The Digital Insider | Category: Technology

Liquid on Mars was not necessarily all water

Dry river channels and lake beds on Mars point to the long-ago presence of a liquid on the planet’s surface, and the minerals observed from orbit and from landers seem to many to prove that the liquid was ordinary water.

Not so fast, the authors of a new Perspectives article in Nature Geoscience suggest. Water is only one of two possible liquids under what are thought to be the conditions present on ancient Mars. The other is liquid carbon dioxide (CO₂), and it may actually have been easier for CO₂ in the atmosphere to condense into a liquid under those conditions than for water ice to melt.

While others have suggested that liquid CO₂ (LCO₂) might be the source of some of the river channels seen on Mars, the mineral evidence has seemed to point uniquely to water. However, the new paper cites recent studies of carbon sequestration, the process of burying liquefied CO₂ recovered from Earth’s atmosphere deep in underground caverns, which show that similar mineral alteration can occur in liquid CO₂ as in water, sometimes even more rapidly.

The new paper is led by Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE instrument aboard the NASA Mars Rover Perseverance. Hecht, a research scientist at MIT’s Haystack Observatory and a former associate director, says, “Understanding how sufficient liquid water was able to flow on early Mars to explain the morphology and mineralogy we see today is probably the greatest unsettled question of Mars science. There is likely no one right answer, and we are merely suggesting another possible piece of the puzzle.”

In the paper, the authors discuss the compatibility of their proposal with current knowledge of Martian atmospheric content and implications for Mars surface mineralogy. They also explore the latest carbon sequestration research and conclude that “LCO₂–mineral reactions are consistent with the predominant Mars alteration products: carbonates, phyllosilicates, and sulfates.”

The argument for the probable existence of liquid CO₂ on the Martian surface is not an all-or-nothing scenario; either liquid CO₂, liquid water, or a combination may have brought about such geomorphological and mineralogical evidence for a liquid Mars.

Three plausible cases for liquid CO₂ on the Martian surface are proposed and discussed: stable surface liquid, basal melting under CO₂ ice, and subsurface reservoirs. The likelihood of each depends on the actual inventory of CO₂ at the time, as well as the temperature conditions on the surface.

The authors acknowledge that the tested sequestration conditions, where the liquid CO₂ is above room temperature at pressures of tens of atmospheres, are very different from the cold, relatively low-pressure conditions that might have produced liquid CO₂ on early Mars. They call for further laboratory investigations under more realistic conditions to test whether the same chemical reactions occur.

Hecht explains, “It’s difficult to say how likely it is that this speculation about early Mars is actually true. What we can say, and we are saying, is that the likelihood is high enough that the possibility should not be ignored.”

MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics celebrates Sierra Leone’s inaugural class of orthotic and prosthetic clinicians

The MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health (MOH) have launched the first fully accredited educational program for prosthetists and orthotists in Sierra Leone.

Tens of thousands of people in Sierra Leone need orthotic braces and artificial limbs, but access to such specialized medical care in this African nation has been limited. On Nov. 7, the country’s inaugural class of future prosthetic and orthotic clinicians received their white coats at a ceremony in Sierra Leone’s National Rehabilitation Center, marking the start of their specialized training.

The agreement between the Yang Center and Sierra Leone’s MOH began last year with the signing of a detailed memorandum of understanding to strengthen the capabilities and services of that country’s orthotic and prosthetic (O&P) sector. The bionics center is part of the larger Yang Tan Collective at MIT, whose mission is to improve human well-being by accelerating science and engineering collaborations at a global scale.

The Sierra Leone initiative includes improvements across the supply chain for assistive technologies, clinic infrastructure and tools, technology translation pipelines, and education opportunities for Sierra Leoneans to expand local O&P capacity. The establishment of the new education and training program in Sierra Leone advances the collaboration’s shared goal to enable sustainable and independent operation of O&P services for the tens of thousands of citizens who live with physical disabilities due to amputation, poliomyelitis infection, or other causes.

Students in the program will receive their training through the Human Study School of Rehabilitation Sciences, a nongovernmental organization based in Germany whose training models have been used across 53 countries, including 15 countries in Africa.

“This White Coat Ceremony is an important milestone in our comprehensive strategy to transform care for persons with disabilities,” says Hugh Herr SM ’93, a professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab and co-director of the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at MIT, who has led the center’s engagement with the MOH. “We are proud to introduce the first program in Sierra Leone to offer this type of clinical education, which will improve availability and access to prosthetic and orthotic health care across the nation.”

The ceremony featured a keynote address by the Honorable Chief Minister of Sierra Leone David Sengeh SM ’12, PhD ’16. Sengeh, a former graduate student of Herr’s research group and longtime advocate for a more inclusive Sierra Leone, has taken a personal interest in this collaboration.

“The government is very happy that this collaboration with the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at MIT falls within our national development plan and our priorities,” says Sengeh. “Our goal is to invest in human capacity and strengthen systems for inclusion.”

Francesca Riccio-Ackerman, the graduate student lead for this project, adds that “this program has created opportunities for persons with disabilities to become clinicians that will treat others with the same condition, setting an example in inclusivity.”

The inaugural class of O&P students includes 11 men and women from across Sierra Leone who have undergone intensive preparatory training and passed a rigorous international standard entrance exam to earn their position in the program. The students are scheduled to complete their training in early 2027 and will have the opportunity to become certified as associate prosthetist/orthotists by the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics, the gold standard for professionals in the field.

The program utilizes a hybrid educational model developed by the Human Study School of Rehabilitation Sciences.

“Human Study’s humanitarian education program is unique. We run the world’s only prosthetics and orthotics school that meets international standards at all three levels of the P&O profession,” says Chris Schlief, founder and CEO of Human Study. “We are delighted to be working with the Ministry of Health and MIT’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics to bring our training to Sierra Leone. Prosthetics and orthotics have an essential role to play in increasing mobility, dignity, and equality for people with disabilities. We are proud to be a partner in this groundbreaking program, training the first generation of P&O clinicians. This program will have an impact for generations to come.”

As for Sengeh, who authored the book, “Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps to Help You Create a More Just Workplace, Home, and World,” the new program in Sierra Leone embodies his vision for a more inclusive world. “Personally, as an MIT alumnus and chief minister of Sierra Leone, this is what true vision, action, and impact look like. As I often say, through Radical Inclusion #WeWillDeliver.”

A new catalyst can turn methane into something useful

Although it is less abundant than carbon dioxide, methane gas contributes disproportionately to global warming because it traps more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, due to its molecular structure.

MIT chemical engineers have now designed a new catalyst that can convert methane into useful polymers, which could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“What to do with methane has been a longstanding problem,” says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study. “It’s a source of carbon, and we want to keep it out of the atmosphere but also turn it into something useful.”

