Institute Prof. Thomas Magnanti will receive Singapore’s Gold Public Administration Medal for his “visionary leadership” at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), reports Jolene Ang for The Straits Times. Magnanti was cited for his work organizing the university in clusters, which “better supported the interdisciplinary nature of SUTD's programmes and strengthened SUTD's research capabilities.”
In an interview with Wynne Parry of NBC Mach, Prof. Sherry Turkle expresses concern that household robots can interfere with children learning to understand and connect with one another. “There are skills of listening, of putting oneself in the place of the other, that are required when two human beings try to deeply understand each other,” Turkle explains.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Prof. Thomas Levenson reviews David Quammen’s new book, “The Tangled Tree.” Levenson writes that the book is, “much more than a report on some cool new scientific facts. It is, rather, a source of wonder.”
In an interview for Forbes, Pierson and Pete Krass speak with the ‘Edison of Medicine,’ Institute Prof. Robert Langer, about his career as a biomedical inventor and entrepreneur. Discussing why he started his first company Prof. Langer says, “I realized it was an effective path for transforming science into life-saving and life-improving inventions.”
CNN reporter Bronte Lord spotlights Prof. Kevin Esvelt’s proposal to introduce genetically engineered mice to the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in an effort to stop the spread of Lyme disease. "We want to heritably immunize the local white-footed mice," Esvelt explains. "The idea is fewer infected ticks means fewer infected kids."
Prof. Dava Newman highlighted the potential concrete benefits and cultural impact of successfully landing on Mars during her commentary before a Senate subcommittee, reports Meghan Bartels for Space.com. “We get humans there with all our great science, it will just lift us up,” said Newman.
Lisa Spear of Newsweek reports that MIT researchers have found marketing algorithms do not show STEM job ads to women because reaching them through advertising is more expensive. “This means that fewer women are seeing the advertising for science related jobs, even though it’s illegal to target jobs to one gender,” explains Spear.
Prof. Simon Johnson speaks with Ailsa Chang of NPR’s All Things Considered about the Trump administration’s plan to remove tariffs and trade barriers with the European Union. Johnson says a zero-tariff agreement would allow the U.S. to become more integrated with Europe.
Prof. Taylor Perron speaks with Boston Globe reporter Martin Finucane about the recent announcement that a lake was detected underneath the surface of Mars. “One of the exciting things about this discovery is that there could be other liquid water pockets like this one,” notes Perron.
A study by Prof. Catherine Tucker finds that marketing algorithms prevent many women from seeing STEM career ads, reports Dina Fine Maron for Scientific American. Tucker explains that the, “economics driving the phenomenon are global—female eyeballs are more expensive and a cost-minimizing algorithm will choose not to show ads to them.”
MIT alumna and visiting professor Mary Brown Parlee, who was known for publishing “groundbreaking research pushing back against the rise of the catch-all diagnosis premenstrual syndrome,” has died at age 75, reports J.M. Lawrence for The Boston Globe.
Prof. Emeritus Ernest Moniz – former US Energy Secretary and co-chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative – speaks with Jeremy Hobson on WBUR’s Here & Now about the Trump-Putin summit and what it could mean for nuclear dialogue.
New Scientist reporter Chelsea Whyte spotlights Prof. Regina Barzilay’s quest to revolutionize cancer treatment by applying AI techniques in ways that could help doctors detect cancer earlier. Barzilay explains that she is committed to, "applying the best technologies available to what we care about the most – our health.”
Researchers have developed a handheld device, inspired by spiders, to allow people to move in zero-gravity, writes Daniel Oberhaus for Motherboard. “I want to be able to move freely in 3D space,” explains Xin Liu, arts curator at the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, “so I design the technologies that allow me to do that.”
Prof. John Bush speaks with Popular Science reporter Dyani Sabin about the physics behind bending a soccer ball like a World Cup player. “The physics is rather complicated honestly, but there are simple ways to explain it,” says Bush. “The reason it looks mysterious is because you can’t see what the surrounding fluid, in this case air, is doing.”