MIT researchers have found that by 2100, climate change could cause deadly heat waves in parts of South Asia, reports Chris Arsenault for Reuters. “Climate change is not an abstract concept, it is impacting huge numbers of vulnerable people,” explains Prof. Elfatih Eltahir. “Business as usual runs the risk of having extremely lethal heat waves.”
Writing for The Guardian, Damian Carrington highlights a new study by Prof. Elfatih Eltahir that shows that without reductions in carbon emissions, millions of people living in South Asia could face extreme heatwaves. “The problem is very alarming but the intensity of the heatwaves can be reduced considerably if global society takes action,” says Eltahir.
BBC News reporter Matt McGrath writes that MIT researchers have found climate change could cause deadly heat waves in South Asia by the end of the century. "This is something that is going to impact your most vulnerable population in ways that are potentially pretty lethal,” explains Prof. Elfatih Eltahir. “But it is avoidable, it is preventable."
During this episode of Globo’s “Caldeirão do Huck”, host Luciano Huck speaks with several MIT affiliates, including graduate student João Ramos to learn more about his research at MIT. The episode features a visit to Prof. Sangbae Kim’s lab, where Ramos demonstrates a robot the group developed that could be used to aid with disaster response.
Scientific American reporter Lindsay Brownell writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique to enlarge pathology samples. “Not only are expanded samples easier to see because they are larger and more transparent, fluorescent tags and other labels can also be added to track individual molecules of interest.”
Aaron Schrank reports for Marketplace that the textile industry is experiencing a revival as it creates more technologically advanced fabrics. Schrank highlights the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) Institute, led by Prof. Yoel Fink, where researchers have developed programmable backpacks that should be able to “send you an email when they get lost."
A team of researchers from MIT and Princeton participating in the Amazon Robotics Challenge are using GelSight technology to give robots a sense of touch, reports Tom Simonite for Wired. Simonite explains that the, “rubbery membranes on the robot’s fingers are tracked from the inside by tiny cameras as they are deformed by objects it touches.”
In this video for USA Today, Sean Dowling highlights Pic2Recipe, the artificial intelligence system developed by CSAIL researchers that can predict recipes based off images of food. The researchers hope the app could one day be used to help, “people track daily nutrition by seeing what’s in their food.”
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that MIT researchers have developed a hydrogel-based capsule that can slowly release medications over several days and could help patients follow complex treatment regimens. “A lot of people do not take their medication as prescribed,” explains postdoc Jinyao Liu. “With this, you just need a single dose.”
Inverse reporter Dan Robitzski writes that MIT researchers have created a new gel-like coating that can be used to make medical devices feel more natural. The researchers, “developed the hydrogels to manufacture products that feel like the part of the body they contact — say, a catheter that feels like the inside of a urethra.”
FOX 25 reporter Bob Dumas features a dance-party lamp developed by MIT researchers aimed at getting girls interested in STEM fields. “There’s research that shows girls, around middle school age, their participation in STEM classes and curriculum starts to drop off," explains Prof. Maria Yang. She adds that she wants to, "get girls back on the STEM train by engaging their interests.”
MIT researchers have developed a new way to grow liver tissue, writes Jamie Ducharme for Boston Magazine. “These minuscule structures expanded to 50 times their starting size,” Ducharme explains, “and performed normal liver functions like metabolism regulation, bile production, and detoxification.”
Researchers at MIT have developed an algorithm that can identify recipes based on a photo, writes BBC News reporter Zoe Kleinman. The algorithm, which was trained using a database of over one million photos, could be developed to show “how a food is prepared and could also be adapted to provide nutritional information,” writes Kleinman.
Reporting for WBUR on efforts to develop a treatment for glioblastoma, Karen Weintraub highlights Prof. Paula Hammond’s work creating a method to get drugs across the body’s blood-brain barrier. “By disguising her tiny, drug-carrying nanoparticles as proteins that normally carry iron across the barrier, she's been able to sneak them past the armor that lines the brain’s blood vessels.”
MIT researchers have engineered an expandable liver from human liver cells that can grow up to 50 times its original size, reports Lindsay Kalter for the Boston Herald. In the future, the researchers would like to make the expandable livers smarter, “by embedding sensors in them to tell us how they are doing,” explains Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia.