MIT News
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Curiosity Unbounded, Ep 2: Bureaucracies, dictatorships, and the power of Africa's people — Mai Hassan
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, MIT President Sally Kornbluth sits down with associate professor of political science and faculty co-director of MIT-Africa, Mai Hass...
Curiosity Unbounded, Ep 1: How a free-range kid from Maine is helping green-up industrial practices — Desirée Plata
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, MIT President Sally Kornbluth sits down with newly tenured associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, Desirée Plata...
Audio Article: Low-cost device can measure air pollution anywhere
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
MIT researchers have made an open-source version of the “City Scanner” mobile pollution detector that lets people check air quality anywhere, chea...
Audio Article: Minimizing electric vehicles’ impact on the grid
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a new study, MIT researchers have developed strategies for beneficial electric vehicle charging to reduce peak electricity demand and store solar e...
Audio Article: How to push, wiggle, or drill an object through granular material
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Predicting what it takes to push through sand, gravel, or other soft media can help engineers drive a rover over Martian soil, anchor a ship in rough ...
Audio Article: A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
By modeling the conditions of an entire wind farm rather than individual turbines, engineers can squeeze more power out of existing installations. Re...
Audio Article: Startup lets doctors classify skin conditions with the snap of a picture
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Piction Health, a startup founded by Susan Conover SM '15, lets doctors classify skin conditions with the snap of a picture. Their app uses machine le...
Audio Article: Keeping web-browsing data safe from hackers
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Studying a powerful type of cyberattack, researchers identified a flaw in how it’s been analyzed before, then developed new techniques that stop it ...
Audio Article: The sound of a sunset
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What does a sunset sound like? With the Sonification Toolkit, almost anything can be transformed into sound that is aesthetically satisfying and analy...
What does a sunrise and sunset sound like?
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Using a new sonification toolkit, designed but MIT's Digital Humanities Lab, senior Moises Trejo was able to turn a sunrise and a sunset into sound. W...
Audio Article: Babies can tell who has close relationships based on one clue: saliva
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
MIT neuroscientists have identified a specific signal that young children and even babies can use to determine whether two people have a strong relati...
Audio Article: Deploying machine learning to improve mental health
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A machine-learning expert from MIT and a psychology researcher/clinician from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have teamed up to develop tools for...
Audio Article: Reducing food waste to increase access to affordable foods
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Spoiler Alert, a company founded by two MIT alumni, is helping companies bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity with a platform connect...
Audio Article: Scientists build new atlas of ocean’s oxygen-starved waters
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A team of MIT scientists have generated a detailed, three-dimensional "atlas" of the largest oxygen-deficient zones (ODZ) in the tropical Pacific. And...
Audio Article: Sensor based on quantum physics could detect SARS-CoV-2 virus
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A novel approach to testing for the presence of the virus that causes Covid-19 may lead to tests that are faster, less expensive, and potentially less...
Audio Article: Timber or steel?
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers at MIT have done a detailed analysis and created a set of computational tools to enable architects and engineers to design truss structure...
Audio Article: Giving robots social skills
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
MIT researchers have now incorporated certain social interactions into a framework for robotics, enabling machines to understand what it means to help...
Audio Article: Dragging your feet? Lack of sleep affects your walk, new study finds
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Good sleep can be hard to come by. But a new study by researchers at MIT and the University of São Paulo in Brazil finds that if you can make up for ...
Audio Article: How marsh grass protects shorelines
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As climate change brings greater threats to coastal ecosystems, new research can help planners leverage the wave-damping benefits of marsh plants. R...
Audio Article: Toward a smarter electronic health record
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers at MIT and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are combining machine learning and human-computer interaction to create a better elect...
Audio Article: A new method for removing lead from drinking water
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Engineers at MIT have developed a new approach to removing lead or other heavy-metal contaminants from water, in a process that they say is far more e...
Audio Article: Comparing seniors who relocate shows where you live affects your longevity
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Would you like to live longer? It turns out that where you live, not just how you live, can make a big difference. That’s the finding of an innovati...
Audio Article: Making catalytic surfaces more active to help decarbonize fuels and chemicals
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Electrochemical reactions that are accelerated using catalysts lie at the heart of many processes for making and using fuels, chemicals, and materials...
Audio Article: Crowds can wise up to fake news
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the face of grave concerns about misinformation, social media networks and news organizations often employ fact-checkers to sort the real from the ...
Audio Article: A method to assess Covid-19 transmission risks in indoor settings
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two MIT professors have proposed a new approach to estimating the risks of exposure to Covid-19 under different indoor settings based on the number of...
Audio Article: Counting pedestrians to make pedestrians count
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
MIT Associate Professor Andrews Sevtsuk has developed a model of pedestrian movement that could help planners and developers better grasp the flow of ...
Audio Article: How industrialized life remodels the microbiome
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of different bacterial species live within the human gut. Most are beneficial, while others can be harmful. A new study from an MIT-led team...
Audio Article: A remedy for the spread of false news?
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stopping the spread of political misinformation on social media may seem like an impossible task. But a new study co-authored by MIT scholars finds th...
Audio Article: Study predicts the oceans will start emitting ozone-depleting CFCs
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s oceans are a vast repository for gases including ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. They absorb these gases from the atmosphe...
Audio Article: Could we recycle plastic bags into fabrics of the future?
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
MIT engineers have spun polyethylene into fibers and yarns designed to wick away moisture. They wove the yarns into silky, lightweight fabrics that ab...
Audio Article: New science blooms after star researchers die, study finds
05 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A new study co-authored by MIT economist Pierre Azoulay, an expert on the dynamics of scientific research, finds deaths of prominent life scientists t...