New way to test antibiotics could lead to better drugs
Study finds bacterial response to drugs varies in different environments.
Neighboring exoplanets may hold water, study finds
Observations and modeling suggest TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets may have held onto water, billions of years after their formation.
Making data centers more energy efficient
Flash-memory system could reduce power consumption of data center “caches” by 90 percent.
Robotic system monitors specific neurons
Success rate is comparable to that of highly trained scientists performing the process manually.
Robot learns to follow orders like Alexa
ComText, from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, allows robots to understand contextual commands.
New robot rolls with the rules of pedestrian conduct
Approach may enable robots to move around hospitals, malls, and other areas with heavy foot traffic.
Strength of global stratospheric circulation measured for first time
Estimate will help gauge hang time of greenhouse gases, water vapor, and ozone in upper atmosphere.
Bradley Olsen: Designing polymers with novel features
Chemical engineer seeks to develop and understand materials that behave in radically new ways.
Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control
System could save retailers billions lost through faulty inventory records.
Experiments confirm theory of “superballistic” electron flow
Behaving like particles in a viscous fluid can help bunches of electrons squeeze through a tight space.
Monitoring network traffic more efficiently
Programming language plus simple circuit design could let routers report on their own operation.
Custom robots in a matter of minutes
CSAIL’s “Interactive Robogami” lets you design and 3-D print origami-inspired robots from 2-D designs.
Ancient Earth’s hot interior created “graveyard” of continental slabs
Higher mantle temperatures caused subducting tectonic plates to sink much further than they do today.
Fusion heating gets a boost
The Plasma Science and Fusion Center explores a new recipe for heating plasma.
How cytoplasm “feels” to a cell’s components
In study that may guide drug design, researchers find organelles encounter varying levels of resistance.