Fast Company reporter Elizabeth Segran writes that a new study by MIT Prof. Jackson Lu finds that mask wearing is more prevalent in communities in the U.S. with higher levels of collectivism. “It’s important to understand how culture fundamentally shapes how people respond not only to this pandemic, but to future crises as well,” says Lu.
A new study co-authored by MIT Prof. Jackson Lu finds that a community’s level of collectivism influences whether someone is willing to wear a mask, reports Cara Murez for U.S. News & World Report. “The role of collectivism could be studied in other crises, such as wildfires or hurricanes,” notes Murez, adding that the researchers “felt it would be important to study whether the pandemic itself has affected the sense of collectivism or individualism.”
UPI reporter Brian P. Dunleavy writes that a new study by MIT researchers finds that business closures and stay-at-home orders intended to stop the spread of Covid-19 helped reduce deaths caused by air pollution by an estimated 95,000 globally in 2020. “The air pollution declines that we calculated are primarily due to reduced economic activity during the COVID-19 lockdown,” writes Dunleavy.
Axios reporter Miriam Kramer writes that a new study co-authored by MIT researchers suggests that all black holes go through a similar cycle when feeding, whether they are big or small. “Black holes are some of the most extreme objects found in our universe,” writes Kramer. “By studying the way they grow, scientists should be able to piece together more about how they work.”
Fortune reporter Jonathan Vanian writes that researchers from the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and IBM Research have published a paper and data set “intended to help researchers create deep learning systems that can create software code.” Vanian notes that “research like this could pave the way for more efficient methods for companies to test software, analyze code, and potentially build apps.”
Boston Globe reporter Charlie McKenna writes that a new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that the way black holes evolve as they consume material is the same, no matter their size. “What we’re demonstrating is, if you look at the properties of a supermassive black hole in the cycle, those properties are very much like a stellar-mass black hole,” says research scientist Dheeraj “DJ” Pasham. The findings mean “black holes are simple, and elegant in a sense.”
Academic Times reporter Monisha Ravisetti writes that a new study by physicists from a number of institutions, including MIT, finds that supermassive black holes devour gas just like their smaller counterparts. “This is demonstrating that, essentially, all black holes behave the same way,” says research scientist Dheeraj “DJ” Pasham. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a 10 solar mass black hole or a 50 million solar mass black hole – they appear to be acting the same way when you throw a ball of gas at it.”
Times Higher Education reporter Simon Baker writes that Media Lab researchers have developed a new machine learning model that can predict research studies that will have the highest impact. The tool has the potential to “aid funders and research evaluators in making better decisions and avoiding the kind of biases and gaming that occurred with simpler metric assessments.”
The Economist spotlights how Colgate will be using the super slippery, food-safe coating developed by LiquiGlide, an MIT startup, to create a new line of toothpastes “that promise to deliver every last drop.” The Economist notes: “Besides pleasing customers who like to get their money’s worth, the new, slippery toothpaste tubes should help with recycling.”
Forbes contributor Peter Greene spotlights a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that examines the long-term effects of universal preschool in Boston. The researchers found, “preschool reduced the likelihood that a student would get in trouble in high school or ever be jailed. And preschool increased the likelihood that students would graduate from high school and that they would go on to attend college.”
A new study by MIT researchers finds that correcting people who were spreading misinformation on Twitter led to people retweeting and sharing even more misinformation, reports Matthew Gault for Motherboard. Prof. David Rand explains that the research is aimed at identifying “what kinds of interventions increase versus decrease the quality of news people share. There is no question that social media has changed the way people interact. But understanding how exactly it's changed things is really difficult.”
Wired reporter Max Levy spotlights Prof. Emery Brown and Earl Miller’s research examining how neurons in the brain operate as “consciousness emerges and recedes—and how doctors could better control it.” Levy writes that “Miller and Brown's work could make anesthesia safer, by allowing anesthesiologists who use the EEG to more precisely control drug dosages for people who are unconscious.”
Fast Company reporter Mark Wilson writes that MIT researchers have developed a new light-sensitive paint, dubbed ChromoUpdate, that makes it easy for people to change the color and pattern on a variety of objects. Wilson notes there are a number of applications for ChromoUpdate, from testing out different colors on a product to “quickly projecting what is essentially data onto everyday objects could make smart homes even smarter, without the use of more screens in your house.”
A study co-authored by MIT researchers examining the short and long-term effects of Boston’s universal public preschool program finds that pre-K has a substantial impact on student behavior, reports David Leonhardt for The New York Times. “Preschool attendees were less likely to be suspended in high school and less likely to be sentenced to juvenile incarceration,” writes Leonhardt. He adds that pre-K seems to “improve children’s social and emotional skills and help them mature more than it helps in a narrow academic sense.”
Senior lecturer Edward Golding speaks with NPR’s Code Switch about how risk-based pricing has impacted Black homebuyers and their wealth. "It's inherently unfair that basically we raised the prices during the financial crisis so that these people who were hurt by the financial crisis could bail out the financial institutions," he says.