MIT researchers have developed a new system for protecting patient privacy in genomic databases, reports Anna Nowogrodzki for Nature. The system “masks the donor's identity by adding a small amount of noise, or random variation, to the results it returns on a user’s query,” Nowogrodzki explains.
MIT researchers have found that almost 90 percent of cars on the road could be replaced with electric vehicles, reports Amrith Ramkumar for Bloomberg. The researchers found switching to electric vehicles could lead to a “60 percent reduction in total U.S. gasoline consumption and a 30 percent decrease” in emissions from transportation.
A study by MIT researchers finds that electric cars could replace most of the cars on the road, reports Chris Mooney for The Washington Post. “87 percent of vehicles on the road could be replaced by a low cost electric vehicle…even if there’s no possibility to recharge during the day,” explains Prof. Jessika Trancik.
Sam Thielman writes for The Guardian that MIT researchers have found that electric vehicles would meet the needs of most American drivers. Prof. Jessika Trancik says her vision is that people would own electric vehicles, “but then being able to very conveniently get an internal combustion engine vehicle to take that long road trip.”
Fortune reporter David Morris writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique for producing temporary tattoos that can serve as computer interfaces. The researchers “used gold leaf to construct a range of sensing surfaces for capacitive touch input, conductors for heat-sensitive displays, and antennae for short-range wireless communications.”
In an article for The Boston Globe, Kevin Hartnett explores a study co-authored by Prof. Danny Fox that examines why children confuse the words “and” and “or.” The researchers found that “children may conduct exactly the same logical process as adults, but arrive at different conclusions because they run that process over a narrower set of alternative sentences.”
Prof. Alex “Sandy” Pentland speaks with Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR’s On Point, about his study examining friendship. “If you’re trying to lose weight…50 percent of the time you are likely to reach out to people who really actually aren’t going to help that much,” Pentland explains, adding that people should be looking to mutual friendships for support.
In an article for The Huffington Post about why virtual assistants have trouble understanding accents, Philip Ellis highlights how researchers from MIT have compiled a database of written English composed by non-native speakers. Ellis explains that the aim is "to create a richer context for machine learning” systems.
Gabrielle DiBenedetto writes for Boston Magazine that researchers from MIT CSAIL have developed a robot that can help nurses schedule tasks. DiBenedetto writes that the robot “learns how to perform the scheduling job similarly to how a human would: through observation.”
CNBC reporter Robert Ferris writes that MIT researchers have developed new technology that could allow windows to shift from transparent to opaque. “Solutions such as these could greatly reduce the demand for air conditioning, which is currently booming around the world,” writes Ferris.
A study co-authored by Prof. Josh McDermott dispels the theory that musical preference is rooted in biology, writes Jacqueline Howard for CNN. "We need to accept and document the differences in how other cultures hear the world. The opportunities to do so are rapidly diminishing with the diffusion of Western music around the world,” says McDermott.
A team of MIT researchers has received an EPA grant to install a network of air quality sensors to study Hawaii’s volcanic smog, reports Greenwire’s Sean Reilly. The sensors will provide residents with real-time information as well as “a data set that can be used to explore pollutant variability and other topics,” explains Reilly.
Prof. Charles Stewart III writes for The Washington Post that the latest Pew Charitable Trust Elections Performance Index shows there has been improvement in U.S. election administration. Stewart explains that the index gauges “performance across several dimensions of election administration, including the quality of voter registration, ballot casting, and vote counting.”
Prof. Elfatih Eltahir speaks with the BBC’s Ed Butler about whether desalination could be an effective remedy for water shortages in the Middle East. Eltahir notes that current desalination methods use “a lot of energy to basically distill water…and could have very high costs and could contribute to the potential for global warming.”
A new imaging technique developed by MIT researchers creates video simulations that people can interact with, writes Charles Choi for Scientific American. “In addition to fueling game development, these advances could help simulate how real bridges and buildings might respond to potentially disastrous situations,” Choi explains.