MIT News is dedicated to bringing news from MIT to the world. We cover research, innovation, teaching, entrepreneurship, and the Institute’s distinctive and quirky culture. We find ourselves educated and amazed by our community of hands-on problem-solvers who are eager to know how things work — and inspired to make them work better. We hope you are amazed, too.

Audio Articles

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 energy-efficient than any other currently used system, though there are others under development that come close. Ultimately, it might be used to treat lead-contaminated water supplies at the home level, or to treat contaminated water from some chemical or industrial processes.

Read the article: http://news.mit.edu/2021/removing-lead-water-electrodialysis-0922

Audio Article: A new method for removing lead from drinking water

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 learning to help physicians identify and manage skin diseases.

Read the article on MIT News: https://news.mit.edu/2022/piction-health-skin-app-0706

Audio Article: Startup lets doctors classify skin conditions with the snap of a picture

By modeling the conditions of an entire wind farm rather than individual turbines, engineers can squeeze more power out of existing installations.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2022/wind-farm-optimization-energy-flow-0811

Audio Article: A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment

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 seas, and walk a robot through sand and mud. But modeling the forces involved in such processes is a huge computational challenge that often takes days to weeks to solve.

Now, engineers at MIT and Georgia Tech have found a faster and simpler way to model intrusion through any soft, flowable material. Their new method quickly maps the forces it would take to push, wiggle, and drill an object through granular material in real-time. The method can apply to objects and grains of any size and shape, and does not require complex computational tools as other methods do.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2023/soft-push-granular-intrusion-0119

Audio Article: How to push, wiggle, or drill an object through granular material

In a new study, MIT researchers have developed strategies for beneficial electric vehicle charging to reduce peak electricity demand and store solar energy.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2023/minimizing-electric-vehicles-impact-grid-0315

Audio Article: Minimizing electric vehicles’ impact on the grid

MIT researchers have made an open-source version of the “City Scanner” mobile pollution detector that lets people check air quality anywhere, cheaply. Pictured are some examples of the latest version of the device, called Flatburn, as well as a researcher attaching a prototype to a car.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-pollution-anywhere-0316

Audio Article: Low-cost device can measure air pollution anywhere

MIT News is dedicated to bringing news from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the world. We cover research, innovation, teaching, entrepreneurship, and the Institute’s distinctive and quirky culture. We find ourselves educated and amazed by our community of hands-on problem-solvers who are eager to know how things work — and inspired to make them work better. We hope you are amazed, too.