In the Media

"The new music museum of the 21st century is high-tech, cutting-edge, interactive. It’s a place where music is made, not simply heard. It’s filled with different ways to make sounds. And chances are that Tod Machover had a hand in designing it."

"It isn't green and it doesn't grow, but the wafer sitting in a beaker of water in Dan Nocera's laboratory is remarkably like a leaf."

“'Seraph' features both human dancers and elegant, LED-bedecked quadrotors—four-bladed robotic helicopters. The bots are controlled offstage by expert quadrotors captains."

"A team of researchers have used datamining and machine learning techniques to find subtle changes in electrical activity in the heart that can be used to predict potentially fatal heart attacks."

"The assignment in a architecture studio at MIT two years ago was to design a house that could be built for $1,000. The twin inspirations were the charity One Laptop Per Child and the devastating 2008 earthquake in China. Last month, MIT announced that one of the students’ designs has been erected, in Mianyang, in Sicuan Province."

"When it comes to drinking nectar, the most important factor is whether the insects dip their tongue in, or whether they suck the liquid up."

"Pablo Picasso once declared: 'Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.'"

"About 20% of American adults who have jobs are earning only $10.65 an hour or less, according to Osterman's analysis. Even at 40 hours a week, that amounts to less than $22,314, the poverty level for a family of four."

"Additive manufacturing, also called '3-D printing,' is not an entirely new technology. The technique has been around for two decades, but companies have primarily used it to quickly make prototypes of new products or to produce one-of-a-kind items like custom-fit hearing aids."

"Giving cardiac patients a heart of gold nanowires could ensure engineered tissue works like it should, pulsing in unison to make the heart beat. First growing nanowires and then growing heart cells, engineers from MIT and Harvard University say their new muscle-machine blended heart patch improves on existing cardiac patches, which have trouble reaching a consistent level of conductivity."

"President Barack Obama today named seven recipients of the National Medal of Science, and five winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, hailing their 'fearlessness even as they explore the very frontiers of human knowledge.'"

"Peter Diamond, who won the 2010 Nobel prize in economics but ultimately abandoned a bid to serve on the Federal Reserve, talks with WSJ's Kelly Evans about why he supports 'Operation Twist,' and why more fiscal stimulus is need to fix the U.S. jobs problem."

"(Rudolf) Jaenisch, also a biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of seven scientists to be awarded the medal, for his work on stem cells and the understanding of epigenetics -- the molecular mechanisms by which traits can be passed down to future generations without changes to DNA."

"A lot of decisions about the 2012 elections are being made today. How many voting machines are needed? Where should polling places be located? How many poll workers have to be hired?"

"Habits may be difficult to change, but now at least we have an insight into how they form."