Senior Research Scientist Lisa Barsotti speaks with MIT Technology Review reporter Sophia Chen about how she and her colleagues developed a new device that uses quantum squeezing to help the LIGO detectors identify more celestial events, such as black hole mergers and neutron star collisions. “With these latest squeezing innovations, installed last year, the collaboration expects to detect gravitational waves up to 65% more frequently than before,” Chen explains.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment involving sound and light stimulation at a frequency of 40 Hz is associated with, “an increase in activity of the brain's own cleanup crew; the glymphatic system,” reports Pandora Dewan for Newsweek. The findings offer an, “exciting, non-invasive potential treatment option for patients with neurological disorders in the future,” Dewan notes.
MIT scientists have found that an experimental treatment for Alzheimer's disease involving sounds and flickering lights appears to “ramp up the brain’s waste disposal networks, which boosts the clearance of beta-amyloid and other toxic proteins that contribute to memory and concentration problems,” reports Clare Wilson for New Scientist. “Once we understand the mechanism, we can probably figure out how to further optimize this whole concept and improve the efficacy,” explains Prof. Li-Huei Tsai.
Writing for The Hill, Prof. Christopher Knittel and graduate student Kailin Graham emphasize the importance of ensuring the transition away from fossil fuels is an equitable process that provides support for vulnerable workers. “If we’re serious about achieving a truly just transition, far more federal policy action is needed,” they write.
Former postdoc Leah Ellis speaks with GBH All Things Considered host Arun Rath about Sublime Systems, an MIT startup she co-founded that aims to produce carbon-free cement to combat climate change. “Sublime Systems and this technology spun out of my postdoctoral work at MIT,” says Ellis. “My co-founder and I are both electric chemists, so we have experience with battery technologies and electrochemical systems. Our idea was thinking about how we might use renewable energy—which we know has become more abundant, inexpensive and available—to eliminate the CO2 emissions from cement.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a machine-learning model that can identify which drugs should not be taken together, reports Politico. “The researchers built a model to measure how intestinal tissue absorbed certain commonly used drugs,” they write. “They then trained a machine-learning algorithm based on their new data and existing drug databases, teaching the new algorithm to predict which drugs would interact with which transporter proteins.”
Prof. Kent Larson speaks with Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner about City Science, a research group at the MIT Media Lab that studies urban development. Larson says “home manufacturers typically run into two problems: ‘negative stereotypes’ about prefabricated housing and unpredictable demand, which makes it difficult to keep a factory operating steadily,” writes Kirsner.
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have provided an analysis of the successes and shortcomings of President Biden’s climate bill, reports Brad Plumer for The New York Times. The report says “the biggest obstacles facing renewable electricity are logistical,” writes Plumer. “Wind and solar are facing lengthy waits to connect the nation’s clogged electric grids, and it can take a decade or more to get permits for new high-voltage transmission lines and build them.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that the “U.S. is generally heading in the right direction to achieve its energy goals to combat climate change, but it could still face headwinds due to siting and permitting delays, backlogged electric grid connection requests and supply chain challenges,” reports Elizabeth Weise for USA Today.
MIT researchers have developed a new technique “that could allow most large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to retain memory and boost performance,” reports Tony Ho Tran for the Daily Beast. “The process is called StreamingLLM and it allows for chatbots to perform optimally even after a conversation goes on for more than 4 million words,” explains Tran.
Gizmodo reporter Isaac Schultz writes that MIT scientists have captured images of heat moving through a superfluid, a phenomenon that “may explain how heat moves through certain rare materials on Earth and deep in space.” Schultz notes that the researchers believe their examination of heat flow in a superfluid “can be used to determine heat flow in high-temperature superconductors, or even in neutron stars, the roiling, ultra-dense relics of ordinary stars.”
For the first time, MIT physicists have successfully imaged how heat travels in a superfluid, known as a “second sound,” reports Darren Orf for Popular Mechanics. “While exotic superfluids may not fill up our lives (yet),” writes Orf, “understanding the properties of second wave movement could help questions regarding high-temperature superconductors (again, still at very low temperatures) or the messy physics that lie at the heart of neutron stars.”
Axios reporter Courtenay Brown spotlights a new report by researchers from MIT and the Brookings Institute that finds poorer counties in the U.S. with lower employment rates have, “attracted a large share of the hundreds of billions of dollars allocated for clean energy projects, semiconductor mega-factories and more.” Brian Deese, an Innovation Fellow at MIT, explains that: “Distressed communities are attracting new clean energy and semiconductor investment at roughly twice the rate of traditional private investment. If this trend continues, it has the potential to change the economic geography of the country and create economic opportunity in parts of this country that too many people have written off in the past.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have estimated that the use of algorithms in public domains may provide “real value to the public while also saving the government money,” reports Kevin Lewis for The Boston Globe. The researchers suggest algorithms “that target workplace safety inspections, decide whether to refer patients for medical testing, and suggest whether to assign remedial coursework to college students,” have had similar impacts as those in public domains.
Physics World reporter Tim Wogan spotlights how MIT physicists have developed a new technique for measuring the temperature of “second sound,” the movement of heat through a superfluid. “The work could help model a variety of scientifically interesting and poorly understood systems, including high temperature superconductors and neutron stars,” Wogan explains.