In the Media

"Their answer, just published in Environmental Science and Technology, is that if wind turbines and electrical vehicles are going to fulfill the role that environmental planners have assigned them in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions, current technologies would require an increase in the supply of neodymium and dysprosium of more than 700% and 2,600% respectively during the next 25 years." - Research by MIT's Randolph Kirchain, Elisa Alonso and Frank Field is discussed.

"Don't basketball players deserve to be compensated from the funds their games generate?"

"Mens et Manus – mind and hand is the motto for MIT Sloan School of Management and something that is taken particularly seriously at the schools’ Global Entrepreneurship Lab."

"Every day, with the flick of a switch, millions of Americans tap into the electricity grid. It's a web of power stations, transformers and transmission lines that span the continent, distributing electricity like veins and arteries distribute blood."

"Is the wiring pattern of your brain what makes you uniquely 'you'?"

"A new kind of fiber technology can emit light variably in different directions, creating the potential for woven 3-D displays that can send two slightly different images to a viewer's right and left eyes, creating a three-dimensional effect."

"It happens all the time: You buy an item at one price, and then see others buy the same item a little later on for a much cheaper price. This is standard practice nowadays, but it still gets customers angry."

"If I find myself in a free-falling elevator, is there any position that might increase my chance of survival? (Climbing on top of other people is not an acceptable answer.)"

"Rafael Reif, MIT's provost, explains that 'MITx will be tied to an MIT-wide research initiative into online learning. That initiative will investigate ways in which students - whether on MIT's campus or part of a virtual community beyond it - learn best.'"

"By now, most people have heard about the Kony 2012 video that’s gotten over 50 million hits on the internet."

"But the present reality is of astounding difference: the same people can live in abject poverty in one country, yet be prosperous once they move to another."

"This quake, tsunami, and meltdown — a triple catastrophe with no precedent — is simply called '3/11.' A year on, 3/11 and its consequences are at the center of a Japanese national debate on the future direction of the country, one that focuses on change, community, leadership, and vulnerability." -MIT's Richard Samuels

"Ed Boyden heads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group at MIT Media Lab. He is working on developing technologies and tools for 'analysing and engineering brain circuits' – to reveal which brain neurons are involved in different cognitive processes and using this knowledge to treat brain disorders."

"As of this school year, the physical education department is formally conferring pirate status on students, printing certificates on faux parchment with diploma-esque calligraphy."

"Habitual action via this cycle (cue, routine, reward) is a common phenomenon. It happens with everything from locking your front door to driving to work. It happens with eating and dieting, too."