Matt McFarland writes for The Washington Post about Prof. David Mindell’s new book, in which he argues that automation can take away from the enjoyment of working. “The most advanced (and difficult) technologies are not those that stand apart from people, but those that are most deeply embedded in, and responsive to, human and social networks,” Mindell explains.
MIT researchers contributed to a new study that found that “severe floods – the kind likely to occur only every 500 years – may now strike every 24.4 years in the New York City area thanks to climate change,” writes Alan Neuhauser for U.S. News & World Report.
According to researchers from MIT and Climate Interactive, “even if countries manage to fulfill their existing pledges on reducing carbon emissions, the world will likely still experience potentially dangerous levels of global warming,” writes Justin Worland for Time. Without further action “the world will likely warm 6.3°F (3.5°C) above pre-industrial levels by 2100.”
In an article for The New York Times about the impact of patent laws on drug development, Austin Frakt highlights Prof. Benjamin Roin’s research that indicates pharmaceutical companies reject unpatentable drugs. To counter this problem, Frakt explains that Roin suggests “a period of market exclusivity…to any organization addressing an unmet medical need with a drug that isn’t patentable.”
Researchers from MIT and Olin College are developing technology that could allow fleets of drones to aid firefighters in combatting wildfires, reports Barb Darrow for Fortune. The drones would be used to “collect intelligence about the fire as fast as possible for human fire-fighting experts,” writes Darrow.
According to the Associated Press, a new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that sea level rise due to climate change could dramatically increase storm surges and flooding in New York and New Jersey. The researchers found that “flood heights have risen nearly 4 feet from the year 850, largely because of the sea level rise.”
Prof. John Lienhard and Dr. Kenneth Strzepek write for The New York Times about the need for Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to successfully share water from the Nile. “The world needs to get good at sharing water, and right away,” they write. “The alternative is frequent regional conflicts of unknowable proportions.”
Prof. Jonathan How and his colleagues are developing a fleet of autonomous drones that could help gather information about wild fires, writes Brian Dowling for The Boston Herald. “These drones will let a firefighter select a point of a fire on a map, then send a drone there to examine the fire and report back with data,” explains Dowling.
Boston Globe reporter Sharon Begley writes that Prof. Feng Zhang has uncovered enzymes that could be used to edit genes more precisely than the proteins currently used by CRISPR. Begley explains that the discovery means that CRISPR could become an “even more powerful tool to reveal the genetic defects underlying diseases and to perhaps repair them.”
In an article for Wired, Sarah Zhang writes that MIT researchers have identified a new gene-editing system that could prove more effective than current techniques. The new system involves, “a different protein that also edits human DNA, and, in some cases, it may work even better than Cas9,” the protein used for DNA editing.
MIT junior Ian Reynolds has constructed an LED display mapping the location of MBTA vehicles across the city’s subway lines, reports Steve Annear for The Boston Globe. “Our transit system has a lot of personality,” says Reynolds. “It’s very, very integrated into the fabric of the city.”
In an interview with NPR, alumna Noramay Cadena and her daughter, Chassitty Saldana, discuss how Cadena completed her MIT degrees while raising Saldana. Cadena tells Saldana that graduating from MIT “gave me this huge sense of hope for what you would do."
Prof. Marcia Bartusiak writes for The Washington Post about Eileen Pollack’s book, “The Only Woman in the Room,” which examines the obstacles facing women in science. Bartusiak writes that, “Pollack draws attention to this important and vexing problem with a personal narrative, beautifully written and full of important insights on the changes needed to make those barriers crumble.”
This video produced by The Wall Street Journal examines new research by MIT scientists showing how the soft palate plays a key role in the transmission of the flu. “The discovery should help scientists better understand the characteristics of flu viruses that have the ability to travel through the air.”
Bruce Arntzen, the executive director of MIT’s Supply Chain Management Program, writes for The Wall Street Journal that companies have to take steps to make their supply chains more resilient to economic downturns. “We know a recession will hit at some point but do little to get ready for the impending storm,” argues Arntzen.