Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Sherry Turkle argues that augmented reality games prevent children from making real connections. “If we are not vigilant, seeing the world through a lens — albeit not darkly — can be a first step toward accepting a dreamscape as sufficient unto the day,” says Turkle.
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. M. Taylor Fravel examines why China is so inflexible when it comes to territorial disputes at sea. “Now that China is stronger,” Fravel writes, “many citizens believe it needs an unchallenged presence in the South China Sea that reflects its perceived status and capabilities.”
In an article for Bloomberg View, Noah Smith highlights a paper by Prof. Daron Acemoglu, in which he argues that government is essential to economic development. Smith writes that Acemoglu’s new theory, makes the case that “a strong and effective state…isn’t the bane of innovation -- it’s a necessary and crucial input.”
In a Wall Street Journal series examining the roots of America’s current economic disillusionment and how it is impacting the presidential election, Jon Hilsenrath and Bob Davis highlight Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson and Research Scientist Andrew McAfee’s work examining how technology impacts jobs, and Prof. David Autor’s research on how trade with China has affected the U.S. labor market.
Wall Street Journal reporter Adam Creighton writes about a study co-authored by MIT researchers that found taxing wealth leads to a decrease in declared wealth. The authors found “a 0.1 percentage point increase in the rate of wealth tax prompts a 4% jump in the probability of a taxpayer’s reported net wealth dropping below the wealth tax-free threshold.”
Prof. David Autor spoke with The Economist about the impact of artificial intelligence and automation on jobs. “This notion that there’s only a finite amount of work to do, and therefore that if you automate some of it there’s less for people to do, is just totally wrong,” he says.
Prof. David Kaiser speaks with Jeremy Hobson of Here & Now about the history of science. Kaiser notes there are ebbs and flows in the pace of scientific discovery “tied to priority cycles in various nations or whole parts of the world…people’s imaginations can get swept up in whether they can even imagine building a tool to test something.”
A new study co-authored by MIT Prof. Susan Silbey examines why female students leave the field of engineering. When the researchers analyzed "more than 40 engineering students’ twice-monthly diaries, they found that female students often felt marginalized during group activities,” Inside Higher Ed reports.
Prof. Charles Stewart III speaks with NPR’s Pam Fessler about voter confidence in the American electoral system. "Ultimately the legitimacy of government rests on the belief among the losers that it was a fair fight," says Stewart.
Writing for The Huffington Post, Richard Freed highlights a study by MIT researchers that found that a student’s academic performance tends to decline when personal computing technology is available. The researchers “compared West Point students’ final exam scores for those who used personal computers and tablets in class to those who didn’t.”
A study by Prof. David Atkin finds that migrants are willing to pay more, and consume less, to continue eating the traditional cuisine of their homeland, reports Donald McNeil Jr. for The New York Times. Atkin found that “poor migrants within India stuck with their dietary preferences even when they were nearly malnourished.”
A study by economists from MIT and Colombia's Universidad de los Andes analyzed the success of the U.S. government’s anti-cocaine efforts in Colombia, reports Christopher Ingraham for The Washington Post. The researchers found that “if the U.S. wants to reduce drug consumption, it is better off investing in treatment and prevention programs domestically.”
CBC News reporter Paul Cote Jay writes about a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that examines why children often have trouble distinguishing the words “or” from “and.” Jay explains that the researchers found that while adults and children go through a similar process to interpret statements, “children are just missing one step.”
A new paper co-authored by Economics Prof. David Autor looks at the impact of China on the polarization of US politics. “Voters in places that were more exposed to competition from Chinese imports became more likely to elect lawmakers with more extreme views between 2002 and 2010,” notes The Washington Post’s Max Ehrenfreund.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that student use of personal computing technology in classrooms has a negative effect on academic performance, reports Richard Adams for The Guardian. “The researchers suggested that removing laptops and iPads from classes was the equivalent of improving the quality of teaching,” writes Adams.