A new paper from Prof. Roberto Rigobon, research associate Florian Berg, and research affiliate Julian Kolbel explores what causes aggregate confusion among ESG rating agencies, reports Robin Wigglesworth for the Financial Times. The paper “highlights just how tricky it is to come up with an objective, rigorous ESG investing framework,” writes Wigglesworth.
Prof. Kerry Emanuel speaks with AP reporter Seth Borenstein about the upcoming hurricane season and his research showing an increase in Atlantic storms over the past 150 years.
Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a gel that can be mixed into medicine to make it easier to swallow, reports CBS Boston. “The gel is made out of plant-based oils and doesn’t have to be refrigerated,” says CBS Boston. “The hope is that it can one day be used to help children and adults who have trouble swallowing pills.”
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank spotlights postdoctoral research associate Brian Guay’s research examining why “Republicans share between 200 percent and 500 percent more fake news (fabrications published by sites masquerading as news outlets) than Democrats.” Guay explains that “the issue primarily seems to be a supply issue. There’s just way more fake news on the right than the left.”
MIT researchers have developed a flexible and paper-thin speaker that can turn any surface into an audio source, reports New Scientist. “The lightweight loudspeaker uses only a fraction of the energy of a regular speaker and can generate sound regardless of the surface it is attached to,” writes New Scientist.
Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee speaks with Innovator News reporter Jennifer L. Schenker about his upcoming book, “The Geek Way,” which explores how tech companies found the best way to operate their businesses. “If you want your company to be a tech company, then you will be competing against geeks,” says McAfee. “These are people who look at things differently, go deep on a problem, get obsessed with it and fiercely work at it until they think they find a good solution.”
TechCrunch reporters Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey spotlight how MIT researchers developed a new technique for simulating an overall system of independent agents: self-driving cars. “The idea is that if you have a good amount of cars on the road, you can have them work together not just to avoid collisions but to prevent idling and unnecessary stops at lights,” write Wiggers and Coldewey.
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart III provides evidence that hand counting paper ballots is less accurate than using ballot scanners to tabulate results. “Computers — which ballot scanners rely on — are very good at tedious, repetitive tasks,” writes Stewart. “Humans are bad at them. And counting votes is tedious and repetitive.”
A new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that global climate change is progressing faster than anticipated, reports Xinhua News. “By comparing climate model simulations with current storm observations, the team discovered that human-caused storm intensification over recent decades has already reached the levels projected to occur in 2080.”
Gizmodo reporter Passant Rabie writes that researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory developed a tiny gold-coated satellite called the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system with the goal of beaming “down data at the fastest rate ever achieved by space lasers.”
Popular Science reporter Andrew Zaleski spotlights Prof. Antoine Allanore and his work developing new methods to extract materials from rock without burning fossil fuels. “The electrification of metal production is groundbreaking,” says Allanore. “It not only allows us to avoid certain fuels and carbon emissions, it opens the door to higher productivity.”
Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have created an artificial intelligence program that can accurately identify a patient’s race based off medical images, reports Tony Ho Tran for The Daily Beast. “The reason we decided to release this paper is to draw attention to the importance of evaluating, auditing, and regulating medical AI,” explains Principal Research Scientist Leo Anthony Celi.
Prof. Catherine Elizabeth Tucker speaks with BBC host Ed Butler about her research on effective online advertising. “It turns out that all too often it is not working as well as we were led to believe,” says Tucker.
Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about the impact Baby Boomer and Gen X retirement can have on the increasing labor shortage in the United States. “While some millennials can’t wait for the Boomers and older Gen X’ers to step aside in the job market, there are critical labor shortfalls in many key industries that will be sharply felt by Millennials as consumers and as the next generation of leadership in business and government,” writes Coughlin.
A new report by researchers from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab “examines the federal government’s history of election spending—and suggests ways it could consider dispersing monies to help underfunded election administrators,” reports Talib Visram for Fast Company. “The federal government not being a full partner in the game, especially given its fiscal resources, contributes mightily to the underfunding of this area,” says Prof. Charles Stewart III.