In the Media

Dr. Michael Hecht speaks with Meghna Chakrabarti of WBUR’s Radio Boston about NASA’s discovery of water on Mars. Hecht says that the discovery “opens up a whole new avenue for using what nature gives us on Mars to help us explore.” 

Boston Globe reporter Andrew Joseph writes about the public gallery at the Koch Center for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, which features a rotating selection of life-science images captured by scientists during their research. “Microscopic images are blown up into a work of art almost 8 feet across, sharing a view of science rarely seen outside the lab,” writes Joseph. 

Researchers from MIT, Philips and Boston Medical Center are collaborating on new technology to diagnose brain injuries, reports Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. “The goal is to investigate whether ultrasound readers can help doctors assess the severity of a head injury,” Subbaraman writes. 

Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that MIT researchers have designed a new robotic hand with soft, 3-D printed fingers that can identify and lift a variety of objects. Prof. Daniela Rus explains that her group’s robotic hand operates in a way that is “much more analogous to what we do as humans."

Writing for Popular Science, Mary Beth Griggs reports on the soft robotic gripper developed by researchers at MIT CSAIL. “The silicone fingers are equipped with sensors that analyze the object they are touching and compare it to other items in its database,” Griggs writes. 

CNBC reporter Robert Ferris writes about how MIT researchers have developed a soft robotic hand that can identify and safely grasp delicate objects. Ferris explains that the researchers designed a “soft silicone ‘hand’ with embedded sensors that they can train to recognize different things.” 

MIT CSAIL researchers have developed a silicon gripper that allows robots to grasp a wide variety of items, reports Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. Subbaraman explains that the hand expands “to accommodate a shape, and grasps radially – surrounding an object instead of picking it up with pincers.”

Prof. Heidi Williams, a 2015 MacArthur Fellow, speaks with Bloomberg’s John Tozzi about why drug companies are underinvesting in long-term research. Williams explains that there are “scientifically feasible projects that aren’t getting done because there aren’t sufficient incentives." 

Prof. Charles Stewart III co-authored this op-ed for The Washington Post, which examines John Boehner’s resignation from the U.S. House speakership. “We see Boehner’s resignation as a signal that House leadership is undergoing a transition in how it is acquired and retained,” the authors write.

Prof. Noelle Eckley Selin writes for Forbes about the consequences of the Volkswagen diesel scandal. “My analysis shows that Volkswagen’s deception — which resulted in emissions 30 to 40 times allowable levels when driving — could exceed $100 million in economic costs from health damages,” writes Selin. 

The Broad Institute Foundry, a synthetic biology lab, has been awarded a new grant from DARPA to pursue research on engineering cells in an effort to “find better treatments for disease, make new biofuels, or create fabrics woven with life,” reports Alexandra Ossola for Popular Science. 

Scott Kirsner writes for BetaBoston about the MIT Media Lab’s 30^th anniversary celebration, which will feature a daylong symposium on October 30th. The event will feature talks by former United Nations Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan, and White House chief technology officer and MIT alumna Megan Smith. 

New York Times reporter Emily Weinstein writes about MIT graduate J. Kenji López-Alt’s new cookbook, “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.” Weinstein writes that López-Alt is “a gifted explainer, making difficult concepts easy to grasp for those of us with a lifelong lack of aptitude for the sciences.”

The Boston Globe’s Malcolm Gay speaks with Provost Marty Schmidt about HUBweek, a festival showcasing Boston’s prowess in arts, culture and technology. “Things move a lot faster now than they might have a quarter of a century ago, so HUBweek is, and is going to need to evolve rapidly,” says Schmidt. 

Boston Globe reporter Jeremy Goodwin reviews “Einstein’s Dreams,” a play adapted from Prof. Alan Lightman’s 1993 novel. “The conceit behind Lightman’s deeply imaginative source material is that it presents a journal of Einstein’s nocturnal musings as he developed his theories of general and special relativity,” writes Goodwin.