In the Media

"The White House recently modified an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to limit soot emissions, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, inviting public comment on a slightly weaker standard than the agency had originally sought."

“Let me show you a magic trick. This might look like an ordinary kettle — but it’s a magic kettle. And it’s magic because it will pour any color that I ask it to. Oh, you don’t believe me? Check this out!” -MIT doctoral student Tyler DeWitt

"About 14% of U.S. companies surveyed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor definitely plan to move some of their manufacturing back home—the latest sign of growing interest among executives in a strategy known as 'reshoring.'"

"Get ready to chuck away your 3D glasses. A way of producing 3D TV images that work no matter where you are in the room could see images stand out from a flat TV screen – without the need for any silly eyeware."

"When Sebastian Seung read that each day people around the world spend 600 years collectively playing Angry Birds, he saw not a huge waste, but a big opportunity."

"The earth harbors about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water. Unfortunately, the vast majority of that water comes from the sea and is not potable unless treated by expensive, energy-hungry desalination plants."

"Before cars start driving themselves completely, they’ll most likely start helping humans behave better on the road, politely ignoring instructions to run a red light or noticing traffic cones or other obstacles a driver might not see. A new system developed at MIT could help cars have our backs, letting them serve as semi-autonomous co-pilots."

"A group of students at MIT's Media Lab may soon make matters rather more confusing. They're working on a new kind of TV called a 'tensor display,' the first 3D TV that produces an image as clear and bright as that of a traditional TV without requiring viewers to wear glasses."

"HERE IS A LIST OF BREAKTHROUGHS that recently emerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: (1) a sponge coated with a natural anticoagulant that almost instantly stops bleeding, (2) a super-thin battery that discharges power — lots of it — at blinding speed, and (3) a way of packing RNA segments into tiny but hardy spheres that can find their way to diseased cells and silence genes that have gone awry."

"(MIT's Anant) Agarwal heads the pioneering effort to make online higher education — rather than the in-person kind — a viable alternative for hundreds of millions of prospective students worldwide."

"Parkinson’s disease will be diagnosable by phone, in mere seconds, if a research project at MIT’s Media lab comes to fruition"

"The day when we leave the driving to robots may yet be in the distant future, but we could soon have robotic co-pilots to keep us safe on the road."

"Technology is often accused of facilitating bullying among kids. But now some researchers have created an AI system that can recognize abusive language in user-posted text—and perhaps nip it in the bud."

"How will NASA transform the International Space Station from a building site into a cutting-edge research lab?"

"Instead of assembly lines, what if manufacturing moved to self-assembly lines?"