Bloomberg reporter Boyan Ivanchev spotlights research by Prof. Drazen Prelec and Prof. Duncan Simester that finds, “credit card buyers were willing to pay over 100% more for tickets, due to the behavioral pattern that psychologically causes the credit card buyer to perceive the purchase as a type of deferred payment, and therefore, not immediately feel the psychological discomfort, as when letting this amount go when paying cash.”
Forbes contributor Jamie Carter spotlights a new study co-authored by MIT scientists that suggests, “the absence of carbon dioxide in a rocky planet’s atmosphere—relative to others in the same star system—may indicate the presence of liquid water on the planet’s surface.”
Scientific American reporter Payal Dhar spotlights how MIT engineers developed a beating, biorobotic replica of the human heart that could be used to “simulate the workings of both a healthy organ and a diseased one.” The replica, "which pumps a clear fluid instead of blood, is hooked up to instruments that measure blood flow, blood pressure, and more," writes Dhar. "It’s also customizable: the user can change the heart rate, blood pressure and other parameters, then watch how these changes affect the heart’s function in real time.”
Prof. Jessika Trancik speaks with Associated Press reporter Alexa St. John to discuss electric vehicle emissions and ownership costs. Trancik notes, “buyers should consider total cost of ownership, which for an EV is generally less than that of a gas-powered counterpart due to savings on maintenance and fuel.”
Prof. Florian Berg speaks with Fortune reporter Paolo Confino about the future of ESG initiatives. “The problem is that companies and also investors are often not really honest about their intentions,” Berg says. “They might actually sell something that’s purely a profit-driven decision and then write it in a report as they’re doing a lot for society even though they’re just engaging in profit maximization.”
MIT researchers have used machine learning to uncover the different kinds of sentences that most likely to activate the brain’s key language processing centers, reports Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey for TechCrunch. The model, “was able to predict for novel sentences whether they would be taxing on human cognition or not,” they explain.
Popular Mechanics reporter Jill Waldbieser spotlights Prof. Hugh Herr and his work developing prosthetic limbs that integrate with their human hosts using a surgical technique that preserves the sensation in artificial limbs. “In the future, on the order of five years or so, we’ll be so good at this, we’ll completely restore the signals from the prosthetic to the brain and from the brain to the prosthetic, like the limb was never amputated,” says Herr.
Prof. Canan Dagdeviren and her team have developed a wearable ultrasound patch that can be used to screen for breast cancer at home, reports Grace Browne for Wired. “Dagdeviren wants to give people the opportunity to know what’s happening inside their bodies every day, the same way we check the weather forecast,” writes Browne.
Smithsonian Magazine reporter Sarah Kuta spotlights MIT researchers and their work in developing an ingestible vibrating pill that simulates the feeling of being full. The device “could someday offer an obesity treatment that doesn’t rely on standard medications or surgery,” writes Kuta.
MIT researchers have created a vibrating capsule that can send signals to the brain to simulate the sensation of being full, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “The capsule, which is roughly the size of a standard multi-vitamin, contains a vibrating motor, powered by a silver oxide battery,” explains Heater. “After reaching the stomach, gastric acid dissolves the outside layer and completes the circuit, kickstarting the vibration.”
Researchers at MIT have developed a vibrating pill that “significantly reduces food consumption by mimicking the feeling of fullness,” reports Arianna Johnson for Forbes. Researchers believe, “the pill can be used as a cheaper, noninvasive option to treat obesity and other weight-related illnesses,” writes Johnson.
A new analysis from MIT researchers has found that preventative screenings such as a colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy can reduce cancer rates more than previous analyses suggested, reports Ernie Mundell for HealthDay. “Prior colon cancer screening studies found that regular colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy reduced that rate by 25% -- to 0.75%,” explains Mundell. “But the new analysis took into account the number of participants in a colon cancer screening trial who decided, for whatever reason, to skip screening. When these "non-adherent" folks were eliminated from statistical calculations, the actual percentage of people who went on to develop colon cancer over a 10-year span fell to just 0.5%.”
Writing for STAT, Prof. Joseph Doyle addresses new research that suggests food “as medicine can improve health and lower health care costs.” “Researchers, clinicians and policymakers all share a common goal to fight food insecurity and improve population health,” writes Doyle. “Randomized clinical trials are key tools for discerning what works best, for whom and why, information that we should all be hungry for.”
MIT researchers have created “a vibrating pill that stimulates nerve endings in the stomach to tell the brain it’s time to stop eating,” reports Mitch Leslie for Science. “A gel plug in the pill keeps the motor from switching on,” explains Leslie. “But the gel dissolves rapidly when it contacts stomach fluid, allowing the motor to start turning. When that happens, the pill shakes for about 38 minutes, roughly the amount of time it would stay in the stomach. The researchers hypothesized that these vibrations would stimulate the stretch-sensing nerve endings and signal satiety.”
Newsweek reporter Pandora Dewan spotlights MIT researchers and their work developing an ingestible vibrating pill that can mimic the sensation of fullness. "The development of new non-invasive methods for treating obesity is of importance in confronting the multifaceted challenges posed by this global health crisis," says Shriya Srinivasan PhD ’20. "Traditional interventions, such as invasive surgeries, can be associated with significant risks, costs and lifestyle modifications, limiting their applicability and effectiveness.”