MIT News Newsletter

	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
October 20, 2016
MIT News: top stories
A weekly digest of the Institute’s research and innovation

New record for fusion

Alcator C-Mod tokamak nuclear fusion reactor sets world record on final day of operation.

Making a splash in health care economics

Heidi Williams builds all-new data sets to answer questions about innovation and biomedical research.

A new player in appetite control

Brain cells that provide structural support also influence feeding behavior, study shows.

Prepping a robot for its journey to Mars

Senior Sarah Hensley aims to improve Earth's most advanced humanoid robot, in advance of its trip to the Red Planet.

Stretchy optical fibers for implanting in the body

Biocompatible fibers could use light to stimulate cells or sense signs of disease.

A delicate balance between positive and negative emotion

Neuroscientists identify two neuron populations that encode happy or fearful memories.

In the Media

President L. Rafael Reif appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss innovation and research for a better world with Charlie Rose and Margaret Brennan. “At MIT, and places like MIT, you can actually see the future,” said Reif.

Damian Carrington writes for The Guardian that MIT researchers set a new world record for the highest plasma pressure ever recorded using the Alcator C-Mod reactor. Carrington notes that the “MIT record shows that using very high magnetic fields to contain the plasma may be the most promising route to practical nuclear fusion reactors.”

MIT researchers have developed a stretchy, biocompatible material that could be implanted in a patient’s body and used to stimulate cells or detect disease, according to FOX News. The hydrogel “could bend and twist in a patient’s body without breaking down.”