Professor César Hidalgo discusses his new book “Why Information Grows” with James Ball of The Guardian. “Most people think of information as messages that communicate the state of a system,” says Hidalgo. “Information actually is physical and it is not only involved in messages but is also involved in objects.”
In an article for The Guardian, Purvi Thacker writes about how researchers from MIT are examining the Kumbh Mela festival, one of the largest public gatherings in the world, to find solutions to problems often found in cities. Prof. Ramesh Raskar explains his goal “to create a prototype ecosystem with the broader vision of game-changing innovation at its core.”
Washington Post reporter Dominic Basulto features Professor César Hidalgo’s book, “Why Information Grows” on his recommended summer reading list for “innovation junkies.” Basulto writes that in his book Hidalgo explains that, “there’s an important correlation between information growth and economic growth, and between economic complexity and national competitiveness.”
In this video, BBC Click’s LJ Rich explores how researchers at MIT CSAIL have devised a system that can reconstruct sound from a video recording. “I think what’s really different about this technology is that it provides you with a way to image this information,” says graduate student Abe Davis.
BetaBoston reporter Nidhi Subbaraman writes that MIT startup LiquiGlide has signed a deal with Orkla ASA to license LiquiGlide’s “slippery coatings for a brand of mayonnaise due to be launched in the next year in northern and central Europe.”
Andy Greenberg of Wired writes that researchers from the MIT Media Lab have developed a system called “Enigma” designed to achieve “homomorphic” encryption. “You can see it as a black box,” says Guy Zyskind, one of Enigma’s creators. “You send whatever data you want, and it runs in the black box and only returns the result.”
MIT researchers have devised a system that repairs software bugs similar to the way a surgeon applies skin grafts, writes Jonathan Vanian for Fortune. “The new system detects bugs, takes healthy code from a publicly available source, and then grafts it onto the sick software,” Vanian explains.
Last weekend Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus became the first woman to receive the IEEE Medal of Honor for her pioneering work with carbon materials, reports Melissa Lott for Scientific American. Lotts writes that Dresselhaus is known “for her work with buckminsterfullerenes (buckyballs), nanotubes and graphene as well as her dedicated work ethic and caring nature.”
In a special issue on the Internet of Things, Politico’s Danny Vinik compiles an oral history to describe the origins of the Internet of Things. “I’m sure there’s a sci-fi novel somewhere that talks about this,” quips Sarma, who features prominently in the piece, which also references MIT’s Auto-ID Lab.
Professor César Hidalgo writes for The Huffington Post about his new book “Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies.” Hidalgo explains his view that, “by understanding economies as computers we get much more than a predictive theory of future economic growth.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Akst writes about a study by researchers at MIT and Northwestern that identified consumers who purchased new products likely to fail. If consumers with high “flop affinity” scores bought a product “that was a good sign that the item would be a bust.”
Professor Kenneth Oye co-authored a commentary that urges regulators to work to prevent abuse following a study that finds that opioids can be home-manufactured by genetically engineering yeast, reports Eryn Brown for The Los Angeles Times. “[A]ll of these technical steps should be done beforehand,” says Oye. “Afterwards, it's too late."
According to The Economist, a new paper from Prof. Daron Acemoglu compared growth rates and levels of political freedom, and found that countries undergoing a democratic transition grow faster than their autocratic counterparts. Acemoglu found that permanent democratization, “leads to an increase in GDP per person of about 20% in the subsequent 25 years.”
The Broad Institute is teaming up with Google to “create a simpler way to help far-flung scientists pursue their own research online,” reports Robert Weisman for BetaBoston. “Our mission is to empower the biomedical revolution that’s happening around the world,” explains Prof. Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute.
MIT engineers have developed an ultralow-power circuit that can efficiently harvest energy from solar power, reports Robert Ferris for CNBC. Ferris explains that the circuit “lends itself well to creating self-powering electronic sensors that can be used in a wide range of applications.”