In an article for Salon, Associate Prof. Noelle Eckley Selin and postdoc Sae Yun Kwon discuss their latest research, which examined emissions in China. They write that although mercury pollution is often associated with fish consumption, “China’s future emissions trajectory can have a measurable influence on the country’s rice methylmercury” levels, as well.
Writing for The Atlantic, MIT lecturer Amy Carleton describes the focus on public policy, as well as engineering and product design, at this year’s “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” hackathon. “What emerged [at the inaugural hackathon] was an awareness that the challenges surrounding breastfeeding were not just technical and equipment-based,” explains Carleton.
The Economist explores the basics of free trade, its benefits and downsides, with Prof. John Van Reenen. “With free trade, you come into more contact with foreign companies, new ideas, new people and so on,” explains Van Reenen. “That’s mutually beneficial. And it is a political force for cooperation.”
Eric Mack writes for Forbes about a new system from MIT researchers that uses GPS in conjunction with LIDAR and IMU sensors to power self-driving vehicle navigation. Graduate student Teddy Ort says the system “shows the potential of self-driving cars being able to actually handle roads beyond the small number that tech companies have mapped.”
In a Q&A with The Boston Globe’s Sarah Shemkus, Prof. Yossi Sheffi discusses his new book, Balancing Green, which examines “the challenges and benefits of ‘going green’ in a multilayered global economy.” Sheffi suggests green practices can be advantageous for companies because “certain things also cut costs and increase profit, like energy savings.”
Bucking conventional wisdom, research co-authored by Prof. Josh Tenenbaum shows that “picking up the subtleties of grammar in a a second language does not fade until well into the teens,” writes Dana G. Smith for Scientific American. “To become completely fluent, however, learning should start before the age of 10.”
MapLite, a new system developed by CSAIL, aims to help autonomous vehicles navigate uncharted areas, writes Jesus Diaz for Co.Design. “[I]f autonomous cars can reach the millions of people who live beyond the city and are unable to pilot their own vehicles,” said graduate student Teddy Ort, “they will be uniquely capable of providing mobility to those who have very few alternatives.”
MIT researchers have identified the brain circuit required for observational learning, reports Xinhua. According to the study, the area involved in evaluating social information is more active when witnessing an experience and “relays information about the experience” to the region important for processing emotions.
Katie Johnston writes for The Boston Globe about a series of workshops at Sloan that are intended to teach business leaders how to identify, confront, and address sexual harassment in the workplace. “People are waking up in business schools and realizing we’ve had a blind spot,” said senior lecturer Daena Giardella. “We can’t have leadership without this being taught.”
A new paper co-authored by Prof. Omer Yilmaz and Prof. David Sabatini found that fasting substantially “improves stem cells' ability to regenerate,” reports Xinhua. The researchers hope this finding could lead to new drug treatments that “stimulate regeneration without requiring patients to fast, which is difficult for most people.”
Alumni Keith Dionne and Frank Gentile, who met as graduate students in 1983, have launched a biotech company based on how cells detoxify and repair themselves, reports Jonathan Saltzman of The Boston Globe. Saltzman explains that by creating drugs to induce a process called autophagy, Dionne and Gentile hope to “help cells rid themselves of debris associated with diseases” like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
New research from Sloan finds that entrepreneurs in their 40s are more successful than those in their 20s, writes Amy Wilkinson for The Wall Street Journal. The researchers also show that older company founders “were 125% more successful if they were previously employed in the particular sector in which they were starting a new business,” explains Wilkinson.
Gradute student Jonny Sun speaks with Seth Myers on Late Nate with Seth Meyers about his new book, “Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too.” The book, which follows an alien who comes to earth and learns to celebrate people’s differences, features intentional typos to emphasize “a common theme throughout the story…that it’s ok to be imperfect,” says Sun.
Forbes contributor Frederick Daso describes the vision of two mechanical engineering alumni, Victoria Gregory and Gabriel Alba-Rivera, who co-founded Magis Industries, which develops consumer products based on viral social media trends. “Going forward,” writes Daso, “the team hopes to not only develop more products, but also continue to improve the process of product development itself.”
In an opinion piece for The Boston Globe, Alex Amouyel, executive director of MIT Solve, explains how the initiative is ‘crowdsolving’ thorny global problems through open innovation. “We need to source ideas from innovators all around the world to find the next breakthroughs,” argues Amouyel. “We know talent and ingenuity exist everywhere.”