The new catalyst works at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, which could make it easier and more economical to deploy at sites of methane production, such as power plants and cattle barns.

Daniel Lundberg PhD ’24 and MIT postdoc Jimin Kim are the lead authors of the study, which appears today in Nature Catalysis. Former postdoc Yu-Ming Tu and postdoc Cody Ritt also authors of the paper.

Capturing methane

Methane is produced by bacteria known as methanogens, which are often highly concentrated in landfills, swamps, and other sites of decaying biomass. Agriculture is a major source of methane, and methane gas is also generated as a byproduct of transporting, storing, and burning natural gas. Overall, it is believed to account for about 15 percent of global temperature increases.

At the molecular level, methane is made of a single carbon atom bound to four hydrogen atoms. In theory, this molecule should be a good building block for making useful products such as polymers. However, converting methane to other compounds has proven difficult because getting it to react with other molecules usually requires high temperature and high pressures.

To achieve methane conversion without that input of energy, the MIT team designed a hybrid catalyst with two components: a zeolite and a naturally occurring enzyme. Zeolites are abundant, inexpensive clay-like minerals, and previous work has found that they can be used to catalyze the conversion of methane to carbon dioxide.

In this study, the researchers used a zeolite called iron-modified aluminum silicate, paired with an enzyme called alcohol oxidase. Bacteria, fungi, and plants use this enzyme to oxidize alcohols.

This hybrid catalyst performs a two-step reaction in which zeolite converts methane to methanol, and then the enzyme converts methanol to formaldehyde. That reaction also generates hydrogen peroxide, which is fed back into the zeolite to provide a source of oxygen for the conversion of methane to methanol.

This series of reactions can occur at room temperature and doesn’t require high pressure. The catalyst particles are suspended in water, which can absorb methane from the surrounding air. For future applications, the researchers envision that it could be painted onto surfaces.

“Other systems operate at high temperature and high pressure, and they use hydrogen peroxide, which is an expensive chemical, to drive the methane oxidation. But our enzyme produces hydrogen peroxide from oxygen, so I think our system could be very cost-effective and scalable,” Kim says.

Creating a system that incorporates both enzymes and artificial catalysts is a “smart strategy,” says Damien Debecker, a professor at the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences at the University of Louvain, Belgium.

“Combining these two families of catalysts is challenging, as they tend to operate in rather distinct operation conditions. By unlocking this constraint and mastering the art of chemo-enzymatic cooperation, hybrid catalysis becomes key-enabling: It opens new perspectives to run complex reaction systems in an intensified way,” says Debecker, who was not involved in the research.

Building polymers

Once formaldehyde is produced, the researchers showed they could use that molecule to generate polymers by adding urea, a nitrogen-containing molecule found in urine. This resin-like polymer, known as urea-formaldehyde, is now used in particle board, textiles and other products.

The researchers envision that this catalyst could be incorporated into pipes used to transport natural gas. Within those pipes, the catalyst could generate a polymer that could act as a sealant to heal cracks in the pipes, which are a common source of methane leakage. The catalyst could also be applied as a film to coat surfaces that are exposed to methane gas, producing polymers that could be collected for use in manufacturing, the researchers say.

Strano’s lab is now working on catalysts that could be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and combine it with nitrate to produce urea. That urea could then be mixed with the formaldehyde produced by the zeolite-enzyme catalyst to produce urea-formaldehyde.

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

3 Questions: Community policing in the Global South

The concept of community policing gained wide acclaim in the U.S. when crime dropped drastically during the 1990s. In Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere, police departments established programs to build more local relationships, to better enhance community security. But how well does community policing work in other places? A new multicountry experiment co-led by MIT political scientist Fotini Christia found, perhaps surprisingly, that the policy had no impact in several countries across the Global South, from Africa to South America and Asia.

The results are detailed in a new edited volume, “Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing: Experiments on Building Trust,” published this week by Cambridge University Press. The editors are Christia, the Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences in MIT’s Department of Political Science, director of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and director of the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center; Graeme Blair of the University of California at Los Angeles; and Jeremy M. Weinstein of Stanford University. MIT News talked to Christia about the project.

Q: What is community policing, and how and where did you study it?

A: The general idea is that community policing, actually connecting the police and the community they are serving in direct ways, is very effective. Many of us have celebrated community policing, and we typically think of the 1990s Chicago and Boston experiences, where community policing was implemented and seen as wildly successful in reducing crime rates, gang violence, and homicide. This model has been broadly exported across the world, even though we don’t have much evidence that it works in contexts that have different resource capacities and institutional footprints.

Our study aims to understand if the hype around community policing is justified by measuring the effects of such policies globally, through field experiments, in six different settings in the Global South. In the same way that MIT’s J-PAL develops field experiments about an array of development interventions, we created programs, in cooperation with local governments, about policing. We studied if it works and how, across very diverse settings, including Uganda and Liberia in Africa, Colombia and Brazil in Latin America, and the Philippines and Pakistan in Asia.

The study, and book, is the result of collaborations with many police agencies. We also highlight how one can work with the police to understand and refine police practices and think very intentionally about all the ethical considerations around such collaborations. The researchers designed the interventions alongside six teams of academics who conducted the experiments, so the book also reflects an interesting experiment in how to put together a collaboration like this.

Q: What did you find?

A: What was fascinating was that we found that locally designed community policing interventions did not generate greater trust or cooperation between citizens and the police, and did not reduce crime in the six regions of the Global South where we carried out our research.

We looked at an array of different measures to evaluate the impact, such as changes in crime victimization, perceptions of police, as well as crime reporting, among others, and did not see any reductions in crime, whether measured in administrative data or in victimization surveys.

The null effects were not driven by concerns of police noncompliance with the intervention, crime displacement, or any heterogeneity in effects across sites, including individual experiences with the police.

Sometimes there is a bias against publishing so-called null results. But because we could show that it wasn’t due to methodological concerns, and because we were able to explain how such changes in resource-constrained environments would have to be preceded by structural reforms, the finding has been received as particularly compelling.

Q: Why did community policing not have an impact in these countries?

A: We felt that it was important to analyze why it doesn’t work. In the book, we highlight three challenges. One involves capacity issues: This is the developing world, and there are low-resource issues to begin with, in terms of the programs police can implement.

The second challenge is the principal-agent problem, the fact that the incentives of the police may not align in this case. For example, a station commander and supervisors may not appreciate the importance of adopting community policing, and line officers might not comply. Agency problems within the police are complex when it comes to mechanisms of accountability, and this may undermine the effectiveness of community policing.

A third challenge we highlight is the fact that, to the communities they serve, the police might not seem separate from the actual government. So, it may not be clear if police are seen as independent institutions acting in the best interest of the citizens.

