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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
System trains drones to fly around obstacles...
If you follow autonomous drone racing, you likely remember the crashes as much as the wins. In drone racing, teams compete to see which vehicle is better trained to fly fastest through an obstacle course. But the faster drones fly, the more unstable they become, and at high speeds their aerodynamics can be too complicated to predict. Crashes, therefore, are a common and often spectacular occurrence. But if they can be pushed to be faster and more nimble, drones...

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Biological engineers find a new target for...
Every year, more than 200 million people are infected with malaria, and nearly 500,000 die from the disease. Existing drugs can treat the infection, but the parasite that causes the disease has evolved resistance to many of them. To help overcome that resistance, scientists are now searching for drugs that hit novel molecular targets within the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes malaria. An international team that includes MIT researchers has identified a potential new target: the acetyl-CoA synthetase, an...

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Exact symbolic artificial intelligence for faster, better...
The justice system, banks, and private companies use algorithms to make decisions that have profound impacts on people’s lives. Unfortunately, those algorithms are sometimes biased — disproportionately impacting people of color as well as individuals in lower income classes when they apply for loans or jobs, or even when courts decide what bail should be set while a person awaits trial. MIT researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence programming language that can assess the fairness of algorithms more...

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Bio-inspired, blood-repelling tissue glue could seal wounds...
Inspired by the sticky substance that barnacles use to cling to rocks, MIT engineers have designed a strong, biocompatible glue that can seal injured tissues and stop bleeding. The new paste can adhere to surfaces even when they are covered with blood, and can form a tight seal within about 15 seconds of application. Such a glue could offer a much more effective way to treat traumatic injuries and to help control bleeding during surgery, the researchers say. “We...

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New device can diagnose Covid-19 from saliva...
Engineers at MIT and Harvard University have designed a small tabletop device that can detect SARS-CoV-2 from a saliva sample in about an hour. In a new study, they showed that the diagnostic is just as accurate as the PCR tests now used. The device can also be used to detect specific viral mutations linked to some of the SARS-CoV-2 variants that are now circulating. This result can also be obtained within an hour, potentially making it much easier...

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Reimagining an iconic design class
For the past 50 years, mechanical engineering students at MIT have convened on campus for a boisterous robot competition. Since the 1970s, when the late Professor Emeritus Woodie Flowers first challenged students to build a machine using a “kit of junk,” students in class 2.007 (Design and Manufacturing I) have designed and built their own robots to compete in the class’s final robot competition. For many students, the class and competition are a driving factor in their decision to...

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Gerald Wogan, professor emeritus of biological engineering,...
Gerald N. Wogan, the Underwood Prescott Professor of Biological Engineering, Chemistry, and Toxicology emeritus at MIT, passed away after a long illness on July 16 at the age of 91.  “Jerry” Wogan was a pioneering scientist who isolated, characterized, and established the mechanisms of action of many environmental toxins of great relevance to global public health. His leadership on aflatoxin research, a toxin that impacts the lives of billions of people, is a paradigm for environmental toxicology. His work...

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New method opens the door to efficient...
Biological engineers at MIT have devised a new way to efficiently edit bacterial genomes and program memories into bacterial cells by rewriting their DNA. Using this approach, various forms of spatial and temporal information can be permanently stored for generations and retrieved by sequencing the cells’ DNA. The new DNA writing technique, which the researchers call HiSCRIBE, is much more efficient than previously developed systems for editing DNA in bacteria, which had a success rate of only about 1...

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New drug combo shows early potential for...
Pancreatic cancer, which affects about 60,000 Americans every year, is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. After diagnosis, fewer than 10 percent of patients survive for five years.  While some chemotherapies are initially effective, pancreatic tumors often become resistant to them. The disease has also proven difficult to treat with newer approaches such as immunotherapy. However, a team of MIT researchers has now developed an immunotherapy strategy and shown that it can eliminate pancreatic tumors in mice. The...

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This touchy-feely glove senses and maps tactile...
When you pick up a balloon, the pressure to keep hold of it is different from what you would exert to grasp a jar. And now engineers at MIT and elsewhere have a way to precisely measure and map such subtleties of tactile dexterity. The team has designed a new touch-sensing glove that can “feel” pressure and other tactile stimuli. The inside of the glove is threaded with a system of sensors that detects, measures, and maps small changes...

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How authoritarian leaders maintain support
How do authoritarian regimes sustain their popularity? A novel study in China led by MIT scholars shows that anticorruption punishments meted out by government authorities receive significant support among citizens — who believe such actions demonstrate both competence and morally righteous leadership. The findings help explain how authoritarian governments endure, not merely based on domination and fear, but as regimes generating positive public support over time. “What we find is that not only does the punishment of corrupt officials...

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Finding common ground in Malden
When disparate groups convene around a common goal, exciting things can happen. That is the inspiring story unfolding in Malden, Massachusetts, a city of about 60,000 — nearly half people of color — where a new type of community coalition continues to gain momentum on its plan to build a climate-resilient waterfront park along its river. The Malden River Works (MRW) project, recipient of the inaugural Leventhal City Prize, is seeking to connect to a contiguous greenway network where...

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Using graphene foam to filter toxins from...
Some kinds of water pollution, such as algal blooms and plastics that foul rivers, lakes, and marine environments, lie in plain sight. But other contaminants are not so readily apparent, which makes their impact potentially more dangerous. Among these invisible substances is uranium. Leaching into water resources from mining operations, nuclear waste sites, or from natural subterranean deposits, the element can now be found flowing out of taps worldwide. In the United States alone, “many areas are affected by...

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Kristy Johnson: Expanding communication for all
As a teenager, Kristy Johnson thought she had her career all planned out. Raised in a small town in Indiana, she spent much of her childhood stargazing and mapping constellations. She dreamed of becoming an astrophysicist and pursued a rigorous academic path. After achieving top honors as an undergraduate, Johnson immediately began a PhD program in physics at the University of Maryland. Everything changed when she discovered her son, Felix, had a rare genetic disorder, one with only seven...

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Matching health care offices with short-term workers
For small health-care groups like dentist’s offices, one sick staff member can mean a day’s worth of cancelled appointments. Such offices can either continue short-staffed, which could negatively affect patient care, or reschedule appointments, potentially delaying critical procedures and screenings. The MIT alumnus-founded Stynt is solving that problem by helping health care offices fill last-minute shift openings for positions including dental hygienists, assistants, office managers and dentists. Stynt’s online platform lets offices post openings that qualified professionals can then...

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