CBS News reports that MIT engineers have identified several combinations of genes that make bacteria more vulnerable to antibiotics. This research could help in the fight against “superbugs,” drug-resistant bacteria that kill at least 23,000 people per year in the U.S.
New research by Professor Ann Graybiel may indicate that the FOXP2 gene in humans plays a major role in how we learn speech, writes Chris Higgins for Wired. Mice given the gene were able to learn their way through a maze more quickly than those without it.
“MIT researchers are engineering the next generation of space-wear: a skin-tight pressurized suit fit for awesome planetary exploration,” reports The Associated Press. “The researchers have engineered active compression garments that have small, springlike coils that contract in response to heat.”
“A team from MIT and Duke created flexible polymers that can change color and texture in response to a controlled voltage, essentially allowing them to camouflage an object with the flip of a switch,” reports Jim Festante for Slate. This mimics the ability of cephalopods in nature to rapidly change color.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for BetaBoston about a new skin-tight spacesuit design from Professor Dava Newman’s team. “It promises to offer astronauts the same protection but a lot more mobility and comfort,” writes Subbaraman.
Professor Dava Newman’s team has designed a new lightweight, flexible suit for astronauts that provides pressurization through mechanical means rather than gas, as current spacesuits do. “The theoretical suits would be made from coils that spring back to a ‘remembered’ shape when heated,” reports Rachel Feltman for The Washington Post.
Brooks Hays of United Press International reports on the latest iteration of MIT’s skin-tight spacesuit, the BioSuit. “Ultimately, the big advantage is mobility, and a very lightweight suit for planetary exploration,” said Professor Dava Newman.
Jordon Golson of Wired reports on a new traffic control system created by MIT researchers: “The ‘RoadRunner’ system, developed for Singapore by graduate student Jason Gao and his advisor Li-Shiuan Peh, issues a digital ‘token’ to each car entering a congestion-prone area.”
“Researchers from MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group and Fluid Interface Group are working on a project called THAW that allows smartphone cameras to identify what’s happening on another screen and interact with it,” writes Lily Hay Newman for Slate.
Jacqueline Howard of The Huffington Post writes about research by Professor Ann Graybiel that looked at the effect of the human Foxp2 gene in mice. The work could lead to a greater understanding of how the human brain learns speech.
“Inspired by octopus tentacles, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)'s latest robot is as squishy as can be,” writes Rachel Feltman of The Washington Post. “Like other soft robots, this tentacle has potential in search and rescue missions.”
Professor Xuanhe Zhao has developed a material that mimics the ability of cephalopods such as cuttlefish, squids, and octopuses, to rapidly change color, reports Rachel Feltman for The Washington Post. "It's a fantastic quality, and one unprecedented in human engineering," says Zhao.
Thomas Tamblyn of The Huffington Post reports on a soft, tentacle-shaped robot developed by doctoral candidate Andrew Marchese and PhD student Robert Katzschmann: “The arm is made using purely silicone which is then inflated and deflated forcing the arm to move in the desired direction.”
Sharon Begley of Reuters writes about Professor Ann Graybiel’s research on the effect of the human FOXP2 gene on mice. “By isolating the effects of one gene, the work sheds light on its function and hints at the evolutionary changes that led to the unique capabilities of the human brain,” writes Begley.
Francie Diep writes for Popular Science about a soft robot designed by MIT’s Distributed Systems Lab, that is able to navigate a maze unaided: “Researchers that build soft robots like this one hope that in the future, soft machines will be safer for humans to work with than hard metal ones.”