Washington Post reporter Matt McFarland writes about the new consortium, led by MIT, aimed at developing the next generation of fabrics. “While the tech industry talks of “wearable” devices…next-generation fabrics would literally create wearable computing devices that hang in our closets. What looks like a typical shirt might actually have some of the abilities of your smartphone or smartwatch.”
A public-private consortium led by MIT has won a national competition to create a manufacturing institute aimed at moving the textile industry into the digital age, reports Steve Lohr for The New York Times. “This is about reimagining what a fabric is, and rebirthing textiles into a high-tech industry,” says Prof. Yoel Fink.
Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes that a new nonprofit founded by MIT has been selected as the winner of a Department of Defense contest to establish a fiber research center. “The center and the institute is going to go anywhere fiber and fabric goes,” explains Prof. Yoel Fink, who led the proposal for the institute.
A consortium led by MIT has won a competition to host a federally funded research program focused on bringing the textile industry into the digital age, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Here is a bold vision that’s not just manufacturing stuff that we know about but also enabling a whole new interpretation of the fabric industry,” says Prof. Yoel Fink.
Science reporter Robert Service writes that MIT researchers have developed a drug synthesis machine that can produce a variety of medications. Service writes that such a machine “could someday help pharmaceutical companies meet unexpected surges in demand and help health officials respond to disasters and medical emergencies worldwide by producing medicines when and where they are needed.”
MIT researchers have developed a programming language for living cells, reports Erika Check Hayden for Nature. “What we’re finding over time is that biology isn’t this kind of mysterious unpredictable substrate; it just felt that way because we didn’t really have the tools to see what was going on,” Prof. Christopher Voigt says.
NPR reporter Michelle Andrews writes about a new paper, co-authored by Prof. Andrew Lo, that proposes developing health care installment loans to help patients access treatments that are prohibitively expensive. Lo explains that the loans are a "private sector stopgap way to deal with” the high prices of certain medications.
MIT researchers are collecting information from sewer systems in an effort to better understand human health, writes Nicola Davis for The Guardian. “The beauty of looking at the sewage is there is a possibility that you can look not only for that pollutant, but some version of that pollutant that’s been modified by the human body,” explains Prof. Eric Alm.
Prof. Feng Zhang has been named a recipient of the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award for his work on the development of the CRISPR gene-editing system, reports CBC News. CRISPR "may prove to be a ‘powerful therapeutic’ for treating human diseases by editing out harmful genetic mutations.”
Globe and Mail reporter Ivan Semeniuk spotlights Prof. Feng Zhang and his role in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system, for which he was honored as a recipient of the 2016 Canada Gairdner International award. “CRISPR genome editing technology is a really powerful platform,” says Zhang. “It think it will advance both our ability to understand disease and to develop treatments.”
Alumna Tish Scolnik, CEO of GRIT, speaks with Justine Hofherr of Boston.com about how an MIT class inspired her career. Scolnik explains that the idea for GRIT, an MIT startup that produces wheelchairs that allows users to traverse rugged terrain, “started back at MIT as a class project.”
As part of their Women in Politics: College Edition series, MSNBC highlights undergraduate Sophia Liu’s work in student government at MIT. Liu explains that she was drawn to student government because she wanted “to meet more MIT students, and because I hoped to start giving back to a community that I treasured and believed was incredibly special.”
New Scientist reporter Rebecca Boyle writes that MIT researchers have found that taking a longer route in and out of the city decreases road congestion by 30 percent. “If we are able to remove a couple of cars from the morning commute, that’s going to save everyone else a lot of time,” explains graduate student Serdar Çolak.
MIT researchers have developed an environmentally-friendly method of generating electricity, reports Michael Casey for FOX News. Casey writes that the “breakthrough is critical because most of the batteries that power everything from smartphones to computers are made of toxic materials like lithium.”
Prof. John Leonard speaks with Bill Littlefield of NPR’s Only A Game about a local student’s “Deflategate" experiment. Leonard says that “ultimately I think if you can explain things in very simple terms and get at the essence of a concept, that’s the best situation."