"An analysis of the computational complexity of video games, including those in the Mario and Legend of Zelda series, proves that many of them belong to a class of mathematical problems called NP-hard."
"Data–your emails, the lovely lady giving you directions in your smart phone, the latest political polls– It may be overwhelming, but it is revolutionizing all aspects of our world." - MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson is a guest on WBUR's Radio Boston and discusses "the age of big data."
"Pi appears in the search for other planets, in the way that DNA folds, in science at the world's most powerful particle collider, and in many other fields of science."
"Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are top of a global league table of university reputation - in a top 100 dominated by US institutions."
"The Turkish M.I.T. professor (Daron Acemoglu)— who, right now, is about as hot as economists get— acquired his renown for serious advances in answering the single most important question in his profession, the same one that compelled Adam Smith to write 'The Wealth of Nations': why are some countries rich while others are poor?"
"Drivers don't need to be texting or talking on cellphones to be distracted enough to possibly get in trouble on the road, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are finding."
"Their answer, just published in Environmental Science and Technology, is that if wind turbines and electrical vehicles are going to fulfill the role that environmental planners have assigned them in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions, current technologies would require an increase in the supply of neodymium and dysprosium of more than 700% and 2,600% respectively during the next 25 years." - Research by MIT's Randolph Kirchain, Elisa Alonso and Frank Field is discussed.
"Mens et Manus – mind and hand is the motto for MIT Sloan School of Management and something that is taken particularly seriously at the schools’ Global Entrepreneurship Lab."
"Every day, with the flick of a switch, millions of Americans tap into the electricity grid. It's a web of power stations, transformers and transmission lines that span the continent, distributing electricity like veins and arteries distribute blood."
"A new kind of fiber technology can emit light variably in different directions, creating the potential for woven 3-D displays that can send two slightly different images to a viewer's right and left eyes, creating a three-dimensional effect."
"It happens all the time: You buy an item at one price, and then see others buy the same item a little later on for a much cheaper price. This is standard practice nowadays, but it still gets customers angry."