BBC News reporter David Gibson writes that MIT researchers have developed a thin, transparent film that can store solar energy for later use. Gibson writes that the polymer could be used to de-ice windshields, “heat seats and steering wheels, or even let you solar charge your socks before a motorcycle ride.”
BetaBoston reporter Nidhi Subbaraman writes about Koko, an app developed by MIT researchers that allows users to crowdsource advice. “It’s really teaching people to think more flexibly about stressful situations,” said MIT alumnus and co-founder Robert Morris.
MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that could reduce how long planes wait before takeoff, reports Lee Moran for The Huffington Post. The formula allows air traffic controllers to use data on weather conditions and runway traffic to “hold airplanes at the gate, which would help avoid congestion.”
The Economist highlights an MIT study that shows Massachusetts is outperforming Silicon Valley in creating life sciences startups, and credits MIT for its role in driving innovation in Kendall Square. “The Boston metropolitan area...seems to be holding its own as the world’s pre-eminent biotech hub.”
Researchers at MIT have developed an incandescent light bulb that vastly improves the device’s energy efficiency, The Economist reports. The modified bulb “maintains the technology’s advantages while vastly improving its energy credentials, giving it the potential to trounce CFLs and LEDs.”
MIT researchers have created artificial replicas of the fur that keeps fur seals and sea otters warm in cold water to see how those hairs act as insulators, reports Charles Choi for Popular Science. The researchers found that “the longer and more closely spaced hairs were, the better that surfaces were at trapping air and staying dry.”
Prof. Michael Yaffe speaks with Scott Kirsner of WBUR’s Radio Boston about Vice President Joe Biden’s new cancer initiative. Prof. Yaffe says that the announcement comes at a “golden era for cancer research. We’ve laid the groundwork and we’re poised with incredible technologies, knowledge and understanding of the disease.”
In a new study, Prof. Alan Guth shows how time might move backwards as well as forwards, reports Joshua Sokol for New Scientist. “We call it the two-headed arrow of time,” Guth says. “Because the laws of physics are invariant, we see exactly the same thing in the other direction.”
In an article for Ozy about MIT alumna Sabrina Pasterski, Farah Halime writes about Pasterski’s research on black holes, and the nature of gravity and spacetime, all of which “has the world of physics abuzz.” Halime notes that Pasterski, “might be the new Einstein.”
Ray Brescia writes for The Huffington Post about a new paper co-authored by Prof. Frank Levy that examines the impact of automation on lawyers. The research suggests that, “at the core of what we value the most about the practice of law are things that lawyers can do better than computers.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes that MIT researchers are developing a more efficient incandescent light bulb. Griggs explains that the prototype “is already as energy efficient as some LEDs and fluorescent bulbs currently on the market.”
MIT researchers have developed a technique to increase the efficiency of incandescent light bulbs, reports Matt McGrath for BBC News. "We have this huge challenge that the world is facing right now, global warming and energy efficiency and this gives you one more tool," says Prof. Marin Soljačić.
In an article for The Washington Post about robots and humans, Wendell Wallach highlights Prof. David Mindell’s book “Our Robots, Ourselves.” “Mindell clearly demonstrates that the efforts of people and robots can be complementary and inextricably entangled, and can evolve together,” writes Wallach.
Cade Metz writes for Wired that MIT researchers have developed a system that allows robots to predict how objects will move. Postdoc Ilker Yildirim explains that in order for a robot to be able to assist with household tasks like washing the dishes, it must “deeply understand its physical environments.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Monika Auger reports that a team of astronomers, including researchers from MIT, have discovered the largest galaxy cluster formed in the early universe. “Astronomers believe that this galaxy cluster probably began forming only a few hundred-million years after the Big Bang,” explains Auger.