A new chip designed by MIT researchers has the potential to make voice control ubiquitous in electronics, offering significant power savings. The chip's ability to minimize memory bandwidth and compress weights associated with each node enables efficient speech recognition, making it practical for relatively simple electronic devices.
A team of scientists has released the largest collection of observations made with radial velocity to be used for hunting exoplanets. The dataset includes almost 61,000 measurements of more than 1,600 nearby stars and has detected over 100 potential exoplanets, including one orbiting GJ 411.
The team estimated the solar nebula's lifetime using ancient meteorites that formed 4.653 billion years ago, suggesting it disappeared within the first 4 million years of the solar system's formation. The findings indicate that gas giants Jupiter and Saturn must have formed early in the solar system's history.
Physicists have demonstrated quantum entanglement using ancient photons from stars, closing the freedom-of-choice loophole and supporting the concept of 'spooky action at a distance'. The experiment uses highly entangled pairs of photons produced on the roof of a laboratory in Vienna, shot towards detectors several city blocks away.
MIT researchers incorporated human strategies into automatic planners, achieving significant improvements in performance. By encoding high-level strategies from skilled human planners, they improved the performance of competition-winning algorithms on complex planning problems.
Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital have designed a small voltaic cell powered by acidic stomach fluids, generating enough energy to run small sensors or drug delivery devices. This innovation could offer a safer and lower-cost alternative to traditional batteries.
A team at MIT has probed the mechanical properties of a sulfide-based solid electrolyte material, determining its potential for use in all-solid-state batteries. The research found that the material exhibits a combination of properties similar to silly putty or salt water taffy, showing promise in energy density and safety.
Researchers at MIT have developed transparent hydrogel robots that can perform fast, forceful tasks, including catching and releasing a live fish. The robots are nearly invisible underwater due to their similar visual and acoustic properties to water.
Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a new variation of a popular open-source compiler that optimizes before adding code necessary for parallel execution. This approach results in more-efficient parallel programs, surpassing existing compilers.
A recent MIT study reveals that online retail prices often match those in stores, with prices converging at around 72% of the time. The study examines data from 10 major countries and suggests that companies aim to appear 'fair' by maintaining consistent prices.
Researchers at MIT's Sloan Neuroeconomics Lab have developed a new method to extract correct answers from large groups of people, reducing errors in crowd wisdom surveys. The 'surprisingly popular' algorithm uses the variation between individual responses and predicted popular opinion to identify the correct answer.
Researchers at MIT have developed sensors that can detect single protein molecules, enabling the tracking of viral infection, monitoring cellular manufacturing of proteins, and revealing food contamination. The sensors utilize chemically modified carbon nanotubes coated with DNA aptamers, which can bind to specific target proteins.
Researchers at MIT and Boston College developed a new type of catalyst that can incorporate trifluoromethyl groups into various organic molecules. This breakthrough enables the rapid generation of potential new fluorinated drugs, including antibiotics and anticancer agents.
A new system was presented at the Association for Computing Machinery's Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages that automatically handles database caching in web applications written in Ur/Web. This system offers twofold to 30-fold speedups in experiments involving two websites.
Data Civilizer aggregates scattered data from various files, creating unified datasets for analysis. The system identifies commonalities between columns and traverses a map to find related data, enabling users to compose queries and save results.
Researchers at MIT found no evidence of dematerialization in 56 materials and goods, despite technological improvements. Despite increased efficiency, consumer demand for products continues to outpace material usage.
The new data from the SMAP satellite is providing significant surprises that will help in the modeling of climate, forecasting of weather, and monitoring of agriculture around the world. The topsoil's 'memory' for weather anomalies persists for a matter of days, contrary to expectations.
Researchers at MIT used a modified MRI scanner to scan the brains of awake babies while watching movies, finding that brain regions responding to faces and scenes in adults are also active in infants. The study suggests that there may be a stronger biological predisposition for specific cortical regions to end up with specific functions.
Researchers at MIT have found that some catalysts produce oxygen from within their crystal structure, contrary to previous assumptions. The study's findings could help fine-tune metal-oxide catalysts for enhanced energy storage processes.
A new computational model reveals a winner-take-all operation is enabled by a configuration of inhibitory neurons. The model, developed by MIT researchers, uses theoretical computer science to prove that a specific arrangement of inhibitory neurons is necessary for the operation.
Researchers find that methane and other short-lived greenhouse gases impact sea levels for hundreds of years after being cleared from the atmosphere, with some effects even more long-lasting. The study highlights the importance of understanding climate change duration and its consequences for coastal regions.
Researchers at MIT have designed a strong and lightweight material by compressing graphene flakes into sponge-like configurations, achieving 10 times the strength of steel while maintaining a low density of just 5%. The new material's unusual geometric configuration is key to its exceptional properties.
A new study predicts that California will experience three more extreme precipitation events per year by 2100 as the Earth's climate warms. The researchers developed a technique to identify large-scale patterns in atmospheric data, significantly reducing uncertainty in extreme storm predictions.
A new study suggests that reduced neural adaptation in people with dyslexia may underlie their difficulty learning to read. This reduced plasticity affects not only reading but also other perceptual tasks, indicating a broader impact on the brain.
MIT engineers analyzed a simple vehicle-platooning scenario and found that relatively simple scheduling policies can save fuel and minimize delays for autonomous vehicle fleets. The findings may also apply to conventional long-distance trucking and ride-sharing services.
