A study by Prof. Thomas Malone found that social perceptiveness can be gained through electronic communications, writes Financial Times reporter Jonathan Moules. “People develop social intelligence skills even when they cannot see into each others’ eyes,” says Malone.
Wall Street Journal reporter Atish Patel highlights new MIT research indicating that volcanic activity may have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Patel explains that the findings suggest “dinosaurs were already in decline, suffering from the climate change prompted by the volcanic eruptions.”
Hannah Northey of Greenwire features the work of MIT alumnus Samuel Brinton, an energy fellow at Third Way and LGBT activist who is known for his bright red mohawk. "A lot of Hill staffers know me as the MIT or nuclear kid with a red mohawk," says Brinton. "It gets the conversation started."
Richard Eisenberg of Forbes speaks with Professor Ofer Sharone about his research and tips for white-collar job seekers. “Meeting with people face to face who you worked with in the past and can vouch for your abilities can help you overcome some of the barriers built into the hiring process,” says Sharone.
Writing for Scientific American, Jennifer Ouellette features Professor Allan Adams research on black holes on her list of the 20 best physics papers of 2014. “We showed that when you throw stuff into a black hole, the surface of the black hole responds like a fluid,” says Adams.
Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post highlights Prof. Sangbae Kim’s work developing a robot modeled after the cheetah. Kim explains that he took inspiration from the cheetah’s movements to design a robot that could run. “We can steal a lot of ideas from nature that we can apply . . . to speed up our engineering evolution,” he explains.
Washington Post reporter Jeff Guo examines new findings from MIT graduate student Manasi Deshpande concerning how the Supplemental Security Income influences a person’s decision to work. Deshpande found that people who were on disability as children “do not have great work prospects as adults,” but parents of disabled children” do have excess capacity to work.”
MIT engineers have “developed an algorithm that shows the relationship between luggage weight and fuel consumption,” writes Heather Hansman for Popular Science. The researchers found that reducing each person’s luggage by 11 pounds would save one percent of fuel consumption.
Professor Roger Summons is part of the Curiosity team that has detected a large spike in methane on Mars, which could indicate the presence of life, writes Brid-Aine Parnell for Forbes. “This first confirmation of organic carbon in a rock on Mars holds much promise,” says Summons.
Barbara Walters selected MIT alumnus and corporation member David H. Koch as one of the ten most fascinating people of 2014. In an interview with Walters, Koch discusses his commitment to philanthropy, saying, "I intend to continue being very philanthropic for the rest of my life."
Stacy Shepard writes for Boston Magazine about FitBark, a product created by MIT alumnus Davide Rossi that monitors a dog’s activity and health statistics. “Our pets are full members of the family, and we needed a way to monitor how they are doing,” says Rossi.
Professors Erik Brynjolfsson and David Autor speak with Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times about how artificial intelligence is impacting the job market. “This is the biggest challenge of our society for the next decade,” says Brynjolfsson.
Research by Dr. Sara Fisher Ellison indicates that co-ed teams are more productive, but have lower job satisfaction, writes Rachel Emma Silverman for The Wall Street Journal. “The researchers posit that shifting an all-female or all-male team to a coed one would increase revenues by 41%.”
MIT researchers have traced how information flows to see which languages are the most influential, reports Michael Erard for Science. The research shows that “if I want our ideas to spread, we should pick a second language that’s very well connected,” explains MIT alumnus Shahar Ronen.
David Morris writes for The Huffington Post about Professor Zeynep Ton’s research that shows investing in employees and operational practices is beneficial. “The combination makes work more efficient and more fulfilling while, lowers costs, boosts sale and profits and improves customer satisfaction,” Morris writes.