MIT News Newsletter

	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
June 29, 2017
MIT News: top stories
A weekly digest of the Institute’s research and innovation

New tool offers snapshots of neuron activity

FLARE technique can reveal which cells respond during different tasks.

Microbe generates extraordinarily diverse array of peptides

In marine bacteria, evolution of new specialized molecules follows a previously unknown path.

Drones that drive

CSAIL team’s system of quadcopters that fly and drive suggest another approach to developing flying cars.

Computer system predicts products of chemical reactions

Machine learning approach could aid the design of industrial processes for drug manufacturing.

MIT space hotel wins NASA graduate design competition

Module would serve as a commercially owned space station, featuring a luxury hotel as the primary anchor tenant and NASA as a temporary co-anchor tenant.

Q&A: Running a company in an era of “crazy technological progress”

New book by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson surveys tech’s challenges for business.

In the Media

Amy Dockser Marcus of The Wall Street Journal writes about the growing interest in using CRISPR as a diagnostic tool, which led to a collaboration between MIT Professors James Collins and Feng Zhang. The result is Sherlock, a diagnostic platform that can identify viruses “based on extremely low amounts of RNA in blood and urine samples,” explains Dockser Marcus.

Tom Buerkle of Reuterswrites about “Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought,” a new book written by Prof. Andrew Lo, which argues that it is possible for investors to beat the market. Markets seem unpredictable because traders are human and “make decisions using short cuts” rather than weighing all options, explains Buerkle.

A study by MIT researchers finds that children from lower-income families benefited more from summer reading programs, reports Andrew Grant for The Boston Globe. Of the children who participated in the study about half, “improved their test scores and most of those that did came from lower-income families.”

In an effort to make it easier for Americans, in particular Latinos, to save for retirement, MIT alumnus Carlos García launched Finhabits, a “bilingual digital platform that gives investment advice and teaches and encourages individuals how to invest and save for retirement,” writes Kristina Puga for CNBC.