Punishment for the people
Professor Lily Tsai’s new book explains how “retributive justice,” the high-profile sanctioning of some in society, helps authoritarians solidify public support.
Making data visualizations more accessible
Researchers find blind and sighted readers have sharply different takes on what content is most useful to include in a chart caption.
Distinguishing truth in communications
With a new National Science Foundation grant, Justin Reich and collaborators will apply information literacy research to communities outside the formal education system.
2,050-year-old Roman tomb offers insights on ancient concrete resilience
New research on ancient Roman concrete inspires durable and sustainable modern constructions.
Tool for predicting pedestrian flow expands its reach
Long-term study of Melbourne, Australia, shows how urban development and change affects pedestrians, not just automobiles.
Rover images confirm Jezero crater is an ancient Martian lake
The findings include signs of flash flooding that carried huge boulders downstream into the lakebed.
Maria Zuber testifies before Congress on striking the right balance between research security and openness
“U.S. competitiveness depends less on defensive measures than on what we do to strengthen our own capacities,” says MIT’s vice president for research.
Hamed Okhravi is named co-chair of DARPA cybersecurity study
A cyber systems expert at Lincoln Laboratory, Okhravi will help investigate bold solutions to fundamental cyber vulnerabilities.
3 Questions: Kalyan Veeramachaneni on hurdles preventing fully automated machine learning
Researchers hope more user-friendly machine-learning systems will enable nonexperts to analyze big data — but can such systems ever be completely autonomous?
Weighing cancer cells to personalize drug choices
A new study shows a link between patient survival and changes in tumor cell mass after glioblastoma treatment.
Blockchain technology could provide secure communications for robot teams
The transaction-based communications system ensures robot teams achieve their goal even if some robots are hacked.
A robot that finds lost items
This robotic arm fuses data from a camera and antenna to locate and retrieve items, even if they are buried under a pile.
Mathematicians solve an old geometry problem on equiangular lines
How many lines can be pairwise separated by the same angle in high dimensions? Geometry breakthrough gives new insights into spectral graph theory.
Artificial intelligence is smart, but does it play well with others?
Humans find AI to be a frustrating teammate when playing a cooperative game together, posing challenges for "teaming intelligence," study shows.
New “risk triage” platform pinpoints compounding threats to US infrastructure
Modeling tool showcases emerging MIT Joint Program research focus on multi-sector dynamics.