but burning wood is less efficient," says Sterman.
Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Jon Fortt of CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” about how the coronavirus could hurt global businesses. “It affects both supply and demand,” says Sheffi. “It’s not just manufacturing in China that is affected.”
MIT researchers have identified security flaws in a mobile voting application that allowed some overseas and military citizens to vote remotely, reports Lydia Emmanouilidou for PRI’s The World. “When things are opaque — when you can't verify, when you can't see what the code is doing,” says graduate student Michael Specter, “there is no way of vetting that it's doing the right thing.”
MIT researchers have developed a new smart diaper that can send caregivers a message when it detects moisture, reports Caroline Enos for The Boston Globe. “A small moisture sensor in the diaper contains a radio frequency identification tag, which transmits a radio signal to a nearby receiver when the diaper becomes wet,” Enos writes.
Graduate student Clara Park speaks with Ira Flatow of Science Friday about her work developing a bionic heart that could be used to test cardiac devices. Park explains that she and her colleagues fused a real heart “with robotic muscles to mimic the realistic motions and anatomy of the heart.”
Atlantic reporter Conor Friedersdorf highlights a new study by MIT researchers that shows handwashing at airports could help reduce the spread of disease.