We faced a lot of pushback when we were first presenting our results. The potential benefits of community policing is a story that resonates with many of us; it’s a narrative suggesting that connecting the police to a community has a significant and substantively positive effect. But the outcome didn’t come as a surprise to people from the Global South. They felt the lack of resources, and potential problems about autonomy and nonalignment, were real.

A new way to create realistic 3D shapes using generative AI

Creating realistic 3D models for applications like virtual reality, filmmaking, and engineering design can be a cumbersome process requiring lots of manual trial and error.

While generative artificial intelligence models for images can streamline artistic processes by enabling creators to produce lifelike 2D images from text prompts, these models are not designed to generate 3D shapes. To bridge the gap, a recently developed technique called Score Distillation leverages 2D image generation models to create 3D shapes, but its output often ends up blurry or cartoonish.

MIT researchers explored the relationships and differences between the algorithms used to generate 2D images and 3D shapes, identifying the root cause of lower-quality 3D models. From there, they crafted a simple fix to Score Distillation, which enables the generation of sharp, high-quality 3D shapes that are closer in quality to the best model-generated 2D images.

A rotating robotic bee in color; as a 3D model; and silhouette.

Rotating strawberry — These examples show two different 3D rotating objects: a robotic bee and a strawberry. Researchers used text-based generative AI and their new technique to create the 3D objects.

Image: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

Some other methods try to fix this problem by retraining or fine-tuning the generative AI model, which can be expensive and time-consuming.

By contrast, the MIT researchers’ technique achieves 3D shape quality on par with or better than these approaches without additional training or complex postprocessing.

Moreover, by identifying the cause of the problem, the researchers have improved mathematical understanding of Score Distillation and related techniques, enabling future work to further improve performance.

“Now we know where we should be heading, which allows us to find more efficient solutions that are faster and higher-quality,” says Artem Lukoianov, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student who is lead author of a paper on this technique. “In the long run, our work can help facilitate the process to be a co-pilot for designers, making it easier to create more realistic 3D shapes.”

Lukoianov’s co-authors are Haitz Sáez de Ocáriz Borde, a graduate student at Oxford University; Kristjan Greenewald, a research scientist in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab; Vitor Campagnolo Guizilini, a scientist at the Toyota Research Institute; Timur Bagautdinov, a research scientist at Meta; and senior authors Vincent Sitzmann, an assistant professor of EECS at MIT who leads the Scene Representation Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Justin Solomon, an associate professor of EECS and leader of the CSAIL Geometric Data Processing Group. The research will be presented at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.

From 2D images to 3D shapes

Diffusion models, such as DALL-E, are a type of generative AI model that can produce lifelike images from random noise. To train these models, researchers add noise to images and then teach the model to reverse the process and remove the noise. The models use this learned “denoising” process to create images based on a user’s text prompts.

But diffusion models underperform at directly generating realistic 3D shapes because there are not enough 3D data to train them. To get around this problem, researchers developed a technique called Score Distillation Sampling (SDS) in 2022 that uses a pretrained diffusion model to combine 2D images into a 3D representation.

The technique involves starting with a random 3D representation, rendering a 2D view of a desired object from a random camera angle, adding noise to that image, denoising it with a diffusion model, then optimizing the random 3D representation so it matches the denoised image. These steps are repeated until the desired 3D object is generated.

However, 3D shapes produced this way tend to look blurry or oversaturated.

“This has been a bottleneck for a while. We know the underlying model is capable of doing better, but people didn’t know why this is happening with 3D shapes,” Lukoianov says.

The MIT researchers explored the steps of SDS and identified a mismatch between a formula that forms a key part of the process and its counterpart in 2D diffusion models. The formula tells the model how to update the random representation by adding and removing noise, one step at a time, to make it look more like the desired image.

Since part of this formula involves an equation that is too complex to be solved efficiently, SDS replaces it with randomly sampled noise at each step. The MIT researchers found that this noise leads to blurry or cartoonish 3D shapes.

An approximate answer

Instead of trying to solve this cumbersome formula precisely, the researchers tested approximation techniques until they identified the best one. Rather than randomly sampling the noise term, their approximation technique infers the missing term from the current 3D shape rendering.

“By doing this, as the analysis in the paper predicts, it generates 3D shapes that look sharp and realistic,” he says.

In addition, the researchers increased the resolution of the image rendering and adjusted some model parameters to further boost 3D shape quality.

In the end, they were able to use an off-the-shelf, pretrained image diffusion model to create smooth, realistic-looking 3D shapes without the need for costly retraining. The 3D objects are similarly sharp to those produced using other methods that rely on ad hoc solutions.

“Trying to blindly experiment with different parameters, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but you don’t know why. We know this is the equation we need to solve. Now, this allows us to think of more efficient ways to solve it,” he says.

Because their method relies on a pretrained diffusion model, it inherits the biases and shortcomings of that model, making it prone to hallucinations and other failures. Improving the underlying diffusion model would enhance their process.

In addition to studying the formula to see how they could solve it more effectively, the researchers are interested in exploring how these insights could improve image editing techniques.

This work is funded, in part, by the Toyota Research Institute, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Singapore Defense Science and Technology Agency, the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the Amazon Science Hub, IBM, the U.S. Army Research Office, the CSAIL Future of Data program, the Wistron Corporation, and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Laboratory.

60+ Best Free Final Cut Pro Templates & Presets for Video Editors – Speckyboy

Final Cut Pro is a popular video editing application for macOS for creating high-quality video content. One of the many features that makes Final Cut Pro so popular is the ability to use pre-designed presets and templates.

As powerful as Final Cut Pro is, there is no denying that video editing can be a long, and at times, tedious process. Still, with the right preset or template, you can significantly cut your video editing time while improving the overall quality of your video projects.

The presets and templates can include everything from color grading and visual effects to titles and transitions, making creating a polished and professional video much easier and quicker.

We’ve rounded up the best free presets and templates for Final Cut Pro that you can download and use in your own projects. Check them out below and add them to your video library today.

You might also like our collection of free Apple Motion templates.

Titles Templates for Final Cut Pro

These professionally designed title templates will add a professional touch to your videos and help refine the typography of your storytelling.

Galaxy Battles Title Template for Final Cut Pro

Transport viewers to a galaxy far away with this intergalactic title sequence. Science fiction fans will appreciate the futuristic fonts and warp-speed animations. Use it to make an immediate impact with your videos.

Digital Text Animations for Final Cut

Give your title a high-tech feel with these glitch-effect animations. Choose from 16 effects ranging from pixelated blurs to characters that break apart. This is a rare animation that feels both retro and futuristic.

