A nationwide bottle deposit program could increase recycling of PET plastic to 82 percent, with nearly two-thirds of all PET bottles being recycled into new bottles, researchers report. Policies would also be needed to ensure a sufficient demand for the recycled material.

With a new surgical intervention and neuroprosthetic interface, researchers restored a natural walking gait in people with amputations below the knee. Seven patients could walk faster, avoid obstacles, and climb stairs more naturally than people with a traditional amputation.

A new computational method can predict chemical reactions that could generate compounds with desirable pharmaceutical properties. The approach could help drug companies design molecules of interest, before spending money on a process that might not work.

The Wall Street Journal profiled economist David Autor, writing that his “thinking helped change our understanding of the American labor market.” Autor said that in his view, “The fastest way to improve people’s welfare is to improve the labor market.”

By designing new tools that can analyze huge libraries of immune cells and their targets, Michael Birnbaum hopes to generate better T cell therapies for cancer and other diseases. “T-cells are so diverse in terms of what they recognize and what they do,” he says.

In MAS.S66/4.154/16.89 (Space Architectures), students designed, prototyped, and tested structures to support human habitation in space. “We need to be designing habitats for human experiences that people will want to live in for a long time,” Skylar Tibbits says.