Charles H. Townes, a physicist whose long and distinguished career included service as MIT’s second provost, died Tuesday at age 99, reports Robert D. McFadden for The New York Times. While the Institute’s provost, Townes shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for research that led to the development of the laser.
WBUR’s Zeninjor Enwemeka speaks with MIT junior David Sukhin about the Snow Day Calculator, a tool he created in middle school to predict school closures. Sukhin still updates the calculator, “adding new features that I think would be a cool thing to explore and a benefit to users.”
Nidhi Subbaraman reports for BetaBoston on the Forces Frozen workshop, held during MIT’s Independent Activities Period, during which students use frozen fabric to create structures. “The point of this workshop is to explore this world of shells but open up this world of potentially occupy-able installations to a lot more people,” explains Professor Caitlin Mueller.
New research by Professor Daniel Rothman and postdoctoral associate Yossi Cohen has raised questions about the feasibility of carbon capture, reports Ken Silverstein for Forbes. The researchers found that “only a ‘small fraction’ of the carbon dioxide solidifies and turns into rock after it is injected 7,000 feet below the earth’s surface,” explains Silverstein.
Boer Deng writes for Nature about NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) probe, which uses microwave measurements to plot moisture levels in the Earth’s soil. “With SMAP, we are trying quite a different model,” says Prof. Dara Entekhabi, who is leading the SMAP science team.
In an article for Scientific American about a blizzard hitting the East Coast of the Unites States, Andrea Thompson cites an MIT study that found that while overall snowfall may decrease due to climate change, extreme snowstorms will still occur.
In this New York Times video, James Gorman explores new MIT research examining how rainfall produces a scent. The researchers found that when raindrops hit porous surfaces they release aerosols. The scent is “not from the rain itself,” explains Prof. Cullen Buie, “it’s from the earth.”
New MIT research suggests that brain scans may be helpful in predicting a person’s future behavior, reports Andrea Timpano for Boston Magazine. “Researchers found a strong correlation between brain measures, known as neuromarkers, and behavioral outcomes such as a patient’s reading ability or reaction to medication,” Timpano explains.
The Cambridge Chronicle reports that alumnus Samuel Tak Lee has donated $118 million to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab at MIT. The lab will have a particular focus on China, and “will promote social responsibility among entrepreneurs and academics in the real estate profession worldwide.”
Trent Gillies writes for CNBC about how MIT researchers are developing wearable devices to aid the visually impaired. The research, which is funded by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, “would help blind people, especially in cities, move around alone,” reports Gillies.
Heidi Legg writes for BetaBoston about the Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship networking reception held last week as part of EECS’s entrepreneurship course, Start6. “The world would be a better place with more women entrepreneurs,” said Prof. Cynthia Breazeal.
Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, speaks with Jeremy Hobson of WBUR’s Here and Now about edX and the future of massive open online courses and digital learning. “Our aim is to increase access to learning to people all over the world,” says Agarwal.
Karen Hopkin of Scientific American writes about a new method developed by MIT researchers for increasing the size of tissue samples to allow for better observation. Thus far, the researchers have used the new technique to “peer into the brains of mice, fruit flies and zebrafish,” Hopkin explains.
MIT researchers have released a report evaluating solar lanterns in Uganda, writes Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. The group is developing a model to assess products designed for the developing world with the goal of helping organizations “as they make purchases for relief efforts.”
Jonathan O’Connell writes for The Washington Post about 10 interactive maps of Washington, D.C. created by Professor Sep Kamvar that illustrate how people live, work, eat, and travel within the District. The visualizations are part of Kamvar’s “You Are Here” series that mapped 100 cities using publicly available data.