In the Media

"Face recognition is a very difficult problem, because all faces are basically the same." -MIT neuroscientist Nancy Kanwisher

"MIT professor Esther Duf lo is one of the world's star economists. Over eggs Benedict near Harvard, she compares French and American attitudes to life, and tells John Gapper why the empowerment of women will not solve poverty."

"Why is Mexico poorer than the United States? In Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson blame the encomienda."

"Ireland's only way out of this trap is to grow its way back to prosperity. Whether it succeeds greatly interests America, Britain and the other peripheral euro-zone countries, all of whom have suffered their own ruinous credit booms and busts."

"The NCAA is fond of talking about its student-athletes, but the Tech undergrads truly live that dual role as they have since they began playing basketball in 1900."

"A newer version of the biplane could reach supersonic cruising speeds without causing ear-splitting sonic booms, according to computer simulations by MIT and Stanford University researchers."

"Business and political leaders have repeatedly warned that America's scientists and engineers are in short supply. However, some economists say the numbers indicate the opposite — a glut of high-tech workers. A panel of experts debate whether America's schools produce the scientific workforce needed to compete globally."

“'Populism' is a loaded term in modern American politics." -MIT's Simon Johnson

"Dr. Herr lost both of his legs in a climbing accident when he was 17 years old. Major Rozelle lost part of his right leg while serving in Iraq when a land mine exploded under his Humvee. Both men were inspired to turn what were thought to be limitations in the way they would live their lives into big ideas."

"As Rice University celebrates its centennial and looks forward to its next 100 years, it hosted a dialogue on 'The Future of the Research University in a Global Age' at the De Lange Conference on February 27-28. The conference featured presentations by current and former university presidents such as James Duderstadt of the University of Michigan, Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania, and Charles Vest of MIT."

"Now, anyone can play one of the biggest modular synthesizers in the world, thanks to a new project, code-named 'PatchWerk.' With PatchWerk’s simple web interface, users around the world can control the colossal rig in real time, from its current home at the MIT Museum."

"Controlling drone aircraft could one day be as simple as waving your arms." - "Yale Song and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a way of controlling drones taxiing on a runway using gestures."

"For more than 40 years, scientists have used radio telescopes to probe starry regions trillions of miles away for sounds of alien life. But only in the past five years or so have they been able to reliably record monthslong stretches of audio in the wildernesses of Earth."

"Landing airplanes on moving ships is no mean feat, but this will be especially true when the airplanes are unmanned."

"An analysis of the computational complexity of video games, including those in the Mario and Legend of Zelda series, proves that many of them belong to a class of mathematical problems called NP-hard."