In the Media

Principal research scientist Charles Forsberg speaks with Forbes contributor James Conca about the long-term implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on energy usage.

Researchers from MIT and the Federal Reserve analyzed data from the 1918 flu pandemic and found that “the notion that reducing deaths from a pandemic necessarily hurts the economy is false,” reports The Economist.  

Boston Globe reporter Jonathan Saltzman writes that researchers from MIT and other institutions have developed “a diagnostic test for COVID-19 that resembles an over-the-counter pregnancy test and delivers results in about 15 minutes.”

CNN reporter Rishi Iyengar spotlights how MIT startup Ubiquitous Energy has developed transparent solar cells that could be applied to windows and glass surfaces to transform sunlight into energy. Iyengar writes that Ubiquitious Energy hopes to “turn practically any everyday glass surface into a solar cell.”

Boston 25 spotlights how a team of MIT researchers is working on developing an inexpensive alternative to traditional ventilators that could be rapidly manufactured around the world. “The key to the simple, inexpensive ventilator alternative is a hand-operated plastic pouch called a bab-valve resuscitator or Ambu bag, which hospitals already have on hand in large quantities,” reports Boston 25.

Prof. Jonathan Gruber writes for The Washington Post about how to cover the costs of care of uninsured patients who need medical care for Covid-19. “We need to move quickly to make sure that financial issues don’t place any unnecessary barriers in the way of effective treatment of covid-19 patients,” writes Gruber.

MIT alumnus Michael Sorkin, “a fiery champion of social justice and sustainability in architecture and urban planning, who emerged as one of his profession’s most incisive public intellectuals over a multifaceted career as a critic, author, teacher and designer,” died on March 26, reports Harrison Smith for The Washington Post.

Boston Globe correspondent Meghan Sorensen spotlights the work of Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman admitted to MIT. Sorensen notes that Richards was “a pioneer in the field of sanitary engineering and a founder of home economics in the United States.”

Reuters reporters Ann Saphir and Jeff Mason write that a new study by Prof. Emil Verner finds that during the 1918 flu epidemic cities that responded aggressively had fewer deaths and emerged from the pandemic with stronger economic growth. “One can do those types of quite gruesome calculations” says Verner. But evidence suggests “that in some sense, that’s a false tradeoff.”

Popular Mechanics reporter Courney Linder writes that MIT researchers are developing an alternative design for an emergency ventilator using Ambu resuscitation bags found in hospitals. “MIT is adapting the Ambu bags by creating a mechanism that can automate the squeezing and releasing motions,” Linder explains.

Quartz reporter John Detrixhe writes that a new study co-authored by Prof. Emil Verner finds that “aggressive social distancing measures, while extremely disruptive to commerce in the near term, can result in faster economic growth when the disease subsides.”

New York Times reporter Joseph Giovanni memorializes the life and work of MIT alumnus Michael Sorkin. Sorkin was “one of architecture’s most outspoken public intellectuals, a polymath whose prodigious output of essays, lectures and designs, all promoting social justice, established him as the political conscience in the field.”

Forbes contributor Eva Amsen writes that MIT researchers have transformed the biochemical properties of proteins into music, and then used those musical compositions to create new proteins. By converting protein structures into music, the researchers “have created a library of music fragments that directly correspond to the kind of protein structures that you would find in real, existing proteins.”

Prof. Sherry Turkle speaks with NBC News about how the Covid-19 pandemic has inspired people around the world to use the Internet in new and creative ways to connect. "Every group I'm in is trying to reinvent itself in an online form," says Turkle. "You see people trying to find something of themselves that they can use as the medium to express themselves."

A new paper co-authored by Prof. Emil Verner finds that public health measures like social distancing aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 may be better for economic growth than laxer measures, reports Max Reyes for Bloomberg. The researchers found that “cities that implemented more rapid and forceful non-pharmaceutical health interventions do not experience worse downturns.”