Prof. Frank Wilczek writes for The Wall Street Journal that integrating logic puzzles and games into math lessons could make math a more accessible subject. “We know that people like games of chance and gambling,” writes Wilczek. “These lead naturally into adventures in probability and statistics.”
Prof. David Kaiser speaks with WGBH Radio’s Edgar B. Herwick about what the addition of four new elements to the periodic table means for scientific research and discovery. "It’s kind of like saying you have a map of the wilderness and by exploring it you want to change the map at the same time," says Kaiser.
The Wall Street Journal’s Monika Auger reports that a team of astronomers, including researchers from MIT, have discovered the largest galaxy cluster formed in the early universe. “Astronomers believe that this galaxy cluster probably began forming only a few hundred-million years after the Big Bang,” explains Auger.
Chris Sweeney writes for Boston Magazine that MIT researchers were part of a team of astronomers that identified the largest galaxy cluster from the early universe. Sweeney writes that researchers “will continue scouring the data in search of additional galaxies while looking for clues to how the universe formed.”
Prof. Alan Guth speaks with Christina Couch of Science Friday about his career and the cosmos. Of what inspired him to pursue a career in science, Guth recalls conducting experiments with a friend and being “very excited about the idea that we can really calculate things, and they actually do reflect the way the real world works.”
MIT researchers have detected the largest galaxy cluster that amassed in the early universe, writes Laura Crimaldi for The Boston Globe. “It’s the most massive cluster to assemble in the first 4 billion years of the universe,” explains Prof. Michael McDonald. “It’s sort of like the first civilization to pop up.”
MIT computer scientists have developed a program that can predict how objects will move with the same accuracy as humans, reports Mary Beth Griggs for Popular Science. The researchers hope to eventually be able to program the system to “make predictions in the natural world even faster than we can.”
An AI system created by MIT researchers can predict how physical objects move through the world with human-like accuracy, reports Curt Woodward for BetaBoston. “Where humans learn to make such judgments intuitively, we essentially had to teach the system each of these properties,” explains postdoc Ilker Yildirim.
In an article for a Wall Street Journal section on predictions for 2016, Prof. Frank Wilczek writes that physicists will soon be able to detect gravitational waves. Gravitational waves will, Wilczek explains, allow scientists to “monitor some of the most violent, dramatic events the universe has to offer.”
MIT researchers have determined that the Earth’s geomagnetic field will not flip in the near future, reports Felicia Gans for The Boston Globe. While the intensity of the Earth’s geomagnetic field is decreasing, the current level is “double the planet’s average intensity over the past 5 million years.”
Prof. Sara Seager speaks with Robin Wilson of The Chronicle of Higher Education for a piece about what it’s like to be a female astronomer. Seager explains that MIT is one of few places where she isn’t treated differently because she’s female. "I don’t think about my gender while I’m here,” she says.
MIT researchers have developed a new hydrogel that is 90 percent water, reports Carmen Drahl for Forbes. The new hrydogel “adheres to surfaces like glass, titanium, aluminum, and ceramics with a toughness approximating that of nature’s interfaces between tendons and bone."
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.”
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.
In an effort to help students master physics, postdoc Zhongzhou Chen is developing teaching techniques that break down physics concepts into specific skills, reports Jill Barshay for U.S. News & World Report. Chen tested his approach in one of MIT’s physics MOOCs. "If we're going to find ways to use technology to have breakthroughs in learning, it's probably going to come from educators like Chen,” says Barshay.