When a task adds more steps, this brain circuit helps you notice
By tracking feedback during tasks, the anterior cingulate cortex notices when a new step has become necessary and signals the motor cortex to adjust.
Engineers fabricate a chip-free, wireless electronic “skin”
The device senses and wirelessly transmits signals related to pulse, sweat, and ultraviolet exposure, without bulky chips or batteries.
Living Lego
Mathematical modeling speeds up the process of programming bacterial systems to self-assemble into desired 2D shapes.
MIT team reports giant response of semiconductors to light
The materials’ stiffness increases up to 40 percent, in a reversible effect, the researchers report in a study that also explains the phenomenon's atomic origins.
A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment
By modeling the conditions of an entire wind farm rather than individual turbines, engineers can squeeze more power out of existing installations.
Scientists identify a plant molecule that sops up iron-rich heme
The peptide is used by legumes to control nitrogen-fixing bacteria; it may also offer leads for treating patients with too much heme in their blood.
Thinking like a cyber-attacker to protect user data
Researchers found that an understudied component of computer processors is susceptible to attacks from malicious agents. Then, they developed mitigation mechanisms.
New programmable materials can sense their own movements
Engineers 3D print materials with networks of sensors directly incorporated.
3 Questions: Amar Gupta on an integrated approach to enhanced health-care delivery
The MIT researcher and former professor discusses how Covid-19 and the influx of virtual technologies created a new medical ecosystem that needs more synchronized oversight.
Solving a longstanding conundrum in heat transfer
Hailing from a small town in Italy, Matteo Bucci is determined to address some of the unknowns plaguing fundamental science.
New test may predict Covid-19 immunity
The paper test measures the level of neutralizing antibodies in a blood sample and could help people decide what protections they should take against infection.
Measuring the “woodwork effect” in medical insurance
Study: When adults gain access to Medicaid, they sign up their previously unenrolled kids, too — yet many more remain outside the system.
J-PAL expands evidence-to-policy government partnerships to fight poverty worldwide
In collaboration with Community Jameel and Co-Impact, rigorous research will inform social policies and programs.
New J-WAFS-led project combats food insecurity
The Jameel Index for Food Trade and Vulnerability — a project supported by Community Jameel — will study the implications of climate change on food security as they relate to trade.
Design prevents buildup of scar tissue around medical implants
A new device, which doesn’t rely on immunosuppressing drugs, may assist efforts to develop an artificial pancreas to treat diabetes.