Boston Globe reporter Jim O’Sullivan writes about a speech Sec. of State John Kerry delivered at MIT on the perils posed by climate change. “If we don’t go far enough fast enough, the damage we inflict could take centuries to undo — if it can be undone at all. We don’t get a second chance on this one,” Kerry said.
During a speech at MIT on climate change, Sec. of State John Kerry urged researchers to continue developing clean energy technologies, reports Scott Malone for Reuters. Researchers and innovators will create "the technological advances that forever revolutionize the way we power our world," he noted.
Boston Globe reporter J.M. Lawrence writes about the legacy of D. Reid Weedon Jr., an MIT alumnus and life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation, who died at age 96. Lawrence notes that Weedon was a “key fund-raiser for MIT for 60 years,” and “worked with nine MIT presidents while mentoring many young fund-raisers.”
In an article about how to rebuild failed states, The Economist highlights Prof. Daron Acemoglu’s book “Why Nations Fail.” Acemoglu and his co-author Prof. James Robinson of the University of Chicago argue that political institutions largely determine a nation’s success, and that failed states provide “a general explanation for why poor countries are poor.”
Saqib Shah writes for FOX News that researchers from the Media Lab’s Electome project are launching an interactive tool “that compares tweets shared by the White House with a sampling of those shared by the public.”
By fusing graphene into a porous 3-D form, MIT researchers have created a strong, lightweight material, writes Brooks Hays for UPI. “The findings suggest a 3D material's tensile and compressive properties are dependent on the geometry of its structure, not the strength of the 2D material from which it is derived,” explains Hays.
MIT researchers have designed a strong, lightweight material that is ten times stronger than steel, reports Katharine Schwab for Co.Design. “If we can produce the material in big amounts, we can use that to somehow substitute some of the steel used for construction,” says research scientist Zhao Qin.
A study by MIT researchers provides evidence that California could see an increase in extreme precipitation events due to climate change, according to CBS San Francisco. “Using large scale future projections and factoring in policies to restrict global warming, researchers said the Bay Area could see more of those kinds of storms on a seasonal basis.”
The City of Haverhill will test a solar-powered bench designed by Soofa, a Media Lab spinoff, reports Brenda J. Buote for The Boston Globe. The city will “track how often the bench is used as a way to measure positive community development.”
The Boston Globe Magazine’s list of some of the most innovative ideas, people, and companies of 2016 features graduate student Dheeraj Roy, whose research suggests that one day optogenetics could potentially be used to help stimulate memories in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
MIT researchers have found that reduced plasticity in the brains of people with dyslexia may explain why they experience difficulties with reading and with processing spoken speech, writes Kevin Murnane of Forbes. Murnane explains that the findings “indicate that dyslexia is not just about reading. It involves a reduction in neural adaptation to a variety of perceptual stimuli.”
Current tax laws do not encourage U.S. corporations to invest foreign profits in this country, writes senior lecturer Robert Pozen in the Boston Herald. Senator Paul Ryan’s plan to make all U.S. exports exempt from corporate taxes is “a bold effort to reform corporate taxes in a way to keep more facilities and jobs in the U.S.,” Pozen writes.
MIT researchers have launched a new project, Treepedia, to catalogue the density of the tree canopy in cities around the world, reports Feargus O’Sullivan for CityLab. O’Sullivan explains that the project is aimed at making “issues of urban and environmental planning (and the data that underpins them) more accessible for non- or semi- professionals.”
CBC News reporter Laura DaSilva writes that MIT researchers have launched a project, called Treepedia, to measure the percentage of land covered by trees in urban areas. Using Google Street View, “the researchers measured the percentage of land covered by trees in 12 cities across the world.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Visiting Lecturer Irving Wladawsky-Berger praises MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Competition, a contest that honors companies aimed at improving economic opportunities for all workers. Wladawsky-Berger writes that it’s heartening that MIT is “searching for breakthrough innovations to help improve [the] economic prospects” of workers impacted by advanced technologies.