Wall Street Journal reporter Jason Zweig writes about anti-poverty research, highlighting an MIT study that showed intervention methods can be effective at alleviating poverty. Prof. Esther Duflo says that, “We are trying to promote a culture of learning that will permeate governments and NGOs and businesses to such an extent that it will become par for the course.”
Miles O’Brien of the PBS NewsHour reports on how scientists are developing cheaper and more efficient tests for Ebola, highlighting Prof. Lee Gehrke’s simple diagnostic kits. Gehrke explains that the test his team developed is “very simple, requires no refrigeration, no power, no special training.”
MIT researchers have developed a test that can accurately detect cancer in urine, reports Megan Scudellari for The Boston Globe. “Bacteria can grow in tumors as small as 1 millimeter, so the urine test has the potential to detect liver tumors — which tend to be small and dispersed — very early on, which would improve survival rates for patients,” Scudellari explains.
Huffington Post reporter Jacqueline Howard writes about how MIT researchers have uncovered what causes the rapid draining of the meltwater lakes atop Greenland’s ice sheet. Howard explains that, “the finding could help scientists better predict how much meltwater from the ice sheet is contributing to rising sea levels, especially as the climate in the region becomes warmer.”
Professor Vladan Vuletić and his colleagues have successfully developed a new technique for simulating friction between two surfaces at the nanoscale, reports Davide Castelvecchi for Nature. The research “could bring enormous savings by reducing friction between the moving parts of machines,” writes Castelvecchi.
Robert Ferris writes for CNBC that MIT researchers have developed a new technique for creating surfaces that can slide past each other without friction. The researchers hope to use the technique to “build devices that can preserve themselves by being nearly immune to friction.”
Jessica Hamzelou writes for New Scientist that MIT researchers have been able to recover memories using light. The technique could eventually be used to help people with Alzheimer’s or amnesia. Hamzelou writes that Prof. Susumu Tonegawa, hopes to “develop a way to reactivate forgotten memories in people before the brain tissue itself is damaged, as is often the case in dementia.”
Emma Cott of The New York Times writes about Huggable, a robotic teddy bear developed by Professor Cynthia Breazeal and researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital for therapeutic use in pediatric hospitals. “It’s not only the health and emotional and recovery benefits, but also logistical and financial, improving efficiency to the overall health system,” says Breazeal.
Washington Post reporter Chris Mooney writes that MIT researchers have found that giant cracks allow for the rapid draining of lakes on Greenland’s ice sheet. “We know that the ice sheet will continue to increase its contribution to sea level rise over the coming years,” explains lead author Laura Stevens. “The implications of this study show us more of how these processes will play out.”
MIT researchers have uncovered how the meltwater lakes atop Greenland’s ice sheet drain, reports Richard Valdmanis for Reuters. Lead author Laura Stevens explains that the findings will help “predict more accurately how supraglacial lakes will affect ice sheet flow and sea level rise.”
In this video, Monika Auger of The Wall Street Journal describes how MIT engineers have developed a robotic cheetah that can jump over obstacles autonomously. Auger explains that the robot’s vision and path planning systems give it "complete autonomous control over its movements.”
MIT researchers have created a tiny, self-assembling, origami robot that they hope could one day be small enough to enter the human body and perform medical tasks, reports Lauren Walker for Newsweek. “Driven by magnetic fields, the robot can travel on both land and water at the speed of three or four centimeters per second," Walker explains.
AP reporter Seth Borenstein writes that Prof. Kerry Emanuel conducted an analysis of past hurricane trends and found that a number of U.S. metro regions may be overdue for large storms. ‘‘It’s just the laws of statistics,’’ explains Emanuel. ‘‘Luck will run out. It’s just a question of when.’’
Neel Patel writes for Wired about how MIT researchers have trained their robotic cheetah to detect and leap over obstacles. The robot “estimates the height, size, and distance of objects in its path, and adjusts its approach to prepare a jump and safe landing—all without slowing down.”
Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that MIT researchers have used optogenetics to reactive lost memories. The research indicates that, “retrograde amnesia -- where memories are lost after brain trauma -- may be more of a memory retrieval problem than an actual loss of data.”