In the Media

MIT was named the number one STEM school in the country on Forbes’ 2018 list of the top 25 STEM colleges, reports Carter Coudriet for Forbes. Coudriet notes that, “MIT’s high ranking is driven by its grads’ career success.”

Engadget reporter Jon Fingas writes that MIT researchers have developed a new wireless device that allows data to be transmitted from an underwater source to the air. Fingas explains that the system could allow submarines to “send their findings directly to aircraft (including drones) circling above while remaining safely underwater, and without using boats as intermediaries.”

Space.com reporter Chelsea Gohd writes that MIT researchers have used the light emitted by two ancient quasars to provide evidence of quantum entanglement, the theory that two particles can become linked across space and time. The researchers used ancient quasars to see if, “the correlation between particles can be explained by classical mechanics stemming from earlier than 600 years ago.”

Writing for Motherboard, Daniel Oberhaus highlights how MIT researchers have used light emitted by quasars billions of years ago to confirm the existence of quantum entanglement. Oberhaus explains that the findings suggest entanglement occurs “because if it didn’t exist the universe would somehow have to have ‘known’ 7.8 billion years ago that these MIT scientists would perform these experiments in 2018.”

MIT researchers have discovered hundreds of galaxies that were hidden by light being emitted from a supermassive black hole, reports Kasandra Brabaw for Space.com. “The black hole, a type known as a quasar, sits 2.4 billion light-years from Earth and is so bright that astronomers have assumed it was alone in its area of space for decades,” Brabaw explains.

Prof. Vipin Narang writes for Foreign Affairs about the state of North Korea’s nuclear program following President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Narang argues that the U.S. should try to “establish a stable deterrence regime rather than pressing for immediate unilateral disarmament, ensuring that nuclear dangers on the Korean Peninsula are managed responsibly.”

Prof. Thomas Levenson participates in a WGBH Living Lab Radio panel discussion about science fiction. “Science fiction is simply literature, Levenson explains. “It might be the leading stream of fiction because we live in a world that is so conditioned by all the ways that both deep scientific ideas and their applications in everyday technology change the way we do everything.”

In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen argues that having the Securities and Exchange Commission switch to semiannual reporting would not encourage more firms to make long-term investments. Pozen notes that, “a better idea for reforming financial reporting would be for firms to stop issuing ‘guidance’ on their earnings for the next quarter or year.”

Wired reporter Jack Stewart explores the technology behind Boston-based startup WaveSense, which applies ground-penetrating radar developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory to give self-driving cars a way to map where they are without relying on visual clues or GPS. The technology, writes Stewart, was “first deployed in 2013 to help troops navigate in Afghanistan, where staying on path and avoiding landmines is a matter of life and death.”

Quartz reporter Madis Kabash highlights how Media Lab researchers are developing a device, dubbed Mnemo, that automatically records and retrieves a person’s memories. The project team aims to “build a memory bank big enough to help people with memory loss,” explains Kabash.

MIT alumnus Kofi Annan, former United Nations secretary general, has died at age 80, the Associated Press reports. Annan, “one of the world’s most celebrated diplomats,” earned a master’s degree from the Sloan School of Management.

FOX News reporter James Rogers writes that MIT researchers have detected a new galaxy cluster that had been obscured by the bright light emitted from a supermassive black hole.  “Located just 2.4 billion light-years from Earth, the cluster consists of hundreds of individual galaxies,” Rogers explains.

Boston Globe reporter John Hilliard writes about the legacy of former UN secretary general and MIT alumnus Kofi Annan, citing reflections Annan offered in his 1997 MIT Commencement Address. “Science and international organizations alike are constructs of reason, engaged in a permanent struggle against the forces of unreason,” said Annan. “Science and international organizations alike speak a universal language and seek universal truths.”

Media Lab researchers have developed a desk that transforms based on the user’s mood, reports Madis Kabash for Quartz. Kabash explains that the desk collects, “over 30 biological signals including heart-rate, facial-expressions, and posture,” and then adjusts lighting, changes images on a screen and plays different sounds on a speaker to help the user destress.

Engadget reporter Jon Fingas writes that MIT researchers have developed an encryption method that can secure sensitive data in neural networks without slowing machine learning systems. The method, notes Fingas, could “lead to more uses of internet-based neural networks for handling vital info, rather than forcing companies and institutions to either build expensive local equivalents or forget AI-based systems altogether.”