In an article for The New York Times, Maria Konnikova writes that in his new book, Tim Hartford cites MIT’s Building 20 as an example of how autonomy and flexibility can inspire creativity and new innovations. Konnikova writes that Building 20 “gave rise to some of the best ideas of the 20th century.”
Ian Sample of The Guardian writes that the Human Cell Atlas project, which will be co-led by the Broad Institute, aims to map the cells in the human body . “This will have a substantial impact on our scientific understanding and as a result, on our ability to diagnose, monitor and treat disease,” says Prof. Aviv Regev.
Researchers from the Broad Institute will co-lead an initiative aimed at mapping and describing every cell in the human body, writes Kate Kelland of Reuters. "We now have the tools to understand what we are composed of, which allows us to learn how our bodies work, and uncover how all these elements malfunction in disease," explains Prof. Aviv Regev.
MIT was named the number one midsize school in the Northeast in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education rankings. MIT took the number two spot in the overall rankings.
NPR’s Steve Inskeep notes that in a 2010 episode of “The Simpsons” Milhouse van Houten predicts that Prof. Bengt Holmström will win a Nobel Prize in economics. Inskeep jokes that Milhouse was a visionary, who “knew way before the rest of the world that MIT's Bengt Holmström had genius in him.”
MIT researchers have developed a new technique for making vaccines using freeze-dried cells, reports Ed Yong for The Atlantic. Yong explains that in addition to producing medicines, the technique provides a new way of “detecting important diseases, like Zika and Ebola, without relying on laboratories or sequencing machines.”
In an interview with Wired’s Editor-in-Chief Scott Dadich, President Barack Obama sits down with Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. “Everybody needs to understand that how AI behaves is important,” says Ito. “Because the question is, how do we build societal values into AI?”
Nobel laureate Prof. Bengt Holmström speaks with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about the importance of incentives. Holmström recounts becoming interested in incentives while working at a multinational conglomerate after realizing computers could not “replace a lot of what the human mind is thinking,” adding that incentives are how “you influence people’s behavior.”
In this video, Prof. Heather Hendershot speaks with Mary Kissel of The Wall Street Journal about her new book examining the impact of William F. Buckley’s program the “Firing Line.” “He was the key player in forging a sophisticated, urban, elegant image for right wing conservatism. And that got me interested in him,” Hendershot explains.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Steve Annear notes that during an episode of “The Simpsons” Milhouse Van Houten predicts that MIT Prof. Bengt Holmström will win a Nobel prize in economics. Annear writes that “Milhouse’s prediction was spot on — but a few years too early. On Monday, Holmström finally earned his due.”
BBC News reporter Atish Patel reports on a new study, co-authored by Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, that found informal health care providers in India can improve with modest training. The researchers found that those who had undergone training were more likely to “adhere to checklists after training and made big improvements in providing correct treatments.”
CNN reporter Katie Pisa spotlights alumnus Obinna Ukwuani’s dedication to opening a STEM school in Nigeria. Ukwuani says he was inspired by his time in Nigeria after years of studying in the U.S. "In the U.S., if you work hard, you'll be fine in this life. So I had that moment where I knew I wanted to improve things in Nigeria."
Charles Duxbury and Mike Bird write for The Wall Street Journal that Prof. Bengt Holmström is one of the recipients of the 2016 Nobel Prize in economics. Holmström was honored, in part, for developing a model that examines “how pay should be linked to performance and how an optimal contract carefully weighs risks against incentives.”
Prof. Bengt Holmström received the Nobel Prize in economics for his research on contract theory, writes Chris Giles for the Financial Times. Holmström, who said he was “dazed … very surprised and very happy” about winning the award, found “an optimal contract should link payments to outcomes that reveal the performance of either party to a contract.”
Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered speaks with Prof. Bengt Holmström about winning the Nobel Prize in economics for his work examining how contracts motivate and affect people’s behavior. Holmström explains, “incentives are not just about paying people, it is also about job design.”