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More than 13 million pain-blocking epidural procedures are performed every year in the United States. Although epidurals are generally regarded as safe, there are complications in up to 10 percent of...
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Researchers at MIT’s research center in Singapore have developed a new microfluidic device that tests the effects of electric fields on cancer cells. They observed that a range of low-intensity,...
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If you leave a cube of Jell-O on the kitchen counter, eventually its water will evaporate, leaving behind a shrunken, hardened mass — hardly an appetizing confection. The same is true for hydrogels....
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The MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) multimedia team has been recognized with a New England Emmy Award in the category of Health / Science Program / Special for “Hope Regenerated: A...
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Genetically engineering any organism requires first getting its cells to take in foreign DNA. To do this, scientists often perform a process called electroporation, in which they expose cells to an...
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MIT engineers have designed what may be the Band-Aid of the future: a sticky, stretchy, gel-like material that can incorporate temperature sensors, LED lights, and other electronics, as well as tiny...
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Nature has developed innovative ways to solve a sticky challenge: Mussels and barnacles stubbornly glue themselves to cliff faces, ship hulls, and even the skin of whales. Likewise, tendons and...
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Engineering was in Domitilla Del Vecchio’s blood from the very beginning: Growing up in Rome as the daughter of an engineer, she spent long hours of her childhood tinkering and playing in her father’...
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The process of wrinkle formation is familiar to anyone who has ever sat in a bathtub a little too long. But exactly why layered materials sometimes form one kind of wrinkly pattern or another — or...
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The blue-rayed limpet is a tiny mollusk that lives in kelp beds along the coasts of Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and the Canary Islands. These diminutive organisms — as small as a...
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Ioannis V. Yannas, professor of polymer science and engineering in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, was recognized as one of the highest achievers in his field last week when the...
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You’ve probably heard of MechE alum and Associate Professor Hugh Herr (SM ’93), head of the Biomechatronics group at MIT Media Lab.
The TED Talk he gave earlier this year sparked a flurry of media...
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Researchers have made great progress in recent years in the design and creation of biological circuits — systems that, like electronic circuits, can take a number of different inputs and deliver a...
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When an aspiring mechanical engineer on a budget wants a top-of-the-line guitar, what does he do? He makes it himself, of course.
At age 13, Nathan Spielberg — now an MIT senior — began building his...
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Researchers compare the processing of biological fluid samples with searching for a needle in a haystack — only in this case, the haystack could be diagnostic samples, and the needle might be tumor...
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Drugs delivered by nanoparticles hold promise for targeted treatment of many diseases, including cancer. However, the particles have to be injected into patients, which has limited their usefulness...
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Cancer cells metastasize in several stages — first by invading surrounding tissue, then by infiltrating and spreading via the circulatory system. Some circulating cells work their way out of the...
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Assistant Professor Sangbae Kim works on his lab’s current bioinspired project, the robotic cheetah.
Photo Credit: M. Scott Brauer
by Alissa Mallinson
MIT’s Department of Mechanical...
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Visualizing Sneaky Tumor Cells
Professor Roger Kamm and PhD candidate Ioannis Zervantonakis.
Photo Credit: Tony Pulsone
by Alissa Mallinson
Not many people have watched as a single...
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In a New Microchip, Cells Separate by Rolling Away
Associate Professor Rohit Karnik in his lab.
Karnik’s new microfluidic device isolates target cells (in pink) from the rest of the flow...