Prof. Jonathan Gruber writes for The Washington Post that the Senate’s health care bill could make the opioid epidemic worse by proposing a, “rollback of the Medicaid expansions that had finally slowed the rapid growth of this devastating problem.”
Avantika Chilkoti of The New York Times assesses news coverage of the health care debate using Media Cloud, a platform that tracks online stories developed in part by researchers from the MIT Center for Civic Media. Since May, news about Russia and former FBI director James Comey “outstripped coverage of the health care bill on 30 of 67 days,” writes Chilkoti.
In this New York Times opinion piece, Prof. Emeritus Noam Chomsky discusses the current state of American politics with George Yancy, a professor of philosophy at Emory University. Speaking about the weightiest issues facing humanity, Chomsky explained that in his view, “The most important issues to address are the truly existential threats we face: climate change and nuclear war.”
Writing for STAT, Anna Spier, a senior policy associate for J-PAL, emphasizes the importance of relying on scientific evidence when policymakers determine which opioid addiction programs to fund. “As governments and philanthropists collaborate to learn what’s working to fight opioid addiction, establishing an infrastructure to share knowledge across local, state, and federal agencies will accelerate their collective work.”
Times Higher Education reporter Nicola Ingram examines Prof. Peter Temin’s latest book, which examines the state of the U.S. economic system. Temin, “provides an engaging commentary on the complexities of policy developments and their impact on workers’ conditions, as well as the problematic voting behaviour that seals their fate.”
Tom Buerkle of Reuters writes about “Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought,” a new book written by Prof. Andrew Lo, which argues that it is possible for investors to beat the market. Markets seem unpredictable because traders are human and “make decisions using short cuts” rather than weighing all options, explains Buerkle.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Tim Logan writes that MIT filed a mixed-use zoning petition for the 14-acre Volpe site in Kendall Square. Logan notes that the Volpe redevelopment is part of a broader push by MIT to make Kendall Square, “feel more like a fully-fledged neighborhood.”
This CNN video highlights the new programmable backpack unveiled during the grand opening of the AFFOA headquarters in Cambridge. MIT alumnus Tairan Wang, COO of AFFOA, explains that the backpack is made with a programmable fabric that allows users to share information. The technology addresses how people initially connect, Wang explains.
The launch of the AFFOA headquarters featured demos of two new smart fabrics, including a programmable backpack and fabric that uses LED lights to stream information to the wearer, writes Donna Goodison for the Boston Herald. Prof. Yoel Fink, AFFOA’s CEO, explains that, “the way to changing what fabrics are involves changing what fibers are.”
Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray writes that at the launch of the AFFOA headquarters, researchers unveiled smart fabrics that can send messages, tune in audio signals and more. Bray writes that Prof. Yoel Fink, CEO of AFFOA, explained that “because the new fibers can process data like a computer…engineers will be able to develop an endless array of ways to use it.”
Zeninjor Enwemeka reports for WBUR on the opening of the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) headquarters, during which the center’s first fabric products were unveiled. Enwemeka explains the, “big idea here is to develop fabrics that provide services. The folks at AFFOA think fabrics are the next software.”
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Christopher Warshaw discusses his research, which shows there is not one state where the majority of residents support the American Health Care Act. “Across all the states that voted for President Trump last year, we estimate that support for the A.H.C.A. is rarely over 35 percent."
In an article for The New York Times, Prof. Jonathan Gruber writes that proposed cuts to Medicaid will impact a large number of Americans, as the program provides financial resources for elderly and disabled adults. “Nearly two-thirds of [Medicaid] spending is focused on older and disabled adults — primarily through spending on long-term care services such as nursing homes.”
Research Scientist Ashley Nunes speaks to Marco Werman of PRI’s The World about the proposed privatization of air-traffic control in the U.S., and how countries like Canada have successfully transitioned to a private system. When airlines pay less for air-traffic control services, “the price that the airline passes along to the passenger is also lower,” explains Nunes.
In an article for The Atlantic, Ashley Nunes, a research scientist with MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, examines a proposal to privatize the air-traffic control system in the U.S. Nunes explains that, “reforming how air-traffic services are delivered is worthwhile—but not without costs, and those costs are important to understand and address.”