Perfectly manicured green lawns are common and cherished across the country, even in areas where water is scarce. But all the related maintenance of watering, mowing, fertilization and herbicides is environmentally damaging and actively contributes to climate change. Fortunately, there are alternatives. Rebecca Barak, a plant biologist at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden, is using […]

A group of researchers based in the US and Korea have developed and tested an edible matrix code made of silk that can be attached to tablets or added to liquids as an anticounterfeiting measure. The tag is made of silk and is invisible to the eye, but can be picked up by specific optical […]

Four US students, taking part in a program aimed at high school girls interested in engineering, have designed a desalinating water bottle. The currently hypothetical device would be compact and portable so could offer increased accessibility over existing desalinating designs that mimic transpiration. Laurel Hudson, Gracie Cornish, Kathleen Troy and Maia Vollen met at Virginia […]

Pharmaceutical companies are using artificial intelligence to streamline the process of discovering new medicines. Machine-learning models can propose new molecules that have specific properties which could fight certain diseases, doing in minutes what might take humans months to achieve manually. But there’s a major hurdle that holds these systems back: The models often suggest new […]

MIT engineers have developed a paper-thin loudspeaker that can turn any surface into an active audio source. This thin-film loudspeaker produces sound with minimal distortion while using a fraction of the energy required by a traditional loudspeaker. The hand-sized loudspeaker the team demonstrated, which weighs about as much as a dime, can generate high-quality sound […]

With Air Quality Awareness Week fast approaching, the focus of discussion today centers on Fresno, a central California city that year after year sees some of the country’s worst air pollution. Having said that, what better time than this to bring attention to the air-quality deficit that Fresno has long been hamstrung by, done in […]

Not all data are created equal. But how much information is any piece of data likely to contain? This question is central to medical testing, designing scientific experiments, and even to everyday human learning and thinking. MIT researchers have developed a new way to solve this problem, opening up new applications in medicine, scientific discovery, […]

Research from David Correll, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics and co-director at the MIT FreightLab, has been getting some attention in Washington recently. Correll’s research focuses on data-driven approaches to understanding U.S. truck drivers’ utilization, retention, and quality of life. His work on how trucker “detention time” — the unpaid […]

A new study published in Frontiers in Aging found that a combination of high-dose vitamin D, omega-3s, and a simple home strength exercise program (SHEP) showed a cumulative reduction by 61% in cancer risk in healthy adults aged 70 or older. It is the first study to test the combined benefit of three affordable public health interventions […]

The human gut—or gastrointestinal system—where food is broken down into nutrients for the body, is an ecosystem that harbours thousands of bacteria species, whose interactions determine its health and susceptibility to diseases. While some microorganisms are harmful, many are beneficial and help keep the human body in good health. It is largely accepted that the […]