Graduate student Joy Buolamwini speaks with Molly Wood of Marketplace about her work uncovering bias in AI systems and her calls for greater oversight of facial recognition systems. “We need the laws, we need the regulations, we need an external pressure, and that’s when companies respond,” says Buolamwini. “But the change will not come from within alone because the incentives are not aligned.”
Prof. Sara Seager speaks with Washington Post reporter Timothy Bella about the search for exoplanets and the James Webb Telescope. “I just remember seeing the stars and being overwhelmed by the beauty and the vastness and the mysteriousness of it,” recalled Seager, of a camping trip with her father that helped inspire her interest in space. “There’s something almost terrifying about it at the same time as it being so beautiful, because yeah, it’s so unknown, and it seems like it goes on forever.”
UPI reporter Brooks Hays writes that MIT researchers have developed a new technique for turning plastic into a wearable material. “Engineers at MIT have managed to weave polyethylene into fibers that absorb and evaporate water more quickly than cotton, nylon, polyester and other common textiles,” writes Hays. “The authors of the new paper hope their technology will incentivize plastic recycling.”
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Amy Finkelstein emphasizes the effectiveness of randomized clinical trials. Finkelstein notes that she hopes “truly rigorous testing of social policy will become as commonplace as it is for new vaccines. That would help ensure that government services are delivered as effectively and efficiently as possible.”
NY Post reporter Asia Grace writes that MIT researchers have found that patients are comfortable with allowing robotic assistants perform medical evaluations, as part of an effort to help reduce the spread of Covid-19. “People are very positive and accepting of robotic systems in health-care settings, particularly during the pandemic,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
Cherish Taylor, a fifth-year PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin, speaks with Pearl Stewart of Diverse: Issues in Higher Ed about how the MIT Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) program, “exposed me to the possibility of a career in academic research. Prior to my time at MITES, having a career in science meant serving as a medical professional or forensic analyst,” says Taylor. “I had no idea universities housed large research facilities that allowed scientists to answer questions about basic science (and) human disease.”
Writing for Forbes, Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, underscores the need to improve job quality, increase access to education and training, and invest in technologies that augment workers. “The public and private sectors must also be innovative in the ways in which they can collaborate in creating a work of the future that leads to greater shared prosperity,” writes Reynolds.
Fast Company reporter Nate Berg highlights Ori, an MIT startup that makes motorized furniture that can be used to transform small spaces.
Prof. Basima Tewfik speaks with BBC reporter Peter Rubinstein about imposter syndrome. Tewfik has found that “by leaning into the feelings of inadequacy – rather than trying to resist or overcome them – and putting extra effort into communication, imposters can actually outperform their non-imposter peers in interpersonal skills,” writes Rubinstein.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that the oceans may begin emitting chlorofluorocarbons by 2075, reports Valerie Yurk for E&E News. “Even if there were no climate change, as CFCs decay in the atmosphere, eventually the ocean has too much relative to the atmosphere, and it will come back out," says Prof. Susan Solomon.
Writing for Time, Prof. Sherry Turkle explores whether the sense of displacement caused by the pandemic will allow people and the U.S. the opportunity to see “our country anew.” Turkle writes, “I came to a new state of mind because I could see my country anew. And although our country was at war with itself, I felt a deeper connection with other people who were also seeing anew. On the Zoom screens of the pandemic, I found the exhilaration of new connections.”
Al Chen '00, SM '02, a NASA systems engineer, speaks with NBC Boston about the hidden surprises that NASA engineers hid on the Perseverance rover for NASA fans and science enthusiasts to uncover. “I was at MIT for six years, we loved coding things, Mystery Hunt is a big deal,” says Chen. “I think it's a little bit of a chance to bring the art and the engineering together.”
Writing for The New York Times, visiting scientist Mark Trusheim and Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center explore how to lower the cost of biologic drugs. “Prices of new drugs will continue to make headlines, as well they should,” they write. “But we must fix the problem that older biologic drugs have perpetually high prices, and do so by passing a law that ensures that at the appropriate time their prices fall fast, and they fall far.”
BBC News reporter Helen Briggs writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique to create fabrics from polythene, a plastic found in food packaging and plastic bags. "There's no reason why the simple plastic bag cannot be made into fibre and used as a high-end garment," says research scientist Svetlana Boriskina. "You can go literally from trash to a high-performance garment that provides comfort and can be recycled multiple times back into a new garment."
A new study by MIT researchers finds that using credit cards stimulates the brain’s rewards system and can stimulate cravings for further spending, writes Cory Stieg for CNBC. The researchers found “people were more willing to buy more expensive items with credit than cash and spent more overall when using a credit card,” Steig explains.