Professor Jim Walsh discusses the U.S. hostage policy with Jeremy Hobson of WBUR’s Here and Now following the failed rescue attempt of American hostage Luke Somers in Yemen. “[T]he number of kidnappings has jumped dramatically,” says Walsh. “A lot of this is fundraising on the part of local terrorist groups.”
Russell Platt writes for The New Yorker about Professor Keeril Makan’s music. “The work’s brave exploration of expressive territory makes it memorable. It’s lulling, thrilling, and, at times, downright eerie,” writes Platt of Makan’s piece “Resonance Alloy.”
Dr. Tara Swart speaks with Charlotte Clarke of The Financial Times about her work and what inspired her to switch from working in medicine to business. “My mission is to disseminate simple, pragmatic neuroscience-based messages that change the way people work and that translate to tangible financial improvements in business,” says Swart of her work.
Wall Street Journal reporter Chris Gay profiles several books examining the financial crisis, highlighting Prof. Simon Johnson’s book “13 Bankers.” In the book Johnson and his co-author, “trace two centuries of government attempts to grapple with the power of big finance,” Gay writes.
Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes about a new report examining innovation at MIT. Graham writes that the study’s authors recommended “a co-working space for recent MIT graduates, the construction of two “Innovation Hubs” on campus, and the creation of the Laboratory for Innovation Science and Policy, a department that would study the innovation process and how to foster it.”
Lauren Landry of BostInno highlights a new report that examines innovation and entrepreneurship at MIT and presents suggestions for how to “bolster innovation.” Landry writes that “among the measures suggested are the creation of an undergraduate minor, a graduate certificate in innovation and programming for postdocs.”
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) has been named to Bloomberg Businessweek’s list of The 85 Most Disruptive Ideas in Our History. Bloomberg’s Mark Littman explains that J-PAL has “changed the way economists approach development issues.”
MIT engineers have examined the feasibility of the Mars One colonization plans and found that new technologies will be necessary for human survival on Mars, writes Lucy Draper for Newsweek. “[W]e do think it’s not really feasible under the assumptions they’ve made,” says Professor Oliver De Weck.
Carolyn Johnson of The Boston Globe reports on Prof. Benjamin Weiss’ research examining evidence that the moon had a magnetic field. Johnson writes that analysis of moon rocks has shown that the moon "had a magnetic field caused by an ancient core dynamo.”
Science reporter John Bohannon spotlights Professor Paula Hammond’s chemical engineering lab at MIT and the career paths of her graduate students. Hammond explains that she decided to pursue a career in academia as she “wanted the freedom to pursue my own research,” she explains.
Kristi Hedges writes for Forbes about Professor Sherry Turkle’s research that indicates that technology may be having an adverse effect on our connections to one another. Hedges writes that Turkle’s research suggests that “we’re creating a culture where we prefer an artificial presentation of ourselves through social media and texting."
Vijee Venkatraman writes for BetaBoston about the "Local Warming" exhibit developed by the MIT SENSEable City Lab. The system uses a WiFi-based tracking system that follows people and provides local heating through lamps.
“Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and MIT studied data from a financial services company, and found that while referrals only made up about six percent of total applications, they resulted in more than a quarter of hires,” reports Max Nisen for The Atlantic.
MIT researchers have discovered that Earth’s early atmosphere may have been destroyed by thousands of small asteroids, writes Rachel Feltman of The Washington Post. Feltman explains that researchers found, “a real flurry of these small impacts…could have completely ejected the atmosphere.”
Caitlin Dewey writes for The Washington Post about MIT startup Charitweet, which aims to make supporting charitable causes easier. “Ecommerce has just made it so easy for me to send money, except when it comes to giving. … Why should donating to charity be harder than buying something on Amazon?” says Charitweet co-founder Charles Huang.