MIT researchers have developed a technique to make big data more manageable, writes Kevin Murnane for Forbes. The technique creates "coresets" that can be used by data analysis tools “often applied in computer vision, natural language processing, neuroscience, weather prediction, recommendation systems and more.”
In their round up of the top science stories of 2016, Science News highlighted several MIT research breakthroughs. The top story of the year was the successful detection of gravitational waves by researchers from MIT, Caltech and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Another highlight was the discovery by Prof. Susan Solomon that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is shrinking.
Prof. James Collins has been named one of The Boston Globe’s “2016 Bostonians of the Year” for his work developing a paper-based test that can detect the Zika virus in just a few hours. Neil Swidey notes that Collins also developed a “workflow for how this new platform could be adapted to meet future crises.”
Richard Florida writes for The Atlantic’s CityLab site about Prof. Emeritus Peter Temin’s research examining how growing class and racial divisions in America are creating a dual economy. In the new, highly-segmented economy, “education, which was once a force for the homogenization of the labor force,” Temin argues, “has become a barrier reinforcing the dual economy.”
BBC News reporter Soutik Biswas writes that research affiliate Moshe Alamaro will use a jet engine to create updrafts that send emissions to higher altitudes in an effort to make the toxic air in Delhi safer. "This could lead to a successful implementation of a new technology for smog mitigation all over the world," says Alamaro.
Wall Street Journal reporter Sara Castellanos speaks with research affiliate Matthias Winkenbach about plans to develop a new lab at MIT that would allow researchers to experiment with computer-generated hologram-like images and interactive touch-screen walls. “AR can be a game changer in data and analytics because it’s so much more immersive,” explains Winkenbach.
A new system developed by MIT researchers can predict how a scene will unfold, similar to how humans can visually imagine the future, reports Ed Gent for Scientific American. Graduate student Carl Vondrick explains that the system is “an encouraging development in suggesting that computer scientists can imbue machines with much more advanced situational understanding."
Prof. Janet Conrad discusses what inspired her to study neutrinos, her hunt for the elusive “sterile” neutrino, and her work on the Ghostbusters reboot in this article published by Wired. Conrad notes that “serious research can be a lot of fun. Being fun doesn’t make it less important—those are not mutually exclusive.”
Prof. Amy Finkelstein writes for the Health Affairs Blog about the need for relying on evidence to set health care policy, citing her own randomized, controlled study of Oregon’s health care system. “We need to rely on evidence from rigorous research—rather than compelling anecdotes—to get an accurate assessment of a policy’s effects,” Finkelstein explains.
Forbes correspondent Hilary Brueck writes about Prof. Eric von Hippel’s research exploring the burgeoning maker movement in industrialized countries around the world. Von Hippel and his colleagues found that “5.2% of adult consumers are developing products for their own use – that’s 16 million people making new or modified products the rest of the country has never seen.”
Nurith Aizenman reports for NPR on a new study that shows mobile banking can help lift people out of poverty. Prof. Tavneet Suri says she was “blown away” by the study’s results, which showed that women-led families with access to mobile-money services, “set aside 22 percent more in savings between 2008 and 2014.”
Grace Leslie, a Media Lab visiting scientist, is creating music using the signals produced by the electrical activity of her brain and changes in her heart rate, writes Richard Gray for BBC Future. Leslie believes that this new form of musical expression “could be used to help those who have difficulty interacting with the world, such as those with autism.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Jonathan Gruber details the adverse effects of repealing the Affordable Care Act. Gruber notes that the law “expanded health insurance to more than 20 million Americans through several different approaches, including Medicaid expansion, subsidies for private coverage, the elimination of the ban on preexisting conditions, and an individual mandate.”
MIT researchers have found that flashing lights could potentially be used to stave off Alzheimer’s disease, writes Oscar Williams for The Huffington Post. “Light stimulation directed to the hippocampus, the part of the brain that processes memories, led to a reduction of…beta amyloid,” which is found in Alzheimer’s disease.
Popular Science reporter Kate Baggaley writes that a new study by MIT researchers shows that mobile money services helped two percent of households in Kenya rise out of poverty. “Women especially have benefitted from the spread of mobile money, which has helped many move from farming into business,” writes Baggaley.