Prof. Edward Boyden speaks with Boston Globe reporter Murray Carpenter about how scientists need more powerful computers to help gain a better understanding of brain function. “The cool part of neuroengineering is that we have all these unmet needs,” Boyden says. “I think there is an enormous amount of hope generated by bringing new tools into neuroscience.”
Prof. Frank Wilczek writes for The Wall Street Journal about his experience participating in the Nobel Week Dialogue in Sweden from the comfort of his home in Cambridge, thanks to a robot that allowed conference attendees to interact with him remotely. “With more powerful sensors and actuators, out-of-body experiences will become even more compelling,” Wilczek writes.
Wall Street Journal reporter Alexandra Wolfe profiles Prof. Cynthia Breazeal and examines her latest work developing a robot, dubbed Jibo, that can assist humans with daily tasks and serve as a companion. “I’m really thinking about social robots as an extender of our human capacity,” Breazeal explains.
The Washington Post's Courtney Kueppers writes about the importance of disconnecting from technology, even if only briefly. She quotes Prof. Sherry Turkle’s latest book to emphasize her point: “To reclaim solitude we have to learn to experience a moment of boredom as a reason to turn inward, at least some of the time.”
Bill Aulet, Managing Dir. of the Martin Trust Center, shares his tips on becoming an entrepreneur with Tito Philips of The Guardian. “Closely following the people who become an entrepreneur by creating new business ventures from their breakthrough technologies are those with great business ideas,” says Aulet.
Researchers from MIT collaborated on a new paper that found that speed-readers “won’t yield the comprehension and retention obtained at a normal pace,” writes Daniel Akst for the Wall Street Journal.
MIT AgeLab Director, Joseph Coughlin speaks with Boston Globe writer Elizabeth Gehrman about the future of senior living homes. “What you’re watching in the marketing is a living experiment of trying to create a vision of how we’ll live in our older age,” says Coughlin.
Daniel Gold of the The New York Times reviews the new documentary, ‘Requiem for the American Dream,’ which has been constructed from four years of interviews with Prof. Noam Chomsky.
A team of economists, including Prof. David Autor, have been studying gender differences in school performance, writes Jeff Guo for The Washington Post. “Disadvantageous childhood conditions are particularly pernicious for boys,” said Autor.
Greg Hubbard, MIT alum and chief engineer for GM’s Voltec Propulsion Systems, has returned to the Institute to teach a class on designing an electric vehicle, writes Sankya Salomon for boston.com. “We’re really excited that we’ll be the first to the market with what we believe is a game-changing vehicle,” says Hubbard.
Broad Institute researchers have been developing a treatment for schizophrenia, writes Haroon Siddique for The Guardian. “Understanding schizophrenia will similarly accelerate progress against this devastating disease that strikes young people,” says Broad Dir. Eric Lander.
Research co-authored by Prof. Frank Levy in DUSP examined the efficiency of robotic legal assistants. “They concluded that only about 13 percent of legal work will be taken over by computers within the next five years,” writes Aviva Rutkin for New Scientist.
Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have “identified key genetic traits that for the first time point to a biological mechanism behind schizophrenia,” writes Shirley Wang of The Wall Street Journal.
John Urschel, a PhD candidate in math and offensive lineman in the NFL, speaks with The Tech's Ray Wang about "juggling two worlds." Urschel describes how his competitiveness in football translates to his studies: "This is competitive ‘me’ against the unknown — against things I’m trying to solve."
In this Today Show segment, Prof. Earl Miller and Prof. Robert Desimone discuss how the brain reacts to the information overload that comes from using multiple digital tools at once. “The brain has a great deal of difficulty processing multiple bits of data at once,” explains Miller. "We are very, very single minded.”