MIT researchers have found that companies with experienced technologists on their boards tend to have better financial outcomes, reports Sara Castellanos and Angus Loten for The Wall Street Journal. “Directors on digitally savvy boards have an understanding, tested by experience, of how digital technologies impact the way that companies will succeed in the next decade,” explains research scientist Stephanie Woerner.
MIT researchers have found that many pills contain “inactive” ingredients that could be troublesome for patients, reports Richard Harris for NPR. Prof. Giovanni Traverso explains that if a patient with lactose intolerance takes a pill containing lactose, “it's probably not going to manifest in any significant symptoms. But as the number of pills you're taking [increases], then certainly you might cross that threshold."
AP reporter Lauran Neergaard writes that a new study by MIT researchers finds that pills often contain “inactive” ingredients capable of causing allergic or gastrointestinal reactions. The researchers found that “it’s hard for those patients, or even their doctors, to tell if a pill contains an extra ingredient they should avoid,” Neergaard explains.
In an article for Fast Company, Clifton Mark highlights a study by Prof. Emilio Castilla examining the impact of meritocratic practices. Castilla and his colleagues found that “in companies that explicitly held meritocracy as a core value, managers assigned greater rewards to male employees over female employees with identical performance evaluations.”
In an article marking the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web, Vox reporter Aja Romano highlights how in 1961 two MIT graduate students developed the concept for ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. Romano writes that Leonard Kleinrock “developed his thesis around the idea that computers could talk to each other if they could carve up their information into tiny, easily transferrable packets.”
MIT researchers have developed an interactive map that exhibits how income inequality plays a part in the shops, restaurants and public spaces that people frequent, reports Benjamin Swasey for WBUR. "We want to raise the point that segregation is happening at very short [distances], like even just 25 meters, just across the street," says visiting professor Esteban Moro.
Axios reporter Andrew Freedman writes about a study by MIT researchers examining solar geoengineering. “Contrary to earlier studies that focused on solar geoengineering schemes that would aim to cancel out all human-caused global warming,” Freedman writes, “the new study found that halving the amount of warming would not have widespread, significant negative impacts on temperature, water availability, the intensity of hurricanes or extreme precipitation."
Prof. Kerry Emanuel speaks with Radio Boston about a new study that finds solar geoengineering could mitigate some of the adverse effects of climate change. Emanuel notes that solar geoengineering “is sort of like an emergency alarm that you would sound or something you would keep in your back pocket to play if things get desperate.”
Fast Company reporter Katharine Schwab spotlights Duality, an MIT startup that is using homomorphic encryption to analyze encrypted data without decrypting it. Schwab explains that “the company’s technology could provide an actual solution to the data privacy problem by allowing companies to keep their data fully encrypted and still find patterns in it.”
Boston Globe reporter Kevin Lewis highlights a study by MIT researchers analyzing data on first-time misdemeanor offenders in Harris County, Texas. The researchers found that “black defendants who got jail time because they were randomly assigned to a more punitive courtroom were significantly less likely to vote in the next presidential election.”
In this video, HuffPost highlights a robotic cheetah created by MIT researchers that can perform a backflip from a standing position. HuffPost notes that the robot has a “range of motions, making it agile enough to pick itself up if knocked to the ground.”
Axios reporter Steve Levine writes that a new paper by Prof. David Autor shows how, “cities, once the hope of people seeking a middle-class life, are now a symbol of the disappearance of well-paid, middle-skill work.”
Forbes reporter Eric Mack writes about the latest iteration of MIT’s robotic cheetah: A new miniature version that weighs 20 pounds. “The cheetah has heavyweight skills like walking over uneven terrain, picking itself up after a fall or a swift kick and of course, its ability to pull off a 360-degree reverse flip from a standing position,” Mack explains.
Washington Post reporter Peter Holley writes that MIT researchers have created a mini robotic cheetah that can perform a backflip and walk right-side up or upside down. “Legged robots will have a variety of uses where human or animal-like mobility is necessary, but it may be unsafe to send a person,” explains technical associate Benjamin Katz.
Prof. Aviv Regev speaks with the Associated Press about the Human Cell Atlas Consortium, which is aimed at cataloging all the cells in the human body in an effort to better understand human diseases. "This is not going to cure all disease immediately," she says, but "it is a critical stepping stone."