Neha Narula, director of the Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative, writes for The Wall Street Journal about why she feels the U.S. dollar should be digitized. “The U.S. could help pave the way for faster, cheaper and more secure payments by allowing consumers to hold central-bank-issued digital currency outside of commercial banks,” writes Narula.
Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, explores how AgeLab researchers are examining the work of caregivers as part of an effort to “help us to understand how technology might help caregivers; the many other ways that caregivers need help to provide care to others and to care for themselves; and how to plan for this universally experienced fact of life.”
The Economist spotlights Prof. Aviv Regev’s work mapping the location of each cell in the human body as part of the Human Cell Atlas program. The Economist notes that the project will result in “the most granular view yet obtained of human anatomy.”
The AP reports that William McRaven, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former chancellor of the University of Texas system, has been selected to deliver MIT’s 2020 Commencement address. “McRaven was head of U.S. Special Operations Command in 2011 when a team of Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan,” the AP notes.
MIT researchers have identified a new kind of antibiotic using AI, according to BBC News. “A powerful algorithm was used to analyze more than one hundred million chemical compounds in a matter of days. The newly discovered compound was able to kill 35 types of potentially deadly bacteria.”
Newsweek reporter Rosie McCall writes that MIT researchers have developed a decision map to help determine the best course of action when faced with an asteroid headed towards Earth. The decision map “considers the asteroid's mass, momentum, trajectory and how much warning time scientists have before collision,” writes McCall.
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. M. Taylor Fravel examines China’s approach to territorial disputes. Fravel notes that “by settling the majority of its other territorial disputes, China and its neighbors have reduced numerous opportunities for armed conflict.”
Writing for The Conversation, Sriram Chandrasekaran explores how MIT researchers used a deep-learning algorithm to identify an antibiotic that could be used to treat drug-resistant bacteria. Chandrasekaran writes that AI technologies “may soon give us a leg up in the never-ending battle against drug resistance.”
Alumna Mareena Robinson Snowden PhD '17 speaks with NBC’s Erin Delmore about what inspired her to pursue a career in nuclear engineering and the challenges women and minorities face in STEM fields. “I think it’s tremendously important to have this diversity of voices, not just from a cultural perspective or from a gender perspective, but just lived experience,” says Snowden.
Forbes contributor Vivienne Decker highlights Ten Little, a children’s shoe company co-founded by MIT alumna Fatma Collins MBA ’11 that is aimed at making it easier for parents to find shoes that fit properly and provide the necessary support. Collins explains she was motivated to start the company after searching for shoes for her daughter “left me thinking there must be a better way.”
Using a new algorithm, MIT researchers have discovered an antibiotic that can treat drug-resistant bacteria, reports Madhumita Murgia for the Financial Times. “There is still a question of whether machine-learning tools are really doing something intelligent in healthcare,” says Prof. Regina Barzilay. “This shows how far you can adapt this tool.”
Quanta Magazine reporter Dana Najjar writes that new findings from LIGO researchers challenge longstanding assumptions about neutron stars.
William McRaven, a retired four-star US Navy admiral, will deliver MIT’s 2020 Commencement address, writes Peter Bailey-Wells for The Boston Globe.
Boston Magazine reporter Kaylie Felsberg highlights an exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center featuring the work of artist Rami George. Felsberg writes that the exhibit was inspired by how Rami George’s mother took her children to join a New Age cult called the Samaritan Foundation. George “reflects on their experience and shares research on the mysterious organization via two video essays.”
Jo Marchant writes for Nature that MIT researchers have developed a machine learning model that was used to discover an antibiotic that works against a wide range of bacteria. People keep finding the same molecules over and over,” says Prof. James Collins. “We need novel chemistries with novel mechanisms of action.”