STAT reporter Eric Boodman writes that MIT researchers have engineered living materials that glow when they detect certain chemicals. Boodman notes that the researchers hope the living sensors “could at some point be used to pick up dangerous toxins or the chemical signs of disease.”
Boston Globe reporter Janelle Nanos writes about Ministry of Supply, an MIT startup, that is incorporating 3-D printing in the production of their clothes. “We’re not going to have a clearance rack of sizes and colors that didn’t sell, because we’re going to be able to produce exactly what consumers want,” says co-founder Gihan Amarasiriwardena.
In this video, WCVB Chronicle host Anthony Everett visits Prof. Neil Gershenfeld at the Center for Bits and Atoms to learn about the global network of Fab Labs. Everett explains that Gershenfeld sees Fab Labs as places of “collaboration and networking and mentoring where ideas can literally take form. Where you don’t borrow, but make what you want.”
Researchers at MIT have designed a new living material infused with cells that could one day be used as a wearable sensor, writes Brooks Hays for UPI. The researchers used the new material to “design gloves and bandages that light up when they come in contact with target chemicals.”
MIT researchers have developed a new 3-D printing method that allows users to alter the printed object, writes Amelia Heathman for Wired. The new printing method enables users to “add polymers that alter the material's chemical composition and mechanical properties.”
Prof. Emanuel Sachs, who is credited as one of the inventors of 3-D printing, discusses the manufacturing method’s origins and its increasing popularity with Meghna Chakrabarti of Radio Boston. Sachs explains that 3-D printing is an increasingly popular academic tool because “it takes so long to make prototypes any other way and…3-D printing really enables people to make.”
In this WCVB segment, CSAIL postdocs Robert MacCurdy and Jeffrey Lipton explain their work developing a shock-absorbing material that could be used to help protect robots and smartphones, or in helmets. Liquid is used in the material to “absorb the energy and keep it inside,” Lipton explains.
Grace Williams reports for FOX News that CSAIL researchers are 3-D printing shock-absorbing skins to protect robots. “Dubbed the ‘programmable viscoelastic material’ (PVM) technique, MIT’s printing method gives objects the precise stiffness or elasticity they require,” writes Williams.
To develop safer, more durable robots, CSAIL researchers have developed a technique to 3-D print robots with shock-absorbing skins, reports Matt McFarland for CNN. McFarland explains that as the “‘bumpers’ aren't rigid, it's less dangerous for a robot to crash into something.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes that researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab have developed a method to 3-D print robots with customized shock absorbers. The researchers hope that the “shock absorbing material could be used to create better shock absorbers for delivery drones, shock-resistant shoe soles, and even helmets.”
Edd Gent writes for LiveScience that MIT researchers “have devised a new fabrication process that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to print successive layers of polymers into 3D, Transformer-like structures that ‘remember’ their shapes.”
MIT researchers have developed a method to 3-D print heat-responsive materials that can remember their original form, reports Rachel Zimmerman for WBUR. Prof. Nicholas Fang explains that this development is "critical for drug delivery — you could deliver a smaller, more tailored dose depending on the temperature change."
Salon reporter Scott Eric Kaufman writes that MIT researchers are using light to print 3-D structures that are able to remember their original shapes, and could be used in solar panel tracking and drug delivery. Kaufman writes that the structures are capable “of springing back to their original forms.”
In an article for The Atlantic, Jessa Gamble highlights MIT alumnus David Sengeh’s work, which is focused on designing better-fitting prosthetics by examining a patient’s internal anatomy using MRI technology. “We’ve been able to make the [world’s] first socket entirely from quantitative methods,” says Sengeh. “No human hands were involved in defining the shape, including the cut lines and material properties of the socket.”
Prof. Neil Gershenfeld speaks with Adam Shaw of BBC Horizons about how the fabrication labs he started at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms have spread around the world. Gershenfeld explains that Fab Labs “are places where ordinary people can go and they can turn data into things and things into data,” adding that they are part of the maker revolution.