Profs. Amy Finkelstein and Lisa Parks have been named MacArthur Fellows, reports Joe Barrett for The Wall Street Journal. Barett explains that Finkelstein “conducts studies in the economics of health care; among her findings is that Medicaid expansion increases self-reported health and financial security, but also increases use of the emergency room and has no significant impact on many measures of physical health.”
Prof. Iyad Rahwan speaks with New Scientist reporter Sean O’Neill about his work investigating the ethics of artificial intelligence. “I’m pushing for a negotiated social-contract approach,” explains Rahwan. “As a society we want to get along well, but to do it we need property rights, free speech, protection from violence and so on. We need to think about machine ethics in the same way.”
Corporation member Samuel Bodman passed away in El Pas, TX at the age of 79. Bodman, who earned a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1965, also served as a professor of chemical engineering at the Institute before becoming CEO of Cabot Corp., reports James R. Hagerty for The Wall Street Journal.
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Yasheng Huang examines what Jack Ma stepping down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. signals about the future of China’s economy. Huang writes that Ma’s departure “adds to a gathering sense that China’s private sector, the engine of the economy, is losing steam — and faith.”
Prof. Ibrahim Cissé has been named one of Science News’ 2018 SN 10 Scientists to Watch for his work investigating how genes are turned on, explains Science News reporter Tina Hesman Saey. Cissé is “everything you could want in a young scientist,” says Prof. Anthony Hyman of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
Prof. John Leonard speaks with Bloomberg News about his work with the Toyota Research Institute on developing a system that combines machine learning technologies and sensors to make vehicles safer. “Imagine if you had the most vigilant and capably trained driver in the world that could take over in a situation where a teenager took a curve too fast,” says Leonard of the inspiration for the system.
Keith Powers highlights Prof. Tod Machover’s new opera, Schoenberg in Hollywood,” in WBUR’s guide to the most innovative operas being performed in Boston this fall. Powers writes that in the opera, Machover “investigates the improbable but true story of Schoenberg, the leader of the Second Viennese School, who actually did flee to Hollywood to escape the Nazis.”
In an article for The New York Times, Prof. Alan Jasanoff reviews Eric Kandel’s book, “The Disordered Mind.” Jasanoff writes that the book provides an engaging “overview of contemporary thinking about the intersection of mental health and neuroscience.”
Writing for NOVA Next, Nafisa Syed highlights how Prof. Kerry Emanuel is working on creating a new risk assessment paradigm for severe weather events like Hurricane Florence. Syed writes that Emanuel is trying to “understand what, for example, a 100-year storm is going to look like in the year 2100.”
In an article for Quartz about how robots are being used to help care for the elderly, Corinne Purtill highlights Prof. Sherry Turkle’s work on the impact of using machines to satisfy the human need for emotional connection. Putrill cites Turkle’s argument that using machines creates a new relationship where we “feel connected although we are alone.”
Writing for USA Today, Prof. Barry Posen argues for ending the war in Afghanistan. “It is plain that we have no actual strategic policy in Afghanistan — no plausible purpose other than using taxpayer money, the lives of American soldiers and the deaths of Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire to protect U.S. leaders against the possibility of future blame."
Prof. Neri Oxman, the recipient of the Design Innovation Medal at the London Design Festival, speaks with Financial Times reporter Annalisa Quinn about her work, which melds art and science. The “imbalance between innovations achieved in fields such as synthetic biology and the primitive state of digital fabrication in product and architectural design shaped my ambition,” Oxman shares with Quinn.
Boston Globe reporter Jeremy Eichler spotlights Prof. Tod Machover’s new opera, “Schoenberg in Hollywood,” which looks at the life and work of the composer Arnold Schoenberg. Eichler writes that the opera is “at once an earnestly admiring tribute and an unconventional biographic fantasia.”
BuzzFeed highlights the work of Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia in a list of trailblazing women working in the STEM fields. BuzzFeed notes that Bhatia is an “incredible role model for women in STEM, not only for to her scientific contributions, but for the elegant way in which she balances her professional and personal roles.”
Boston magazine highlights Prof. Tod Machover’s new opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood” in their fall guide to the arts in Boston. Boston magazine notes that the opera is “about a brilliant composer fleeing the Nazis and landing in 1930s L.A.—you’ve never seen opera like this.”