Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Sherry Turkle argues that augmented reality games prevent children from making real connections. “If we are not vigilant, seeing the world through a lens — albeit not darkly — can be a first step toward accepting a dreamscape as sufficient unto the day,” says Turkle.
In an article for The New York Times, Prof. Simon Johnson questions the ability of U.S. banks to weather another recession. Johnson writes that he thinks the U.S. should require our largest banks “to have a great deal more equity so they could absorb more of their own losses, and not dump them…on the public.”
Wired reporter Joshua Sokol speaks with Profs. Janet Conrad and Lindley Winslow about how they helped the Ghostbusters team infuse the film with science, and how they hope the film’s portrayal of female scientists will inspire viewers. Winslow says the movie is important “because middle school girls will watch it. It will put that seed in their head.”
In this SINC article (published in Spanish), Federico Kukso spotlights Prof. Alberto Rodriguez’s work developing robotic hands in an effort to provide robots with a better way to interact with the world. Rodriguez says that he was inspired to pursue a career in robotics as he wanted to do “something that had a real impact on the world."
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala speaks with Scientific American about black holes, gravitational waves, and attracting more women and minorities to STEM fields. She explains that studying the building blocks of the universe is important for understanding the “big questions: What are we made of? Where do we come from?”
Prof. Neil Gershenfeld speaks with Adam Shaw of BBC Horizons about how the fabrication labs he started at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms have spread around the world. Gershenfeld explains that Fab Labs “are places where ordinary people can go and they can turn data into things and things into data,” adding that they are part of the maker revolution.
Prof. Daniel Hastings, director of SMART, writes for Today that in order to tackle complex social issues, policymakers must have an understanding of science. “Many of the issues faced by Singapore and other societies today are social-technical in nature. Having policymakers equipped with a knowledge in science and technology will be essential to meeting Singapore’s ambitions.”
Prof. David Kaiser speaks with Jeremy Hobson of Here & Now about the history of science. Kaiser notes there are ebbs and flows in the pace of scientific discovery “tied to priority cycles in various nations or whole parts of the world…people’s imaginations can get swept up in whether they can even imagine building a tool to test something.”
Prof. Rainer Weiss speaks with Clara Moskowitz of Scientific American about why he is excited by the public’s reaction to the successful detection of gravitational waves. Weiss says that for him one of the most gratifying things is if he and his colleagues can help “make the argument that science is something everybody gets benefit from.”
Washington Post reporter Matt Schudel writes about the impact Prof. Emerita Suzanne Corkin’s work had on our understanding of memory and cognitive disorders. Schudel writes that Corkin, who died on June 4, “made significant contributions to the study of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and helped identify regions of the brain affected by degenerative disorders.”
Boston.com reporter Eric Levenson writes that MIT senior class president Anish Punjabi, “closed his commencement speech at graduation on Friday with a rush of rap riffing on Matt Damon’s film career, sending the actor into hysterics.”
Matt Damon was awarded an honorary MIT Pirate Certificate during MIT’s Commencement, Nicole Hernandez reports for The Boston Globe. The certificate - which is presented to students who complete courses in pistol, archery, sailing and fencing - notes that Damon is “no longer a lily-livered landlubber.”
Chloe Melas reports for CNN on Matt Damon’s address at MIT’s 2016 Commencement exercises. During his speech, Damon called on graduates to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems. "This world has some problems that we need you to drop everything and solve," Damon noted.
During his MIT Commencement address, Matt Damon urged graduates to engage with the world, reports WBUR’s Andrea Shea. Senior class president Anish Punjabi likened MIT students to Will Hunting, the character Damon played in “Good Will Hunting,” noting that “like Will we possess a gift not just for creativity, but more importantly a gift for relentless service and compassion.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, James Sullivan recounts MIT’s 2016 Commencement exercises, which featured an address from actor and filmmaker Matt Damon. In his charge to the graduates, Sullivan noted that MIT President L. Rafael Reif reminded graduates that “heart is what makes the hard problems worth solving. Heart is what makes the data sing with meaning.”