Writing for IEEE Spectrum, David Wagman spotlights a new technology from MIT researchers that could offer water-scarce cities, “a new source of the precious resource” by capturing and reusing water from cooling towers. Prof. Kripa Varanasi notes that their system, “can achieve on the order of 99 percent efficiency,” in capturing the water droplets.
MIT researchers have developed a system that captures water from power plant cooling towers, writes Martin Finucane for The Boston Globe. Finucane explains that, “the captured water would be pure, distilled water and could be piped to a city’s water system or it could be used in the power plant’s boilers, which, unlike the cooling system, require clean water.”
MIT researchers developed an electrically charged fog collector that can attract and collect more water droplets than a regular fog harvester, writes Matt Simon for Wired. The technology could eventually be used to recover water from power plant cooling towers where it can, “capture the plumes and collect that water,” explains Prof. Kripa Varanasi.
In an article for The Verge, Angela Chen highlights a new technique developed by MIT researchers to harvest water from fog. In the future, the researchers hope to place the harvesters, “near cooling plumes to collect and reuse water that would otherwise be lost.”
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered about investing in biotech. Lo explains that, “if we can use finance to reduce the risk, we will actually be able to bring lots more capital into the industry and be able to get therapies to patients faster.”
NBC Mach reporter Tom Metcalfe writes that MIT researchers are developing autonomous boats that could be used to ferry goods and people and could help ease traffic congestion. “We believe that with fleets of very agile autonomous boats we can offload some street traffic onto the waterways,” explains Prof. Daniela Rus.
Fast Company reporter Adele Peters writes that MIT researchers have developed a system that captures large amounts of water from the cooling towers used on power plants and data centers. Prof. Kripa Varanasi explains that he hopes this new technology can be used to address water scarcity: “We are thinking of each of these cooling towers as water farms.”
Co.Design reporter Jesus Diaz writes that MIT researchers have developed a new technique to 3-D print photorealistic representations of objects. Diaz explains that this could have significant potential in education and scientific visualization: “While you can look at a 3D representation of data in virtual or augmented reality, looking at a real physical model is an experience that is hard to beat.”
CNBC reporter Thomas Catenacci writes that researchers at the MIT Design Lab are collaborating with Puma to develop a new shoe made with bacteria that can react to how the wearer is feeling. They presented their ‘biodesigns’ at Milan Design Week, notes Catenacci, explaining that the shoe’s material can learn “a user's specific heat patterns and opens up ventilation based on those user-specific heat patterns.”
To prove that the data used to train machine learning algorithms can greatly influence its behavior, MIT researchers input gruesome and violent content into an AI algorithm, writes Benjamin Fearnow for Newsweek. The result is “Norman,” an AI system in which “empathy logic simply failed to turn on,” explains Fearnow.
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that MIT researchers have developed a wireless ingestible sensor that could one day be used to diagnose and treat disease. “The most exciting thing is that we can wirelessly control tiny implants even though they have no batteries at all,” says Prof. Fadel Adib.
A new study by MIT scientists shows how two proteins work to ensure that memory is encoded within minutes, according to Xinhua. The study, “also provided new hints about how problems involving these two proteins in other parts of the brain, such as the frontal cortex, could undermine cognition in those diseases.”
In this video, BBC Click spotlights VirtualHome, a simulator developed by CSAIL researchers that could be used to teach robots to perform household chores. The researchers hope the system could one day allow for seamless human-robot collaboration by allowing robots to, “cooperate with [humans] in finishing their activity,” explains graduate student Xavier Puig.
Prof. Janet Conrad speaks with NPR's Joe Palca about her work detecting a new particle called the sterile neutrino. To find the particle, Conrad and her colleagues shot a beam of neutrinos into a container of mineral oil and identified an extra signal. Conrad explains, “to have an extra signal you need to somehow introduce an extra neutrino.”
HuffPost reporter Thomas Tamblyn writes that MIT researchers developed a new AI system that sees the worst in humanity to illustrate what happens when bias enters the machine learning process. “An AI learns only what it is fed, and if the humans that are feeding it are biased (consciously or not) then the results can be extremely problematic.”