Prof. Sherry Turkle speaks with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour about her book, which explores how technology is impacting relationships. Turkle argues that people need to put down their phones and talk to each other “because it’s in conversation…that empathy is born, that intimacy is born, that relationship is born.”
Prof. Thomas Levenson writes for The Boston Globe about the MRI Prof. Rebecca Saxe’s created of herself and her infant son. “Art does many things, but certainly one of them is to give us images that confront us with shards of the strange experience of being human,” writes Levenson. “Science, an artful craft, can do the same — as it does here.”
Matthew Price of The Boston Globe reviews “The Hunt for Vulcan” by Prof. Thomas Levenson, which chronicles the history of the search for the non-existent planet Vulcan. “The key question, as Levenson puts it, is ‘what happens when a prediction fails to find its match in nature?’” writes Price.
Prof. Rebecca Saxe writes for Smithsonian about an MRI she created of herself and her infant son. Saxe writes that while maternal values are "venerated, they are usually viewed in opposition to other values: inquiry and intellect, progress and power. But I am a neuroscientist, and I worked to create this image; and I am also the mother in it.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Nancy Shohet West highlights Prof. Erik Demaine and Martin Demaine’s paper sculptures, which are on display at the Concord Center for the Visual Arts. “We started getting interested a number of years ago in curve creases and what was possible mathematically,” explains Prof. Demaine. “We started making models and then turned those into sculpture.”
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Prof. Roger Petersen argues that the U.S. should use political leverage to pressure regional actors to combat ISIS. “Playing politics entails costs, but bombing only promises stalemate and 'boots on the ground' involves untenable risks,” writes Petersen.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Karen Weintraub spotlights Prof. Rosalind Picard’s work examining college stress. Research scientist Akane Sano explains that they have been using machine learning techniques to identify the differences in “behaviors between high-stress and low-stress people.”
Prof. Kathleen Thelen speaks with Washington Post reporter Henry Farrell about the differences between Denmark’s and the United States’ labor market practices. Thelen says that Denmark’s “labor market policies are precisely designed to move the unemployed into training programs that enhance their marketable skills.”
In an article for Scientific American, Katherine Hamilton writes about the fourth annual Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Symposium (C3E), which highlighted the increasing role women are playing in clean energy. The symposium was started by the U.S. Department of Energy in conjunction with the MIT Energy Initiative.
STAT reporter Andrew Joseph writes about optogenetics and Prof. Edward Boyden’s work developing this technique for turning neurons on and off. “There are just huge frontiers out there for which optogenetics will be one of our most powerful tools,” said Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute.
In an op-ed published by The Christian Science Monitor, Prof. Robert Armstrong of the MIT Energy Initiative argues that tackling climate change must be a common cause. “To achieve the kind of sustainable future we will want our grandchildren to inherit, we need everyone on board.”
Boston Globe reporter Felicia Gans writes that a number of MIT researchers have been honored “by the Breakthrough Prize organization, which honors scientists worldwide for their pioneering research.”
Prof. Edward Boyden has been honored as one of the recipients of the Breakthrough Prize, reports Sarah McBride for Reuters. Boyden is being recognized for his work “developing and implementing optogenetics,” writes McBride, which could open “a new path to treatments for Parkinson’s, depression, Alzheimer’s and blindness.”
Writing for Scientific American, Simon Makin explores the many applications of optogenetics, a tool developed by Prof. Edward Boyden, for which he was recently honored with a Breakthrough Prize. Makin explains that, “researchers have devised ways of broadening optogenetics to enter into a dynamic dialogue with the signals moving about inside functioning brains.”
Tina Casey reports for Popular Science that several MIT researchers have been honored with Breakthrough Prizes. Casey writes that Prof. Edward Boyden was honored for his work creating optogenetics, Prof. Joseph Formaggio and his team were honored for their research on neutrinos, and Profs. Larry Guth and Liang Fu won New Horizons Prizes.