MIT astronomers have used light echoes from X-ray bursts to try to map the environment around black holes, reports Dennis Overbye for The New York Times. Prof. Erin Kara then worked with education and music experts to transform the X-ray reflections into audible sound. “I just love that we can ‘hear’ the general relativity in these simulations,” said Kara.
CNN reporter Ashley Strickland writes that MIT astronomers developed an automated search tool and were able to “pin down the locations of eight rare pairings of black holes and the stars orbiting them, thanks to the X-ray echoes they release.”
MIT researchers developed a suitcase-sized, portable desalination device that can turn salt water into drinking water with the push of a button, reports Elissaveta M. Brandon for Fast Company. Brandon writes that the device could be a “vital tool for remote island communities, seafaring cargo ships, and even refugee camps located near water.”
Prof. Parag Pathak, U.C. Berkeley Prof. Christopher Waters and University of Chicago postdoctoral scholar Guthrie Gray-Lobe “tracked more than 4,000 students from preschool through high school, comparing the outcomes of those who won pre-K seat to those whose lottery number wasn’t high enough,” writes U.C. Berkeley Prof. and New York Times guest writer David L. Kirp. “Those who attended preschool were less likely to be suspended or become entangled with the juvenile justice system,” writes Kirp.
Inverse reporter Charles Q. Choi writes that MIT astronomers have observed what appears to be the most tightly coupled black widow binary yet. "The one thing I know for sure is we really have never seen anything quite like this object,” says postdoctoral fellow Kevin Burdge, “and that there is probably a lot more to learn from it and other similar objects that I am finding right now, and that's what has me so excited about these."
MIT astronomers have detected what appears to be a black widow binary with the shortest orbital period ever recorded, reports Becky Ferreira for Vice. “It behaves exactly like a black widow in many, many ways,” says postdoctoral fellow Kevin Burdge, “but it also does a few new things that we've never seen before in any known black widow.”
Vice reporter Becky Ferreira writes that MIT researchers developed a new system, called the Reverberation Machine, to detect the echoes from eight new echoing black hole binaries. “These echoes offer a rarely seen glimpse into the otherworldly surroundings of stellar-mass black holes, which are about five to 15 times the mass of the Sun,” writes Ferreira.
CSAIL researchers have developed a robotic arm equipped with a sensorized soft brush that can untangle hair, reports Douglas Belkin for The Wall Street Journal. “The laboratory brush is outfitted with sensors that detect tension," writes Belkin. “That tension reads as pain and is used to determine whether to use long strokes or shorter ones.”
MIT researchers have detected eight echoing black hole binaries in the Milky Way and then converted the black hole X-ray emissions into sound waves, reports Isaac Schultz for Gizmodo. The researchers developed a new tool, dubbed the Reverberation Machine, which “combed satellite data from NICER, a telescope aboard the International Space Station that studies X-ray emissions from sources like black holes and neutron stars, including a weird type of emission known as an ‘echo.’”
Prof. Jared Curhan has found that “breakthroughs in negotiations occurred nearly twice as frequently after a conversational lapse of between 3.5 and 9.5 seconds as they did at any other point in the conversation,” reports Heidi Mitchell for The Wall Street Journal.
TechCrunch reporter Devin Coldewey spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a machine learning technique for proposing new molecules for drug discovery that ensures suggested molecules can be synthesized in a lab. Coldewey also features how MIT scientists created a new method aimed at teaching robots how to interact with everyday objects.
A new portable, solar-powered desalination device developed by MIT researchers can create potable drinking water with the push of a button, reports Tony Ho Tran for The Daily Beast. “The device doesn’t rely on any filters like traditional desalination machines,” writes Tran. “Instead, it zaps the water with electric currents to remove minerals such as salt particles from the water.”
MIT researchers have developed a new ultrathin material that can turn any rigid surface into a speaker, reports Haje Jan Kamps for TechCrunch. “The loudspeaker could be used in active noise cancellation, for example — combine the speaker tech with some electronics and microphones, and it could cancel out sound,” writes Kamps. “The inventors also envision immersive sound experiences, and other low-energy use cases such as smart devices, etc.”
Prof. Anna Stansbury speaks with Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace about a new working paper she co-authored examining the lack of socioeconomic diversity in the field of economics. “Economists are really influencing policy and the public debate on all sorts of important subjects,” says Stansbury. “If we have a discipline [where] two-thirds of the U.S.-born economics profession is made up of people whose parents have graduate degrees, you know, that’s a very selected group that is maybe missing really important perspectives.”
Researchers from MIT and the University of Waterloo have developed a new approach aimed at significantly increasing the probability of observing the Unruh effect, reports Juandre for Popular Mechanics. “Now at least we know there is a chance in our lifetimes where we might actually see this effect,” says Prof. Vivishek Sudhir. “It’s a hard experiment, and there’s no guarantee that we’d be able to do it, but this idea is our nearest hope.”