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Left to right: Richard Clarke SM ’79, former national coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism for the United States; and Joel Brenner, former head of counterintelligence under the Director of National Intelligence for the United States and Senior Research Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies and CSAIL.

Why we should welcome warnings

At MIT event, experts call for a new approach to worst-case scenarios.

November 3, 2017

When negotiating, pride goeth before destruction

Study finds good feelings from one negotiation can damage subsequent performance.

October 24, 2017

The green staining shows hippocampal CA1 engram cells, which store a long-term fear memory and have the light sensitive optogenetic protein channelrhodopsin-2. The blue staining shows all cells in the dorsal hippocampus brain region, including non-engram cells (blue color staining only).

MIT neuroscientists build case for new theory of memory formation

Existence of “silent engrams” suggests that existing models of memory formation should be revised.

October 23, 2017

“What’s really cool about eye tracking is it lets you see things that you’re not consciously aware of,” Professor Josh Tenenbaum says. “When psychologists and philosophers have proposed the idea of counterfactual simulation, they haven’t necessarily meant that you do this consciously. It’s something going on behind the surface, and eye tracking is able to reveal that.”

How we determine who’s to blame

Before assigning responsibility, our minds simulate alternative outcomes, study shows.

October 17, 2017

MIT philosophy professor Kieran Setiya has a new book, “Midlife: A Philosophical Guide,” published by Princeton University Press. In it, he examines the problems of middle-aged happiness, reaches some unusual conclusions — he thinks we should embrace our regrets — and explores how philosophy can help people find peace of mind.

How philosophy can solve your midlife crisis

MIT professor Kieran Setiya’s book “Midlife” aims to smooth out the rocky road of middle age.

October 2, 2017

The aim of their new wristband is to make “temperature personal,” says Embr Labs co-founder David Cohen-Tanugi PhD ’15. “We want people who are often uncomfortable and have little control over temperature to have more control and more relief in everyday life,” he says.

“Personal thermostat” startup heats up for commercialization

MIT spinout prepares to launch line of wristbands that keep wearers thermally comfortable.

September 27, 2017

Researchers found that babies who watched an adult struggle to complete tasks before succeeding tried harder at their own difficult task, compared to babies who saw an adult succeed without effort.

Babies can learn that hard work pays off

Study finds infants try harder after seeing adults struggle to achieve a goal.

September 21, 2017

MIT researchers have found that languages tend to divide the "warm" part of the color spectrum into more color words than the "cooler" regions, which makes communication of warmer colors more consistent. From left to right, this chart shows the order of most to least efficiently communicated colors, in English, Spanish, and Tsimane' languages.

Analyzing the language of color

Cognitive scientists find that people can more easily communicate warmer colors than cool ones.

September 18, 2017

“Before we can trust machines like autonomous vehicles, we have a number of challenges,” says professor Iyad Rahwan.

3 Questions: Iyad Rahwan on the “psychological roadblocks” facing self-driving cars

MIT Media Lab professor considers the trust gap between people and autonomous vehicles.

September 11, 2017

MIT Professor Saman Amarasinghe’s undergraduate course on initiating and managing open-source development projects had no exams or problem sets. Assignments included consulting with mentors, interviewing users, writing a promotional plan — and, of course, leading the development of an open-source application.

Open-source entrepreneurship

New project-based course lets undergrads lead the development of open-source software.

August 11, 2017

A new study engaged preschool children in math games intended to help them grasp concepts of number and geometry, and in social games intended to help them cooperate and learn together.

Study: Preschoolers learn from math games — to a point

Games found to improve conceptual math skills, but gains may not carry over to primary school.

July 6, 2017

The School of Science newly-tenured professors for 2017 include (clockwise from top left): Mircea Dincă, Liang Fu, Jeff Gore, Jeremiah Johnson, Bradley Pentelute, Jesse Thaler, and Matthew Vander Heiden.

School of Science professors granted tenure

Seven award-winning faculty members represent the departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

June 28, 2017

The nine full term members, (left to right, top to bottom): Nancy C. Andrews ’85; Nicolas E. Chammas ’87; Arunas A. Chesonis ’84 (second term); José Antonio V. Fernández Carbajal; Perry Young Soo Ha ’85; Fariborz Maseeh ’90 (second term); Philip C. T. Ng ’85 (second term); Phillip T. Ragon ’72 (second term); and Anita Xiao Qi Wu ’16; David M. Siegel ’91 (partial term).

MIT Corporation elects 10 term members, four life members

Term members will each serve two or five years on MIT’s board of trustees.

June 8, 2017

"It is remarkable that we do not measure the costs of war in any meaningful way," says John Tirman, executive director and principal research scientist of the MIT Center for International Studies. "I suggest that Congress establish a conflict impact assessment during or after each war to bring home the true costs of armed conflict."

3 Questions: How political science contributes to national policies on immigration and military conflict

Political theorist John Tirman discusses immigration and identity, and measuring the true costs of war.

May 22, 2017

At a recent MIT Mens et Manus America event, scholars presented political science and sociological research about the impact of rumors, falsehoods, and misinformation on America's political process.

Mens et Manus America examines the politics of misinformation

Adam Berinsky and Ezra Zuckerman Sivan present research on rumors and falsehoods in U.S. politics.