Jean Tirole, an MIT alumnus and recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, speaks with Binyamin Appelbaum of The New York Times about his research on government regulation. Tirole explains that he began his research in the field as a graduate student at MIT.
Aviva Rutkin writes for New Scientist about an infrared navigation system developed by graduate student Dhruv Jain that helps visually impaired people find their way. Roshini, or “Light” in Hindi, gives audio directions to users telling them where to step and warning them of hazards.
Chelsea Rice of Boston.com writes about OpenBiome, a non-profit stool bank founded by MIT postdoctoral associate Mark Smith. OpenBiome collects and stores donations for fecal transplants for 122 hospitals in 33 states.
New Scientist reporter Paul Marks examines new findings from a team of MIT researchers who have assessed the Mars One colonization plans. The researchers found that “if crop growth provides 100 per cent of the settlement's food, the system will produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat," says graduate student Sydney Do.
Robert J. Szczerba of Forbes reports on how cameras are changing health care, featuring new work from researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. The researchers are developing a new technique to measure heart rate via subtle head movements, Szczerba writes.
Forbes reporter Bill Tucker writes about battery innovation, highlighting a liquid battery system developed by MIT researchers. The proposed system would operate at dramatically lower temperatures and would allow renewable energy sources to compete with conventional power plants, reports Tucker.
The Guardian reports on the new study from a team of MIT engineers examining the Mars One colonization plans. The team found that plans to grow crops in the settlers’ habitat would produce unsafe levels of oxygen, creating a fire risk.
MIT Age Lab Director Joseph Coughlin writes for The Wall Street Journal about some of the potential pitfalls of early retirement. “[B]efore you retire, do some careful planning that goes well beyond financial security,” writes Coughlin. “What will you be pursuing to give you a daily sense of purpose?”
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for BetaBoston about the MIT startup Embr Labs and its product, a thermoelectric bracelet called Wristify. Wristify allows for precise temperature control, giving wearers the ability to determine exactly how warm or cool they want to be.
Professor Erik Brynjolfsson speaks with Tom Ashbrook of WBUR’s On Point about how automation will impact the labor market. “If you look at wage’s you’ll see they’re falling,” said Brynjolfsson. “That tells us that there is not enough demand for people working in those middle-skilled jobs.”
"The idea here is to take existing material systems like fibres, sheets, strands and three-dimensional objects and program them to change shape and property on demand," says Skylar Tibbits, director of the Self Assembly Lab of his group’s new materials that can be programmed to transform autonomously.
The Huffington Post reports on how MIT researchers have developed a robotic cheetah that can run and jump, untethered.
Hailey Lee of CNBC examines a new study co-authored by Dr. Sara Ellison, which found that gender diversity in the workplace increased productivity. The study shows that "companies really need to start considering whether introducing more diversity could in fact benefit their bottom line in ways they may not be able to predict or understand," says Ellison.
Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes about how MIT engineers have analyzed the feasibility of the Mars One colonization plans. "The claim they make is that no new technology is required for their mission," says graduate student Syndey Do. "Our numbers show that is not feasible."
Professor Alex Pentland writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education about how researchers can produce important social insights by analyzing aggregated anonymous data. “Today the new technology of living labs is beginning to give researchers a more complete view of life in all its complexity. It is, I believe, the future of social science,” writes Pentland.