“[A] team from Harvard and the MIT Media Lab realized that light could be used to restore the appearance of the lost colours without touching the canvas,” reports Jeff Hecht of New Scientist on a new exhibition of Mark Rothko’s murals. The murals were damaged due to over-exposure to sunlight.
MIT Visiting Professor Calestous Juma argues in this CNN op-ed that efforts to rank countries on their preparedness to deal with climate change can be counterproductive for less developed countries: “[T]hese same countries have also developed a wide range of local capabilities that enable them to adapt to major natural disasters," he writes.
Joshua Krisch writes for The New York Times about Professor Eric Alm’s work developing a device that will analyze public sewage. “This whole field has enormous potential,” says Alm. “It’s hard to imagine that in 20 years, every city won’t be monitoring sewage as an information platform.”
Alex Davies writes for Wired about a new study by the MIT AgeLab that compared levels of distraction among drivers using Google Glass, voice-recognition technology, and a touchscreen. The study found that while all technology use led to some level of distraction, using a touchscreen was more distracting than using a voice-recognition system.
Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston writes that Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus has been honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Subbaraman explains that Dresselhaus conducted early research into the electric properties of graphite, “and her work led to the discovery of graphene, the atom-thin carbon sheets that are expected to revolutionize the way we work with electronics.”
David Jackson of USA Today writes about the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, including two MIT honorees, Institute Professors Mildred Dresselhaus and Robert Solow. Dresselhaus was honored for “deepening our understanding of condensed matter systems and the atomic properties of carbon,” while Solow was recognized for “laying the groundwork for much of modern economics.”
Boston Globe reporter Bryan Marquard writes about the life and work of Danielle Guichard-Ashbrook, associate dean for international students and director of MIT’s International Students Office, who passed away last week. Guichard-Ashbrook “touched the lives of thousands of students,” said Maria Brennan, assistant director of the International Students Office.
Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen writes about the undefeated MIT football team, which has clinched a spot in the Division III playoffs. Cohen writes that while MIT is known for coming up with “scientific advances that change the world,” the school is now “inventing a respectable football team.”
Joseph Flaherty of Wired writes about how researchers at the MIT Self-Assembly Lab are developing materials that can independently fold themselves into new shapes. “We can listen to materials and use them as a programmable material,” says lab director Skylar Tibbits. “Computing isn’t in computers anymore; computing is everything.”
In a piece for The Boston Globe, Meredith Goldstein writes that Institute Professor Robert Langer received a Kyoto Prize at a ceremony in Japan for his work with tissue engineering.
In a letter to The New York Times, Professor Emerita Nancy Hopkins and graduate student Jason Sheltzer write that while there has been “remarkable progress” for female faculty members in STEM, barriers still exist. “Maintaining progress will require sustained effort, while making further progress will require addressing the pitifully small pipeline in many STEM fields,” they write.
Jennifer Smith of The Boston Globe writes about the fourth annual OrigaMIT convention held November 8, which brought “origami artists from across the country to display their creations and teach attendees to create sculptures from squares of paper.”
Boston Globe reporter Derrick Z. Jackson writes about Dr. Juliet Simpson’s work mapping the amount of carbon in Boston-area sea grass beds. Simpson explains that in undisturbed areas, half of a handful of salt marsh soil is “probably straight carbon.”
Alexandra Ossola of Popular Science features Prof. Kamal Youcef-Toumi’s work developing an autonomous robot to patrol pipes for leaks. “The two-liter-bottle-size prototype cruises through pipes at up to 3 miles per hour in search of subtle pressure differences that indicate a loss of fluids,” writes Ossola.
In a piece for Forbes about geothermal power production, Peter Kelly-Detwiler features a report released by a group of MIT researchers in 2005 concerning the potential of geothermal to become a major source of energy in the U.S.