TechCrunch reporter John Biggs writes that MIT researchers have developed a new system that allows users to reverse-engineer complex items by deconstructing objects and turning them into 3-D models. Biggs writes that the system is a “surprisingly cool way to begin hacking hardware in order to understand it’s shape, volume and stability.”
WCVB-TV’s Mike Wankum visits MIT to learn more about Prof. Nicholas Fang’s work developing a new film that can be coated on windows and can block up to 70 percent of incoming solar heat. Wankum explains that the film “could lead to a future with less need for air conditioning.”
Writing for Forbes, Prof. David Mindell explores the concept of using work, in particular the duties a home health aide performs, as a Turing test for the abilities of AI systems. “In this era of anxiety about AI technologies changing the nature of work,” writes Mindell, “everything we know about work should also change the nature of AI.”
Forbes contributor David DiSalvo highlights Prof. Alan Jasanoff’s book, “The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are” on his list of the must-read brain books of 2018. “Rather than being another assessment of what the brain does, this one is about what it is—and more interestingly what it is not,” writes DiSalvo.
Boston Globe reporter Martin Finucane writes that MIT researchers have developed a new way to fabricate tiny objects. “The researchers are currently able to create objects that are around 1 cubic millimeter, with features as small as 50 nanometers,” Finucane explains. “The tiny structures could be useful in fields from optics to medicine to robotics.”
MIT researchers have developed a new technique that can shrink objects to the nanoscale using a laser, reports Lauren Kent for CNN. Kent explains that the technology “could be applied to anything from developing smaller microscope and cell phone lenses to creating tiny robots that improve everyday life.”
Popular Mechanics reporter David Grossman writes about a new fabrication technique developed by MIT researchers that allows for regular-sized objects to be shrunk down to the nanoscale. Grossman explains that the new method, “takes a technique currently used to make images of brain tissue larger and reverses it.”
In a piece about the growing field of origami, The Economist highlights Prof. Erik Demaine’s work proving that “any straight-sided figure—an octagon, a cityscape silhouette or a blocky Bart Simpson—can be extracted with exactly one straight cut if you fold the paper up the right way first.”
MIT researchers have developed a remote-controlled ingestible capsule that can be operated by a user’s smartphone, reports the Xinhua news agency. “The researchers envisioned that this type of sensor could be used to diagnose early signs of disease and then respond with the appropriate medication,” Xinhua explains.
Inside Science reporter Yuen Yiu writes that MIT researchers have developed a new technique for producing nanoscale structures using a 3-D printing method that shrinks objects. Yiu explains that the new technique operates by “first creating a bigger structure inside of a gel, then shrinking the gel, which brings the structure down to one-thousandth the volume of the original.”
Prof. Donald Sadoway speaks with CBC News reporter Paul Hunter about his work developing a rechargeable battery that is big enough to power an entire neighborhood, and uses liquid metals and molten salt. Hunter writes that “Sadoway's invention is radically different from anything else in the market.”
HealthDay News reporter E.J. Mundell writes that MIT researchers have developed an ingestible capsule that can be used to monitor health a patient’s health. “The capsule could deliver drugs as well as sense the condition of its surroundings in the gut, including infections or allergic reactions,” Mundell explains.
MIT researchers have developed a new method to shrink 3-D printed objects, reports Douglas Heaven for New Scientist. The technique can be used to create a wide variety of shapes using different materials. “In the 1970s hobbyists built their own computers at home,” explains Prof. Edward Boyden. “Maybe people can now make their own chips.”
MIT researchers have engineered wasp venom to kill bacteria, reports Chukwuma Muanya for The Guardian. The researchers found that the altered peptides wiped out the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa within four days.
Boston Globe reporter Jessie Scanlon spotlights Prof. Regina Barzilay’s work developing machine learning systems that can identify patients at risk of developing breast cancer. Barzilay is creating “software that aims to teach a computer to analyze mammogram images more effectively than the human eye can and to catch signs of cancer in its earliest phases.”