Writing for National Geographic, graduate student Lucy Jakub examines the Earth’s history of mass extinctions. “Increasing evidence suggests that many global extinction events were associated with oxygen-depletion in the oceans, a symptom of greenhouse warming, and that has worrying implications for the present-day effects of climate change,” writes Jakub.
MIT researchers have developed a method of storing vaccination history underneath a patient's skin, reports Elizabeth Cooney for STAT. “My hope is that this scientific work could someday have a significant impact in terms of enabling patients in the developing world to receive the correct vaccines when needed,” explains Prof. Robert Langer.
Senior lecturer Robert Pozen is funding a new prize in honor of his mother that will honor outstanding financial policy research or practices, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Policymakers or academics who make an outstanding contribution to financial policy,” says Pozen, “they get some recognition but they don’t get the financial rewards that the people who are running these companies get.”
Research affiliate Matt Beane writes for Wired about the potential challenges posed by creating AI systems that can predict unintended consequences. Beane explains that the more tasks we hand over to an AI system “singularly focused on its goals, the more they can produce consequences we don’t like, sometimes at the speed of light.”
Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, examines how new smart technologies designed to help care for the elderly are vulnerable to cyberattacks. “Technology now provides a critical role in supporting caregivers and the wellbeing of older adults,” writes Coughlin. “However, caregivers now have a new job — the cyber security of their older loved ones.”
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with WGBH reporter Zoe Matthews about how to select the best healthcare plan. Gruber explains that he has found, “people pay much too much attention to what the premium is, and not nearly enough attention to the risk they face spending money at the doctor and at the hospital."
MIT researchers have developed a new instrument that can be used to help extend the range of the LIGO detectors, reports the Xinhua news agency. “LIGO used to pick up whispers of gravitational waves from space every month or so. Thanks to the squeezer, now it is happening nearly every week,” Xinhua explains.
MIT alumni Stephanie Lee and Ellen Shakespear speak with Boston Globe reporter Janelle Nanos about their startup SpaceUs, which is aimed at bringing art, culture and commerce to empty storefronts around the city. Nanos notes that Lee and Shakespear work with “landlords to identify vacant spaces and open temporary storefronts to enliven the streetscape.”
NBC 10 reporter Jackie Bruno visits MIT to learn more about Prof. Sangbae Kim’s work developing a robotic mini cheetah. “We have cars, airplanes, and ships, submarines. We have a lot of technology that can help move us around but yet we still don't have technology that can help us move in our space,” says Kim of the inspiration for his work.
Research affiliate Pakinam Amer writes for The Boston Globe about her work with the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality creating a deepfake video reimagining the Apollo 11 moon landing. “The film is meant to raise awareness of the power of fake videos — and in turn, fake narratives — and the technology currently at the frontiers of synthetic media and at the center of many a conversation about truth and disinformation,” writes Amer.
Research affiliate Pakinam Amer writes for The Boston Globe about the dangers posed by deepfake technology. Amer writes that as deepfakes “become more widespread and more sophisticated, they’re provoking ever-deeper anxiety, raising questions about whether they can be used to influence political elections, or create a climate of fear and distrust.”
Boston Globe reporter Maria Lovato writes that MIT scientists have uncovered evidence that a mysterious burst of light at the center of the Milk Way may be caused by dark matter. The findings could allow astronomers “to get a better look at dark matter, its properties, and what it’s made of,” Lovato explains.
MIT researchers have found that dark matter may be the source of the gamma rays found at the center of our galaxy, reports Ryan Mandelbaum for Gizmodo. “If it turns out that the signal is dark matter, that’s huge for our understanding of the universe,” explains postdoctoral associate Rebecca Leane.
BBC Click reporter Paul Carter spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new simulation model that can be used to optimize the development of soft robots. Clark explains that the model “understands how springy, stretchy forms can move in an infinite number of ways.”
Senior lecturer Hal Gregersen writes for The Wall Street Journal about how employers can retain their best-performing employees in a competitive labor market. “The best managers are getting creative,” writes Gregersen, “not by offering higher pay pre-emptively, but by thinking more about what would make someone sad to leave, and about whether they are giving employees enough of those things.”