Mashable reporter Joseph Green highlights the wide range of courses available on edX. “You can take comprehensive courses on everything from machine learning with Python to creating policies for science, technology, and innovation, without spending a penny,” writes Green. “We don't need to tell you how much of a great opportunity this is.”
MIT was named to The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Ed rankings of the top mid-sized schools in the Northeast.
Postdoc Tansu Daylan speaks with CNN reporter Ada Wood about his work mentoring two high school students, and their discovery of four new exoplanets. "When it comes to studying by comparison — that is, studying the atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system around sun-like stars — this is probably one of the best targets that we will ever get," says Daylan.
"We are looking for remnants of past life," says Prof. Tanja Bosak in a discussion broadcast on GBH's Boston Public Radio of the NASA Perseverance rover’s mission on Mars. "There won't be anything that's a complex organism, so everything we have to look for is microscopic. All these rocks tell a story. Depending on their chemical properties and the way they look, we can tell a history and then decide which may have been good to preserve life."
In an article for The Boston Globe, President Emerita Susan Hockfield and Prof. Ernest Moniz, former secretary of energy, highlight alumnus George Shultz’s PhD ’49 visionary approach to tackling climate change and the development of new technologies. "George was masterful in bringing together people and ideas from disparate disciplines to find new kinds of solutions to daunting political, technological, and organizational problems," they write. "He created communities of shared concern, which he recognized was the way to get things done and to have lots of fun doing so, frequently reminding us, 'If you want to land together, you better take off together.'"
In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Stuart Madnick explores how businesses can prepare for side-door hacks. Madnick underscores how “defense comes in two forms: prevention and mitigation. Both must be addressed.”
Writing for The Los Angeles Times, Profs. Sinan Aral and Dean Eckles explore how “proactively emphasizing the vaccine acceptance of others — including our community leaders, public figures and even our neighbors — can help boost vaccination rates to the level needed to end the pandemic."
Michael Hecht, associate director of MIT’s Haystack Observatory, speaks with Joe Shortsleeve of Bloomberg Radio about the MOXIE experiment onboard the NASA Perseverance rover.
Writing for Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Kim spotlights Prof Justin Reich’s new book, “Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education.” Kim writes, “‘Failure to Disrupt’ is an argument for educational tinkering over radical disruption. Reich sees potential in scaled online learning to benefit some learners in some circumstances.”
In an article for C&EN, Marsha-Ann Watson explores what inspired Prof. Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, to pursue a career in engineering, how her research at MIT has evolved to focus on biomedical applications and the importance of inclusivity and diversity. Hammond recalls how her first female science teacher inspired her love of chemistry: “I learned that I loved chemistry and that I could actually use that interest to perhaps create things,” she explains.
“What we need to do, especially as we move more towards intermittent energy that we can’t predict as well as the output of thermal power plants is to keep adding to that resiliency,” says Robert Stoner, deputy director of the MIT Energy Initiative. Stoner discussed the recent failures of Texas’ power grid and what New England can learn from these events on WBUR’s Radio Boston.
Prof. Kristala L. J. Prather speaks with Korie Grayson of C&EN about her career path and her work harnessing the synthetic power of microbial systems. Of the importance of mentorship, Prather notes, “The exponential way in which you can actually have a positive impact is by taking good care of the people who are placed into your academic and intellectual trust. That’s how we make a difference.”
Visiting scientist Judah Cohen speaks with Lindsey Carnett of the San Antonio Report about whether climate change may have contributed to extreme winter weather in Texas. “As the Arctic gets warmer than [it normally is] – the risk of severe winter weather increases very linearly,” says Cohen. “When the Arctic is at its warmest, it’s a huge jump in the likelihood or the probability of getting severe winter weather to many eastern U.S. cities.”
Associate Provost Richard Lester calls for a comprehensive dialogue between America’s research universities and the federal government. “Such a dialogue,” writes Lester, “would enable the universities to make clear that there is no contradiction between their interests as academic citizens of the world and as institutional citizens of the United States. Both sets of interests are served by openness, independence, and the freedom to attract, educate, and work with the world’s finest young minds.”
CNN reporter Jacque Smith highlights Prof. Amy Moran-Thomas’ work calling attention to how pulse oximeters can overestimate oxygen levels in darker-skinned patients.