MIT News Newsletter

	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
November 3, 2016
MIT News: top stories
A weekly digest of the Institute’s research and innovation

Nanobionic spinach plants can detect explosives

After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert.

Making computers explain themselves

New training technique would reveal the basis for machine-learning systems’ decisions.

Retracing the origins of a massive, multi-ring crater

Scientists reconstruct first hours after a giant impact created one of the largest craters on the moon.

MIT in the Bay Area

Rooted in MIT, startup Multiply Labs springs into Silicon Valley with printed, personalized pills.

Real estate innovation by the numbers

Real Estate Innovation Lab to promote the future of urban development by showing investors how it can work.

In the Media

BBC News reporter Paul Rincon writes that by embedding carbon nanotubes into spinach leaves, MIT researchers have created plants that can detect explosives. “The plants could be used for defense applications, but also to monitor public spaces for terrorism related activities,” explains Prof. Michael Strano.

New York Times reporter Mark Scott writes that a study co-authored by Prof. Christopher Knittel finds that some Uber and Lyft drivers racially discriminate. The researchers suggested that the companies could avoid discrimination by “not including passengers’ names when bookings are made.”

Prof. Tauhid Zaman writes for The Wall Street Journal about his research examining how biometric data could be used to help determine how people will perform under stress. Zaman and his colleagues found that “people who sweated when the stakes were low did the best when stakes were high.”