Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle speaks with Bloomberg columnist Faye Flam about the recently redefined standard of measurement for the kilogram and the importance of making the change understandable to the general public. “Not everyone is explaining the new kilogram as a quantity of light, but MIT physicist Wolfgang Ketterle makes a convincing case that this is the best and simplest way to understand it,” writes Flam.
In an excerpt from her new book published in The Wall Street Journal, President Emerita Susan Hockfield explores how the convergence between biology and engineering is driving the development of new tools to tackle pressing human problems. Hockfield writes that for these world-changing technologies to be realized requires “not only funding and institutional support but, more fundamentally, a commitment to collaboration among unlikely partners.”
Wired reporter Aarian Marshall spotlights how Prof. Sarah Williams has been developing digital tools to help map bus routes in areas that lack transportation maps. “The maps show that there is an order,” Williams explains. “There is, in fact, a system, and the system could be used to help plan new transportation initiatives.”
President Emerita Susan Hockfield speaks with Jim Braude of WGBH’s Greater Boston about her book, “The Age of Living Machines.” “We are looking at a population of over 9.7 billion by 2050,” explains Hockfield. “We are not going to get there without war or epidemics or starvation if we don’t develop technologies that will allow us to provide energy, food, water, health and health care sustainably.”
Boston Globe reporter Bryan Marquard memorializes Prof. Emeritus David Gordon Wilson, known for his work in the field of mechanical engineering and for spurring interest in recumbent bicycles. Marquard notes that in addition to designing a recumbent bicycle that set a world speed record, Wilson was “decades ahead of some modern-day political proposals that aim to address climate change.”
In an article for Forbes, Prof. David Mindell examines the feasibility of using ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology to help improve the New York City subway system’s signaling troubles. “UWB is not a signaling system on its own,” writes Mindell. “For a large, complex system like New York, it will take many years to develop raw UWB into a full railway signaling system.”
Prof. Brandon Clifford, director and co-founder of Matter Design, has developed a new way to move heavy concrete slabs, using only human force, by exploring ancient building methods, reports Katharine Schwab for Fast Company. “The resulting project, called Walking Assembly, demonstrates the possibilities with a set of interlocking concrete puzzle pieces that the designers are able to assemble into a solid wall and staircase in about 15 minutes,” Schwab explains.
Prof. Frank Wilczek writes for The Wall Street Journal about how the first image of a black hole could help scientists gain a better understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. “To a thinking mind, the image reflects the glory of understanding, and to an alert imagination it opens new portals into space, time and deep history,” writes Wilczek.
In the wake of a fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, Prof. Catherine Clark speaks with Here & Now’s Robin Young about how Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” inspired France to rejuvenate the cathedral. Clark explains that the book reminds her of how, “this is a structure that is built by time and history itself and each generation adds their stones.”
In an article for The Boston Globe, Profs. Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson underscore how federal investment in scientific research could be used to help ease income inequality in America. “Scaled-up and deployed strategically across most states, we estimate that an investment of $100 billion per year in public research and development could help create 4 million good new jobs,” they write.
Profs. Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson speak with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle about their book, which argues that government investment in scientific research can help tackle income inequality. Gruber explains that inequality in America is place-based, noting that “we need a solution that is going to help the rest of the country, not just super-star cities, and we think place-based federal R&D can do that.”
Writing for The Guardian, Prof. Kate Brown argues that a better understanding of the health ramifications of radioactivity is needed before nuclear power is expanded. “Before we enter a new nuclear age, the declassified Chernobyl health records raise questions that have been left unanswered about the impact of chronic low doses of radioactivity on human health,” writes Brown.
In a letter to The Boston Globe, Prof. Malick Ghachem argues that Haiti’s history cannot be defined as a story of poverty. Ghachem writes that under colonial slavery, many people in Haiti “produced a great deal of riches for the rest of the world, and the single-minded pursuit of these riches is what accounts for the poverty of the many.”
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Ariel White examines how jail sentences can make people less likely to vote. White explains that her research suggests we should “worry about jail’s political consequences, even in the case of short jail terms. The legal system disproportionately pushes black voters out of the electorate, and the problem goes far beyond felon disenfranchisement.”
Prof. Kate Brown speaks with Kenneth Cukier on the Economist Radio podcast Babbage about her new book “Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future.” “In many ways we all live in the shadow of the mushroom cloud, or Chernobyl,” says Brown, “and that’s what I’d like us to be more conscious of as we talk about these issues now.”