Fortune reporter Alyssa Newcomb writes that MIT researchers have developed a 20-pound robotic cheetah that can successfully execute a backflip and nail the landing. “The robotic mini cheetah can also gallop over uneven terrain twice as fast as the average human,” writes Newcomb.
A miniature version of the robotic cheetah developed by MIT researchers provides a testbed for researchers to experiment with new maneuvers like backflips, reports David Freeman for NBC Mach. “Having a platform that's relatively small and safe and cheap makes running experiments very easy,” says technical associate Benjamin Katz, “you don't have to worry about breaking the robot or getting hurt.”
MIT researchers have developed a miniature robotic cheetah that can perform a wide range of maneuvers, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “The robot is capable of running up to five miles per hour, can perform a 360-degree backflip from a standing position and will right itself quickly after being kicked to the ground,” Heater explains.
Verge reporter Chaim Gartenberg writes that MIT researchers have developed a new mini cheetah robot that can perform backflips. Gartenberg notes that the robot is the first four-legged robot that can do a backflip, adding that it weighs “around 20 pounds, and can trot along at up to 2.45 meters per second (around 5.5 miles per hour).”
John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, highlights Prof. David Autor’s research in a show on the impacts of automation.
Profs. Regina Barzilay and Dina Katabi discuss how AI could transform the field of medicine in a special episode of CNBC’s Squawk Box, broadcast live from MIT’s celebration for the new MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Barzilay explains that her goal is “to teach machines to do stuff that humans cannot do, for instance predict who is going to get cancer within two years.”
WBUR’s Deborah Becker speaks with Prof. Regina Barzilay about her work applying AI to health care and Prof. Sangbae Kim about how the natural world has inspired his robotics research during a special Radio Boston segment highlighting innovation in the greater Boston area.
Prof. Eric Alm speaks with New Scientist reporter Elie Dolgin about his work building a repository of gut microbes. “What we are doing is taking a snapshot of the biodiversity of human gut microbes on Earth today,” Alm explains, “and then preserving that for future generations so that we always have the biodiversity that co-evolved with us stored somewhere.”
Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes that researchers from MIT and Penn State have developed a technique to make clear droplets produce iridescent colors. Cookson explains that the phenomenon is a previously unknown example of ‘structural color,’ produced not by pigments but the internal reflections of light within the tiny droplets.”
MIT researchers have developed a pill that could potentially deliver insulin, which the BBC’s Adrienne Bernhard describes as “a kind of edible Swiss Army knife that can deliver life-saving medicine without the pain of needle injection.”
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala speaks with Ira Flatow of Science Friday about how she and her colleagues are working on a new technology called squeezed light, which could enable LIGO to see even more of the cosmos. Mavalvala explains that squeezed light is “a somewhat exotic quantum state of light that we engineer in our labs to improve the sensitivity of LIGO.”
Forbes reporter Jessica Baron writes that MIT researchers have developed a platform that “addresses the key issue in cloud computing, which is that the data (or “breadcrumbs”) we leave behind online when we search the web, sign up for subscriptions, use social media, make purchases, etc. is stored on remote data servers where the information is then combined and sold to advertisers.”
New York Times reporter Janet Morrissey spotlights Prof. Regina Barzilay and Prof. Dina Katabi’s work developing new AI systems aimed at improving health care. “It’s absolutely the future; it’s even the present,” says Barzilay. “The question is how fast do we adopt it?”
A study by MIT researchers finds that climate change is causing pollution to linger longer over cities and making summer thunderstorms more powerful, reports Tanya Rivero for CBS News. “We found a way to connect changes in temperature in humidity from climate change to changing summer weather patterns that we are experiencing at our latitude,” explains graduate student Charles Gertler.
ABC News spotlights how MIT researchers have found that a lobster’s membrane could serve as inspiration for developing new forms of body armor. “The membrane on a lobster’s underbelly is as strong as the rubber on car tires. It could be used as a guide for body armor that allows more mobility without sacrificing protection.”