Research

Prof. Adam Berinsky speaks with MSNBC’s Morning Joe about the impact of misinformation on democracy and the upcoming 2024 election. “The larger issue is that there is this climate of distrust,” says Berinsky. 

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a swallowable “technopill” that can monitor vital signs from inside the body, reports Dennis Thompson for HealthDay. “The ability to facilitate diagnosis and monitor many conditions without having to go into a hospital can provide patients with easier access to healthcare and support treatment,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.

Principal Research Scientist Emre Gençer speaks with The Independent reporter Louise Boyle about natural hydrogen and its potential as a future renewable energy source. “There is a ‘mismatch’ where natural hydrogen is being discovered and where it could be used, which would require massive investments in completely new infrastructure,” says Gençer. “I think it will be part of the solution but we need to take it with a grain of salt.”

MIT researchers have developed a supercapacitor comprised of concrete and charcoal, that can store electricity and discharge as needed, reports Aleks Phillips for Newsweek. Researchers hope the device can provide “a cheap and architectural way of saving renewable energy from going to waste,” writes Phillips.

A team including researchers from MIT have developed a new ingestible ‘smart capsule’ that uses a patient’s vital signs to detect sleep disorders or opioid overdoses. “The findings suggest that the ingestible was able to measure health metrics on par with medical-grade diagnostic equipment at the sleep center,” writes Malak Saleh for Engadget. 

Prof. Gio Traverso speaks with Lizzy Lawler at STAT about a new ingestible sensor that monitors a person’s heart and breathing rates to detect sleep disorders. “The vision for sleep evaluation is the ability to detect these events wherever you are in the nation, and not having to go to a sleep lab and an inpatient setting,” says Traverso.

New Scientist reporter Alice Klein writes that MIT researchers have developed an ingestible electronic device that “can measure your breathing and heart rate from inside your gut [and] could potentially diagnose sleep apnea and even detect opioid overdoses.” The device could one day allow “people to be assessed for sleep apnea wirelessly and cheaply while at home.”

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new type of cancer treatment – a gel that can be used to deliver cancer drugs for solid tumors, reports WHDH. “It’s really transformative to try and help patients whose tumors are very resistant to therapy,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a swallowable electronic capsule that can be used to help diagnose sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “Conventional laboratory and home sleep studies require the patient to be attached to many different sensors,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso. “As you can imagine, trying to sleep with all of this machinery can be challenging. [The] ingestible capsule just requires that the patient swallow the vitamin-sized pill. It's easy and unobtrusive and can accurately measure both respiratory rate and heart rate while the patient sleeps."

Prof. Tavneet Suri discusses GiveDirectly, the world’s largest universal basic income (UBI) program, which has been providing almost 5,000 people in Kenya with “a payment of about 75 cents (62p) a day since 2017,” reports Philippa Kelley for The Guardian. “We do see people leaving low wage jobs,” says Suri. “They are going and starting businesses, and the businesses are doing great because there’s money around.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a new 3D printing process that “allows users to create more elastic materials along with rigid ones using slow-curing polymers,” reports Tony Ho Tran for the Daily Beast. The researchers used the system to create a, “3D printed hand complete with bones, ligaments, and tendons. The new process also utilizes a laser sensor array developed by researchers at MIT that allows the printer to actually ‘see’ what it’s creating as it creates it.”

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that “Black women who work in predominately white teams may have worse job outcomes,” reports Ruth Umoh for Fortune. The researchers, “studied 9,037 inexperienced new hires in a large, elite professional service firm from 2014 to 2020, focusing on retention and promotion rates,” explains Umoh. “Black women were the only demographic whose turnover and promotion rates were significantly affected by the racial identify of their coworkers.”

Writing for Fortune, Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee discusses his new book “The Geek Way,” and explains how the structure of Montessori schools are influencing modern day business and company culture. “A bunch of geeks are now doing for companies what Maria Montessori did for schools,” writes McAfee. “They’re reimagining them, improving them, and exposing false assumptions. A large and growing cohort of business leaders are now building very different companies — and, not coincidentally, very successful ones.”

Prof. David Rand speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Christopher Mims about the impact of generative AI on the spread of misinformation. “When you show people deepfakes and generative AI, a lot of times they come out of the experiment saying, ‘I just don’t trust anything anymore,’” says Rand.

Writing for Fortune, Sloan research fellow Michael Schrage and his colleagues, explain how AI-enabled key performance indicators (KPIs) can help companies better understand and measure success. “Driving strategic alignment within their organization is an increasingly important priority for senior executives,” they write. “AI-enabled KPIs are powerful tools for achieving this. By getting their data right, using appropriate organizational constructs, and driving a cultural shift towards data-driven decision making, organizations can effectively govern the creation and deployment of AI-enabled KPIs."