Professor Craig Wilder received a Hurston/Wright 2014 award for his book “Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities,” writes DeNeen L. Brown for The Washington Post. According to the judges, Wilder’s book “brilliantly exposes the blood-soaked ties between slavery and high education and higher education in America.”
Elvira Palomo reports for EFE on new findings from a team of MIT researchers that indicates the Mars One colonization plans are flawed. "Our current technological level does not make such a mission possible," explains graduate student Sydney Do.
Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston writes about the symposium held in honor of the 100th anniversary of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, highlighting SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s talk. Musk said that investment in becoming a “multi-planet” species is crucial to the future of humanity.
Steve Brown of WBUR features the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ centennial symposium. Brown reports that during a panel discussion featuring Apollo-era astronauts, the group “took part in a spirited discussion on the future of space exploration.”
Professor Jonathan Gruber speaks with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan of WGBH about health care enrollment following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. “States like California and Massachusetts, that really care about implementing the law, have done well,” says Gruber. “They’ve gotten the word out and signed people up.”
Kathryn Hauser of WBZ News reports on the new MIT study showing that while workers are happier in single-sex offices, diversity results in higher levels of productivity. “If this spurs more firms to think seriously about trying to increase gender diversity, I for one would be pleased,” says Dr. Sara Ellison, co-author of the study.
Deborah Douglas, the director of collections and curator of science and technology at the MIT Museum, speaks with WGBH about history of the slide rule. "The slide rule is an instrument that was used to design virtually everything," says Douglas. "The size of a sewer pipe, the weight-bearing ability of a cardboard box, even rocket ships and cars."
Scott Kirsner of BetaBoston highlights Anne Hunter’s jobs list, which has connected MIT students and alumni to potential employers since the 1990s. “The ‘jobs list’ is an MIT institution, a mailing list that any student can ask to get onto,” says alumni Michael McGraw-Herdeg. “Anne is a saint for having set the list up — I am sure it has changed lives.”
Dr, Susan Whifield-Gabrieli discusses the importance of understanding the default mode network (DMN) in the human brain to the study of schizophrenia in a NOVA feature by Allison Eck. “This is first time we’ve found a neural system that actually reveals your inner self,” says Whitfield-Gabrieli.
Writing for Smithsonian’s section on the American Ingenuity Award winners, Matthew Shaer examines Professor Hugh Herr’s work developing bionic limbs. “To spend any time with Hugh Herr is to understand that he is already thinking beyond a world where bionics are used only to enable wounded people and toward a future where bionics are an integral part of everyday life.”
Sacha Pfeiffer of WBUR speaks with Jonathan Eig, the author of a new book on the history of birth control, about the role of MIT alumna Katherine McCormick in the development of the birth control pill. McCormick, a pioneer of the women's suffrage movement, funded much of the research that led to the creation of the pill.
David Weinberg of Marketplace reports that MIT researchers have developed a formula for concrete that reduces its greenhouse-gas emissions. Dr. Roland Pellenq explains that to make a “greener” cement, researchers examined concrete’s properties at the “sub-micron or big-nano level.”
Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston writes that eyeMITRA, a new system developed by Professor Ramesh Raskar’s Camera Culture group, is a finalist in the Nokia Sensing XChallenge. The system monitors a wide range of health conditions by taking pictures of the retina. “Your eyes are a window into your health,” says Raskar.
Slate reporter Joshua Keating writes about a new paper, co-authored by Prof. Richard Nielsen, which examines why governments ratify human rights agreements. The authors found that “governments sometimes see ratification as a small concession to their domestic political opponents.”
Washington Post reporter Nick Anderson writes that edX, the online learning platform from MIT and Harvard, is now offering free online AP courses. Anderson writes that edX offering AP courses is a “potentially significant milestone for a movement that aims to bring college-level courses to high school students.”