A new study by MIT researchers uncovers evidence that more than a quadrillion tons of diamonds are located in the Earth’s upper mantle, reports Katie Camero for The Boston Globe. Camero explains that, “researchers came to this conclusion after they found in global records over the past few decades a ‘glitch’ in seismic wave activity.”
In an article for Forbes about how AI could improve healthcare, Bernard Marr highlights an algorithm developed by MIT researchers that can analyze 3-D scans up to 1,000 times faster than is currently possible. “When saving minutes can mean saving lives, AI and machine learning can be transformative,” writes Marr.
NASA’s TESS satellite, which is searching for planets outside our solar system, is expected to send back its first series of data in August, reports the Xinhua News Agency. The mission is being led by MIT researchers and will, “monitor the brightness of more than 200,000 stars over a period of two years, eyeing temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits,” according to Xinhua.
CNN reporter Bronte Lord spotlights Prof. Kevin Esvelt’s proposal to introduce genetically engineered mice to the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in an effort to stop the spread of Lyme disease. "We want to heritably immunize the local white-footed mice," Esvelt explains. "The idea is fewer infected ticks means fewer infected kids."
In an article for the Financial Times, Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson writes about his new research showing that advances in machine learning could help fuel a surge in productivity and economic growth around the world. Brynjolfsson writes that as machine learning systems develop, “we can have not only higher productivity growth, but also more widely shared prosperity.”
Lisa Spear of Newsweek reports that MIT researchers have found marketing algorithms do not show STEM job ads to women because reaching them through advertising is more expensive. “This means that fewer women are seeing the advertising for science related jobs, even though it’s illegal to target jobs to one gender,” explains Spear.
Xinhua news wire reports that MIT researchers have developed a tiny new robot, the size of a human egg cell, that could be used to detect medical problems or to identify oil or gas leaks. “The self-powered cell-size robots don't need any external power source or even internal batteries,” explains Xinhua.
Axios reporter Sam Baker highlights a new working paper co-authored by Prof. Jonathan Gruber that provides evidence that doctors do practice “defensive medicine” in an effort to avoid lawsuits. Gruber and his colleague found that, “the threat of malpractice suits raises health care costs by about 5%.”
New York Times reporter Margot Sanger-Katz writes about a new working paper by Prof. Jonathan Gruber on the extent to which a fear of lawsuits increases the number of medical tests and treatments a patient receives. “There is defensive medicine,” says Gruber. But that “is not explaining a large share of what’s driving U.S. health care costs.”
MIT researchers have designed new robots the size of a human egg cell that can sense their surroundings, writes Brooks Hays for UPI. These nanoscale robots could one day be used to develop less invasive colonoscopies or aid in the search for structural vulnerabilities inside oil and gas pipelines, explains Hays.
Writing for Space.com, Chelsea Gohd reports that a team of researchers led by Hans Moritz Guenther at MIT’s Kavli Institute has observed a young star devouring a planet. “The researchers hope to get a better idea of what really goes on in the life of a young star and how infant planets manage to survive,” explains Gohd.
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed self-powered robots the size of human cells that can float indefinitely in liquid or the air. Heater explains that the robots could be used to monitor hard to reach environments, such as pipelines or the human body.
In this video, VOA reporter Steve Baragona looks at different methods of harvesting water from fog. Baragona highlights a new system developed by MIT researchers, explaining that in some areas where the water supply is dwindling, “the technology is far cheaper than other options like desalination.”
Using data from MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, CNBC "Make It" has mapped out the earnings needed for a single person to live comfortably in every state, reports Emmie Martin. The calculator, explains Martin, “takes into account factors such as child care and health insurance, in addition to food and other regular costs.”
At the International Conference on Machine Learning, MIT researchers demonstrated an adversarial attack, fooling an AI system into thinking a 3-D printed turtle was a rifle, reports Matthew Hutson for Science. Prof. Aleksander Madry explains that the ability to fool AI systems shows, “we need to rethink all of our machine learning pipeline to make it more robust.”