In an article for Wired about desalination technologies, Eric Niiler features Prof. Rohit Karnik’s work developing single-layer membranes from graphene that could make desalination more efficient. “If we want quantum leaps in performance, we have to look for other materials,” says Karnik.
MIT researchers are using Kumbh Mela — India’s largest religious festival — to help policymakers and planners develop smarter cities, writes Krishna Pokharel for The Wall Street Journal. “It’s about helping the smart citizens make their cities smart,” says John Werner of the MIT Camera Culture group.
MIT lecturer Robert Pozen writes for the Financial Times about executive compensation. Pozen explains that he welcomes the “recent proposal from the SEC, the US financial regulator, that would mandate the reporting of pay actually received by corporate executives.”
Prof. John Ochsendorf speaks with Kara Miller of WGBH's Innovation Hub about what architects can learn from the design of ancient buildings. “In many climates around the world, architecture developed specifically to its climate,” says Ochsendorf. “Today...we can air condition our way out of any heat, so we build glass boxes in the desert.”
In an article for BetaBoston about 3-D printing, Scott Kirsner highlights the Fab Foundation and Fab Labs, which aim to provide people worldwide with access to digital fabrication tools. “Innovation is a very chaotic, messy process. It doesn’t work in sterile boxes,” says Prof. Neil Gershenfeld. “Globally, these Fab Labs bring bright, inventive people out of the woodwork.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Lauren Weber writes about Prof. Zeynep Ton’s “Good Jobs” index, which “scores employers on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and productivity.” Ton explains that she hopes the index will “bring attention to some of the drivers of success that are rarely included in annual reports.”
In a Bloomberg News article about Market Basket CEO Arthur T. DeMoulas, Tom Moroney highlights how Prof. Thomas Kochan teaches last year’s Market Basket strike as a case study in his classes. Moroney writes that according to Kochan, Market Basket’s “coalition of salaried managers, hourly non-union workers, suppliers and customers is unprecedented in U.S. labor history.”
Jamie Ducharme of Boston Magazine writes about a polymer gel being developed by researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital that could allow for swallowable medical devices. “Improving slow-release safety could open the door for devices that control hunger in obese patients, diagnose gastrointestinal issues, extend the effects of drugs, and more,” Ducharme explains.
Research led by Professor Paul Osterman in 2013 indicates that policymakers’ focus on the “skills gap” among American workers may be misplaced, writes David Scharfenberg for The Boston Globe. According to the study, “employers, for the most part, are simply not demanding the high-level talents that the skills gap rhetoric would suggest.”
Sam Henken writes for BostInno about MIT’s Kendall Square Initiative. "This project is really important to the academic mission of MIT," said Provost Marty Schmidt. "MIT as an institution really focuses on how we can take the ideas on this campus and move them out so they have impact."
Pheobe Gavin reports for Slate on self-assembling origami robots developed by Professor Daniela Rus’ team that could one day be refined for use in surgery or other medical applications: “The origami robot can walk, swim, push objects, climb inclines, and carry objects twice its weight.”
Casey Quackenbush reviews MIT visiting artist Anicka Yi’s new olfactory exhibition ‘Aliens and Alzheimers’ for The New York Observer. "Her exhibit is supposed to challenge the way we overlook our sense of smell in favor of taste and sight," writes Quackenbush.
WBUR reports on MIT’s plan to create six new buildings in Kendall Square. Three of the buildings would be used for “research and development, two for housing and one for retail and office space.”
MIT lecturer Ben Shields writes for USA Today about how Deflategate will impact business for the Patriots. “When all is said and done…the Patriots, the NFL and even Brady all stand to emerge as winners in business over the long-term,” writes Shields.
MIT researchers have found that different parts of the human brain work best at different ages, reports Susan Pinker for The Wall Street Journal. “Some abilities mature early, such as how fast we recall names and faces. Others, like vocabulary and background knowledge, are late bloomers,” Pinker explains.