Lyrics Video Creator for Final Cut

Lyric videos are an effective way to share music without the expense of a big-budget production. This template makes it easy to create and customize a stylish feature presentation. Independent artists will want to check this one out.

Wedding Titles for Final Cut Pro X

This template provides four beautifully designed wedding-themed title panels for your Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Pro X videos. They are fully customizable and available in all popular resolutions.

Modern Big Titles

This template saves time and money. It includes 30 different title screens for Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion 5. You can easily customize and use them to produce videos in any resolution.

Watch in HD FCPX Template

Thanks to this template, you can tell your viewers that they are watching videos in high definition. They invite viewers to watch in HD, state that the videos are in HD, and even denote that your videos are in 4K resolution.

7 Final Cut Pro X Titles

This template pack includes both titles and lower thirds for your Final Cut Pro X. With seven different animated titles to choose from, you will find the perfect version for your next video project.

Creative Titles for FCPX

These creative title templates are fully customizable and great for social media campaigns or in-house video use. No plugins are required, and they can be viewed up to 4K resolution.

Template Pop FCPX Title Templates

This template is ideal for any Final Cut Pro X video project. It offers 24 high-quality title cards that are easy to customize and impressive to watch in action.

Manifesto Titles for Final Cut Pro

This free template simplifies adding and customizing text. Quickly add high-quality scrolling text for endings, lower thirds, or block text to your next Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro project.

Lyric Titles for FCPX

Thanks to these titles, you can easily create a lyric-style titles for your videos. It is perfect for music videos or if you want to add something extra to your logo opener.

Movie Pop Titles for Final Cut Pro X

Quickly generate titles that resemble your cinematic favorites, such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, or even Assassin’s Creed. This plugin makes it easy to create impactful titles.

Transition Packs for Final Cut Pro

From smooth crossfades to dynamic wipes, these presets will add style to your videos. Improve your editing with these free Final Cut Pro transition presets, and ensure your videos flow seamlessly from scene to scene.

Parks & Re-Creation Split-Screen Transitions for FCP

Like the title scene in a similarly named TV show, Parks & Re-Creation is a fun and quirky transition. Showcase multiple videos at once using this clever montage. It’s also easy to customize with multiple drop zones.

Shatter Transitions for Final Cut Pro

Bring a bit of chaos to your video transitions with this shatter effect. The presentation breaks apart and quickly falls off the screen. It’s an excellent option for action scenes that will keep viewers engaged.

Simple & Modern Final Cut Pro Transitions

Here’s a collection of fun and modern transitions for Final Cut Pro. It features clean, rounded shapes that can travel in multiple directions. A tutorial is included to help you customize the transition to fit your needs.

Ink Transition FCPX Templates

These ink transitions add a beautiful touch to any video. The animation is silky smooth and reveals your next scene in style. It’s a professional-grade effect that’s easy to use in your projects.

Replicator Transitions for FCPX

Get your videos into shape with this set of replicator transitions. Choose from 14 options that feature geometric shapes. They’re pleasing to the eye and appropriate for all types of videos.

Before & After Transitions for Final Cut Pro

Before and after transitions are a handy addition to your video editing toolbox. Use them to show off your products and services. Everything from home renovations to cosmetics can benefit from this set.

Ink Transitions

With this free resource, you can create your own special transitions. Learn a valuable technique, and then you can add the free transitions to any of your Final Cut Pro video projects.

Toolkit and Transitions

This transition toolkit gives you all the power to create incredible videos quickly, saving you time and money on your next Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Pro X video.

8 FCPX Transitions

This resource has eight wonderfully created transitions for Final Cut Pro. With these transitions, add a touch of panache and pizzazz to your next video project.

FCPX Zoom Transitions

This set of 50 fully customizable transitions for Final Cut Pro X will save you time and money. They’re easy to use, ready for all resolutions, and will integrate well with your titles.

Flashback Transition

Use this transition to easily incorporate a flashback effect, reminiscent of the old Scooby-Doo cartoons. This creative touch adds a unique flair to your Final Cut Pro video projects.

Glitch Transitions

Using a glitch transition in your video editing has never been easier. This pack includes 90 glitch transitions in 4k resolution. The glitches are easy to use and customizable.

Channel Switch Transition

Do you need to give your video an analog film feel? This is the perfect free resource for you. Recreate the experience of flipping through an old analog television set to add a vintage touch to your Final Cut videos.

10 Clean FCPX Transitions

This free resource includes ten clean, easy-to-use transitions for your Final Cut Pro video projects. The transitions are customizable and available in all major resolutions.

10 Flat Transitions for Final Cut Pro

This pack offers transitions that add a colorful and modern look to your Final Cut Pro videos. The transitions are smooth and vibrant, with adjustable durations, and are available in all major resolutions.

13 Final Cut Pro Transitions

Here are 13 different transitions for your Final Cut Pro video projects. Each transition is customizable and suitable for both personal and commercial use.

Animated Elements for Final Cut Pro

Improve your videos with smooth transitions, engaging text animations, and powerful visual effects. These free animated presets will help you create professional-quality videos that leave a great impression.

50 Animated Gradient Backgrounds for Final Cut Pro

This preset pack includes 50 color gradients you can use on any Final Cut Pro project. They will be perfect for use as backgrounds, layouts, film burns, or even light leaks.

Brightly Animations Explainer Toolkit for Final Cut Pro X

This toolkit for Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion will save you time and energy on your next animated project. You can quickly create, customize, and animate characters to create explainer or educational videos.

50 Animated Icons for Final Cut Pro X

This kit of 50 animated icons is perfect for any Final Cut Pro project. Each icon is fully customizable and easy to use, ensuring your projects have a high-quality, professional look and feel.

Timecode for Final Cut Pro X

This plugin provides a fully customizable timecode that can be moved beyond the borders of your Final Cut Pro project. It shows everyone involved where the video is on the timeline, whether they’re watching on a second screen or during the editing process.

Splash Animated Elements for Final Cut Pro X

Save time using these hand-drawn, animated splash graphics in your next prject. You can quickly customize colors, add a glowing effect, pixelate them, or even do both for your next Final Cut Pro video.

Instagram Stories Template for FCPX

With this plugin, you can quickly create and edit Instagram Story videos. You can change the duration, color, position, fonts, and font sizes. This plugin also has a built-in in-out animation and is available in all popular resolutions.

Text Message Template for FCPX

This plugin allows you to add flavor to your next Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Pro X video. Built to emulate popular social media platforms, it will make your videos come to life with animated text messages, comments, notifications, and more.

Special Effect Templates for Final Cut Pro

Unleash your creativity with these free special effects presets for Final Cut Pro. From exciting particle effects to stunning color grading, these presets will help to transform your footage into something exceptional.

