Popular Mechanics reporter Kyro Mitchell explores how MIT researchers have created a biodegradable medical patch that could be used to repair internal injuries. Mitchell notes that the patch “can be easily wrapped around robotic tools like a balloon catheter and a surgical stapler and then be inserted into the patient.”
AP reporter Matthew Lee memorializes the life and work of George Shultz PhD ’49, “a titan of American academia, business and diplomacy who spent most of the 1980s trying to improve Cold War relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle East.”
Mashable reporter Kellen Beck spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new medical patch that could be used to repair tears in organs and tissues.” Because internal surgeries involve small, specialized tools, the patch was created to fold around these tools and make insertion and use in tight spaces simpler. The patch resists contamination and biodegrades over time,” writes Beck.
George Shultz, an MIT alumnus and former professor of economics who served as a counsel and Cabinet member for two presidents, has died at age 100, reports Michael Abramowitz and David E. Hoffman for The Washington Post. “Mr. Shultz was a policy maven, conservative but curious, patient and determined. He ranged widely over domestic and foreign affairs,” they write.
Boston Globe reporter Mark Feenery writes that George Shultz PhD ’49, who held top positions under President Nixon and was secretary of state for President Regan, “was regarded as a model of managerial dependability: pragmatic, low key, unflappable.”
George Shultz PhD ’49, known for serving as President Regan’s secretary of state has died at 100, reports Malcolm Rutherford and Aime Williams for the Financial Times. Rutherford and Williams note that during Shultz’s tenure as secretary of state, “there were achievements in arms control, in reducing regional conflicts and in placing human rights on the US-Soviet agenda.”
George Schultz PhD ‘49, the former secretary of state under President Regan and an MIT alumnus, has died at 100, reports Michael R. Gordon for The Wall Street Journal. Gordon notes that Schultz’s “diplomacy helped seal the end of the Cold War,” adding that he “remained an active voice on national security, economic and environmental issues after leaving government.”
Axios reporter Bryan Walsh spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new way for chemical signals in spinach leaves to transmit emails. “The system could help provide an early warning system for explosives or pollution, but really, we just want to know what the spinach are thinking,” writes Walsh.
Prof. Dava Newman speaks with Esther Paniagua of El País about her goals for her new role as director of the MIT Media Lab. “We want to accelerate positive change for people,” says Newman in this interview, which is in Spanish. “Trying to answer the big questions: equity, justice, inequality, climate and sustainability, people and communication, and education and learning.”
In an article for The Washington Post, graduate student Aidan Milliff and Saksham Khosla of Dalberg Advisors explore why farmers are protesting in India. Milliff and Khosla write that farmers are concerned that new laws aimed at deregulating agricultural markets in India could create a situation where “farmers would see less long-term stability, and could be at the mercy of big business.”
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Peter Coy spotlights how the loss of several people close to Prof. Andrew Lo inspired him to explore how the field of finance could help advance treatments for orphan diseases. “Finance plays a huge role, sometimes way too big a role, in how drugs get developed,” says Lo. Fixing the financing model, could have a “tremendous, tremendous impact on health care.”
In an opinion piece for The Los Angeles Times, Institute Professor Phillip Sharp, Ellen Sigal of the Friends of Cancer Research and Sherry Lansing of the Sherry Lansing Foundation underscore the importance of selecting an effective leader for the FDA. “In order to restore trust in the FDA, and restore morale within, a permanent leader with expansive experience, medical expertise and the confidence of agency staff and the American public needs to be nominated in short order,” they write.
Fast Company reporter Adele Peters spotlights Prof. Michael Strano’s work exploring how to embed nanoparticles into plant leaves, as part of an effort to see if they could serve as sensors. “We started asking the question, can we make living plants to do some of the functions that humans do by stamping things out of plastic and circuit boards—things that go into landfills?” says Strano.
UPI reporter Brooks Hays writes that MIT researchers have developed a new machine learning algorithm that can anticipate and recognize a protein’s varied structures. “The new AI-system,” writes Hays, “does more than image a diversity of conformations, it can also predict the varied motions of different protein structures.”
Prof. Earl Miller speaks with Edgar Herwick III of GBH Radio about multitasking. "You can only think of a very small bit of information, one train of thought at a time," explains Miller. "So when you think you’re multitasking, what you’re actually doing is task switching. You’re switching back and forth. The result is you have decreased productivity, increased mistakes, and a decrease of quality of thought.”