Research

Reporting for The Boston Globe, Hanna Kreuger highlights a graph documenting the atmospheric conditions of the exoplanet WASP-96b, which NASA included in its first release of images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Describing it as “perhaps the image that showcases Webb’s greatest triumph,” Krueger notes that the graph was created using an equation developed by Prof. Sara Seager. Seager and her team will use the telescope to peer into TRAPPIST-1e, an exoplanet widely considered to be potentially Earth-like and habitable, adds Krueger.

As the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope were released on Tuesday, showcasing the deepest view of the universe ever, CBS Boston spoke with Prof. Julien de Wit about the importance of the moment. “It’s groundbreaking. It’s like going from listening to the radio to suddenly being able to watch television,” says de Wit. “Further down the road, we may be able to see if planets are habitable, if some of these planets have signs of life one way or the other. There are so many things we’re going to discover thanks to it.”

Forbes contributor Laurence Kotlikoff spotlights the work of Institute Prof. Peter Diamond. Diamond’s work, notes Kotlikoff, clarified “that there are many levels of employment at which supply equals demand, including many that are very low.”

Principal Research Scientist Leo Anthony Celi oversaw a study which found that people of color were given significantly less supplemental oxygen than white people because of inaccuracies in pulse oximeter readings, reports Nancy Lapid for Reuters. “Nurses and doctors make the wrong decisions and end up giving less oxygen to people of color because they are fooled [by incorrect readings from pulse oximeters],” says Celi.

Researchers at MIT have created a knit textile containing pressure sensors called 3DKnITS which can be used to predict a person’s movements, reports Charlotte Hu for Popular Science. “Smart textiles that can sense how users are moving could be useful in healthcare, for example, for monitoring gait or movement after an injury,” writes Hu.

A new analysis by Prof. Anna Stansbury and University of Michigan graduate student Richard Schultz finds that two thirds of U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics have a parent with a graduate degree, reports Andrew Van Dam for The Washington Post. Stansbury notes that she worries some of the terminology used in courses like Econ 101 “like ‘unskilled’ or ‘low ability’ to describe people who are in low-paid jobs or with little formal education, is offensive. And I can see that this would be disproportionately so to people who are coming from backgrounds where these words are describing family members and friends.”

TechCrunch reporter Devin Coldewey writes that a new report by MIT researchers finds that in order to successfully transition to a renewable energy grid, the federal government must intervene to help build green energy storage at a scale that will meet the nation’s needs. “The federal government has the means both to subsidize the utilization of existing storage options and to fund intensive research into new and promising ones,” writes Coldewey of the report’s findings. 

MIT scientists have suggested that a raft of thin-film silicon bubbles could potentially block the sun’s radiation from further warming the Earth and help prevent some of the impacts of climate change, reports Tim Newcomb for Popular Mechanics. “The MIT group believes that if the raft of bubbles can deflect 1.8 percent of incident solar radiation before it hits Earth, they can fully reverse today’s global warming,” writes Newcomb.

Ambri, an MIT startup that has developed a liquid-metal battery that can be used for grid-level storage of renewable energy, has announced that it is months away from delivering its first battery to a customer, reports Jacob Wycoff for CBS Boston. "We want to have a battery that can draw from the sun even when the sun doesn't shine," said Prof. Donald Sadoway of the inspiration for Ambri’s battery.

MIT researchers have created Thesan, the most detailed model of the early universe to date, reports New Scientist. “Thesan shows how radiation shaped the universe from 400,000 to 1 billion years after the Big Bang,” writes New Scientist.

Researchers from MIT, University College London, the University of Cambridge, and the NOAA have found that space projects by Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos are contributing to global warming and depleting the earth’s protective ozone layer, reports David Vetter for Forbes. “The London-Cambridge-MIT team looked at all the rocket launches and reentries that took place in 2019 and found that the global warming efficiency of black carbon soot released from rockets is 500 times greater than the same substance released at the Earth’s surface and by aircraft,” writes Vetter.

Infinite Cooling, an MIT startup, is developing a new system that can capture water from cooling tower plumes and could significantly reduce water consumption in evaporative cooling tower systems, reports Sonal Patel for Power Magazine. “The technology that is developed could lead to significant water savings and improve water quality with minimal energy cost,” explained members of Prof. Kripa Varanasi’s lab.

MIT researchers have developed FuseBot, a new system that combines RFID tagging with a robotic arm to retrieve hidden objects from a pile, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “As long as some objects within the pile are tagged, the system can determine where its subject is most likely located and the most efficient way to retrieve it,” writes Heater.

Using techniques from molecular gastronomy, Prof. Giovanni Traverso and his colleagues have created a carbon monoxide foam that may be able to treat gastrointestinal disorders by delivering low-levels of the gas to the body, reports Grace Wade for New Scientist. “I don’t know if there is another foam out there used to deliver therapeutic gases,” says Traverso. “This opens up a whole new way of how we think about therapeutics.”

A study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that algorithms based on clinical medical notes can predict the self-identified race of a patient, reports Katie Palmer for STAT. “We’re not ready for AI — no sector really is ready for AI — until they’ve figured out that the computers are learning things that they’re not supposed to learn,” says Principal Research Scientist Leo Anthony Celi.