MIT senior Lilly Chin, winner of the 2017 Jeopardy! College Championship, speaks to Paris Alston of WGBH about her experience on the competition. “I wasn’t expecting to get in, I just wanted to have some fun with it,” Chin says about initially trying out for the quiz show.
LEGO has selected MIT staff member Maia Weinstock’s Women of NASA set to become an official LEGO set, the Associated Press reports. Weinstock, who is the deputy editor of MIT News, is an “advocate for girls and women, particularly in the areas of science, technology, politics and athletics.”
Quentin Palfrey, executive director of J-PAL North America, speaks with Devin Thorpe of Forbes about how J-PAL aims to reduce poverty through academic research. Palfrey explains that “by transforming government and building a movement for evidence-based policy, we can help lift millions in the United States out of poverty.”
Washington Post reporter Sarah Larimer writes that the Women of NASA LEGO set developed by Maia Weinstock, deputy editor for MIT News, will become an official LEGO set. Weinstock says she hopes the set, which depicts the contributions of five of NASA’s female pioneers, “helps to inspire the kids of the future!”
A LEGO set created by Maia Weinstock, deputy editor of MIT News, has been selected to become an official LEGO set, reports Rebecca Shapiro for The Huffington Post. The set depicts five women who made historic contributions to NASA.
CNN reporter Ben Westcott writes that a LEGO set honoring women of NASA created by Maia Weinstock, deputy editor of MIT News, has been selected to become an official LEGO set. Westcott writes that the new set “will feature some of the pioneering women who played vital but sometimes under-appreciated roles in the U.S. space program.”
Prof. Carlo Ratti has created a metal canopy that can control light and shade, and can be used to create microclimates in outdoor areas, reports Sophie Morlin-Yron for CNN. Morlin-Yron writes that Ratti explained that “the aim is to curb the heat that makes public areas in places like Dubai ‘unlivable’ during the hottest times.”
Greentech Media reporter Julian Spector writes that during the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E Summit, President L. Rafael Reif made the case for the necessity of government funding for basic science. Reif explained that support for scientific research is “an investment in our future.”
Joshua Cassidy of KQED highlights an MIT study about how cats use their tongues to drink. The researchers created a model that mimics how cats drink and determined that “house cats tend to lap water about four times a second while larger species of cats, like lions and tigers, lap slower as their body mass increases.”
The Copenhagen Wheel, created by Senseable City Lab researchers, transforms a regular bicycle into a semi-autonomous mode of transport, writes Bob Woods for CNBC. “We realized that unless you somehow change the bike, it's hard to imagine it as a solution for transportation, and that means increasing its capacity to go farther,” explains Assaf Biderman, the lab’s associate director.
Steven Rosenbaum of Forbes writes about the Media Lab’s MisInfoCon, which was aimed at using technology to find a solution for fake news. “MisInfoCon set out with high expectations - to gather, share ideas, brainstorm and then engage in a marathon two-day hackathon,” writes Rosebaum. “The goal was to do more than talk, but rather to build things.”
Nima, a startup founded by alumni Shireen Yates and Scott Sundvor, has been named to CNBC’s list of 25 promising start-ups for its portable food allergy detector, reports Ashley McHugh-Chiappone. “I just wanted a quick, easy way to test a piece of the dish and see for myself if it was gluten-free," says Yates of her inspiration for the device.
In an article for The New York Times, Shefali Luthra writes about innovative solutions to combat rising prescription drug prices. Luthra speaks with Jose Gomez-Marquez, an instructor at MIT, about his lab, which promotes do-it-yourself medical technology. “If you have extreme health care circumstances, you will find extreme health care ingenuity,” Gomez-Marquez explains.
In an article for Governing, Quentin Palfrey, executive director of J-PAL North America, outlines five strategies for creating evidence-based policymaking. “Replacing hunches with facts has dramatic consequences for the efficacy of government programs, particularly those that deliver services to assist the poorest in our society,” Palfrey advises.
NPR reporter Colin Dwyer writes about the life and work of Institute Professor Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, who died at 86. Dwyer writes that “during her celebrated career, she sought to prepare a path for potential successors — the female scientists whom she mentored and opened doors for across decades.”