WHDH spotlights MIT scientists who have created a new material as strong as steel and as light as plastic. “There is excitement because that may open up whole new classes of materials that are strong in new kinds of ways,” says Prof. Michael Strano.
MIT scientists have created a new strong yet light material that could be mass produced and used as coatings for cars, phones or even as building material for bridges, reports CBS Boston. “We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things,” says Prof. Michael Strano.
Fast Company reporter Mark Wilson writes that MIT researchers have developed a new type of material that is two times stronger than steel with just one-sixth the material bulk. “The material has implications for everything from how we build the gadgets we hold in our hands to the buildings we live in,” writes Wilson.
MIT researchers have developed a new material that is as strong a steel but as light as plastic, reports Michelle Shen for USA Today. “It can be easily manufactured in large quantities, and the use cases range from lightweight coatings for cars and phones to building blocks for massive structures such as bridges,” writes Shen.
MIT researchers have developed a transparent, degradable medical dressing that could be used to help gut wounds heal more quickly and efficiently without leaking bacteria, reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. The researchers “designed their dressing to work like duct tape, which is only sticky on one side,” writes Wilkins. “Once it covers the wound, it quickly forms a hydrogel, an adhesive layer that can help the wound to heal.”
Prof. Jesús del Alamo speaks with Bloomberg Radio’s Janet Wu about a new report by MIT researchers that explores how the U.S. can regain leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and production. “Leadership in microelectronics is really critical for economic progress and also security concerns,” says del Alamo.
A team of scientists from MIT and Facebook have created a new object tagging system called InfraredTags, reports Charlotte Hu for Popular Science. “InfraredTags uses infrared light-based barcodes and QR codes that embedded permanently into the bodies of 3D printed objects,” reports Hu.
A new white paper by MIT researchers underscores the importance of regaining the U.S.’s innovation leadership in the area of semiconductor manufacturing and calls for increased investment at the research level to help advance this field, reports Stephen Shankland for CNET. "The hollowing out of semiconductor manufacturing in the US is compromising our ability to innovate in this space and puts at risk our command of the next technological revolution,” write the report’s authors. “To ensure long-term leadership, leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing in the US must be prioritized and universities activities have to get closer to it."
In a letter to the Financial Times, Prof. Donald Sadoway underscores the need for new smelting capacity to meet the growing need for copper for the transition to clean energy. “Imagine a process that produces superior metal at lower cost with zero greenhouse gas emissions,” writes Sadoway. “Such technology would recapture domestic market share from foreign producers. We must invent the future; we cannot simply legislate for it.”
IEEE Spectrum reporter Prachi Patel writes that researchers from MIT and Google Brain have developed a new open-source tool that could streamline solar cell improvement and discovery. The new system should “speed up development of more efficient solar cells by allowing quick assessment of a wide variety of possible materials and device structures,” writes Patel.
24M Technologies, an MIT startup, and Volkswagen Group are joining forces to "manufacture next-generation lithium-ion EV batteries using the 24M SemiSolid platform,” reports Mark Kane for Inside EVs.
Researchers from MIT and the La Jolla Institute for Immunology have found a vaccine ingredient that may strengthen immune response, reports Natalie Colarossi for Newsweek. This combination-style vaccine ingredient “may boost the effectiveness of inoculations ranging from HIV to Covid-19,” writes Colarossi.
MIT researchers have been working to turn polyethylene plastics into woven fabrics, reports Smithsonian Magazine reporter Frederick Reimers. “We strongly believe that adoption of PE textiles will be very beneficial for the world from the sustainability standpoint,” says Principal Research Scientist Svetlana Boriskina tells Reimers.
Optics & Photonics News reporter Patricia Daukantas spotlights how a team of researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) has uncovered a way to generate long wavelength light using intrinsic defects in semi-conducting materials. “The new method raises the possibility of future CMOS-compatible LEDs that give off the full spectrum of visible light, writes Daukantas, “without the need for phosphors that generate excess heat and shorten the diodes’ lifespan.”
Via Separations, a startup co-founded by Shreya Dave ’16 and Brent Keller ’16 after conducting research with MIT Professor Jeffrey Grossman, has announced a $38 million Series B led by NGP ETP, reports Ron Miller for TechCrunch. “Basically, our vision is if we can decarbonize that supply chain infrastructure, then we don’t have to rely on consumers having to make a decision between the thing that they want and how to do good for the planet” says Dave.