MIT researchers are collaborating with NASA and Fusion to develop a virtual-reality experience that will allow users to explore Mars, reports John Gaudiosi for Fortune. Gaudiosi explains that the experience "will allow users to walk or drive the Mars Rover prototype across several square miles of actual Martian terrain while pursuing research-oriented mission goals.”
Boston Globe reporter Amy Sutherland speaks with Prof. Sherry Turkle about her love of books and the importance of reading. “If you don’t read you lose the capacity for sustained concentration,” says Turkle. “We need to read long, complicated books so we can make the kind of arguments that take place in those books.”
In an article for The Boston Globe’s special section about the 2015 Bostonians of the Year, Sharon Begley writes about the work of Prof. Feng Zhang. Begley writes that Zhang, "is one of the world’s most creative and influential biological engineers, able to see possibilities where others don’t.”
Lindsay Holmes writes for The Huffington Post about Koko, an application developed by MIT researchers to help users fight stress by crowdsourcing their questions and worries. “We want to take the same principles that keep our eyes glued to Facebook and Instagram 24 hours a day and redirect them to promote well-being,” explains founder Robert Morris.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Michael Andor Brodeur writes about the Reality Editor app, which was designed by researchers at the MIT Media Lab to allow users to connect and control physical objects. The app “could turn your smart home into a well-oiled machine (just with no oil or machines).”
MIT researchers have identified a link between reduced neurotransmitter activity and the symptoms of autism, reports Carolyn Gregoire for The Huffington Post. The findings “may pave the way for new methods of treating and diagnosing” autism.
MIT researchers have identified the region of the brain that perceives music, reports Emily Reynolds for Wired. The researchers found that one area of the brain “responded most to music, another to speech, and the other four to different acoustic properties such as pitch and frequency.”
In an article for Boston Magazine, Lauren Landry writes about MIT startup TVision, which has developed a secure, anonymous device to track how viewers watch programming. “Television and the way we consume video content is shifting,” explains co-founder Dan Schiffman. “And the way we measure that is shifting.”
Prof. David Singer weighs in on the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its target interest rate in this article for The Conversation. Singer writes that, “a less appreciated facet of liftoff is that the Fed’s balance sheet is now so large that raising interest rates is logistically and mechanically challenging.”
Boston.com reporter Megan McGinnes writes that MIT researchers are developing software that can predict how well people will remember certain images. Users of the new software “can feed images into the database, which are then overlaid with a heat map to show regions of the photo viewers are most likely to remember.”
CSAIL researchers have developed an algorithm that can predict the memorability of an image with near-human accuracy, reports Curt Woodward for BetaBoston. Woodward explains that “the technology could be used to make learning materials more memorable and advertising pitches more effective.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Matthias Winkenbach and Daniel E. Merchán of the MIT Megacity Logistics Lab explain that retailers are developing new distribution strategies in crowded urban areas. “The changing demands put a premium on innovative distribution models that are efficient, flexible, and resilient,” the authors explain.
In an article for The Huffington Post about the Paris climate agreement, senior lecturer Jason Jay argues that the agreement “represents a possibility - that the world can come together and solve one of the most complex problems we face as a civilization.”
Prof. John Sterman writes for The Huffington Post about the Paris climate agreement. Sterman asks “Is the agreement a triumph, as the negotiators and heads of state declare, or another weak pronouncement that will do little to stave off climate catastrophe? The answer is both: The Paris agreement represents real progress. It also falls significantly short.”
Researchers from the Laboratory for Social Machines have partnered with The Washington Post to examine how people are discussing the current presidential election on Twitter. The researchers use a program that detects and categorizes tweets “to see which issues or candidates have had the biggest share of the conversation.”