Invention

Reflecting on 250 years of American independence in an essay for The Boston Globe, Noubar Afeyan PhD ‘87 and a member of the MIT Corporation describes “the millions of smaller revolutions that forge the America I know and love,” including America’s leadership in science and his own journey immigrating to the U.S. to study at MIT. “Let’s recommit to revolutions, to science shakeups and startup foundings and immigrant dreams; to all the reinventions that we find in our own lives and work. Let’s prove yet again that there is a better future over the horizon and that we will build it,” Afeyan writes.

Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray features LymeAlert, a 15-minute home test kit created by alumna Erin Dawicki ‘24, that can detect Lyme disease from up to five ticks at a time. “For the people who find a tick, and it’s positive, we can give them one dose of antibiotic and have a pretty good chance of preventing the disease,” Dawicki explains. 

For the Scientific American special section “The Young American Scientists,” Institute Prof. Robert Langer speaks with Megha Satyanarayana about the “spectacular” history of American innovation and education, and why he feels it’s important to celebrate scientific achievements in the same way we honor celebrities and sports stars. “I’m just a big believer in the resilience of people,” says Langer. “I look at the history of American innovation and education over the past 250 years, and it’s been spectacular. We’ve had world wars, you know, we’ve had depressions, and people keep persisting and keep learning. They keep discovering and they keep inventing.”

Visiting Scientist Alice Stanton speaks with Scientific American reporter Tanya Lewis about her work developing miBrain, a 3D model of the human aimed at helping scientists “better understand neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s so researchers can develop personalized treatments for them.” Says Stanton of the need for stable support for scientific research: “When we have a loved one who gets sick, we want a treatment—we want something to cure them. It doesn’t come out of thin air.”

Writing for MassLive, Scott Kirsner highlights Gander Robotics, a startup co-founded by Sloan graduate student Michael Autery, that is “developing a torpedo-like device that is light enough to be tossed over the side of a ship — and designed to find a person in the water.” Autery, who served 15 years in the U.S. Navy, first pitched the idea for an “autonomous rescue swimmer” as part of an MIT entrepreneurship competition and notes: “if I had the same idea in a different place at the same time, I’m not sure it would’ve played out the same way. Cambridge is this very rich ecosystem for entrepreneurship.”

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a compact magnetic mixer to prevent clogs and uneven tissue in 3D bioprinting, reports Aamir Khollam for Interesting Engineering. The device called “MagMix,” works to “keep bio-inks uniform throughout the entire printing process,” writes Khollam. 

Prof. Deblina Sarkar speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek Daily reporters Carol Massar and David Gura about her work using microscopic technology to treat and identify health issues. We are building “tiny nanoelectronics chips which can seamlessly integrate with our body and brain,” says Sarkar. “This can diagnose disease or treat diseases which even drugs cannot fix.” 

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new robot aimed at assisting first-responders called SPROUT (short for Soft Pathfinding Robotic Observation Unit), reports WHDH. The robot has a built-in camera and motion sensors so that first responders could “scope out a site, before sending rescue teams in to save survivors.” The robot operates with a “soft, air-inflated tube that unfolds into small spaces,” explains WHDH. “It can maneuver around sharp corners in disaster zones.” 

Writing for Science, Prof. Fiona Murray and Research Affiliate Stefan Raff-Heinen underscore the necessity of federal investment in university research, noting that “without sustained federal support, the country risks losing its technological edge, threatening economic competitiveness and national security.” Murray and Raff-Heinen write: “Translational research funding is crucial for moving discoveries and early-stage technologies from labs to real-world applications. Government support gives scientists the time to refine nascent technologies, which can be a long and uncertain process. But this approach has had substantial payoffs.” 

Chronicle joins students from the Combat Robotics Club and First Nations Launch team to get a firsthand look at how MIT student apply the “theory they are learning in class to thrilling real-world tests.” Jim Bales - associate director of the MIT Edgerton Center, which hosts both clubs - explains that, “ at the Edgerton Center our ethos is people learn by trying and doing, so our job is to give our students those opportunities.” 

Fast Company reporter Shalene Gupta spotlights new research by Prof. David Autor that finds “about 60% of jobs in 2018 did not exist 1940. Since 1940, the bulk of new jobs has shifted from middle-class production and clerical jobs to high-paid professional jobs and low-paid service jobs.” Additionally, the researchers uncovered evidence that “automation eroded twice as many jobs from 1980 to 2018 as it had from 1940 to 1980. While augmentation did add some jobs to the economy, it was not as many as the ones lost by automation.”

Researchers from the MIT Self-Assembly Lab have developed a 4D-knit dress that uses “heat-activated yarn that allows its shape and fit to be altered in an instant,” reports Rima Sabina Aouf for Dezeen. Prof. Skylar Tibbits notes that by having “one dress that can be customized for fit and style, it can be perfectly tailored to the individual while being more sustainable and adaptable to changes in season, style or inventory.”

Researchers at MIT have developed a cathode, the negatively-charged part of an EV lithium-ion battery, using “small organic molecules instead of cobalt,” reports Hannah Northey for Energy Wire. The organic material, "would be used in an EV and cycled thousands of times throughout the car’s lifespan, thereby reducing the carbon footprint and avoiding the need to mine for cobalt,” writes Northey. 

Prof. Fiona Murray, associate dean for innovation and inclusion at MIT Sloan, speaks with Bloomberg Law reporter Lauren Castle about her recent study that found female PhD students are 17% less likely to become new inventors compared with their male counterparts. “What we can show is relative to the supply into Ph.D. programs, there’s still just this huge difference in the percentage of women on patents coming out of the labs than there are in the university,” says Murray.