A new approach by researchers at MIT offers a way to make movable parts with no solid connections between the pieces, potentially eliminating wear and failure. The system uses a layer of liquid droplets to support a tiny, movable platform, which can be controlled electrically.
Researchers developed an algorithm that extracts diverse subsets from large data sets, improving machine learning efficiency and diversity. The new method is 1 billion times faster than existing algorithms, enabling real-time analysis of vast amounts of data.
Researchers from MIT develop a new coreset-generation technique to shrink large data sets, preserving fundamental mathematical relationships. The technique can reduce massive matrices to smaller sizes, enabling faster computations and improved analysis.
Researchers developed a method to continuously assess the aging of materials in high-radiation environments, speeding up testing and reducing material replacement. Transient grating spectroscopy induces acoustic waves that reveal subsurface defects, allowing for real-time monitoring without physical contact.
A new study found that mobile-money services in Kenya increased daily per capita consumption levels by 194,000, or 2%, lifting households out of extreme poverty. Female-headed households saw a significant increase in consumption and occupation shifts, with an estimated 185,000 women moving from farming to business occupations.
While wait times varied between states, improvements were noted in South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, with Florida seeing "tremendous improvement". However, some states still have a long way to go before wait times are within acceptable limits, and disparities persist between black and white voters.
Researchers at MIT have developed a noninvasive technique using LED lights to reduce beta amyloid plaques in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. The treatment induces gamma oscillations, which suppress beta amyloid production and invigorate cells responsible for destroying the plaques.
Researchers at MIT have developed a fast and precise printing process that can fabricate electronic surfaces for a wide range of applications. The team has created stamps made from carbon nanotubes that can print electronic inks onto rigid and flexible surfaces, enabling the creation of high-performance, fully printed electronics.
Researchers at MIT's CSAIL have developed a new system that analyzes correspondences between images and spoken descriptions to train speech-recognition systems. The system can potentially provide automatic speech recognition for less-resourced languages, leading to fully automated translation capabilities.
Researchers create new sensors that detect proteins and induce blood flow changes, allowing for non-radiative imaging of molecules in the brain. This approach enables detection of biologically low-level molecules and monitoring of dynamic processes in the brain.
Researchers at MIT's CSAIL develop a sound-recognition system that outperforms predecessors without requiring expensive hand-annotated data. The system is trained on video and achieves high accuracy rates, with applications in improving mobile device context sensitivity and situational awareness of autonomous robots.
Researchers at MIT discovered that water can freeze solid even at high temperatures in carbon nanotubes, raising the freezing point by tens of degrees. This unexpected finding may lead to new applications such as ice-filled wires with unique electrical and thermal properties.
Researchers have developed a new method for analyzing photonic crystal structure, which provides a direct view of the inner details. The technique uses scattered light patterns to reveal the iso-frequency contours, offering a beautiful and straightforward way to observe the material's properties.
Researchers reconstructed the African dust plume over the last 23,000 years and observed a dramatic reduction in dust beginning around 11,000 years ago. This weakened plume may have allowed more sunlight to reach the ocean, increasing its temperature by 0.15 degrees Celsius, leading to an increase in monsoon rains over North Africa.
MIT researchers create a new system for producing artificial muscle fibers that contract and expand like natural muscles, using ordinary nylon fiber. The approach harnesses the bending motions of nylon fibers by selectively heating one side to produce complex patterns of movement.
Using computer simulations, researchers at MIT and others have made significant strides in understanding the way graphene behaves when something slides along its surface. The findings reveal that the quality of contact between two surfaces is more important than the true contact area in explaining a material's frictional behavior.
Researchers at MIT and Germany describe a new technique for generating ultrashort electron bursts, potentially leading to a shoebox-sized device that consumes less power than car-size laboratory devices. This could enable real-time imaging of cellular machinery in action with attosecond X-ray pulses.
Lyndra's technology enables prolonged gastric residence and can deliver small molecule therapies for up to seven days. The study demonstrated the long-acting controlled release of invermectin for up to 14 days, promising a significant dent in the problem of patients not taking their medicines as prescribed.
A subsurface ocean of water ice may lie beneath Pluto's heart-shaped region, aligning almost exactly opposite its moon Charon. The existence of this ocean solves a longstanding puzzle and provides an explanation for the planet's gravitational tug-of-war with its moon.
Researchers have developed a new drug capsule that can remain in the stomach for up to two weeks, gradually releasing its payload. This technology could simplify disease treatment and lead to improved efficacy in mass drug administration campaigns.
MIT researchers have developed a technique to isolate genetic circuits within individual synthetic cells, preventing interference and enabling controlled communication. This approach allows for the design of complex products or sensors that respond to environmental changes.
Researchers developed a new AI system that uses web search to extract data from plain text, outperforming traditional machine learning methods by up to 10%. The system learns to generate search queries and gauge relevance, then extracts relevant data from online texts.
Researchers developed Bellmania, a system that enables non-experts to optimize dynamic programming algorithms for multicore chips. The system guarantees identical results with faster execution speeds, outperforming human programming in optimization tasks.
Researchers have developed a new approach to prevent gastrointestinal disease caused by Salmonella and other bacteria. The immunization targets a molecule that allows these microbes to scavenge iron, reducing growth and bacterial levels.
Researchers at MIT have demonstrated a comprehensive autonomous mobility system using driverless cars, golf carts, and scooters, all controlled by the same software. The system's modular design allows for easy deployment in new contexts and enables seamless information transfer between vehicles, enhancing overall performance.