In an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Corinne Ruff highlights MIT’s new “MicroMaster’s” credential. Prof. Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, noted that the pilot program offers a new path for admissions into MIT’s Supply Chain Management program.
Scott Malone of Reuters writes that Prof. Lester Thurow, a former dean of MIT Sloan, has died at age 77. Malone writes that Thurow’s, “policy recommendations focused on promoting education and long-term investment in companies and economies.”
Former Sloan School of Management Dean Lester Thurow has died at age 77, the Associated Press reports. “Thurow became a leading public voice in examining the defining features of globalization, including the competitiveness of national economies at a time of industrial change, and worker welfare.”
Prof. Emeritus Lester Thurow, a former dean of MIT Sloan who was known for his research on income inequality, died on March 25, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Marquard notes that Thurow “addressed topics that resonate as loudly in today’s political debates as they did when he was a professor and dean.”
Voice of America reporter Kevin Enochs writes that a new study by MIT researchers has found that large portions of Asia could face a high risk of severe water stress by 2050. Enochs writes that the researchers found that, “global climate mitigation efforts can result in a measurable decrease in the risk of water stress.”
MIT researchers have found that population and economic growth could lead to severe water stress across Asia by 2050, reports Robert Ferris for CNBC. "We simply cannot ignore the fact that growth in population and the economies can play just as or more important a role in risk," explains Dr. Adam Schlosser.
MIT researchers are creating a GIF genome that will allow computers to identify the emotions or meaning behind a GIF, writes Kevin Maney for Newsweek. “We realized that they’re becoming more and more serious of a medium,” explains graduate student Kevin Hu. “And we realized that we could quantify this usage.”
Lisa Boone of The Los Angeles Times highlights Sprout plantable pencils, which were designed by three MIT students. Boone explains that after planting, “a dissolvable seed capsule at the end of the pencil will proceed to germinate in a few weeks, transforming the pencil in to one of 12 edible plants.”
New York Times reporter John Koblin highlights the work of Prof. Lester Thurow, a former dean of MIT Sloan and a prominent economist, who died on March 25. “He was one of the first important economists to suggest that too much inequality is bad for society,” said Jared Bernstein, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Researchers have uncovered evidence about how “hot Jupiter” exoplanets form by studying a planet with an eccentric orbit, reports Eva Botkin-Kowacki for The Christian Science Monitor. "This planet is thought to be caught in the act of migrating inward," says MIT postdoc Julien de Wit. "By studying it, we are able to test theories of hot Jupiter formation."
In this Huffington Post interview with Andrew McAfee, co-founder of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Prof. Neri Oxman speaks about the complex relationship between humans and nature. “We think about new ways of making things... using new technologies that are inspired or informed by nature,” says Oxman of her group’s work.
Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that a new study co-authored by MIT postdoc Julien de Wit examines the eccentric orbit of an exoplanet with extreme weather variations. The researchers found that, “every 111 days, the planet swings close to its sun-like host star before being flung back out.”
NPR reporter Michelle Andrews writes about a new paper, co-authored by Prof. Andrew Lo, that proposes developing health care installment loans to help patients access treatments that are prohibitively expensive. Lo explains that the loans are a "private sector stopgap way to deal with” the high prices of certain medications.
In an article for The Huffington Post, Senior Lecturer Joseph Hadzima writes that a method for making the U.S. patent system more approachable is needed. “They are dense and complex; it often takes a legal team and technical experts to make sense of them,” Hadzima says.
Boston Globe reporter Kevin Hartnett writes about a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that envisions a future without traffic lights. “When sensor-laden vehicles approach an intersection, they can communicate their presence and remain at a safe distance from each other, rather than grinding to a halt at traffic lights,” explains Prof. Carlo Ratti.