Forbes contributor Jamie Carter writes that TESS has identified an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a star 52 light years from Earth. The planet "takes about eight days to orbit the host star and is similar in size to Earth at 89% its diameter,” writes Carter. “A likely rocky world, it's thought to have surface temperatures as high as 800°F /427°C.”
BBC Click spotlights how CSAIL researchers have developed a robot that can automatically sort recycling. “Many paper and plastic cups look the same, but by introducing the ability to squeeze the object and to know whether it is flexible or not we are able to go one step beyond what today’s methods can do, explains Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL.
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a robot that can recycle materials using sensors that allow it to differentiate between objects. Heater explains that “the system utilizes a Teflon gripper with built in sensors that are capable of determining an object’s makeup based on size and stiffness.”
Writing for Axios, Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, argues that technological advancement is needed to allow autonomous vehicles to operate outside well-traversed areas. “AVs still can’t function in many scenarios, including unmapped roads,” writes Rus. “Additional advances in sensor technology, mapping, algorithms for perception and more will move AVs closer to full autonomy anywhere.”
NESN’s Clubhouse visits Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi to explore how a baseball is manufactured. “The best way to understand how a baseball is manufactured is to actually see what’s inside,” Hosoi explains. After cutting the ball in half, Hosoi shows how the ball’s cork center is surrounded by rubber and wool, which is “what gives the baseball its springiness.”
In an article for Bloomberg News, Noah Smith highlights a study by MIT researchers that examines the factors influencing the decline in solar prices. The researchers found that, “from 1980 to 2001, government-funded research and development was the main factor in bringing down costs, but from 2001 to 2012, the biggest factor was economies of scale,” Smith explains.
A new study by MIT researchers that sheds light on heat transfer in boiling water could allow nuclear power plants to run more efficiently, reports Jim Efstathiou Jr. for Bloomberg News. “Learning more about how heat is transferred could help safely boost the output from nuclear power plants by as much as 20 percent,” Efstathiou explains.
Verge reporter Angela Chen spotlights Prof. Michael Strano’s work using nanobionics to engineer plants. “It’s long overdue that we start to look at plants as the starting point of technology,” explains Strano. “As an engineering platform, they have a number of untapped advantages.”
Prof. Regina Barzilay speaks with NPR reporter Richard Harris about her work developing AI systems aimed at improving identification of breast cancer in mammograms, inspired by her experience with the disease. “At every point of my treatment, there would be some point of uncertainty, and I would say, 'Gosh, I wish we had the technology to solve it,’” says Barzilay.
Forbes contributor Charles Towers-Clark writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a new machine learning system that could be used to help develop better estimates about internet data. “In tests, the system was over 57% more accurate in estimating internet traffic and more than 71% for trending social media topics,” Towers-Clark explains.
Alumnus Tom Leighton, CEO and co-founder of Akamai, speaks with Forbes contributor Peter High about the company’s founding and his push towards making the company more focused on cybersecurity.
MIT researchers have developed a new particle robotics system inspired by biological cells that can transport objects placed in their midst and squeeze through small gaps, reports Kaveh Waddell for Axios. “The particle robotics system is a departure from traditional robots, where a part failure generally breaks the entire thing,” Waddell explains.
Boston Globe reporters Ysabelle Kempe and Felice Freyer write that MIT is launching a new Down syndrome research center with a gift from the Alana Foundation. “I really want people with different conditions and different ability to feel they are not different, to feel that they belong, and to enhance their capability to interact and to enjoy life,” explains Prof. Li-Huei Tsai.
MIT is launching a new Down syndrome research center thanks to a gift from the Alana Foundation, reports the AP. The center “will combine the expertise of scientists and engineers in an effort to increase understanding of the biology and neuroscience of Down syndrome.”
Fast Company reporter Katherine Schwab spotlights Duality, an MIT startup that is using homomorphic encryption to analyze encrypted data without decrypting it. Schwab explains that the “company’s technology could provide an actual solution to the data privacy problem by allowing companies to keep their data fully encrypted and still find patterns in it.”