Strobe & Stutter Effect for Final Cut Pro

Enhance the action in your videos with a strobe or stutter effect. The package contains four effects that can be dialed to different frame rates. This ensures a smoother result and a better viewing experience.

Outline Effect for Final Cut Pro

This effect adds an outline to any video or image with transparency. Customize the look by tweaking the color and thickness of the outline. It’s a fun way to draw attention to objects in your presentation.

Pan and Zoom Effect

This resource offers a powerful way to execute pan and zooms in your Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro projects. Key features include support for all popular formats and animation syncing.

Slice Transitions for Final Cut Pro

This resource offers professional-looking sliced transitions, sound effects, and a specialized slice animation for logo reveals.

Feature Overlay Effects

This plugin adds an overlay to your Final Cut Pro projects that works best in collaboration with feature-length films. This plugin adds a header, label, and two different timers for ease of use.

Space Wipes Final Cut Pro Effect

This fantastic free resource is perfect for Star Wars fans. You will have complete control of these transitions. Use the circular or side transition and make your videos one with the force.

Binocular & Scope Final Cut Pro Effect

This free effect simulates the view through various binoculars and firearm scopes. From close-ups to night vision, this resource will give your Final Cut Pro videos a cinematic touch.

Fade In & Fade Out Final Cut Pro Effect

This free plugin redefines fade-in and fade-out transitions. Instead of using bulky blocks, it streamlines and customizes the transition as a simple dropped-in effect.

Timecode Effects

This free plugin is perfect for collaborative work. It allows you to mark videos with a timestamp and a foot and frame counter. You can customize the frame rates, start and stop frames, and the counter’s color and size.

Logo Reveal Templates for Final Cut Pro

These templates will help show off your logo in a way viewers will remember. Use them in the introduction, ending, or as a transitional piece.

Shape Logo Reveals for Final Cut Pro

The shape logo effects in this template will dress up your brand. The animations are smart and smooth – and viewers will take notice. The template includes two animation types and three shapes.

Intro Templates for Final Cut Pro

Create an attention-grabbing intro using one of these easy-to-customize templates. You’ll find unique ways to tell your story and set a tone for the rest of your video project.

Retro VHS Glitch Intro Template for Final Cut Pro

Use this template to bring a retro feel to your videos. The effects are glitchy and uncannily accurate – but with a modern touch. Nostalgic viewers may go running to the attic to fetch their old VCR.

Newspaper Intro Template FCPX

Announce your news with a classic touch. Your text and images will fit nicely into this newspaper introduction. The presentation is fun, easy to read, and will entertain viewers of all ages.

Slideshow Templates for Final Cut Pro

Slideshow templates let you share multiple photos or videos within a short presentation. The result is an attractive segment that you can use to define your message.

Smooth Letter Slideshow Final Cut Pro Template

Level up your fashion and lifestyle videos with this incredible slideshow template. You’ll find slick transitions, bold colors, and outstanding typography. Best of all, these elements can be changed to match your brand.

Bold Slideshow Template for Final Cut

Here’s a professional slideshow template that makes your images and videos look their best. It comes with fun background shapes and transitions to keep viewers engaged. There’s also space to enhance the experience with custom text.

Colorful & Creative Web Promotion Slideshow for FCPX

Use this template to create an action-packed promotional video for your business. It’s designed for multi-purpose use and includes plenty of customization options. There are a lot of possibilities here.

Fashion Type Photo Presentation Final Cut Pro Template

Show off your new product line using this fashion-inspired slideshow template. It looks great and includes aspect ratios for different platforms. You’ll find versions for 4k, mobile devices, and social media platforms.

Sound Effects for Final Cut Pro

Improve the audio experience of your videos with these free sound effect presets for Final Cut Pro. From atmospheric ambiance to impactful explosions, these presets will add depth and realism to your videos.

10 Pro Audio Final Cut Pro Presets

This free resource includes ten powerful audio effects for Final Cut Pro X. Apply the right audio effect to your video project exactly when needed.

Color & Light Effect Templates for Final Cut Pro

Improve your videos with rich hues, smooth gradients, and dynamic lighting effects. From vibrant color grading to dynamic light flares, these free presets will transform your footage into something exceptional.

Andy’s Gradient Filter for Final Cut Pro

Ditch expensive camera filters to get the color look you need with this free resource. The filter works with Final Cut Pro x, Apple Motion 5, and Adobe Premiere Pro, and makes it easy to get a high-quality aesthetic for all your video projects.

Opener Templates for Final Cut Pro

These dynamic opener templates for Final Cut Pro will set the tone of your video, capturing the audience’s attention from the start.

Light Leak Opener for Final Cut Pro

Light leak effects are great for adding dynamic flair to your videos. It’s fast-paced, colorful, and modern. This template is the perfect way to grab a viewer’s attention from the opening scene.

Paper Effect Opener FCPX Template

Tear up the screen with this beautifully textured paper effect opener for Final Cut Pro. It features a realistic torn-edge look with bold movement. It’s a unique way to open your presentation with personality.

Stomp Typography Opener for Final Cut Pro

Bold typography is the calling card for this opening sequence. Combine text with your images and videos to convey a strong message. The effect may be simple, but the result is a video you can’t take your eyes off.

Basic & Modern Openers FCPX Templates

Let your creativity flow with this set of 10 opener templates. There are a variety of professional effects to choose from. Each includes a unique reveal effect and smooth animations. A great way to make a strong first impression.

Sport Action Opener Template for Final Cut Pro

This sports action opener is sure to fire up the fans. It features bold typography and unforgettable transitions. It’s a great fit for sports teams, journalists, podcasters, and personal trainers. Use it anywhere people are in motion.

Cinematic Opener for Final Cut

This template offers a modern and colorful way to open all your videos. It is perfect for opening title sequences in feature films.

Rhythmic Final Cut Pro X Opener Template

This rhythmic opener template would be a wonderful addition to your Final Cut Pro X toolbox. It allows you to quickly and easily edit text, color, position, and fonts. It is compatible with 720p or 1080p resolutions.

Lower Thirds Templates for Final Cut Pro

These lower thirds Final Cut Pro templates blend information and style. Perfect for adding context or highlighting details.

Social Media Lower Thirds FCPX Plugin

Promote your social media accounts with this lower-thirds template. It includes the most popular platforms and uses colorful graphics to draw attention. It’s an easy way to get more likes and followers.

Modern 4k Final Cut Lower Thirds

Add colorful effects to your lower-thirds content. You’ll find modern typography combined with interesting shapes and movement. The transitions are top-notch and are sure to impress viewers. Use it to make any production look professional.

Extensive Lower Thirds Templates for Final Cut Pro X

There are so many possibilities with this lower-thirds template. The options are fast-paced, colorful, and attention-getting. With so many styles to choose from, this suite is one that you’ll use on multiple projects.

