Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have programmed CRISPR to “in essence, make edits when significant cellular events occur,” writes Kristin Brown for Gizmodo. “All this adds up to the potential of CRISPR as not just a gene-editing powerhouse, but a multifunctional tool that also works as a biosensor, a medical detective, and an invaluable instrument for basic research.”
Writing for Newsweek, Katherine Hignett reports that for the first time, scientists have observed groups of three photons interacting and effectively producing a new form of light. “Light,” Prof. Vladan Vuletic, who led the research, tells Hignett, “is already used to transmit data very quickly over long distances via fiber optic cables. Being able to manipulate these photons could enable the distribution of data in much more powerful ways.”
On WGBH’s Under The Radar, Amy Traverso, food editor at Yankee Magazine, speaks with host Callie Crossley about Spyce, the robotic kitchen developed by MIT students that will soon become an actual restaurant in Boston. “It’s going to be a fast-casual chain in Downtown Crossing and the consulting chef is Daniel Boulud,” explains Traverso.
NBC Boston highlights five athletes to watch at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, including MIT alumnus A.J. Edelman. “There was this pull on me to try to achieve something greater in sports that would have a meaningful impact," said Edelman, who represented Israel in skeleton racing.
Aerobotics, a startup by MIT alumnus James Paterson ’14 aims to optimize crop yields and reduce costs for farmers by using an app to analyze images of the land. “Satellite footage is used to highlight longer-term trends, while drones are flown at specific points during the season to get more detailed information,” write Eleni Giokos and Mary McDougall for CNN Tech.
Prof. Martin Marks hosted a conversation with Audra McDonald, the 2018 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT recipient, where she spoke about her personal experience as a Tony Award-winning actress and shared advice with the gathered students, writes Sophie Cannon for The Boston Globe. “Realize you have value and you have worth and what you maybe don’t have is experience but that is what you are here to get,” McDonald said.
A new study from the McGovern Institute suggest “that one of the most effective ways to stimulate children’s brains from a young age is back-and-forth conversation,” writes Elise Takaham for The Boston Globe. “We think that it’s because back-and-forth conversation is not only about hearing more words, it’s also about practicing paying attention to someone else and involves lots of emotional and social bonding,” said Prof. John Gabrieli.
An article in The Economist states that new research by MIT grad student Joy Buolamwini supports the suspicion that facial recognition software is better at processing white faces than those of other people. The bias probably arises “from the sets of data the firms concerned used to train their software,” the article suggests.
Research by Physics PhD candidate Sergio Cantu has led to the discovery of a new form of light, which happens when photos stick together, as opposed to passing through one another. “’We send the light into the medium, it gets effectively dressed up as if it were atoms, and then when it turns back into photons they remember interactions that happened in the medium,” Cantu explains to Leah Crane at New Scientist.
Originally created by the Zhang Lab in 2017, CRISPR tool SHERLOCK has been improved upon to be three times more sensitive for detecting viruses and infections using an inexpensive test strip. Sharon Begley writes for STAT News, “A paper strip, like in a pregnancy test, is dipped into a sample, and if a line appears, the target molecule was detected — no instruments required.”
Researchers in CSAIL are developing a steering program for drones that allows them to process uncertainty and avoid hitting objects while flying autonomously. Called Nanomap, the drone uses depth measurements to determine the safest path. “This technique creates an on the fly map that lets the drone handle uncertainty as opposed to being ready in every situation,” writes John Biggs for TechCrunch.
A new paper from graduate students in EECS details a newly-developed chip that allows neural networks to function offline, while drastically reducing power usage. “That means smartphones and even appliances and smaller Internet of Things devices could run neural networks locally” writes Eric Mack for Forbes.
Brian Heater for TechCrunch covers how researchers are creating a system that will allow robots to develop motor skills and process abstract concepts. “With this system, the robots can perform complex tasks without getting bogged down in the minutia required to complete them,” Heater writes.
Kopin, an Augmented Reality company originally founded at Lincoln Lab, revealed its first AR product developed for the consumer market. SOLOS smart glasses, designed for athletes, provides a hands-free communication interface, “which enables a ‘heads-up’ see-through experience, enabling athletes to safely access their data in real-time,” writes Charlie Fink, for Forbes.
MIT researchers have designed a new chip to enhance the functionality of neural networks while simultaneously reducing the consumption of power, writes Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch. “The basic concept involves simplifying the chip design so that shuttling of data between different processors on the same chip is taken out of the equation,” he explains.