Prof. Ben Olken speaks with BBC News reporter Gareth Mitchell about how the cancellation of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes impacted traffic in Jakarta, Indonesia. Olken and his colleagues found that in addition to traffic substantially increasing in areas that previously had HOV lanes, without the carpool lanes, “traffic gets worse all over the city.”
UPI reporter Amy Wallace writes that MIT researchers have applied a computer vision system to help quantify the physical improvement of American neighborhoods. The researchers found that “density of highly educated residents, proximity to central business districts and other attractive areas, and the initial safety score assigned by the computer system are strongly related to improvements.”
The Washington Post Editorial Board highlights a paper co-authored by Prof. David Autor examining how technological advancements are impacting the labor market. Autor found that productivity growth associated with new technologies results in higher overall employment, but that job growth has been highly polarized. The study shows the need for societies to, “redouble their efforts to provide education and training.”
Stuart Schmill, MIT’s dean of admissions, speaks with WBUR’s Fred Thys about why colleges are placing an increased emphasis on the whole student as opposed to extracurricular activities. “We want students to take the most challenging classes that are most appropriate for them,” says Schmill, “but they don't need to do that in every single subject.”
In an article about metal organic frameworks (MOFs), Max Opray of The Guardian highlights Prof. Evelyn Wang’s work developing a device that can extract water from the air. The transparent box developed by Prof. Wang and her team “delivers enough drinking water for a person’s daily needs,” explains Opray.
A study by MIT researchers shows that carpool lanes can help reduce a city’s traffic, reports Matt McFarland for CNN. The researchers found that the removal of HOV lanes increased driving times across Jakarta, Indonesia. "The magnitude was enormous and more than I would've expected," says Prof. Ben Olken.
Boston Globe reporter Jeremy Fox writes about a new study by MIT researchers examining whether math games can be beneficial in helping children learn. The researchers found that, “children who played math games consistently showed a better grasp of the concepts…but that understanding did not appear to help in elementary school.”
In an article for Forbes, Champaign Williams highlights a new app developed by two MIT graduates that, “connects millennials and college students in search of temporary housing with baby boomers who have excess space and could use the extra cash.”
Ta-Hsuan Ong of Lincoln Lab has developed a new monitoring device that could help train dogs tasked with detecting hidden explosives, according to The Economist. The device, “lets handlers check instantly whether an apparent mistake by a dog is a real one.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Karen Kaplan writes that a new study by MIT researchers provides evidence that high-occupancy vehicle lanes can reduce traffic. The researchers found that when a carpool policy in Jakarta, Indonesia was canceled, there was a “46% increase in commuting time in the morning and an 87% increase in the evening.”
Nature reporter Anna Nowogrodzki spotlights Prof. Aviv Regev’s quest to map every cell in the human body. “One of the things that makes Aviv special is her enormous bandwidth. I've never met a scientist who thinks so deeply and so innovatively on so many things,” says Dana Pe'er, a computational biologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Randall Stross of The Wall Street Journal examines the latest book by Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson and Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee, which explores technologies shaping the future of business. Stross writes that the, “authors present a splendid tutorial on things that are too new for most civilians to have gained a good understanding of—cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, distributed ledgers, and smart contracts.”
Scientists at the Broad Institute are trying to map every cell in the human body, reports Sy Mukherjee for Fortune. Once complete, the human cell atlas could “ultimately tailor drug discovery and treatment to a person's genetic makeup,” explains Mukherjee.
MIT researchers have designed a drone that can stay aloft for several days and could serve as an airborne telecommunications hub for disaster zones, reports Katherine Lin for NBC News. Prof. Warren Hoburg explains that the aircraft has a, “five-day endurance that is sized to carry a 10-pound payload at 15,000 feet.”
Wired reporter Aarian Marshall writes that researchers from the MIT AgeLab are examining driver behavior in an effort to reduce distracted driving fatalities. The researcher developed an algorithm that can help predict crashes based on driver behavior, which could eventually be used to “build and then test products that are safe to use in the car.”