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.”
Alumnus Tom Leighton, CEO and co-founder of Akamai, speaks with Forbes contributor Peter High about the company’s founding and his push towards making the company more focused on cybersecurity.
The Economist spotlights the work of Prof. David Autor and the influence of his research examining how labor markets respond to disruption. The Economist notes that Autor’s research “is enormously influential, in large part because of his groundbreaking work on the effects on American workers of China’s extraordinary rise.”
The Financial Times has named Prof. Tim Berners-Lee its "Boldness in Business" Person of the Year for his work aimed at providing people with more control over how their personal data is used online, reports John Thornhill. “We know how to fire rockets into the sky. We should be able to build constructive social networks,” says Lee.
Financial Times reporter Hannah Kuchler writes that researchers from MIT and a number of other institutions have called for a moratorium on editing inheritable human genes. Kuchler writes that the researchers called for the establishment of “an international framework on the conditions in which such editing could be allowed.”
Prof. Carlo Ratti speaks with NBC Mach reporter Wynne Parry about his vision for the city of the future. “New technologies will have an impact on the experience of the city more than on its physical form,” Ratti explains. “The way we move, communicate and shop will be radically different from how it is today.”
Axios reporter Steve Levine writes that a new paper by Prof. David Autor shows how, “cities, once the hope of people seeking a middle-class life, are now a symbol of the disappearance of well-paid, middle-skill work.”