Researchers at MIT have developed a vibrating pill that can be swallowed before eating to create a feeling of fullness, reports Nicola Davis for The Guardian. “This approach offers an alternative and potentially synergistic approach to other therapies available today,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
Researchers at MIT have developed “a battery-operated capsule-like device that’s supposed to make you feel full by stretching out your stomach using vibration,” reports Miriam Fauzia for Inverse. “Considering that diet and exercise are hard to maintain, especially for long-term weight loss, and medical interventions like gastric bypass surgery and the newest wave of injectables cost more than a pretty penny, [Shriya] Srinivasan PhD ’20 and her colleagues want their vibrating pill to be an accessible alternative,” writes Fauzia.
Researchers at MIT have used artificial intelligence to uncover, “a new class of antibiotics that can treat infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria,” reports Jeremy Hsu for New Scientist. “Our [AI] models tell us not only which compounds have selective antibiotic activity, but also why, in terms of their chemical structure,” says postdoctoral fellow Felix Wong.
ClimateWire reporter John Fialka writes that MIT engineers have developed a new process to convert carbon dioxide into a powder that can be safely stored for decades. “The MIT process gets closer to an ambitious dream: turning captured CO2 into a feedstock for clean fuel that replaces conventional batteries and stores electricity for months or years,” writes Fialka. “That could fill gaps in the nation's power grids as they transition from fossil fuels to intermittent solar and wind energy.”
MIT researchers are working to uncover new ways to avoid contrails and minimize their impact on global warming, reports Nicolas Rivero for The Washington Post. “Whether [the contrail impact is] exactly 20 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent, I don’t think anybody knows that answer, really,” says research scientist Florian Allroggen “But it also doesn’t really matter. It’s a big contributor and we need to worry about it.”
Researchers from MIT have developed, “nanoelectronics they hope can one day enter the brain and treat conditions like Alzheimer’s by monitoring some of these brain patterns,” reports Elizabeth Hlavinka for Salon. “Their device, which they call Cell Rover, serves as a sort of antenna that can help external devices monitor cells.”
Forbes contributor William Haseltine spotlights how MIT researchers developed a biosensor ingestible capsule that can gather and transmit information on a patient’s condition to a physician. Haseltine notes that “aside from respiratory and heart rate monitoring, future applications for the pill could come from alterations in its design, leading to other avenues of health monitoring. These may include digestive health, blood sugar monitoring and cancer cell detection.”
Fast Company reporter Adele Peters spotlights how researchers at MIT have combined cement with carbon black to make concrete that can store energy as one of the climate tech innovations that provide hope “that it’s still possible to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.” With this new technology, “the foundation of your future house could eventually store solar power from your roof,” explains Peters.
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have uncovered “a major advancement in the development of ‘error correction,’ the process of fighting the subatomic deterioration that makes most quantum computers today unhelpful for more than research purposes,” reports Derek Robertson for Politico.
Erika Debenedictis PhD '20 speaks with Nature reporter Rachel Pells about her experience building her own tools to use in her scientific research. “Inventions come from going out on a limb,” says Debenedictis. “The first version might be duct-taped together, but then you make another one, and another one, and the hope is that eventually the pay-off is greater than the pain of putting it together.”
During a visit to MIT, National Defense Magazine reporter Sean Carberry met with Prof. John Joannopoulos to learn about how researchers at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) “are conducting serious research on nanotechnology that could have a big impact on the battlefield.” Carberry notes that ISN researchers conduct fundamental research and have transitioned “numerous technologies ranging from ‘nanostructure amplifying fluorescent polymers for ultra-sensitive explosive detection’ to photonic crystals that enable thermal photovoltaic power generation in a small device that could replace heavy batteries carried by troops.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have successfully linked together two molecules in special quantum states, reports Pandora Dewan for Newsweek. “The discovery may lead to more robust quantum computing and support new research techniques,” writes Dewan.
Forbes contributor William Haseltine spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a flexible ultrasound patch that can be used to help estimate bladder volume. “The applications for long-term therapeutic and regenerative medicine for the ultrasound patch are innumerable, only to be limited by the imagination of those implementing their use,” writes Haseltine. “Among the most forthcoming are situations where someone may be unable to visit their physician for a medically-administered ultrasound.”
Axios reporter Ina Fried spotlights a new report by Prof. Emeritus Stuart Madnick that finds “2.6 billion personal records have been exposed in data breaches over the past two years and that number continues to grow.” Additionally, Madnick found that” “Data breaches in the US through the first nine months of the year are already 20% higher than for all of 2022.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere are developing an electronic pill that can “measure heart rate, breathing rate and core temperature – from inside a human stomach,” reports Celia Ford for Wired. “We have a solution that’s relatively simple and enables access broadly,” says Prof. Giovanni. “I think that can be really transformative.”