GreenWire reporter Katherine Ling writes about MIT’s new environment initiative. The initiative will, "use interdisciplinary research across physical and social sciences, engineering, and urban planning and policy to address environmental problems.”
Reporting for Wired, Chris Higgins writes about how researchers from MIT have uncovered the mystery of how the human eye detects motion thanks to the efforts of thousands of people from around the world who played the citizen science computer game EyeWire.
In a piece for The New York Times, Edward Wong interviews Professor M. Taylor Fravel on the confrontation between Vietnam and China over petroleum-rich sections of the South China Sea. “The risk of escalation is real,” says Fravel. “Offshore oil and gas play an important role in Vietnam’s economy.”
Arab News reports on MIT’s establishment of the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab. The lab will, “focus and coordinate MIT efforts to help find sustainable solutions for the scarcity of worldwide water and food supplies,” Arab News reports.
In an article posted on the Scientific American website, Elizabeth Gibney details the new computer model developed to simulate the Universe.
“The invisible web of dark matter and energy tying the universe together is recreated to the best of our knowledge, and the elements that make up stars and planets can be observed forming and coalescing,” Coldewey writes in an MSNBC article about Illustris.
Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes about the computer model developed to model the universe. The model is so accurate that, “a mock observation of galaxies from the Illustris model could pass for an image taken by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Space Telescope,” Netburn reports.
Professors Michel Degraff and Deborah Ancona speak with NECN about MIT’s initiative to support Haiti’s development of science, technology, engineering, and math curricula. Since 2010 the initiative has hosted four workshops and trained more than 100 teachers.
Professor Ron Weiss contributes to this article in Nature on how to overcome the greatest obstacles in the field of synthetic biology. Weiss recommends improving the efficiency of the design of genetic parts.
Wired reporter Adam Mann writes about Illustris, the new computer model developed to model the history of the universe. Illustris can handle all elements of the universe’s 330 million light-year span, Mann reports.
Pallab Ghosh reports for BBC News on the new computer model of the universe developed by researchers from MIT and other institutions around the world.
The Associated Press reports on the new computer model of the universe developed by a team of researchers led by MIT Professor Mark Vogelsberger.
Seth Borenstein of The Associated Press reports on the National Climate Assessment released Tuesday. Henry Jacoby, co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and a co-author of the report, tells Borenstein, "we're still on the pathway to more damage and danger of the type that are described in great detail in the rest of this report.”
Tech reporter Austin Hess writes about the new Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab. Prof. John Lienhard, tapped to direct the lab, tells Hess that, “interest in water and food sustainability is strong.”
Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney reports on “Daguerre’s American Legacy: Photographic Portraits (1840-1900) From the Wm. B. Becker Collection,” which is on display at the MIT Museum through January 4.