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

Electrochemical reactions that are accelerated using catalysts lie at the heart of many processes for making and using fuels, chemicals, and materials — including storing electricity from renewable energy sources in chemical bonds, an important capability for decarbonizing transportation fuels. Now, research at MIT could open the door to ways of making certain catalysts more active, and thus enhancing the efficiency of such processes.

Read the article: http://news.mit.edu/2021/elecrochemical-reaction-catalyst-efficiency-0908

Audio Article: Making catalytic surfaces more active to help decarbonize fuels and chemicals

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 innovative study co-authored by an MIT economist, which examines senior citizens across the U.S. and concludes that some locations enhance longevity more than others, potentially for multiple reasons.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2021/seniors-relocate-longevity-0901

Audio Article: Comparing seniors who relocate shows where you live affects your longevity

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

Researchers at MIT and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are combining machine learning and human-computer interaction to create a better electronic health record (EHR). They developed MedKnowts, a system that unifies the processes of looking up medical records and documenting patient information into a single, interactive interface.

Read the article: http://news.mit.edu/2021/medknowts-electronic-health-record-0923

Audio Article: Toward a smarter electronic health record

As climate change brings greater threats to coastal ecosystems, new research can help planners leverage the wave-damping benefits of marsh plants. 

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2021/how-marsh-grass-protects-shorelines-1018

Audio Article: How marsh grass protects shorelines

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 lost sleep, even for just a few weekend hours, the extra zzz’s could help reduce fatigue-induced clumsiness, at least in how you walk.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2021/lack-sleep-walk-1026

Audio Article: Dragging your feet? Lack of sleep affects your walk, new study finds

MIT researchers have now incorporated certain social interactions into a framework for robotics, enabling machines to understand what it means to help or hinder one another, and to learn to perform these social behaviors on their own.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2021/robots-social-skills-1105

Audio Article: Giving robots social skills

Researchers at MIT have done a detailed analysis and created a set of computational tools to enable architects and engineers to design truss structures in a way that can minimize their embodied carbon while maintaining all needed properties for a given building application. 

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2021/truss-structure-carbon-materials-1129

Audio Article: Timber or steel?

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 prone to erroneous results than existing detection methods. Though the work, based on quantum effects, is still theoretical, these detectors could potentially be adapted to detect virtually any virus, the researchers say.

Read the article: http://news.mit.edu/2021/quantum-sensor-detect-covid-1220

Audio Article: Sensor based on quantum physics could detect SARS-CoV-2 virus

A team of MIT scientists have generated a detailed, three-dimensional "atlas" of the largest oxygen-deficient zones (ODZ) in the tropical Pacific. And though these ODZs make up less than 1 percent of the ocean’s total volume, they are a significant source of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2021/oxygen-deficient-ocean-map-1227

Audio Article: Scientists build new atlas of ocean’s oxygen-starved waters

Spoiler Alert, a company founded by two MIT alumni, is helping companies bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity with a platform connecting major food and beverage brands with discount grocers, retailers, and nonprofits. The platform helps brands discount or donate excess and short-dated inventory days, weeks, and months before it expires.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2022/spoiler-alert-food-waste-0105

Audio Article: Reducing food waste to increase access to affordable foods

A machine-learning expert from MIT and a psychology researcher/clinician from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have teamed up to develop tools for mental health care delivery. They hope that their algorithms will eventually equip physicians and patients with useful information about individual disease trajectory and effective treatment.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2022/deploying-machine-learning-improve-mental-health-rosalind-picard-0126

Audio Article: Deploying machine learning to improve mental health

MIT neuroscientists have identified a specific signal that young children and even babies can use to determine whether two people have a strong relationship and a mutual obligation to help each other: whether those two people kiss, share food, or have other interactions that involve sharing saliva.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2022/babies-relationships-saliva-0120

Audio Article: Babies can tell who has close relationships based on one clue: saliva

What does a sunset sound like? With the Sonification Toolkit, almost anything can be transformed into sound that is aesthetically satisfying and analytically illuminating. The newly released prototype, a work in progress with cutting-edge capabilities, is a robust exploratory foray into possibilities for sonification.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2022/sound-sunset-sonification-toolkit-0209

Audio Article: The sound of a sunset

Studying a powerful type of cyberattack, researchers identified a flaw in how it’s been analyzed before, then developed new techniques that stop it in its tracks.

Read the article: https://news.mit.edu/2022/side-channel-attacks-detection-0609

Audio Article: Keeping web-browsing data safe from hackers

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.