NPR’s Sally Herships speaks with Prof. M. Taylor Fravel about the territorial dispute in the South China Sea. “Fravel notes that border disputes in the area have been going on for decades and this is China's way of trying to demonstrate its claim to the territory,” Herships reports.
In an article for The New York Times, John Markoff writes about a recent synthetic biology conference hosted by MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. “Neil Gershenfeld, a physicist who is the director of the Center for Bits and Atoms, said that the improvement in the capacity to read and write biological genes has given rise to the possibility of ‘spectacular advances,’” Markoff writes.
“The goal of the simulation is to compare the actual cosmos — viewable via telescope — to the computer-created universe. The comparison will allow scientists to test if their theories on the creation of the universe work,” Salon reporter Sarah Gray writes of Illustris.
“Three scientific papers about the Y chromosome, which determines maleness in humans and most other mammals, should lay to rest the myth that it may disappear after a few more million years of evolution,” Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes of MIT research on the Y chromosome.
MIT alumnus James Lee’s company has invented an armrest with a double-decker design that allows it to be shared comfortably, WCVB reports.
Boston Globe reporter Carolyn Johnson writes about 2.007’s robotics competition. “Students competed at MITSKI, in which the robots they built from scratch had to climb ski slopes, descend them with grace, collect slalom flags, return flags to the ski chalet, and collect medals,” Johnson writes.
In this article (written in Spanish), EFE news wire reports on MIT’s new lab aimed at finding solutions to growing food and water shortages brought on by population growth and climate change. The new lab is being established thanks to a gift from alumnus Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel.
Lauren Tara LaCapra of Reuters writes about Professor Andrew Lo’s recent work for the Treasury Department. Lo is helping to build tools to find potential credit risk in the banking industry, starting with the mortgage market.
GreenWire reporter Katherine Ling writes about MIT’s new environment initiative. The initiative will, "use interdisciplinary research across physical and social sciences, engineering, and urban planning and policy to address environmental problems.”
Reporting for Wired, Chris Higgins writes about how researchers from MIT have uncovered the mystery of how the human eye detects motion thanks to the efforts of thousands of people from around the world who played the citizen science computer game EyeWire.
In a piece for The New York Times, Edward Wong interviews Professor M. Taylor Fravel on the confrontation between Vietnam and China over petroleum-rich sections of the South China Sea. “The risk of escalation is real,” says Fravel. “Offshore oil and gas play an important role in Vietnam’s economy.”
Arab News reports on MIT’s establishment of the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab. The lab will, “focus and coordinate MIT efforts to help find sustainable solutions for the scarcity of worldwide water and food supplies,” Arab News reports.
In an article posted on the Scientific American website, Elizabeth Gibney details the new computer model developed to simulate the Universe.
“The invisible web of dark matter and energy tying the universe together is recreated to the best of our knowledge, and the elements that make up stars and planets can be observed forming and coalescing,” Coldewey writes in an MSNBC article about Illustris.
Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes about the computer model developed to model the universe. The model is so accurate that, “a mock observation of galaxies from the Illustris model could pass for an image taken by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Space Telescope,” Netburn reports.