David Unger of The Christian Science Monitor speaks with Prof. Donald Sadoway about the future of batteries. Sadoway says he views the battery enterprise "as very socially conscious. It would represent a major step in bringing electricity to those who don’t have reliable access to electricity.”
Prof. Yasheng Huang writes for The Boston Globe about the Chinese government’s active role in the country’s economy and how this is negatively impacting growth. “Chinese growth in the future will be limited until the government makes fairly substantive structural reforms,” writes Huang.
Prof. Kerry Emanuel writes for The Conversation about what scientists have learned since Hurricane Katrina about how hurricanes are influenced by climate. Emanuel writes that, “the incidence of the strongest hurricanes – those that come closest to achieving their potential intensity – will increase as the climate warms, and there is some indication that this is happening.”
Prof. Alan Lightman writes for The New York Times about the disillusionment he felt when he went to visit his childhood home and found that it had been taken down. “I try to put back the house where it was, the kitchen, the bedrooms, the closets, my father practicing his guitar, my mother dressing in front of her long mirror,” Lightman writes.
The Economist examines Prof. Max Tegmark’s theories on the existence of multiple universes. Tegmark is, “one of the leading proponents of multiverses,” according to The Economist. “Dr Tegmark suggests a fourfold classification of possible types of multiverse.”
Prof. John Deutch argues in this Wall Street Journal op-ed that the U.S. ban on direct exports of crude oil should be abolished. Lifting the ban, Deutch writes, “will increase U.S. jobs and increase the country’s influence in world oil markets, with little risk of higher gasoline prices for consumers.”
A. T. Oxford of the Economist reviews “Why Information Grows” by Prof. César Hidalgo, in which he argues that economic growth is tied to the growth of information. “In his research, Mr Hidalgo’s used nifty techniques in statistical physics and network theory to shine a light on the diversity of production across countries,” Oxford explains.
Kim Yi Dionne writes for The Washington Post about Professor Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga’s book ‘Transient Workspaces: Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe’: In it, Mavhunga “paints a vivid picture of hunting in Zimbabwe from the pre-colonial period to the present as he demonstrates how innovation is driven by ordinary people.”
Professor Yasheng Huang writes for The New York Times about the role of the government in the recent downturn in Chinese markets. “The current mess is entirely due to the active encouragement by the authorities to invest in the markets and to lax regulations," Huang writes.
Stephanie McFeeters writes for The Boston Globe about the social media campaign #ILookLikeAnEngineer, highlighting the MIT students, faculty and alumni who participated in the trend by posting their photos. The campaign stemmed from the negative response one female engineer received after appearing in an ad campaign for her IT company.
MIT lecturer Neal Hartman writes for Forbes about how to successfully negotiate your salary. Hartman writes that the key to “reaching a successful outcome is preparation.”
MIT lecturer Robert Pozen writes for the Financial Times about executive compensation. Pozen explains that he welcomes the “recent proposal from the SEC, the US financial regulator, that would mandate the reporting of pay actually received by corporate executives.”
Prof. John Ochsendorf speaks with Kara Miller of WGBH's Innovation Hub about what architects can learn from the design of ancient buildings. “In many climates around the world, architecture developed specifically to its climate,” says Ochsendorf. “Today...we can air condition our way out of any heat, so we build glass boxes in the desert.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Lauren Weber writes about Prof. Zeynep Ton’s “Good Jobs” index, which “scores employers on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and productivity.” Ton explains that she hopes the index will “bring attention to some of the drivers of success that are rarely included in annual reports.”
In a Bloomberg News article about Market Basket CEO Arthur T. DeMoulas, Tom Moroney highlights how Prof. Thomas Kochan teaches last year’s Market Basket strike as a case study in his classes. Moroney writes that according to Kochan, Market Basket’s “coalition of salaried managers, hourly non-union workers, suppliers and customers is unprecedented in U.S. labor history.”