In an article for NBC News about how climate change could make life unsustainable in the countries along the Persian Gulf and North Africa, Charlene Gubash highlights an MIT study showing that temperatures there and in southwest Asia, “will exceed the threshold for human survival if nations fail to reign in emissions.”
A new study by MIT researchers provides evidence that glaucoma may be caused by an autoimmune disease, according to a HealthDay News piece published by UPI. “Further research will try to determine whether other parts of the immune system play a role in glaucoma, and whether autoimmunity is a factor in degenerative brain diseases.”
Boston Globe reporter Martin Finucane writes that MIT researchers have identified the region of the brain responsible for generating negative emotions. “The findings could help scientists better understand how some of the effects of depression and anxiety arise, and guide development of new treatments,” Finucane explains.
MIT researchers have developed a new prosthetic device that allows amputees to feel where their limbs are located, reports Simon Makin for Scientific American. “What's new here is the ability to provide feedback the brain knows how to interpret as sensations of position, speed and force,” explains postdoctoral associate Tyler Clites.
The Economist highlights Prof. Michael Triantafyllou’s work studying how seals employ their whiskers to detect their surroundings. Triantafyllou is using the seal whisker as a model for developing an underwater sensor that would, “detect the wakes of natural objects, such as fish and marine mammals, and artificial ones, such as other robots, surface ships and submarines.”
In an article for Popular Mechanics, Tiana Cline spotlights SoFi, an autonomous, soft, robotic fish that can swim alongside real fish. “SoFi has the potential to be a new type of tool for ocean exploration and to open up new avenues for uncovering the mysteries of marine life,” Cline notes.
Spencer Kelly of BBC Click tests Dormio, a wearable device that allows researchers to track a user’s consciousness in the state between asleep and awake. “[R]esearch shows that you have a ten times increase in the likelihood of solving a problem if you have a dream about that problem in a nap,” says MIT graduate student Adam Haar Horowitz.
Physics Today reporter David Kramer highlights how Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), an MIT startup, is on a mission to prove that fusion power is a viable energy source. “CFS benefits from decades of experience by MIT researchers working on high-field, high-plasma-density tokamaks,” notes Kramer.
An MIT study finds that rising temperatures due to climate change will make the North China Plain uninhabitable by the end of the century, reports Newsweek’s Brendan Cole. The area could experience heat and humidity that is “so strong that it is impossible for the human body to cool itself,” Cole explains.
Prof. Aviv Regev speaks with WBUR’s Karen Weintraub about her work exploring human cells. Regev says she was inspired to study the human cell as, “it’s this phenomenal entity that knows how to take many different pieces of information, make very quick and sophisticated decisions, act on them and continue on its way.”
Axios reporter Andrew Freedman examines a new study by researchers at MIT and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology showing that China’s breadbasket, the North China Plain, could face severe heat waves. Big picture, writes Freedman, “such heat waves could both threaten lives and dampen economic output in the region, where 400 million people live.”
In an interview for Forbes, Pierson and Pete Krass speak with the ‘Edison of Medicine,’ Institute Prof. Robert Langer, about his career as a biomedical inventor and entrepreneur. Discussing why he started his first company Prof. Langer says, “I realized it was an effective path for transforming science into life-saving and life-improving inventions.”
Prof. Sara Seager and other top scientists recently urged members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to fund NASA’s hunt for extraterrestrial life, reports Ryan Mandelbaum of Gizmodo. In testimony, Seager noted that moon landings inspired current engineers, and for the next generation “the equivalent of that is the search for life.”
New research by Prof. Elfatih Eltahir finds that the North China Plain could face deadly heat waves by the end of the century unless measures are taken to curb carbon emissions, reports Damian Carrington for The Guardian. Eltahir found that there already has been a, “substantial increase in extreme heatwaves on the plain in the past 50 years.”
NBC Mach reporter Tom Metcalfe writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique to 3-D print soft objects that change shape in response to magnetic fields. “You can imagine this technology being used in minimally invasive surgeries,” explains Prof. Xuanhe Zhao. “A self-steering catheter inside a blood vessel, for example — now you can use external magnetic fields to accurately steer the catheter.”