In the Media

Researchers from MIT have detected the brightest pulsar ever recorded, reports Brook Hays of UPI. “Despite its small dimensions and modest mass, the pulsating dead star is burning with the energy of 10 million suns,” writes Hays. 

Atlantic reporter Tim Fernholz writes that MIT researchers have analyzed Mars One’s plans for a colonization project on Mars. The researchers found that “growing plants would increase the amount of oxygen in the air to the point where it would need to be vented outside of the habitat to avoid increasing the pressure within the life support unit,” writes Fernholz. 

Sacha Pfeiffer and Lynn Jolicoeur of WBUR report on Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a company founded by MIT Professor Hari Balakrishnan to help improve driver safety. The company developed an app that “automatically detects when you’re in the car and driving, it detects when you’ve stopped driving, and then it provides feedback to you,” Pfeiffer and Jolicoeur report. 

Amy Robinson writes for Scientific American on work being done by MIT researchers in the field of microfluidics and its potential applications in neuroscience. Microfluidics technology is being used "to study stages of development and decipher how variance in chemical and physical processes causes neurons to grow or recede,” Robinson writes.

Matthew Guerrieri of The Boston Globe writes about “Open Tunings,” a three-month project at the MIT List Visual Arts Center to “explore the various ways in which the ephemeral forms of sound and performance can inhabit the exhibition space.”

Richard Knox writes for WBUR about Grace Silva, a cancer patient whose tumor was analyzed by a team from MIT and Harvard. The team uncovered genetic mutations in her tumor that allowed them to treat her with a drug matched precisely to her condition, a model for how cancer researchers hope to eventually treat all patients. 

The Financial Times features an excerpt from Professor Erik Brynjolfsson and Dr. Andrew McAfee’s book “The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies” on their shortlist of for the 2014 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

USA Today reporter Greg Toppo writes that edX has kicked off a series of free online courses on educational technology and game design. “The new courses aim to help students both inside and outside of MIT produce saleable products,” writes Toppo. 

Thomas Davenport of The Wall Street Journal cites work by Professor Sanjay Sarma on radio frequency ID devices (RFID) and the Internet of Things. “Sarma argues that with RFID, many conservative companies blundered their way through incremental states that were successively worse,” writes Davenport.

Richard Eisenberg of Forbes writes about a symposium hosted by the MIT AgeLab, which explored the impact of Alzheimer’s and dementia on financial planning. The symposium “brought together a broad spectrum of experts ranging from Alzheimer’s Association execs to neurology professors to financial advisers to people who have early onset Alzheimer’s or are married to them,” writes Eisenberg.

In a piece published by The Huffington Post, Chad Brooks writes about a new study co-authored by Dr. Sara Ellison, which found that increasing gender diversity in the workplace can make businesses more productive. “Despite the improved production, individual employees may prefer a less diverse setting,” writes Brooks of the study’s findings. 

Zeninjor Enwemeka of WBUR writes about a new study examining diversity in the workplace by MIT economist Dr. Sara Ellison. The study found that while many workers actually prefer a homogenous workplace, shifting to an office evenly split along gender lines could increase revenue. 

Kevin Gray reports for Wired on CityFARM, a project out of the MIT Media Lab focused on developing sustainable urban agriculture. "I believe there's the possibility that we can change the world and change the food system,” says CityFARM founder Caleb Harper.

Carolyn Johnson of The Boston Globe reports on a new paper by MIT Prof. Pawan Sinha and others that says an inability to make good predictions may explain autism. “Researchers suggest people with autism spectrum disorder may perform repetitive behaviors because personal habits and rituals are a safe harbor in a world they find alarmingly out of control,” writes Johnson.

Founded by MIT alumnus Sidhant Pai and winner of the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge, Indian startup Protoprint compensates waste pickers in the Indian city of Pune for collecting the raw materials used for 3D-printing filament, writes Dhanya Ann Thoppil for The Wall Street Journal. “The point is to create employment and value add opportunities for the waste pickers,” says Pai.