Clean Lower Third Final Cut Pro X Template

Try this template if you want easy-to-use and customizable lower thirds in 1080p for your Final Cut Pro X projects. You can edit the animation and change the duration for each lower third as needed.

Simple Lower Thirds Template for FCPX

This Final Cut Pro X template provides a simple lower thirds that is quick and easy to use and customize. Adjust the duration, add animation, and use it with up to 4k resolution.

How To Install Final Cut Pro Presets

Here are the steps to install templates, presets, and plugins in Final Cut Pro:

Unzip the downloaded preset folder. Double-click it, and the folder will be unzipped.
Next, select all the presets in the folder and then copy them by pressing Command+C.
Open up Finder and hold down the Option key. Then, go to Go > Library. Once inside the Library folder, go to Application Support > ProApps > Effects Presets.
Paste the preset files into the Effects Presets folder by clicking Command+V.
The last step is to restart Final Cut Pro so you can view and use your newly installed presets.

Final Cut Pro Template FAQs

What is Final Cut Pro?

Final Cut Pro is a video editing application developed by Apple. It’s used for editing and creating professional video content.
Why Use Templates in Final Cut Pro?

Templates make editing faster and easier. They give you a ready-made layout or effect, so you don’t have to start from scratch. This is helpful, especially if you’re short on time or new to video editing.
Are These Templates Really Free?

Yes, the templates are free. You can download and use them without paying anything. Just check their usage rules, as some might have certain conditions.
Can Beginners Use These Templates?

These templates are great for beginners. They’re designed to be easy to use, which helps you learn more about video editing.
How Customizable Are These Templates?

They’re pretty flexible. You can tweak colors, text, and audio to match your project’s style. Each template varies, but generally, there’s a lot you can change to make it your own.
Do I Need Final Cut Pro to Use These Templates?

Yes, you need Final Cut Pro. It’s available for Mac users and can be purchased from the Apple Store. Sometimes, there are free trials available if you want to try it first.
Can I Use These Templates for Commercial Projects?

Many templates are okay for both personal and commercial use. But always read the specific terms for each template, as there might be different rules or restrictions.

From refugee to MIT graduate student

Mlen-Too Wesley has faded memories of his early childhood in Liberia, but the sharpest one has shaped his life.

Wesley was 4 years old when he and his family boarded a military airplane to flee the West African nation. At the time, the country was embroiled in a 14-year civil war that killed approximately 200,000 people, displaced about 750,000, and starved countless more. When Wesley’s grandmother told him he would enjoy a meal during his flight, Wesley knew his fortune had changed. Yet, his first instinct was to offer his food to the people he left behind.

“I made a decision right then to come back,” Wesley says. “Even as I grew older and spent more time in the United States, I knew I wanted to contribute to Liberia’s future.”

Today, the 38-year-old is committed to empowering Liberians through economic growth. Wesley looked to the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP) to achieve that goal. He examined issues such as micro-lending, state capture, and investment in health care in courses such as Foundations of Development Policy, Good Economics for Hard Times, and The Challenges of Global Poverty. Through case studies and research, Wesley discovered that economic incentives can encourage desired behaviors, curb corruption, and empower people.

“I couldn’t connect the dots”

Liberia is marred by corruption. According to Transparency International’s Corruptions Perception Index for 2023, Liberia scored 25 out of 100, with zero signifying the highest level of corruption. Yet, Wesley grew tired of textbooks and undergraduate professors saying that the status of Liberia and other African nations could be blamed entirely on corruption. Even worse, these sources gave Wesley the impression that nothing could be done to improve his native country. The sentiment frustrated him, he says.

“It struck me as flippant to attribute the challenges faced by billions of people to backward behaviors,” says Wesley. “There are several forces, internal and external, that have contributed to Liberia’s condition. If we really examine them, explore why things happened, and define the change we want, we can plot a way forward to a more prosperous future.”

Driven to examine the economic, political, and social dynamics shaping his homeland and to fulfill his childhood promise, Wesley moved back to Africa in 2013. Over the next 10 years, he merged his interests in entrepreneurship, software development, and economics to better Liberia. He designed a forestry management platform that preserves Liberia’s natural resources, built an online queue for government hospitals to triage patients more effectively, and engineered data visualization tools to support renewable energy initiatives. Yet, to create the impact Wesley wanted, he needed to do more than collect data. He had to analyze and act on it in meaningful ways.

“I couldn’t connect the dots on why things are the way they are,” Wesley says.

“It wasn’t just an academic experience for me”

Wesley knew he needed to dive deeper into data science, and looked to the MicroMasters in DEDP program to help him connect the dots. Established in 2017 by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and MIT Open Learning, the MicroMasters in DEDP program is based on the Nobel Prize-winning work of MIT faculty members Esther Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, and Abhijit Banerjee, the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics. Duflo and Banerjee’s research provided an entirely new approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating antipoverty initiatives throughout the world.

The MicroMasters in DEDP program provided the framework Wesley had sought nearly 20 years ago as an undergraduate student. He learned about novel economic incentives that stymied corruption and promoted education.

“It wasn’t just an academic experience for me,” Wesley says. “The classes gave me the tools and the frameworks to analyze my own personal experiences.”

Wesley initially stumbled with the quantitative coursework. Having a demanding career, taking extension courses at another university, and being several years removed from college calculus courses took a toll on him. He had to retake some classes, especially Data Analysis for Social Scientists, several times before he could pass the proctored exam. His persistence paid off. Wesley earned his MicroMasters in DEDP credential in June 2023 and was also admitted into the MIT DEDP master’s program.

“The class twisted my brain in so many different ways,” Wesley says. “The fourth time taking Data Analysis, I began to understand it. I appreciate that MIT did not care that I did poorly on my first try. They cared that over time I understood the material.”

The program’s rigorous mathematics and statistics classes sparked in Wesley a passion for artificial intelligence, especially machine learning and natural language processing. Both provide more powerful ways to extract and interpret data, and Wesley has a special interest in mining qualitative sources for information. He plans to use these tools to compare national development plans over time and among different countries to determine if policymakers are recycling the same words and goals.

Once Wesley earns his master’s degree, he plans to return to Liberia and focus on international development. In the future, he hopes to lead a data-focused organization committed to improving the lives of people in Liberia and the United States.

“Thanks to MIT, I have the knowledge and tools to tackle real-world challenges that traditional economic models often overlook,” Wesley says.

20+ Best Titles Templates for DaVinci Resolve – Speckyboy

Getting a viewer’s attention is a big challenge for video content creators. The key is to get them hooked from the first few frames. An effective title sequence can do that.

Titles that feature captivating movements are a must. You’ll also want strong visual effects and typography. Each is an ingredient to keeping viewers interested and engaged.

