In an article for Nautilus, Elizabeth Preston writes about Prof. Lydia Bourouiba’s work examining how rain can spread crop diseases. Through a close examination of high-speed images, Bourouiba found that how raindrops bounce off different plant leaves “is really at the root” of the spread of pathogens among plants.
Scientific American reporter Mark Fischetti examines a new MIT study that found that raindrops can spread certain crop diseases. Fischetti explains that the research could be useful in helping farmers develop new techniques for preventing the spread of disease among crops.
Margot Sanger-Katz cites research by Professor Jonathan Gruber in this New York Times article on rising health insurance premiums. Gruber’s findings indicate that prior to the Affordable Care Act, premiums rose at higher average rates for individuals than they have since the legislation went into effect
Scientists at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have discovered a new way to test for malaria using magnets, reports Charlotte Seager of The Guardian. The new method will allow for individual diagnostic tests to be performed for less than 10 cents.
Nicole Skinner writes for Nature about how MIT researchers have developed a new technique to test for malaria. The new method only requires a tiny droplet of blood to check for malaria and can provide a diagnosis within minutes.
Graduate student John Lewandowski has developed a battery-powered machine that uses magnets and lasers to detect malaria, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Bray writes that the device is portable, cheap, quick and easy to use in the field.
A Slate video by Paca Thomas features new MIT research that shows particles from coughs and sneezes travel much farther than previously thought.
Washington Post reporter Fred Barbash reports on new MIT research that shows the importance of covering up coughs and sneezes. Researchers found that droplets from coughs and sneezes form a gas cloud that can travel further than previously thought.
“Researchers found that a droplet just a millionth of a meter in size (100 micrometers) can travel five times farther than previously thought, and a droplet just 10 micrometers in size can travel 200 times farther than previously thought,” writes Huffington Post reporter Amanda Chan of new research on coughing and sneezing.
“A new study from MIT that could change the way building ventilation systems are designed found that the germs stay airborne in gas clouds, spreading the droplets throughout an entire room,” writes Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham of the MIT study on coughing and sneezing.
“In a new study, published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, researchers report that coughs and sneezes have “associated gas clouds that keep their potentially infectious droplets aloft over much greater distances than previously realized”,” writes Boston Magazine reporter Melissa Malamut about a new MIT on how coughs and sneezes spread disease.
Boston Globe reporter Deborah Kotz highlights research from Professor John Bush and Professor Lydia Bourouiba that shows virus droplets expelled through a cough or sneeze travel five to 200 times farther than they would as individual particles.