Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes that a new nonprofit founded by MIT has been selected as the winner of a Department of Defense contest to establish a fiber research center. “The center and the institute is going to go anywhere fiber and fabric goes,” explains Prof. Yoel Fink, who led the proposal for the institute.
A consortium led by MIT has won a competition to host a federally funded research program focused on bringing the textile industry into the digital age, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Here is a bold vision that’s not just manufacturing stuff that we know about but also enabling a whole new interpretation of the fabric industry,” says Prof. Yoel Fink.
Boston Globe correspondent Terry Byrne writes about “Arcadia,” which is being presented in part by the Catalyst Collaborative @MIT, a collaboration between Central Square Theater and MIT. “As we started on our second decade of the Catalyst Collaborative, we decided to go back to the three plays that really defined the genre,” explains director Lee Mikeska Gardner.
Science reporter Robert Service writes that MIT researchers have developed a drug synthesis machine that can produce a variety of medications. Service writes that such a machine “could someday help pharmaceutical companies meet unexpected surges in demand and help health officials respond to disasters and medical emergencies worldwide by producing medicines when and where they are needed.”
Alumna Michelle Lee, director of the USPTO, speaks with Radio Boston’s Anthony Brooks during a trip to Boston to speak at MIT about patents and innovation. Lee noted her commitment to encouraging more females to pursue STEM fields because “you never know who’s going to start that next company that’s going to revolutionize the world.”
MIT researchers have developed a programming language for living cells, reports Erika Check Hayden for Nature. “What we’re finding over time is that biology isn’t this kind of mysterious unpredictable substrate; it just felt that way because we didn’t really have the tools to see what was going on,” Prof. Christopher Voigt says.
In an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Corinne Ruff highlights MIT’s new “MicroMaster’s” credential. Prof. Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, noted that the pilot program offers a new path for admissions into MIT’s Supply Chain Management program.
Scott Malone of Reuters writes that Prof. Lester Thurow, a former dean of MIT Sloan, has died at age 77. Malone writes that Thurow’s, “policy recommendations focused on promoting education and long-term investment in companies and economies.”
Former Sloan School of Management Dean Lester Thurow has died at age 77, the Associated Press reports. “Thurow became a leading public voice in examining the defining features of globalization, including the competitiveness of national economies at a time of industrial change, and worker welfare.”
Voice of America reporter Kevin Enochs writes that a new study by MIT researchers has found that large portions of Asia could face a high risk of severe water stress by 2050. Enochs writes that the researchers found that, “global climate mitigation efforts can result in a measurable decrease in the risk of water stress.”
MIT researchers have found that population and economic growth could lead to severe water stress across Asia by 2050, reports Robert Ferris for CNBC. "We simply cannot ignore the fact that growth in population and the economies can play just as or more important a role in risk," explains Dr. Adam Schlosser.
Prof. Emeritus Lester Thurow, a former dean of MIT Sloan who was known for his research on income inequality, died on March 25, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Marquard notes that Thurow “addressed topics that resonate as loudly in today’s political debates as they did when he was a professor and dean.”
MIT researchers are creating a GIF genome that will allow computers to identify the emotions or meaning behind a GIF, writes Kevin Maney for Newsweek. “We realized that they’re becoming more and more serious of a medium,” explains graduate student Kevin Hu. “And we realized that we could quantify this usage.”
Lisa Boone of The Los Angeles Times highlights Sprout plantable pencils, which were designed by three MIT students. Boone explains that after planting, “a dissolvable seed capsule at the end of the pencil will proceed to germinate in a few weeks, transforming the pencil in to one of 12 edible plants.”
New York Times reporter John Koblin highlights the work of Prof. Lester Thurow, a former dean of MIT Sloan and a prominent economist, who died on March 25. “He was one of the first important economists to suggest that too much inequality is bad for society,” said Jared Bernstein, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.