In a VICE News Tonight climate segment, MIT postdocs Volodymyr Koman and Seon-Yeong Kwak explain their technique for making plants glow in the dark to a first-grade class in Boston. Following a demonstration mixing plant glucose with the specialized nanoparticles, one student exclaims in disbelief, “no battery or anything!”
Ryan Mandelbaum of Gizmodo writes that MIT scientists have found that diamonds can bend without snapping when in the form of nano-needles. These needles can potentially be used to “store data or to deliver drugs directly into cells, or simply as ultra-strong nanostructures,” explains Mandelbaum.
A paper from MIT and others shows that when diamonds are in the form of a nano-needle, they can be bent and stretched before returning to their original shape, reports Aristos Georgiou for Newsweek. The researchers “found that they could bend and stretch by as much as 9 percent without breaking, which is approaching the theoretical limit of diamond flexibility,” notes Georgiou.
MIT researchers have discovered that arranging two stacked layers of graphene at a slight angle makes the material a superconductor, writes Elizabeth Gibney for Nature. After discovering that the graphene had the ability to conduct electrons, researchers applied “a small electric field to feed just a few extra charge carriers into the system, and it became a superconductor.”
Prof. Michael Strano has developed a new device that generates electricity by harnessing energy from temperature changes. Elements that usually hinder the effectiveness of solar panels, like clouds or sand, “wouldn’t affect [this device's] ability to harness power from the ever-changing temperatures,” explains Sydney Pereira of Newsweek.
Tony Lee of Mashable spotlights the technique developed by MIT researchers that allows plants to glow when inserted with nanoparticles containing luciferase, an enzyme known to make fireflies glow.
Researchers at MIT have developed a process that can produce strong ultrafine nanofibers that can potentially be used in armor, reports Xinhua. The newly developed fibers “combine the desirable qualities of strength, stiffness and toughness in ways that outperform glass fibers or steel wire,” the article explains.
In a Vox article about the increasing scalability of solar photovoltaic power, David Roberts highlights solar cells developed by Prof. Vladimir Bulovic. The solar cells are, “so small and light they could sit atop a soap bubble without popping it,” explains Roberts.
Boston Globe reporter Alex Kingsbury highlights how MIT researchers have developed a new technique that allows plants to glow in the dark. Kingsbury writes that, “In subsequent tests with watercress, arugula, kale, and spinach, the plants glowed for 3.5 hours. Researchers also figured out a way to turn off the glow during daylight hours.”
Boston 25 News reports that MIT researchers have developed a new technique that allows plants to glow in the dark and could potentially be used in the future to transform them into sources of electricity. The researchers demonstrated the technique on several different types of plants, including kale, arugula, spinach, and watercress.
Prof. Michael Strano speaks with BBC News reporter Alan Kasujja about the technique his team developed to embed nanoparticles into a plant’s leaves so that it can glow in the dark. Strano explains that his team figured out, “how to control where these particles go inside the plant…We can put them right near the biochemical processes where photosynthesis occurs.”
In this video, Reuters spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new sensor that can be applied to plant leaves and can identify when a plant is experiencing a water shortage. Prof. Michael Strano explains that the sensor allows users to, “detect the onset of water stress long before the tissue starts to be harmed.”
Newsweek reporter Sydney Pereira writes that MIT researchers have engineered a plant that can glow in the dark by embedding nanoparticles into the plant’s leaves. “Further optimization could one day lead to plants that could illuminate entire work spaces or sprays that can be coated onto trees to transform them into streetlights,” Pereira explains.
MIT researchers have developed a new material that harvests sunlight and converts it into energy, reports Sydney Pereira for Newsweek. “Inspired by the structures that plants use to gather sunlight and turn it into energy, the material mimics circuitry found in nature for harvesting light,” Pereira explains.