TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a new smart surface, called RFocus, that improves signal strength for phones and other devices. The researchers envision "a future where RFocus is used in homes and warehouses to boost signals for the Internet of Things and various network-connected devices,” Heater explains.
Washington Post reporter Jeremy Deaton spotlights the late Prof. Edward Lorenz’s work on chaos theory and “the butterfly effect.” Deaton notes when Lorenz first invoked a butterfly’s wings, he was “actually saying that even if we could account for every skipper and swallowtail along the Yellow Sea, it wouldn’t do much to improve weather forecasts.”
CSAIL researchers have created a smart surface that can boost a phone’s signal strength by 1,000 percent, reports Victoria Song for Gizmodo. “CSAIL’s idea was instead of adding transmitters and receivers, wireless signals can be amplified by adding the antennas to external surfaces—like a wall,” writes Song.
Frank Press - a former Institute Professor, Life Member Emeritus of the MIT Corporation, and president of the National Academy of Sciences – has died at age 95, reports Neil Genzlinger for The New York Times. Genzlinger notes that Press, “was a key voice in American science policy.”
Karilyn Crockett, a lecturer in DUSP, spoke with The Boston Globe’s Kelly Horan about her role as Boston’s chief of equity. “As I prioritize racial, gender, and health equity for a city of 700,000 that is majority people of color, it means that we have to recognize that the history that brought us here has to be looked at in a clear way.”
Forbes reporter Anna Powers that MIT researchers have developed a way to make sodium-ion batteries more energy efficient. Powers notes that the development “was accomplished by tuning the battery composition through the addition of manganese.”
Senior lecturer Ben Shields writes for WBUR about why it is so expensive to be a sports fan. “Giving fans the ‘ultimate social experience’ is one way to justify the price tag that comes along with sports fandom,” writes Shields. “It’s also one of the reasons the cost of being a fan has grown at such a rapid rate.”
Washington Post reporter Emily Langer memorializes the life and work of Frank Press, a former Institute Professor and Life Member Emeritus of the MIT Corporation. Press, who served as science adviser to President Jimmy Carter and president of the National Academy of Sciences, “forged his careers in science and government during a period when the two fields intersected in consequential ways.”
Financial Times columnist John Thornhill writes about a recent trip to MIT to hear “inspiring tales of entrepreneurial endeavor,” spotlighting the work of Profs. Robert Langer, Asu Ozdaglar and Kripa Varanasi. “It is my duty to make something that solves an important problem,” says Varanasi of the inspiration for his work. “It is all about the problem.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Iyad Rahwan explores the complex issue of whether AI assistants should be designed to reveal that they are machines. “Although there is broad consensus that machines should be transparent about how they make decisions, it is less clear whether they should be transparent about who they are,” writes Rahwan.
Forbes contributor James Jennings spotlights Prof. Andrew Lo’s book “Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought.” Jennings writes that Lo “proposes a new theory he calls the ‘Adaptive Markets Hypothesis,’ which seeks to synthesize the theories of the behavioral school of investing (investors are biased and irrational) and the efficient markets school (investors are rational, profit-maximizing machines).”
Prof. David Mindell writes for Forbes about the history of NASA spaceflight accidents. “If I were a young astronaut looking forward to an exciting career in a new era of human spaceflight,” writes Mindell, “I’d be asking some tough questions.”
President Emerita Susan Hockfield, Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia and Prof. Nancy Hopkins have convened a working group to increase the number of women in biotech. “We’ve been talking about the 40 companies that haven’t happened because women haven’t had the opportunity,” said Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president of research. “If a number of those 40 companies had come to pass, people would have treatments today that they don’t have.”
STAT reporter Sharon Begley spotlights how President Emerita Susan Hockfield and Profs. Sangeeta Bhatia and Nancy Hopkins are tackling the gender imbalance in biotech. “Our working hypothesis is that engagement [on scientific advisory boards and boards of directors] can help increase the number” of women-founded biotechs,” Bhatia explains.
Fast Company reporter Arianne Cohen writes that a new study by Prof. Arnold Barnett finds flying today is much safer than it was in the past. Barnett examined flight safety from 2008 to 2017 and found that “globally, flying today is six times safer than 30 years ago, and 22 times safer than 50 years ago.”