Research

Traci Watso reports for USA Today about new evidence uncovered by a team of researchers from MIT that could be the earliest known evidence that the Neanderthals were, “omnivores who ate significant quantities of plant-based food.” 

Monte Morin of the Los Angeles Times reports on new MIT researching showing the Neanderthals did eat vegetation. “Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, researchers studied the powdered samples for traces of stanols and sterols, lipids that are formed in the intestines when gut bacteria act on plant and animal matter,” Morin writes. 

Writing for The Huffington Post, Jacqueline Howard reports that an analysis of ancient fecal matter by MIT researchers shows that the Neanderthals ate more vegetables than originally thought. 

Wall Street Journal reporter Ed Silverman interviews Professor Andrew Lo about his proposal that a public-private partnership could solve funding issues for drugs research and development. “Right now, the risk of failure [in developing an Alzheimer’s treatment] is far too high for any single pharmaceutical company to take on,” Lo explains. 

Jonathan Webb of BBC News reports on research showing that the Neanderthals ate vegetables. "If you find it in the faeces, you are sure that it was ingested," Ainara Sistiaga explains. "This molecular fossil is perfect to try to know the proportion of both food sources in a Neanderthal meal."

David Snzondy writes for GizMag about new materials created by a team that included Professor Nick Fang. These “metamaterials,” which are lightweight and can withstand weights 160,000 times their own, could have applications for the construction of aircraft and other vehicles.

“Based on the current rates of success in creating new drugs for Alzheimer's disease, it could take 260 years until the next one is approved,” writes The Boston Globe’s Carolyn Johnson on the rationale for why Professor Andrew Lo is proposing a new, portfolio-based approach to Alzheimer's research.

Lauren Hitchings reports for New Scientist on findings from Professor Earl Miller that show how the the synchronization of brain waves across different regions of the brain may explain our brain’s ability to rapidly process and interpret information. 

Live Science reporter Tanya Lewis highlights Shigeru Miyagawa’s work exploring the origins of human language. Miyagawa's hypothesis, “could explain how human language, which can theoretically produce infinite meanings, developed from the limited forms of communication seen in the rest of the animal world,” Lewis reports. 

In this compilation of WBUR videos, 11 neuroscientists from MIT, Harvard, and Boston University discuss their current research and the importance of their work. The videos feature five researchers from MIT: Ben Bartelle, Claire O’Connell, Anna Beyeler, Emily Mackevicius, and Neville Sanjana.

MIT scientists have compared the brain activity of adults who had ADHD as children and adults who still have the disorder, reports Melissa Malamut in Boston Magazine. Researchers uncovered, “key differences in a brain communication network that is active when the brain is at wakeful rest and not focused on a particular task,” Malamut writes. 

Los Angeles Times reporter Amina Khan features new MIT research examining a child’s ability to decipher when adults are committing “sins of omission.” Researchers found that, “kids can tell when someone isn’t giving them the whole story – and they learn not to trust the information that person gives them,” Khan reports.

Kelly Kennedy of USA Today reports on Prof. Jonathan Gruber’s research showing that health insurance premiums went up 10% on average in the three years before the Affordable Care Act took effect. "The two main lessons are the notion that there was a pre-existing double-digit trend, and that it was variable," says Gruber. 

In a piece for CNBC, Dan Margan reports that a new study by Professor Jonathan Gruber shows that individual health care premiums experienced large hikes and a high variability in rate hikes before the Affordable Care Act took effect.  

Wired reporter Klint Finley writes about how a team of MIT and NASA researchers broke the networking speed record from the earth to the moon. “The technology could soon send scientific research data between earth and the moon far more quickly,” Finley explains.