In this video, Bloomberg News spotlights how researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a new system that facilitates remote monitoring of a patient’s vital signs, as part of an effort to help reduce healthcare workers’ Covid-19 risk. Researchers have successfully measured temperature, breathing rate, pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation in healthy patients.”
Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have repurposed a robotic dog from Boston Dynamics with technology that enables doctors to remotely measure a patient’s vital signs, reports Rick Sobey for The Boston Herald. “Using four cameras mounted on the dog-like robot, the researchers have shown that they can measure skin temperature, breathing rate, pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation in healthy patients,” writes Sobey.
New research from Prof. Lydia Bourouiba finds that guidelines for safe social distancing may need to be updated as researchers gain more information about how the virus spreads, reports Ben Guarino for The Washington Post. “It becomes very important to not think just about a fixed distance. It’s very important to think about the air flow,” says Bourouiba.
A new tool developed by MIT researchers sheds light on the operations of generative adversarial network models and allows users to edit these machine learning models to generate new images, reports Daphne Leprince-Ringuet for ZDNet. "The real challenge I'm trying to breach here," says graduate student David Bau, "is how to create models of the world based on people's imagination."
On this episode of Freakonomics, Prof. Andrew Lo discusses the economics of drug development. “It’s important that we get the pricing of these vaccines correct so that they provide both a reasonable rate of return to investors who have risked their capital to develop these vaccines, while at the same time making sure that there’s no price gouging going on and that ultimately we provide access to everybody,” says Lo.
TechCrunch reporter Taylor Hatmaker writes that MIT researchers will led a new NSF-funded research institute focused on AI and physics.
Researchers from MIT and the University of Oxford have found that guidelines for social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic may need to be updated to account for factors such as ventilation, crowd size and exposure time, reports Akshay Syal for NBC News. "It's not just 6 feet and then everything else can be ignored or just mask and everything else can be ignored or just ventilation and everything else can be ignored,” says Prof. Lydia Bourouiba.
MIT researchers have created a new synthetic lining that could be used to help treat digestive diseases, reports Pratibha Gopalakrishna for STAT. “We wanted to develop a liquid system that is easier to take compared to tablets or capsules, but had enhanced capabilities,” explains Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
New Scientist reporter Alice Klein writes that MIT researchers have developed a synthetic glue that could be used to line the small intestine and help treat several conditions, including diabetes and lactose intolerance. “The researchers found they could control the uptake of different nutrients,” writes Klein, “by adding various substances to the synthetic lining.”
Researchers from MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Science will lead a new research institute focused on advancing knowledge of physics and AI, reports Jared Council for The Wall Street Journal. The new research institute is part of an effort “designed to ensure the U.S. remains globally competitive in AI and quantum technologies.”
Gizmodo reporter Ed Cara writes that a study co-authored by Prof. Lydia Bourouiba argues that social distancing guidelines likely need to be updated in favor of a more nuanced approach. The researchers found that “rather than think exclusively about personal space,” writes Cara, “people should consider their circumstances.”
A wireless system developed by CSAIL researchers can monitor movement and vital signs without using video, while also preserving privacy, reports Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch. “The system has the potential to be used at long-term care and assisted living facilities to provide a higher standard of support, while also ensuring that the privacy of the residents of those facilities is respected,” writes Etherington.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that St. Elmo’s Fire could help protect airplanes from lightning strikes, reports Caroline Delbert for Popular Mechanics. The researchers found that “the special kind of electrical charge can be used to place a protective and preemptive charge around airplanes in flight, and wind affects flying versus grounded vehicles in opposite ways.”
Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, speaks with Forbes contributor Nancy Wang about how to encourage more girls to pursue careers in STEM. “We need to educate all students – male and female – equally on the opportunities available in these fields, give them the chance to shine, and ensure that we’re creating inclusive environments for them to work in,” says Rus.
Writing for Scientific American, Carolyn Barber spotlights how researchers from MIT are developing cheap, fast and easy to use diagnostics for Covid-19 that can deliver results in minutes. “They are called lateral flow assays, but manifestly they are paper-strip tests that have an antibody embedded on filter paper,” writes Barber. “If a saliva sample has coronavirus present, the antibody will bind that viral antigen, turning the test positive, much like a pregnancy test works.”