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.
Prof. Marcia Bartusiak writes for The Washington Post about Eileen Pollack’s book, “The Only Woman in the Room,” which examines the obstacles facing women in science. Bartusiak writes that, “Pollack draws attention to this important and vexing problem with a personal narrative, beautifully written and full of important insights on the changes needed to make those barriers crumble.”
Prof. Matthew Evans speaks with New Scientist reporter Joshua Sokol about the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Evans relates that while every generation has told their students that they will detect gravitational waves, “I tell my grad students this, and I think it’s really true.”
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with David Pogue of Scientific American about his views on the future of artificial intelligence. “AI also has enormous upsides…if we get it right. Let's not just drift into this like a sailboat without its sail up properly. Let's chart our course, carefully planned,” Tegmark says.
Marcelo Gleiser of The Chronicle of Higher Education reviews “A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design” by Prof. Frank Wilczek, which examines the mathematical symmetry of the physical world. “The book is an ode to Nature’s beauty, as seen by a physicist’s mathematical eye: beauty equated with symmetry and symmetry with truth,” writes Gleiser.
Don Willmott writes for The Huffington Post about a theoretical design for a compact fusion reactor created by MIT researchers. “The MIT reactor should ultimately be able to produce five to six times the energy it consumes, MIT's scientists say, about 190 megawatts,” explains Willmott.