Prof. Sherry Turkle speaks with ABC News about the impact of constant connectivity on how people relate to one another in the digital age. “Before we had our phones, conversation was the way we satisfied our need for stimulation,” explains Turkle. Face-to-face conversation “lays the groundwork for empathy.”
MIT researchers have developed a new material that mimics the cuttlefish’s ability to change texture, reports Gian Volpicelli for Wired. "We used ordinary plastic," explains graduate student Mark Guttag. "The important thing was figuring out the right difference in stiffness between the matrix and particles."
Boston Globe reporter Kathleen Burge speaks with Prof. Heidi Williams, a 2015 MacArthur fellow, about how she felt upon learning she had been honored by the MacArthur Foundation and her research examining technological change in the health care market. “It’s quite overwhelming to hear this news and to get that vote of support,” said Williams.
Prof. Heidi Williams has been named a 2015 MacArthur “Genius” award winner, according to the Associated Press. Williams was honored for her research exploring, “the causes and consequences of innovation in health care markets.”
MIT and BU have joined forces to offer students entrepreneurs legal advice, the Associated Press reports. "It's almost like a godsend," says MIT sophomore Isaiah Udotong, who is starting his own company. "We were looking for legal advice and wondering how we were going to make sure everything is legitimate."
In a testimonial for U.S. News & World Report, MIT graduate Yiping Xing shares why MIT was the right school for her. “MIT doesn't simply teach you science or knowledge; it trains you to be a scientist and problem-solver, giving you many opportunities to apply what you learn,” says Xing.
Alexandra Ossola writes for Popular Science that MIT researchers have found a molecule that could make the CRISPR gene-editing technique more precise. The new molecule “makes the editing process easier to control and could create new possibilities for how scientists can edit DNA in the future.”
Matt McFarland writes for The Washington Post about Prof. David Mindell’s new book, in which he argues that automation can take away from the enjoyment of working. “The most advanced (and difficult) technologies are not those that stand apart from people, but those that are most deeply embedded in, and responsive to, human and social networks,” Mindell explains.
MIT researchers contributed to a new study that found that “severe floods – the kind likely to occur only every 500 years – may now strike every 24.4 years in the New York City area thanks to climate change,” writes Alan Neuhauser for U.S. News & World Report.
According to researchers from MIT and Climate Interactive, “even if countries manage to fulfill their existing pledges on reducing carbon emissions, the world will likely still experience potentially dangerous levels of global warming,” writes Justin Worland for Time. Without further action “the world will likely warm 6.3°F (3.5°C) above pre-industrial levels by 2100.”
In an article for The New York Times about the impact of patent laws on drug development, Austin Frakt highlights Prof. Benjamin Roin’s research that indicates pharmaceutical companies reject unpatentable drugs. To counter this problem, Frakt explains that Roin suggests “a period of market exclusivity…to any organization addressing an unmet medical need with a drug that isn’t patentable.”
Researchers from MIT and Olin College are developing technology that could allow fleets of drones to aid firefighters in combatting wildfires, reports Barb Darrow for Fortune. The drones would be used to “collect intelligence about the fire as fast as possible for human fire-fighting experts,” writes Darrow.
According to the Associated Press, a new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that sea level rise due to climate change could dramatically increase storm surges and flooding in New York and New Jersey. The researchers found that “flood heights have risen nearly 4 feet from the year 850, largely because of the sea level rise.”
Prof. John Lienhard and Dr. Kenneth Strzepek write for The New York Times about the need for Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to successfully share water from the Nile. “The world needs to get good at sharing water, and right away,” they write. “The alternative is frequent regional conflicts of unknowable proportions.”
Prof. Jonathan How and his colleagues are developing a fleet of autonomous drones that could help gather information about wild fires, writes Brian Dowling for The Boston Herald. “These drones will let a firefighter select a point of a fire on a map, then send a drone there to examine the fire and report back with data,” explains Dowling.