Writing for the Financial Times, Associate Prof. Tavneet Suri explains the importance of measuring the benefits of philanthropy in sub-Saharan Africa. This data “could help resource- or skills-constrained African companies to leverage the benefits of impact measurement tools, to better understand their positive impact on poverty,” Prof. Suri explains.
Prof. Harvey Lodish and Prof. Emeritus Nancy Hopkins explain in The Boston Globe that the lack of women in the biotech industry stems from the exclusion of women at the venture capital firms that fund those companies. “Including more women in the pool of venture and biotech leaders will insure the success of the Massachusetts biopharmaceutical ecosystem,” Profs. Lodish and Hopkins conclude.
Research affiliate Sam Ford has enlisted colleagues at MIT and USC, including Prof. Daniela Rus, to participate in his Future of Work Initiative, writes Jeff Howe in The Boston Globe. The group is trying to better understand how technology is impacting the job market in Kentucky and determine how to provide more useful solutions to those affected.
Prof. Michael Strano has developed “a sensor that can be “printed” onto a plant’s leaf and transmit data from the plant itself about if it’s experiencing water stress,” writes Kristin Toussaint for metro.
Media Lab researcher Anushka Shah analyzes recent news coverage using the MIT Media Cloud on WBUR’s Here & Now. As an open source platform, the Media Cloud allows “people to have a stronger tool to be able to analyze and reflect in the media,” Shah says.
Prof. Kerry Emanuel released a new paper that analyzes the impact of Hurricane Harvey, writes Bloomberg’s Eric Roston. Emanuel found that “Harvey’s rainfall in Houston was ‘biblical’ in the sense that it likely occurred around once since the Old Testament was written.”
Writing about the future of clothing and fabrics, Kara Yurieff highlights the programmable material developed by the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA). The organization, which aims to “change what fabrics do,” according to Prof. Yoel Fink, will soon allow sports fans to scan jerseys at games to view player stats.
A recent study from Prof. Kerry Emanuel suggests that, due to climate change, “massive hurricanes like Harvey are expected to strike Houston and Texas with much greater frequency in the future than they do now,” writes Deborah Netburn for the Los Angeles Times.
Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press reports on a new study by Prof. Kerry Emanuel, which finds that hurricanes with extreme rainfall could become common as a result of global warming. Borenstein explains that the odds of 20 inches of rain occurring over a large area of Texas is “6 in 100 and by 2081, those odds will be 18 in 100.”
Using nanotechnology and CRISPR, Prof. Daniel Anderson has turned off a cholesterol-related gene in mouse liver cells, reports Julie Steenhuysen for Reuters. This new development “could lead to new ways to correct genes that cause high cholesterol and other liver diseases,” Steenhuysen writes.
In an obituary for The New York Times, Jessica Silver-Greenberg writes that the late Vanu Bose “reimagined cellular networks and extended service to people living in remote regions of the world.” A desire to help motivated much of Bose’s work, according to friends and colleagues.
A tax bill under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives would particularly impact graduate students, reports Kirk Carapezza for WGBH’s Education Desk, tripling their tax bills – or worse. Carapezza spoke with Sarah Goodman, president of MIT’s Graduate Student Council, who explained the proposal would put graduate studies out of reach for many students, warning that would be detrimental: “Graduate students are the ones being trained to become the future engineers and leaders of scientific development.”
NPR’s Chris Arnold reports that graduate students are anxious about being hit with a massive tax increase being considered in Congress. Arnold speaks with a number of PhD candidates at MIT, including Ryan Hill. “Hill and other MIT students say the tax proposal is ill-conceived. So do economists, who say it would discourage Americans from seeking advanced degrees at a time when the country badly needs a better educated workforce,” says Arnold.
A study by Prof. Kerry Emanuel finds that climate change will triple the likelihood of storms with 20 inches of rainfall hitting Texas, writes Doyle Rice for USA Today. Using computer models of past, present, and future storms, Emanuel “hurried the study to help Houston officials think about what conditions they should consider when they rebuild,” Rice explains.
A study by Prof. Kerry Emanuel finds that storms like Hurricane Harvey, which produced 20 inches of rain, are six times more likely to occur as a result of global warming, reports Robinson Meyers of The Atlantic. Rainfall will worsen because “storms of all types—not just hurricanes—will retain more moisture in a warmer climate,” explains Meyers.