HuffPost reporter Thomas Tamblyn writes that Prof. Daniel Rothman has analyzed the Earth’s five previous mass extinctions and found that a sixth could be triggered by 2100. Rothman found that, “if a certain amount of carbon dioxide was added to the oceans on top of its existing levels it would result in a sixth mass extinction event.”
A new study by Prof. Daniel Rothman provides evidence that by 2100 the world’s oceans may hold enough carbon to trigger a sixth mass extinction, reports Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. Rothman found that if, “310 gigatons of carbon dioxide are added to the oceans, it could be a crucial tipping point for the carbon cycle.”
Prof. Feng Zhang has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize, reports Sharon Begley for STAT. Zhang was honored for his, “track record of innovations and of coming up with big ideas that change fields,” explains Prof. Michael Cima, faculty director of the award. “Zhang is one of those individuals who move through groups of talented people sparking new ideas.”
Prof. Kerry Emanuel writes for The Washington Post about how climate change and U.S. disaster policies are threat-multipliers for natural disasters like hurricanes. “The confluence of rising sea levels and stronger and wetter hurricanes with increasing coastal population and unwise government interference in insurance markets portends ever increasing hurricane disasters."
Senior Lecturer Ken Urban speaks with HuffPost reporter Michael Levin about the burgeoning theater program at MIT. “There is a lot of institutional support for the arts in all of its forms at MIT and I think it’s because that process of being creative and realizing that it’s super-important for engineers,” says Urban.
The Engine has raised $200 million and financed its first seven companies “in fields such as aerospace, advanced materials, genetic engineering and renewable energy,” reports Michael McDonald of Bloomberg.
Prof. Mitch Resnick spoke about his new book, Lifelong Kindergarten, which is “his attempt to distill what he's learned over the last few decades…[and] includes the voices of children and teenagers who have participated in Lifelong Kindergarten projects,” writes NPR’s Anya Kamenetz.
After studying more than 100 languages, Prof. Edward Gibson has “discovered a pattern in the way different cultures discern and label colors,” writes Ben Thompson for the Boston Globe.
Prof. Alan Berger shares his ideas for creating suburbs that attract tech savvy and environmentally conscious millennials in The New York Times. “Millennial suburbanites want a new kind of landscape. They want breathing room but disdain the energy wastefulness, visual monotony and social conformity of postwar manufactured neighborhoods.”
Asma Khalid of WBUR reports that The Engine has raised $200 million and funded its first seven “tough tech” companies. "We have to believe it's a breakthrough [idea] that can have big impact in the world," says Katie Rae, president and CEO of The Engine, of the selected companies.
Prof. Regina Barzilay, a breast cancer survivor, participated in a Washington Post Live discussion about “her own experience with the disease and how she uses data and machine learning to advance detection and treatment.”
Boston Globe reporter Andy Rosen writes that The Engine has raised $200 million to invest in “tough tech” companies. “The interest from private investors reflects a recognition that the venture capital world must find better ways to evaluate the technical promise of emerging technologies, and give them time to succeed,” notes Katie Rae, CEO of The Engine.
A new study from Prof. Edward Gibson examines the way different languages describe colors. “If you were to take the spectrum of colors that are perceptibly different to humans and chop it in half, every language would have more words for describing the warm half than the cool half,” writes Rachel Gutman for The Atlantic.
The Engine has announced its initial investments in seven startups ranging from alternative energy to space communications, reports Alex Konrad of Forbes. “By helping research teams productize their ideas early, at the pre-seed and seed stages of investment,” The Engine hopes to keep talented students and professors in the Boston area, explains Konrad.
Bryan Marquard of The Boston Globe writes about the legacy of Paul Gray, the 14th president of MIT, who died at 85 and was known for his efforts to increase diversity at MIT. Gray was a “transformative administrator who enrolled at MIT as an electrical engineering student in 1950 and retired in 1997 as chairman of the MIT Corporation, the institute’s governing body,” writes Marquard.