In the Media

Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Bloomberg about the impact of Covid-19 on supply chains.

Forbes reporter Alexandra Sternlicht writes that MIT startup Ginkgo Bioworks “is giving $25 million worth of resources in their $400 million R&D facility to public and private teams working to cure, prevent and treat the novel coronavirus.”

An app developed by researchers from MIT and other institutions could help track the spread of coronavirus in communities, reports Lilly Smith for Fast Company. The app “alerts people when they come into contact with someone who’s been diagnosed with COVID-19, potentially reducing the virus’s spread if the app is downloaded by a large chunk of the population.”

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Yossi Sheffi explores how companies can prepare to recover following the Covid-19 pandemic. “For supply-chain managers, the task is to keep critical suppliers viable and to treat customers in ways that do not create resentment,” writes Sheffi. “Companies that achieve this balance should come out strong on the other side.”

Research specialist Kate Darling speaks with New Scientist about why people form emotional attachments to robots. “We are very social creatures and we tend to subconsciously treat robots like they are alive, even though we know they are just machines,” says Darling. “Part of this comes from our tendency to anthropomorphise, i.e. to project human traits, motivations and behaviours onto non-humans.”

For the 10^th year, the Koch Institute is featuring a selection of bioscience images as part its annual Image Awards. “Sometimes the most beautiful images are ones that can’t be seen with the naked eye,” writes STAT.

Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, writes for Forbes about how social distancing aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 is shedding light on the social isolation that many seniors experience. Coughlin writes that social distancing “can serve as an exercise in empathy (albeit an imperfect one), permitting younger people to appreciate some of what many older adults go through every day.”

A new app created by MIT researchers helps maps the spread of Covid-19 by tracking a person’s location and interactions, reports Courtney Linder for Popular Mechanics. The data, which is encrypted to protect user privacy, “lets you know if you've likely come into contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.”

Financial Times reporter Chris Nuttall spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new app that aims to help curb the spread of Covid-19 by tracking “where you have been and who you have crossed paths with — and then shares this personal data with other users in a privacy-preserving way.”

Scientific American Ron Cowen explores Prof. Markus Buehler’s work generating music that represents the vibrations and folding patterns of amino acids. “Just like in a painting, the new protein sounds are like a new color palette that could be invented—colors no one has ever seen—but which can now be used to create art,” Buehler says. 

Fast Company reporter Mark Wilson spotlights how Tangible Media Group researchers have developed interactive systems that could allow people in separate locations to physically interact with the same object. “You could literally play catch with someone through inFORM, tossing a ball into their hands,” writes Wilson.

Popular Science spotlights the Koch Institute’s Image Awards, which aims to highlight visuals produced through life science and biomedical research at MIT. “The array of photos on cancer and brain research strike a chord, effectively demonstrating the biggest challenges—and possibilities—in understanding how life works.”

Writing for WBUR, MIT graduate student Nicole Bustos argues that the U.S. should make diagnostic testing, treatments and vaccines for Covid-19 free. “A federal directive requiring free access to diagnostic tests, treatment and the eventual vaccine will reduce the spread of the virus within communities,” writes Bustos and her co-authors.

WBUR’s Barbara Moran reports that the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is working with state officials to begin processing Covid-19 diagnostic tests. Moran notes that Broad scientists have been working to adapt the Institute's clinical testing facility “to accurately perform the existing COVID-19 test on a large scale.”

To slow the spread of Covid-19, the presidents of MIT, Harvard and Stanford argue for big institutional actions, even some that feel uncomfortably extreme: “Public health experts tell us that as a society, the steps we take this week will have an immense impact on determining whether this crisis becomes a catastrophe.”