Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, writes for Barron’s about how senior citizens are becoming an increasingly dominant consumer market. “Older consumers will no longer put up with companies that address only basic physiological or safety needs,” writes Coughlin. “New demands in the older market are arising from higher-level drives, such as goals, aspirations, aesthetic preferences, social needs, and talents.”
Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes that MIT researchers have used the venom from a South American wasp to engineer a new type of antibiotic. “The idea here is to take that very well-crafted toxin and turn it into something that can be useful for humans and our society,” explains César de la Fuente Nunez, a postdoc at MIT.
A new study by researchers from MIT and a number of other universities finds that the “Trump administration’s proposal to roll back fuel economy standards relies on an error-ridden and misleading analysis that overestimates the costs and understates the benefits of tighter regulation,” reports Tony Barboza for The Los Angeles Times.
In an article for NPR, Knight Science Journalism Fellow Elana Gordon explores whether pharmaceutical-grade heroin could serve as a form of treatment for longtime users. Gordon notes that, “prescribing heroin would challenge culture, laws and practice in the U.S.”
Popular Mechanics reporter Jill Kiedaisch writes that MIT researchers have developed a plant cyborg, named Elowan, that can move itself towards sources of light. Kiedaisch writes that Elowan “could elevate how we interface with the world around us, leveraging the natural abilities of plants to inform how we animals express our own agency to live, and keep living, perhaps a bit more symbiotically.”
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Boston native, will address graduates during MIT’s 2019 Commencement exercises, reports NECN.
Boston Globe reporter Travis Andersen writes reports that Michael Bloomberg – an entrepreneur, philanthropist and former mayor of New York City – will deliver MIT’s 2019 Commencement address.
Popular Mechanics reporter David Grossman writes that MIT researchers have developed a conceptual design for storing renewable energy for the grid in tanks of white-hot molten silicon. The researchers estimate that their system, “would cost around half as much as the current cheapest form of renewable energy ready to scale out to an entire grid.”
Prof. Julie Shah and Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee speak with Miles O’Brien of the PBS NewsHour about how robots can be used to augment human capabilities in the workplace. Shah explains that she is developing technology that enables robots to “integrate and work effectively with the person, so that they can accomplish the task together.”
Reporting for WBUR, Amelia Mason spotlights a collaboration between graduate student Ben Bloomberg and Jacob Collier, a singer and former MIT artist-in-residence. Bloomberg explains that he and Collier aim to use technology as a means to augment human capabilities, explaining that, “technology should do things that technology is good at, and the people should do things that people are good at.”
Prof. Aleksander Madry and graduate student Anish Athalye speak with BBC News reporter Linda Geddes about how AI systems can be tricked into seeing or hearing things that aren’t actually there. “People are looking at it as a potential security issue as these systems are increasingly being deployed in the real world,” Athalye explains.
Prof. Eric Klopfer speaks with Jane Clayson of WBUR’s On Point about whether parents should be concerned about the growing popularity of the videogame “Fortnite.” Klopfer says he feels the game has some educational value, noting that the game presents kids with the opportunity to partake in, “solving open-ended problems, communicating around complex issues [and] trying to work within systems.”
Media Lab researchers have created a new robotic plant, dubbed Elowan, that acts like a light sensor, reports Katharine Schwab for Fast Company. Schwab explains that the new plant-robot hybrid, “shows that technologists can use signals that already exist in nature–like the plant’s light-sensing capacity–to create an entirely new kind of organic interface.”
Motherboard reporter Caroline Haskins writes that Media Lab researchers have developed a new plant-robot hybrid that uses electrodes, a robot and wheels so that it can move itself towards light. Haskins explains that “bioelectrochemical signals from the plant that respond to light…are routed to a robot underneath the plant, and wheels take the plant to a spot best-suited for its survival.”
Writing for The Conversation, Prof. Henry Jacoby and research scientist Jennifer Morris explain that in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, countries must take immediate action to curb emissions. “Negotiated deals and national decisions made in these few months may determine whether or not the world’s nations will get on track to meeting this global challenge,” they write.