MIT researchers have developed a new tool that could be used to predict dementia earlier than is currently possible and with greater accuracy, reports Liat Clark for Wired. The researchers hope the new technique could be used to cut down on the number of “hours spent diagnosing, or potentially misdiagnosing, a disorder.”
A new study co-authored by Prof. Andrew Lo shows that most hedge funds are not performing as well as people think they are, reports Michael P. Regan for Bloomberg News. The researchers found that “due to inherent biases in the way hedge-fund databases compile results, the industry's returns have been about half as strong as they appear.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Chad Autry and Beth Davis-Sramek highlight an MIT study examining corporate sustainability efforts. Autry and Davis-Sramek write that, “In a global survey of 2,500 executives, 90% of the respondents indicate that businesses need to collaborate to address sustainability challenges.”
Huffington Post contributor Derrick Crowe writes about a new MIT study that examines how increasing ocean acidification is impacting phytoplankton populations. The study showed how ocean acidification, “can throw off the balance of the plankton population, causing significant changes with profound implications for other species that depend on them.”
In an article for The New York Times, Phyllis Korkki writes about a new study co-authored by Prof. Christian Catalini that examines how free time impacts innovation. The researchers found innovation “requires time to carry out execution-oriented tasks that are not particularly creative but still necessary to transform an idea into a product.”
In a New York Times op-ed, MIT lecturer Robert Pozen argues for allowing baby boomers to remain in the work force for longer periods of time. Pozen writes that keeping older Americans on the job “is crucial to maintaining economic growth, and it will help the boomers to preserve and increase their savings if longevity continues to rise.”
WGBH reporter Mike Deehan writes that MIT will play a key role in a new public-private partnership aimed at expanding the use of photonics in manufacturing. Prof. Krystyn Van Vliet explains that MIT will coordinate the "education and workforce development program for the entire nation in this area.”
Writing for the Huffington Post, Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman highlights an MIT study that shows different mental processes peak at different ages. The study “examined a number of different brain processes that make up intelligence, rather than viewing intelligence as a single measure as has traditionally been done.”
MIT researchers have developed a program that allows a team of robots to work together to serve drinks, reports Lorenzo Ligato for the Huffington Post. The researchers, “programmed the robots with complex planning algorithms, which allowed the machines to engage in higher-level reasoning about their location, status and behavior -- similarly to they way humans perform tasks.”
Prof. Kenneth Oye speaks with NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff about the need for government regulation for bioengineered microbes that could be used to produce drugs like heroin. "Once a robust, easy-to-grow, heroin-producing yeast strain is out there, its control would be, in my view, virtually possible," Oye says.
Thanks in part to free online courses offered through MIT, a farmer in Manitoba, Canada outfitted his tractor with remote control technology that can help him harvest his fields, according to CBC News. “With no computer programming background, Reimer took advantage of free online courses offered through MIT so that he would better understand the back end of the equipment.”
The Economist examines Prof. Max Tegmark’s theories on the existence of multiple universes. Tegmark is, “one of the leading proponents of multiverses,” according to The Economist. “Dr Tegmark suggests a fourfold classification of possible types of multiverse.”
MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that allows a team of three robots to serve drinks, writes Gordon Gottsegen for Wired: “While the real-world application of this research may seem like the beer fetching itself (to us at least), the method that allows robots to execute tasks despite uncertainty may have practical usages.”
Alexandra Ossola writes for Popular Science about a computer program created by MIT researchers that can aid in early detection of dementia by analyzing a patient’s drawings. The program “may enable doctors to diagnose patients much more quickly, and to intervene earlier to stave off the onset of cognitive degeneration.”
According to Matt Kaplan of The Economist, Professor Ju Li has devised a method of producing lithium-ion batteries using nanoparticles. “If the process of making the nanoparticles can be industrialized," writes Kaplan, "then the lifetimes of lithium-ion batteries might be considerably extended.”