As part of a special section on Kendall Square, The Boston Globe highlights key milestones in MIT’s 100-year history in Cambridge. “In 1912, the Kendall Square T station opened, and that year MIT’s leaders purchased 46 acres in Cambridge for $775,000. Ever since that move, Kendall Square has been on a centurylong roll that shows no signs of slowing down.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Jaclyn Reiss highlights that MIT was named one of the most prestigious colleges in the world in a new ranking by Times Higher Education.
Tech reporters Drew Bent and Katherine Nazemi speak with MIT President L. Rafael Reif about the MIT Campaign for a Better World. “We want to be as strong as we can, but for a purpose, and the purpose is to do something good for the world,” says Reif. “That’s very uniquely MIT.”
The researchers involved with the successful detection of gravitational waves have been honored with a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, reports Joseph Ax for Reuters. "This is the first time we've seen the full force of Einstein's theory of gravity at work,” says Edward Witten, head of the selection committee.
New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye writes that the scientists of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration have been honored with a $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their work successfully detecting gravitational waves.
Mina Corpuz writes for The Boston Globe that the MBTA is releasing a new app, developed by MIT researchers, called QualiT that will provide passengers with an opportunity to anonymously rate their bus trips and give feedback. Corpuz explains that the app will, “allow riders to see their travel on a map and rate their trips after getting off the bus.”
In an article for Scientific American, Prof. César Hidalgo examines how to improve the design of and make open data websites more usable. “To make open data really open, we need to make it searchable, and for that we need to bring data to the surface of the web,” writes Hidalgo.
TIME reporter Jeffrey Kluger writes that researchers have discovered three potentially habitable planets. Kluger explains that the researchers observed the planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star “at a distance at which water—the must-have ingredient for life as we know it—could exist in liquid form.”
Dr. Julien de Wit speaks with Nell Greenfieldboyce of NPR about the three potentially habitable planets that he and his colleagues recently discovered. "These planets are Earth-sized, they are temperate — we can't rule out the fact that they are habitable — and they are well-suited for atmospheric studies," de Wit explains.
Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes that researchers have discovered three potentially habitable planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star 40 light years away. "The team took a big risk even looking for planets around these stars," says MIT postdoc Julien de Wit, co-author of the paper. "But it has really paid off."
A team of astronomers, including researchers from MIT, have discovered three potentially habitable planets, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. Strickland writes that the “results are just the beginning of a study that will continue for years. The researchers are already working on observations to see if the planets have water or methane molecules.”
Astronomers at MIT, in collaboration with an international team of scientists, have detected three planets, located 40 light years away, that could potentially be habitable. The “planets likely have permanent day and night sides. The next step is to look for signs of biological conditions on the planets.”
Huffington Post reporter Michael McLaughlin writes that a new study co-authored by MIT postdoc Julien de Wit details the discovery of three Earth-sized planets. The “planets orbit a star in the Aquarius constellations named Trappist-1,” writes McLaughlin. “But the planets are close enough to the star to have ‘temperate’ conditions on their surface.”
Boston Globe reporter Astead Herndon writes that an international team of astronomers, including researchers from MIT, have discovered three potentially habitable planets. “This is a paradigm shift,” says Julien de Wit, a postdoc at MIT. “These planets are the best shots for us to search for other habitats, and maybe even life.”
Melinda Moyer of Scientific American reports that researchers have found that people who used acid blockers to treat heart burn are at increased risk for developing intestinal infections. Moyer explains that the blockers “may limit the gut's diversity by reducing its acidity and thus creating an environment that is more or less amenable to certain microbes.”