A new study by Prof. John Van Reenen finds that differences in productivity, sales and wages between companies have contributed to growing income inequality, reports Paul Kiernan for The Wall Street Journal. Van Reenen explains that, “just about all of the increase in earnings inequality has happened between firms rather than within firms.”
Prof. Donald Sadoway speaks with Forbes contributor Arne Alsin about the future of sustainable energy and battery design. “We definitely have to be bolder in our innovation when it comes to what goes beyond lithium-ion,” says Sadoway. “We have to apply the criterion ‘If successful, how big is the impact?’ And we have to have the courage to fail.”
Prof. Fadel Abid speaks with IEEE Spectrum reporter Michael Koziol about a new system his research group developed to enable communication between underwater sources and the air. “We’re very interested in how deep and how high you can go,” says Adib. “Even from a theoretical perspective, we don’t even know what the limits are.”
Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found that cellular changes lead to chronic sinus inflammation, reports Allen Cone for UPI. Cone explains that the findings could also “help patients with chronic inflammatory diseases of barrier tissues, such as asthma, eczema, and inflammatory bowel disease.”
FOX News reporter Jamie Rogers writes that MIT researchers have developed a new system that “helps solve a longstanding problem in wireless communication – how to send data directly from a submarine to a plane or drone.”
By analyzing thousands of human cells and creating a cellular map of human barrier tissue, MIT researchers have identified the mechanism that may cause chronic allergic inflammation in the sinus, according to Xinhua News Agency. The findings could have “implications on treatment of other chronic inflammatory diseases of barrier tissues, such as asthma, eczema, and inflammatory bowel disease.”
MIT researchers have developed a new system that allows data to be transmitted between underwater and airborne devices, according to the BBC News. The system could enable submarines to communicate with planes, and in the future the device could “help planes or drones detect the location of a submerged ‘black box’ flight recorder.”
Gizmodo reporter Ryan Mandelbaum writes that by studying ancient quasars, MIT scientists have uncovered evidence supporting quantum entanglement, the concept that two particles can become linked despite their distance in space and time. “We’ve outsourced randomness to the furthest quarters of the universe, tens of billions of light years away,” says Prof. David Kaiser.
Popular Mechanics reporter Avery Thompson describes a new method developed by MIT researchers to send signals between the water and the air by using sound waves to create detectable vibrations at the water’s surface. Thompson explains that the new technology could eventually make “exploring and living under the waves much easier.”
Engadget reporter Jon Fingas writes that MIT researchers have developed a new wireless device that allows data to be transmitted from an underwater source to the air. Fingas explains that the system could allow submarines to “send their findings directly to aircraft (including drones) circling above while remaining safely underwater, and without using boats as intermediaries.”
Space.com reporter Chelsea Gohd writes that MIT researchers have used the light emitted by two ancient quasars to provide evidence of quantum entanglement, the theory that two particles can become linked across space and time. The researchers used ancient quasars to see if, “the correlation between particles can be explained by classical mechanics stemming from earlier than 600 years ago.”
Writing for Motherboard, Daniel Oberhaus highlights how MIT researchers have used light emitted by quasars billions of years ago to confirm the existence of quantum entanglement. Oberhaus explains that the findings suggest entanglement occurs “because if it didn’t exist the universe would somehow have to have ‘known’ 7.8 billion years ago that these MIT scientists would perform these experiments in 2018.”
MIT researchers have discovered hundreds of galaxies that were hidden by light being emitted from a supermassive black hole, reports Kasandra Brabaw for Space.com. “The black hole, a type known as a quasar, sits 2.4 billion light-years from Earth and is so bright that astronomers have assumed it was alone in its area of space for decades,” Brabaw explains.
Wired reporter Jack Stewart explores the technology behind Boston-based startup WaveSense, which applies ground-penetrating radar developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory to give self-driving cars a way to map where they are without relying on visual clues or GPS. The technology, writes Stewart, was “first deployed in 2013 to help troops navigate in Afghanistan, where staying on path and avoiding landmines is a matter of life and death.”
Quartz reporter Madis Kabash highlights how Media Lab researchers are developing a device, dubbed Mnemo, that automatically records and retrieves a person’s memories. The project team aims to “build a memory bank big enough to help people with memory loss,” explains Kabash.