CSAIL researchers have developed a method that allows the color of 3-D printed objects to change after they have been printed, writes Emily Matchar for Smithsonian. The method uses, “UV light to change the pixels on an object from transparent to colored, and then a regular office projector to turn them from colored to transparent,” explains Prof. Stefanie Mueller.
Wired reporter Arielle Pardes Gear writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a new system, called ColorFab, that makes it possible to change the color of 3-D printed objects after they have been created. ColorFab allows users to change an object’s color, “by returning to the ColorFab interface, selecting the areas to recolor, and then activating those areas with UV light.”
MIT researchers have made improvements to liquid-sodium batteries, potentially paving the way for the battery to be used for renewable energy storage, reports Laney Ruckstuhl for The Boston Globe. “Unlike lithium-ion batteries used in cellphones and laptops, the liquid-sodium batteries won’t lose their capacity quickly.”
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that a team of MIT researchers has developed a new technique that can deliver medication to specific regions of the brain with extreme precision. “The whole idea here is that instead of treating the entire brain, you can treat small portions of the brain,” explains Prof. Michael Cima.
MIT researchers have discovered a new family of viruses in the ocean that appears to play a key role in ocean ecosystems and could help provide insights on how viruses evolve, reports Marin Finucane for The Boston Globe. Finucane explains that the findings could also lead to, "a better understanding of human biology.”
MIT researchers have designed a new chip that could advance the development of computers that operate like the human brain, reports James Vincent for The Verge. The development could, “lead to processors that run machine learning tasks with lower energy demands — up to 1,000 times less. This would enable us to give more devices AI abilities like voice and image recognition.”
AP reporter Lauran Neergaard writes that MIT researchers have developed a hair-thin implant that can deliver medications to specific regions of the brain. Neergaard writes that the device, “could mark a new approach to treating brain diseases — potentially reducing side effects by targeting only the hard-to-reach circuits that need care.”
Tony Lee of Mashable spotlights the technique developed by MIT researchers that allows plants to glow when inserted with nanoparticles containing luciferase, an enzyme known to make fireflies glow.
STAT reporter Dominic Smith highlights how MIT researchers are applying the art of origami to developing a new way to deliver cancer medications. Prof. Michael Cima explains that, “the idea here was, is there a way we could do a minimally invasive procedure to deploy some sort of device that will deliver the drug over that entire course of the therapy?”
MIT researchers are stress-testing AI systems by tricking them into misidentifying images, writes Dana Smith of Scientific American. Graduate student Anish Athalye notes that some neural nets are outperforming humans, “but they have this weird property that it seems that we can trick them pretty easily.”
WCVB reporter Mike Wankum visits Embr Labs, an MIT spinoff that has developed a wristband that can make wearers feel warmer or colder. Wankum explains that after a few minutes of wearing the wristband, “you feel more comfortable. Much like holding a warm cup of coffee to take the chill off a winter morning.”
Reporting for the PBS NewsHour, Nsikan Akpan spotlights Prof. Kripa Varanasi’s work developing the non-stick coating technology LiquiGlide. Akpan also examines how Varanasi’s group is studying how to, “stop clogs at desalination water facilities by observing how saltwater evaporates, or they’re keeping water from condensing on steam turbines to improve energy efficiency at power plants.”
The Boston Globe Magazine highlights two MIT spinoffs in a list spotlighting 19 bold new ideas and fresh faces from 2017. Startup Ministry of Supply, which creates custom apparel using high-tech design, has made “getting a great-fitting blazer...a seamless experience,” while another startup, Biobot, has begun analyzing sewer waste to determine which communities are most affected by opioids.
Graduate student Achuta Kadambi speaks with the BBC’s Gareth Mitchell about the new depth sensors he and his colleagues developed that could eventually be used in self-driving cars. “This new approach is able to obtain very high-quality positioning of objects that surround a robot,” Kadambi explains.
Times Higher Ed reporter Matthew Reisz highlights Prof. Daniel Jackson’s book, “Portraits of Resilience.” Reisz writes that, “MIT and its press are to be congratulated on a book – given out free to all this year’s new students – that not only addresses head on the issue of mental health within higher education but is so frank about how this plays out within its own institution.”