In the Media

"A political scientist and deputy dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been named director of Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University."

"Now, three papers in the journal Science suggest there really is ice at the bottom of craters near the poles on Mercury."

"While engineering programmable matter, they also invented a motor that holds its position without power."

"In addition to composing his own music, Machover is passionate about making music central to people's lives -- and many of the technologies he's created do just that, from the technology behind Guitar Hero to Hyperscore, which lets anyone compose music using visual tools."

"A top Obama administration official said the president remains committed to immigration reform and called the current practice of forcing immigrant entrepreneurs educated at top American universities to set up shop in other countries a 'broken system.'"

"Musical compositions based on the structure of silk could help engineers make stronger threads."

"With that in mind and assuming Secretary Chu doesn’t stay on for a second term, here are ITIF’s recommendations for the top job at the Department of Energy."

"An advisory committee racing to meet a deadline on recommending changes to the way ­Boston assigns students to schools will have until at least January to cast a vote, the mayor’s office ­announced Thursday."

"Most arguments about tax brackets in the United States are over a percentage point or two."

"Does microcredit reduce poverty? Do laptops in schools improve student learning? If you believe in Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) as the only way to evaluate an intervention, the answers to the questions are: No and No."

"Pilots at United Airlines and American Airlines are due to vote in coming weeks on new labor contracts that in some cases offer the first significant raises in almost a decade."

"MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito and famed filmmaker J.J. Abrams experienced what you might call a Vulcan mind meld yesterday."

"In operations research John Little is best known for his proof of the queuing formula, commonly known as Little’s Law."

"In 2010, MIT researchers used similar methods to predict health. Studying early-morning and late-night call and text patterns, they could discern if a person was suffering from colds, stress or mild depression."

"Holographic TV may remain a distant prospect, but the Media Lab's Camera Culture group is developing the next best thing: screens capable of producing glasses-free 3D images that can be seen from various angles."