Building a high-quality title sequence from scratch is possible. However, it’s time-consuming and requires advanced video editing skills. It’s not always feasible in a fast-paced environment.

The good news is that you don’t have to do it all by yourself. A video title template includes everything you need to succeed. They provide you with animations, special effects, and a professional layout. Customize, add it to your presentation, and be on your way!

We’ve put together a collection of title templates created for DaVinci Resolve. Each has something unique to offer your projects. Check out them out and find the perfect match for your next presentation.

You might also like our collection of After Effects titles templates.

Here’s a stylish and modern collection of titles that are easy to customize. The animation is fluid and sure to draw viewers in. The package includes multiple layouts to help you create a cohesive look.

This template offers a fun elastic text effect. Watch as words bounce in and out of view. Bold typography is used to maximize the impact of each sequence. Subtle shadows add a 3D aesthetic to the mix.

You’ll find lightning-quick animation and bold text in this video title template. A glitchy background sequence is included to enhance the overall effect. Meanwhile, a black-and-white color scheme ties the presentation together.

Fans of geometric shapes and symmetry will want to check out this template. It features strong text styling and makes clever use of contrast. This versatile template would be at home in both corporate and entertainment projects.

Fast animations and 3D text outlines are the hallmarks of this presentation. An attention-getting color transition effect makes it all the more intriguing. The template includes 12 title sequences that are easy to customize.

Here’s a simple yet compelling way to introduce your video. Bold headlines are combined with quick motion and slick transitions. It’s an excellent choice for projects that promise thrills and a fast-paced presentation.

Add a mid-century touch to your video projects with this vintage title template. It features retro looks – but don’t let that fool you. The effects here are professional and smooth. You’ll get the best of both worlds.

Are you looking to add a classic Hollywood aesthetic to your videos? This package includes multiple styles familiar to movie fans. It covers several film genres, including sci-fi, romance, and action adventure.

Introduce the stars of your video with these gorgeous lower-thirds titles. You’ll find modern typography and transition effects that will fit seamlessly with your project. Best of all, you can customize it to match your desired look.

These overlay titles allow your presentation to shine through. Transparent text and backgrounds will add a unique touch to your intro. The look is professional and appropriate for a wide range of uses.

Glitch effects never go out of style. They intersect modern and retro aesthetics. This template is a prime example of glitch effects in action. Beautiful typography transitions out with a colorful flair.

What’s the opposite of a high-tech look? This handwritten brush font is here to give your productions a homemade feel. Use it for videos for kids, crafts, or any project that could use a breath of fresh air.

This title template is perfect for those who want plenty of options. There are 75+ dynamic typography titles to choose from in this package. They’re bold and include pro-level animation effects.

Travel back in time with these retro title templates for DaVinci Resolve. There are hints of the 1970s and ’80s here with groovy graphics and radical colors. Whether you’re looking for a vibe that screams Schoolhouse Rock or MTV, it’s here.

Here’s a template pack designed to bring quotes to life. The animation is lively, and the transitions are energetic. It’s an attractive way to inspire viewers and introduce the subject of your video.

Morph effects are a natural fit for video titles. Here, you’ll find a sequence where each text title transforms into the next with eye-catching motion. It’s great fun and easy to customize.

Add a touch of class to a wedding or event video title with this template. The transition effects are intricate and match the subject matter beautifully. Perfect for times when you need a title that captures a moment.

Here’s a thoroughly modern approach to video title sequencing. This template is designed in the style of a text message conversation. Text bubbles are there to help you tell a story.

Give your viewers a taste of the classic Bauhaus style with this video title template. The mix of fonts, colors, and shapes is an attention-getter. Use it anywhere where artistry will be appreciated.

Film credit layouts are perfect for displaying information in an easy-to-read format. This template features 25 layouts to help you share large amounts of text. You’ll also find multiple transition styles to complement your project.

Create a fun and familiar title with this typewriter template. You can use it with any font – meaning it’s possible to match your project’s aesthetic. Everything from retro computers to old-school paper effects is possible.

Captivate Your Audience with a Top-Notch Title

Titles are an important piece for any video project. They help introduce viewers to your presentation and give them a sense of what’s to come.

The great thing about the title templates above is that they fit a wide range of subjects. There are options for just about any project imaginable. You may find yourself using them again and again.

So, don’t stress over your video’s title sequence. Pick a template above and make it your own! You may be surprised at how easy it is.

How mass migration remade postwar Europe

Migrants have become a flashpoint in global politics. But new research by an MIT political scientist, focused on West Germany and Poland after World War II, shows that in the long term, those countries developed stronger states, more prosperous economies, and more entrepreneurship after receiving a large influx of immigrants.

Those findings come from a close examination, at the local level over many decades, of the communities receiving migrants as millions of people relocated westward when Europe’s postwar borders were redrawn.

“I found that places experiencing large-scale displacement [immigration] wound up accumulating state capacity, versus places that did not,” says Volha Charnysh, the Ford Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Political Science.

Charnysh’s new book, “Uprooted: How Post-WWII Population Transfers Remade Europe,” published by Cambridge University Press, challenges the notion that migrants have a negative impact on receiving communities.

The time frame of the analysis is important. Much discussion about refugees involves the short-term strains they place on institutions or the backlash they provoke in local communities. Charnysh’s research does reveal tensions in the postwar communities that received large numbers of refugees. But her work, distinctively, also quantifies long-run outcomes, producing a different overall picture.

As Charnysh writes in the book, “Counterintuitively, mass displacement ended up strengthening the state and improving economic performance in the long run.”

Extracting data from history

World War II wrought a colossal amount of death, destruction, and suffering, including the Holocaust, the genocide of about 6 million European Jews. The ensuing peace settlement among the Allied Powers led to large-scale population transfers. Poland saw its borders moved about 125 miles west; it was granted formerly German territory while ceding eastern territory to the Soviet Union. Its new region became 80 percent filled by new migrants, including Poles displaced from the east and voluntary migrants from other parts of the country and from abroad. West Germany received an influx of 12.5 million Germans displaced from Poland and other parts of Europe.

To study the impact of these population transfers, Charnysh used historical records to create four original quantitative datasets at the municipal and county level, while also examining archival documents, memoirs, and newspapers to better understand the texture of the time. The assignment of refugees to specific communities within Poland and West Germany amounted to a kind of historical natural experiment, allowing her to compare how the size and regional composition of the migrant population affected otherwise similar areas.

Additionally, studying forced displacement — as opposed to the movement of a self-selected group of immigrants — meant Charnysh could rigorously examine the scaled-up effects of mass migration.

“It has been an opportunity to study in a more robust way the consequences of displacement,” Charnysh says.

