Writing for The Boston Globe, Linda Rodriguez McRobbie spotlights Cyborg Botany, a project at the Media Lab aimed to tap into how plants react to their environments. The researchers grew plants with “conductive wires in their intercellular spaces. That allowed the plants to become inconspicuous motion sensors, sending a signal via microelectrodes to a laptop every time someone walked by.”
Professor Angelika Amon, an award-winning cell biologist and “an advocate for the kinds of studies that grind away outside of the limelight,” died on Oct. 29, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Amon’s daughter, Clara Weis, noted that Amon “was pretty much the best role model there is. She was very caring and understanding. She always knew what was happening and how to deal with it the right way.”
MIT researchers have developed a new system that uses solar power to sterilize medical tools, according to The Economist. The system “should cost just a tenth as much to make commercially as a conventional autoclave of equivalent potency.”
A new working paper co-authored by Visiting Assistant Professor Jordan Nickerson finds that increasingly protective child car-seat laws have contributed to a reduced birth rate in America, reports The Economist. Nickerson and his colleagues found that tightening car-seat laws “was accompanied by a drop, on average, of 0.73 percentage points in the number of women giving birth to a third while the first two were young enough to need safety seats.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Guardian reporter Lauren Aratani about the impact of automation on inequality. While AI has “tremendous potential for making humans more productive,” Acemoglu notes that it also “has been a major driver in the increase in inequality.”
Forbes contributor Adi Gaskell highlights a new study by CSAIL researchers that underscores the importance of foreign-born scientists when it comes to breakthroughs in AI. The researchers noted that “If we want the United States to continue to be ground zero for computer science, we need to make sure that our policies make it easy to continue to bring host international researchers to join our institutions.”
Times Higher Ed reporter Matthew Reisz memorializes the life and work of Prof. Angelika Amon, a “trailblazing” scientist known for her research into the life cycle of cells. “Angelika existed in a league of her own,” says Whitehead fellow Kristin Knouse. “She had the energy and excitement of someone who picked up a pipette for the first time, but the brilliance and wisdom of someone who had been doing it for decades.”
Beth Baniszewski ’05 speaks with Boston Magazine reporter Scott Kearnan about the TurDunkin’, “a Coolatta-brined turkey covered in confetti sprinkles” and her food blog, Unwholesome Foods, which she started with friends at MIT.
Reporting for WBUR, Katie Lannan writes that Dalila Argaez Wendlandt SM ’93 has been confirmed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and will be the state’s first Latina high court justice. Lannan notes that Wendlandt “earned an MIT master's degree in engineering before embarking on a law career.”
Judge Dalila Argaez Wendlandt SM ’93 has been confirmed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, reports Matt Stout for The Boston Globe. Gov. Charlie Baker noted that Wendlandt will bring “intellectual horsepower, kindness, and grace” to the court.
Axios reporter Bryan Walsh writes that during the virtual AI and the Work of the Future Congress, Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, noted that “education and training are central to helping the current and next generation thrive in the labor market.”
A new study by MIT researchers finds that “changes in coronavirus levels in wastewater preceded rises and falls in positive test results by four to 10 days,” reports Kim Tingley for The New York Times. The findings suggest that “sewage surveillance could play an important role in helping contain the pandemic.”
Smithsonian reporter Rasha Aridi writes that MIT researchers have found that longing for social interaction elicits a similar neurological response to a hungry person craving food. The researchers found that “after a day of fasting, they noted that they were uncomfortable and had intense food cravings. After social isolation, they felt lonely and unhappy and yearned for interactions.”
Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, speaks with Annie Nova of CNBC about the Task Force’s new report, which lays out recommendations for ensuring Americans are able to secure good jobs in an era of automation. “We’re suggesting that people have access to affordable education and training,” says Reynolds. “I think there’s a real opportunity to help transition people and educate workers without four-year degrees.”
A new study by MIT researchers finds that lack of social contact can lead many people to crave interactions in a similar manner as they do when experiencing hunger, reports Katherine Dunn for Fortune. The researchers found that “10 hours without any social contact, for many people, led to a kind of psychological and physical craving that's on the same level of intensity as 10 waking hours without food.”