New York Times reporter John Koblin highlights the work of Prof. Lester Thurow, a former dean of MIT Sloan and a prominent economist, who died on March 25. “He was one of the first important economists to suggest that too much inequality is bad for society,” said Jared Bernstein, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
In this Huffington Post interview with Andrew McAfee, co-founder of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Prof. Neri Oxman speaks about the complex relationship between humans and nature. “We think about new ways of making things... using new technologies that are inspired or informed by nature,” says Oxman of her group’s work.
In an article for The New York Times, Nelson Schwartz highlights Prof. Duncan Simester’s study examining whether people spend more money when they are using a credit card. Simester notes that, “when you vary the payment method, people are willing to pay more. You’re not forking over a dollar bill, so there is less sensation of loss.”
Prof. Feng Zhang has been named a recipient of the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award for his work on the development of the CRISPR gene-editing system, reports CBC News. CRISPR "may prove to be a ‘powerful therapeutic’ for treating human diseases by editing out harmful genetic mutations.”
Globe and Mail reporter Ivan Semeniuk spotlights Prof. Feng Zhang and his role in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system, for which he was honored as a recipient of the 2016 Canada Gairdner International award. “CRISPR genome editing technology is a really powerful platform,” says Zhang. “It think it will advance both our ability to understand disease and to develop treatments.”
CNBC reporter Robert Ferris chronicles the late Prof. Amar Bose’s quest to develop the perfect set of speakers. Ferris explains that Bose, a former faculty member at MIT and founder of the Bose Corporation, “didn't set out to sell speaker systems and headphones. He began his career as an academic engineer at MIT in the late 1950s.”
Alumna Tish Scolnik, CEO of GRIT, speaks with Justine Hofherr of Boston.com about how an MIT class inspired her career. Scolnik explains that the idea for GRIT, an MIT startup that produces wheelchairs that allows users to traverse rugged terrain, “started back at MIT as a class project.”
New York Times reporter Penelope Green speaks with Prof. Sherry Turkle about a new Facebook tool aimed at making breakups easier. “It’s not to say that Facebook shouldn’t make it easy to click that button to avoid certain painful memories,” she said. “But the reason we’re looking through those old love letters is we’re trying to work through our past.”
Prof. John Leonard speaks with Bill Littlefield of NPR’s Only A Game about a local student’s “Deflategate" experiment. Leonard says that “ultimately I think if you can explain things in very simple terms and get at the essence of a concept, that’s the best situation."
On CBS This Morning, Prof. John Leonard weighed in on “Deflategate,” validating a local student's experiment that showed how cold weather causes a football to lose pressure. "It's just basic laws of physics, it doesn't matter if you root for the Patriots, or the Eagles, or the Redskins, this is what happens to footballs in cold weather," Leonard said.
In this “Science of Innovation” segment, NBC Learn explores Prof. Angela Belcher’s work using viruses engineered in her laboratory to form nanoscale wires for tiny batteries. “By harnessing nature’s own processes, Angela Belcher has been able to turn today’s viruses into tomorrow’s batteries.”
Prof. Paula Hammond speaks with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell about why she feels it's imperative that researchers from different disciplines collaborate on cancer research. Hammond explained funding is needed to bring “scientists, clinicians, technologists together in places like the Koch Institute," where people "work collectively toward a cure.”
Prof. Neri Oxman’s “Wanderers” project is featured as part of the “Beauty — Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. New York Times reporter Daniel McDermon writes that in her project, Oxman “imagines wearable objects to augment the human body’s capabilities, possibly enabling survival on distant planets.”
Financial Times reporter Sarah Murray speaks with Prof. Fiona Murray, associate dean for innovation, about how to encourage and support female entrepreneurs. “It sounds trivial, but when women enter the classroom it’s very important that they see people like them,” explains Murray.
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. Carlo Ratti writes that car-sharing services and self-driving vehicles could enable cities to repurpose parking spaces. “Vacant lots could be populated with green areas, a variety of shared public amenities or 'maker space' facilities, providing working tools — 3D printers, CNC machines — for design and fabrication,” writes Ratti.