The Holocaust, followed by the redrawing of borders, expulsions, and mass relocations, appeared to increase the homogeneity of the populations within them: In 1931 Poland consisted of about one-third ethnic minorities, whereas after the war it became almost ethnically uniform. But one insight of Charnysh’s research is that shared ethnic or national identification does not guarantee social acceptance for migrants.

“Even if you just rearrange ethnically homogenous populations, new cleavages emerge,” Charnysh says. “People will not necessarily see others as being the same. Those who are displaced have suffered together, have a particular status in their new place, and realize their commonalities. For the native population, migrants’ arrival increased competition for jobs, housing, and state resources, so shared identities likewise emerged, and this ethnic homogeneity didn’t automatically translate into more harmonious relations.”

Yet, West Germany and Poland did assimilate these groups of immgrants into their countries. In both places, state capacity grew in the decades after the war, with the countries becoming better able to administer resources for their populations.

“The very problem, that migration and diversity can create conflict, can also create the demand for more state presence and, in cases where states are willing and able to step in, allow for the accumulation of greater state capacity over time,” Charnysh says.

State investment in migrant-receiving localities paid off. By the 1980s in West Germany, areas with greater postwar migration had higher levels of education, with more business enterprises being founded. That economic pattern emerged in Poland after it switched to a market economy in the 1990s.

Needed: Property rights and liberties

In “Uprooted,” Charnysh also discusses the conditions in which the example of West Germany and Poland may apply to other countries. For one thing, the phenomenon of migrants bolstering the economy is likeliest to occur where states offer what the scholars Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of MIT and James Robinson of the University of Chicago have called “inclusive institutions,” such as property rights, additional liberties, and a commitment to the rule of law. Poland, while increasing its state capacity during the Cold War, did not realize the economic benefits of migration until the Cold War ended and it changed to a more democratic government.

Additionally, Charnysh observes, West Germany and Poland were granting citizenship to the migrants they received, making it easier for those migrants to assimilate and make demands on the state. “My complete account probably applies best to cases where migrants receive full citizenship rights,” she acknowledges.

“Uprooted” has earned praise from leading scholars. David Stasavage, dean for the social sciences and a professor of politics at New York University, has called the book a “pathbreaking study” that “upends what we thought we knew about the interaction between social cohesion and state capacity.” Charnysh’s research, he adds, “shows convincingly that areas with more diverse populations after the transfers saw greater improvements in state capacity and economic performance. This is a major addition to scholarship.”

Today there may be about 100 million displaced people around the world, including perhaps 14 million Ukrainians uprooted by war. Absorbing refugees may always be a matter of political contention. But as “Uprooted” shows, countries may realize benefits from it if they take a long-term perspective.

“When states treat refugees as temporary, they don’t provide opportunities for them to contribute and assimilate,” Charnysh says. “It’s not that I don’t think cultural differences matter to people, but it’s not as big a factor as state policies.”

An inflatable gastric balloon could help people lose weight

Gastric balloons — silicone balloons filled with air or saline and placed in the stomach — can help people lose weight by making them feel too full to overeat. However, this effect eventually can wear off as the stomach becomes used to the sensation of fullness.

To overcome that limitation, MIT engineers have designed a new type of gastric balloon that can be inflated and deflated as needed. In an animal study, they showed that inflating the balloon before a meal caused the animals to reduce their food intake by 60 percent.

This type of intervention could offer an alternative for people who don’t want to undergo more invasive treatments such as gastric bypass surgery, or people who don’t respond well to weight-loss drugs, the researchers say.

“The basic concept is we can have this balloon that is dynamic, so it would be inflated right before a meal and then you wouldn’t feel hungry. Then it would be deflated in between meals,” says Giovanni Traverso, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the senior author of the study.

Neil Zixun Jia, who received a PhD from MIT in 2023, is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in the journal Device.

An inflatable balloon

Gastric balloons filled with saline are currently approved for use in the United States. These balloons stimulate a sense of fullness in the stomach, and studies have shown that they work well, but the benefits are often temporary.

“Gastric balloons do work initially. Historically, what has been seen is that the balloon is associated with weight loss. But then in general, the weight gain resumes the same trajectory,” Traverso says. “What we reasoned was perhaps if we had a system that simulates that fullness in a transient way, meaning right before a meal, that could be a way of inducing weight loss.”

To achieve a longer-lasting effect in patients, the researchers set out to design a device that could expand and contract on demand. They created two prototypes: One is a traditional balloon that inflates and deflates, and the other is a mechanical device with four arms that expand outward, pushing out an elastic polymer shell that presses on the stomach wall.

In animal tests, the researchers found that the mechanical-arm device could effectively expand to fill the stomach, but they ended up deciding to pursue the balloon option instead.

“Our sense was that the balloon probably distributed the force better, and down the line, if you have balloon that is applying the pressure, that is probably a safer approach in the long run,” Traverso says.

The researchers’ new balloon is similar to a traditional gastric balloon, but it is inserted into the stomach through an incision in the abdominal wall. The balloon is connected to an external controller that can be attached to the skin and contains a pump that inflates and deflates the balloon when needed. Inserting this device would be similar to the procedure used to place a feeding tube into a patient’s stomach, which is commonly done for people who are unable to eat or drink.

“If people, for example, are unable to swallow, they receive food through a tube like this. We know that we can keep tubes in for years, so there is already precedent for other systems that can stay in the body for a very long time. That gives us some confidence in the longer-term compatibility of this system,” Traverso says.

Reduced food intake

In tests in animals, the researchers found that inflating the balloon before meals led to a 60 percent reduction in the amount of food consumed. These studies were done over the course of a month, but the researchers now plan to do longer-term studies to see if this reduction leads to weight loss.

“The deployment for traditional gastric balloons is usually six months, if not more, and only then you will see good amount of weight loss. We will have to evaluate our device in a similar or longer time span to prove it really works better,” Jia says.

If developed for use in humans, the new gastric balloon could offer an alternative to existing obesity treatments. Other treatments for obesity include gastric bypass surgery, “stomach stapling” (a surgical procedure in which the stomach capacity is reduced), and drugs including GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide.

The gastric balloon could be an option for patients who are not good candidates for surgery or don’t respond well to weight-loss drugs, Traverso says.

“For certain patients who are higher-risk, who cannot undergo surgery, or did not tolerate the medication or had some other contraindication, there are limited options,” he says. “Traditional gastric balloons are still being used, but they come with a caveat that eventually the weight loss can plateau, so this is a way of trying to address that fundamental limitation.”

The research was funded by MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Karl van Tassel Career Development Professorship, the Whitaker Health Sciences Fund Fellowship, the T.S. Lin Fellowship, the MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, and the Boston University Yawkey Funded Internship Program.