In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart explains that provisional ballots could delay this year’s election results. “We should be prepared for the possibility that provisional ballots take us into extra innings. This won’t be a sign that the system is ‘rigged,’ but that it’s working as designed,” Stewart explains.
Bryan Marquard writes for The Boston Globe about Prof. Susan Lindquist, one of the most honored scientists in the nation, who died on Oct. 27. “She did not want to do an experiment unless she thought it would deliver deep biological impact and make a difference to the world,” said Dr. Vikram Khurana of Yumanity Therapeutics.
In an article for Wired, Issie Lapowsky interviews Prof. Charles Stewart about the fairness of the American voting system. Lapowsky explains that Stewart has been tracking voter experiences since 2008, and his research has “become the basis of other election administration research like the studies conducted by the Brennan Center.”
Prof. Susan Lindquist, a former director of the Whitehead Institute known for her “conceptually daring work with yeast proteins,” died on Oct. 27, writes William Grimes for The New York Times. Her research “demonstrated that protein-folding errors occurred in all species and that biological changes could be passed from one generation to the next through proteins alone.”
New York Times reporter Randy Kennedy writes about “The Enemy,” a virtual reality project created by Prof. Fox Harrell and Visiting Scholar Ben Khelifa that is aimed at allowing visitors to learn from individuals on both sides of long-standing conflicts. The project “holds the promise of opening up new frontiers for the integration of journalism and art,” writes Kennedy.
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart III explains that since the 2012 election, voter confidence in the election process has become increasingly polarized. “Democrats are now more confident in an accurate vote count — for their vote or nationwide. Republicans, meanwhile, have changed little,” Prof. Stewart writes.
Melik Kaylan writes for The Wall Street Journal about “Syria: A Living History,” an exhibit curated by Prof. Nasser Rabbat. Kaylan writes that the exhibit is “a poignant, cathartic show. The visitor can’t help feeling awe and veneration for the immortal works of art mixed with a bittersweet sense of what humans are capable of—at their best and worst.”
Prof. Nasser Rabbat curated an exhibit at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto showcasing Syria’s legacy and important contributions to world heritage, reports Nigel Hunt for CBC News. Prof. Rabbat hopes the exhibit will “weave from the history of Syria a glimmer of hope for the future.”
Guardian reporter Amy Fleming spotlights Prof. Robert Langer’s work revolutionizing medicine. Fleming notes that “Langer’s trailblazing research in nanotechnology, which ranges from haircare to cancer treatments, has already improved the lives of at least 2 billion people.”
NPR’s Steve Inskeep notes that in a 2010 episode of “The Simpsons” Milhouse van Houten predicts that Prof. Bengt Holmström will win a Nobel Prize in economics. Inskeep jokes that Milhouse was a visionary, who “knew way before the rest of the world that MIT's Bengt Holmström had genius in him.”
Nobel laureate Prof. Bengt Holmström speaks with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about the importance of incentives. Holmström recounts becoming interested in incentives while working at a multinational conglomerate after realizing computers could not “replace a lot of what the human mind is thinking,” adding that incentives are how “you influence people’s behavior.”
In this video, Prof. Heather Hendershot speaks with Mary Kissel of The Wall Street Journal about her new book examining the impact of William F. Buckley’s program the “Firing Line.” “He was the key player in forging a sophisticated, urban, elegant image for right wing conservatism. And that got me interested in him,” Hendershot explains.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Steve Annear notes that during an episode of “The Simpsons” Milhouse Van Houten predicts that MIT Prof. Bengt Holmström will win a Nobel prize in economics. Annear writes that “Milhouse’s prediction was spot on — but a few years too early. On Monday, Holmström finally earned his due.”
Charles Duxbury and Mike Bird write for The Wall Street Journal that Prof. Bengt Holmström is one of the recipients of the 2016 Nobel Prize in economics. Holmström was honored, in part, for developing a model that examines “how pay should be linked to performance and how an optimal contract carefully weighs risks against incentives.”
Prof. Bengt Holmström received the Nobel Prize in economics for his research on contract theory, writes Chris Giles for the Financial Times. Holmström, who said he was “dazed … very surprised and very happy” about winning the award, found “an optimal contract should link payments to outcomes that reveal the performance of either party to a contract.”