In an article about how employers can help encourage their workers to learn new skills, The Economist highlights how “MIT has launched an initiative to conduct interdisciplinary research into the mechanics of learning and to apply the conclusions to its own teaching, both online and offline.”
MIT researchers have created a new strong, yet lightweight material by using a 3-D printer to fuse flakes of graphene into a sponge-like object, reports Nick Kwek for BBC News. “The newfangled product could be used in the construction of airplanes or buildings,” says Kwek.
MIT researchers have used computer models to turn flakes of graphene into 3-D structures, creating one of lightest, strongest materials, writes Nicola Davison for CNN. "Once they combine and fuse together, all the flakes contribute to the strength of the overall structure," research scientist Zhao Qin explains.
Melvin Konner writes for The Wall Street Journal about new MIT research that shows mobile-money services helped lift at least 194,000 Kenyan households out of extreme poverty. The researchers found that the services significantly helped women, and estimated that mobile banking “induced 185,000 women to switch into business or retail” from farming, and increased saving.
MIT researchers have found similarities in how the brains of babies and adults respond to visual information, reports Courtney Humphries for The Atlantic. “Every region that we knew about in adults [with] a preference for faces or scenes has that same preference in babies 4 to 6 months old,” explains Prof. Rebecca Saxe.
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Dominic O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Today program about innovation, climate change and the importance of scientific research. On how MIT researchers bring innovations to the marketplace, Reif explains what is needed is “a desire to impact society in a positive way.”
Researchers at MIT have fused flakes of graphene into a sponge-like shape, creating one of the strongest lightweight materials, writes James Temperton for Wired. Flakes of graphene were compressed using heat and pressure, then 3-D printers were used to create a “strong, stable structure similar to some corals” for stress tests.
The Media Lab will serve as one of the first anchor institutions for a new initiative, the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, which will “support research and development to make AI beneficial for humans,” reports Jordan Graham for the Boston Herald.
Writing for Forbes, Eric Mack highlights a study by MIT researchers that shows extreme precipitation events in California should become more frequent due to climate change. The researchers found that by 2100, California “should expect between one and three more extreme precipitation events…every single year.”
A study by researchers from MIT’s AgeLab found many salespeople at Boston-area car dealerships were unable to thoroughly explain common automated driver assistance features, reports Aarian Marshall for Wired. “One of the myths about automation is that as the level of automation increases, less human expertise is needed,” explains research engineer Bryan Reimer.
MIT researchers have developed a new ultra-light material that is ten times stronger than steel, reports Tia Ghose for CBS News. Ghose explains that in the future, the material could potentially be used to build bridges, “which would be ultrastrong, lightweight, and insulated against heat and cold because of all the myriad air pockets in the material.”
Atlantic reporter Robinson Meyer writes about an MIT study that shows greenhouse gases lingering in the atmosphere will cause sea levels to rise for years. “The ocean remembers, and that’s really the key message,” explains Prof. Susan Solomon. “The sea takes a very, very long time to cool down once you’ve heated it up.”
In an article for Salon, Prof. Christopher Knittel notes there is a long history of discrimination against African-Americans in the transportation industry. While Prof. Knittel’s research shows ride-sharing services have decreased wait times in lower income areas, it also found “more frequent cancellations when a passenger used stereotypically African-American-sounding names,” among other discriminatory practices.
A study by MIT researchers examines how the growth in pet health care spending can provide insights into the increase in human health care costs, writes Austin Frakt for The New York Times. Emotional treatment spending may explain “high and sometimes heroic end-of-life health care spending whether on your dog or on your mother,” explains Prof. Amy Finkelstein.
A new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that methane lingering in the Earth’s atmosphere could cause sea levels to rise for hundreds of years after emissions have been curbed, reports Chelsea Harvey for The Washington Post. “The study underlines the importance of curbing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible,” Harvey explains.