Los Angeles Times reporter Evan Halper speaks with MIT Corporation member and alumna Leslie Dewan, co-founder of Transatomic Power, about nuclear energy and climate change. “I became a nuclear engineer because I am an environmentalist,” said Dewan. “The world needs a cheap source of carbon-free power.”
Natalie Handy of The Cambridge Chronicle writes about the MIT Museum’s Chain Reaction event, during which teams of people came together to build a mega machine. “Getting people involved, getting people excited, and dreaming and thinking about what they can make is what it’s all about,” said Jennifer Novotney of the MIT Museum.
BBC News reporter Michelle Roberts writes that MIT researchers have fine-tuned the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system to make it safer and more accurate. This development is "vital if it [CRISPR] is to be used in humans to cure inherited diseases or inborn errors,” explains Roberts.
In an article for the Financial Times, Martin Sandbu argues that renewable energy should be seen as an opportunity for investment, highlighting an MIT report on renewable energy costs. The report documents the “extraordinary fall in renewable electricity generation costs and the good reason to expect them to continue to fall.”
Paula Ebben of WBZ News reports on Testive, an MIT startup that helps students prepare for the SAT and ACT through free online materials. “Making educational resources freely available is really important because that levels the playing field,” explains co-founder and MIT alumnus Tom Rose.
Nancy Szokan of The Washington Post reviews Prof. Thomas Levenson’s new book “The Hunt For Vulcan.” “At heart, this is a story about how science advances, one insight at a time,” writes Szokan. “But the immediacy, almost romance, of Levenson’s writing makes it almost novelistic.”
On NPR’s All Things Considered, Prof. Thomas Levenson speaks about his book on the 50-year search for a non-existent planet, an example, he explains, of how science really works. “It takes a great leap of the imagination to get from what you really know you know to the wacky thing that turns out to be more true.”
Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT’s Age Lab, writes for The Wall Street Journal about some innovations that could revolutionize retirement. “The next-generation retiree will have an unprecedented array of technologies and tech-enabled services to invent a new future for working part time, remaining social, having fun, living at home, staying healthy and arranging care,” Coughlin explains.
Prof. Sherry Turkle speaks with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour about her book, which explores how technology is impacting relationships. Turkle argues that people need to put down their phones and talk to each other “because it’s in conversation…that empathy is born, that intimacy is born, that relationship is born.”
Writing for Fortune, Prof. Zeynep Ton highlights a new trend among American companies to open on Thanksgiving in an effort to get an early jump on Black Friday. “This is a rotten break for employees forced to work while the rest of the family gathers together,” writes Ton.
Research scientist Caleb Harper speaks with Steph Yin of Popular Science about his work developing personal food computers, and the vegetables he grew for Thanksgiving using this technology with students in Boston-area schools. Harper says that food computers can help “kids understand the production of food.”
Atlantic reporter April Wolfe writes that three MIT materials science and engineering students have developed a washing machine filter that recycles 95% of laundry wastewater. The device filters “the small amount of waste and recycles the clean water and detergent for further cleaning cycles.”
In an article for New Scientist, Anna Nowogrodzki writes that MIT researchers have developed a device that allows users to answer the phone with a kick of their foot. “The system’s algorithm analyses the foot’s motion and transmits the information via Bluetooth to your phone,” writes Nowogrodzki.
Popular Science reporter Alexandra Ossola writes that MIT researchers are examining how drops of fluid from a sneeze travel. Ossola explains that gaining a “better understanding of these drops form and spread could help researchers and engineers stop the spread of disease, especially in enclosed spaces."
Postdoctoral fellow Steve Ramirez speaks with Bob Seay, host of WGBH’s Morning Edition, about his work with memory manipulation, which could be helpful for patients with PTSD or Alzheimer’s. Ramirex explains that his research shows the proof of principle “that we can go in and isolate one memory in the brain.”