Olga Khazan writes for The Atlantic about research by post-doctoral fellow Josh Hartshorne that indicates that different kinds of cognitive abilities peak at different ages. “Four types of proficiencies didn’t fully ripen until people were in their 50s: vocabulary, math, general knowledge, and comprehension,” Khazan explains.
Jane Wakefield reports for BBC News on a system developed by postdoctoral fellow Tal Danino in which bacteria are programmed to detect cancers in the liver. "It is a fascinating universe in our body and we can now program bacteria like we program computers,” Danino says.
MIT researchers have found that the minor planet Chiron may have a system of rings, reports Monte Morin for the Los Angeles Times. The researchers observed Chiron passing in front of a bright star and observed that Chiron's shadow contained some features “that suggested something surrounding the centaur was blocking the light.”
In a piece for The Boston Globe, Juan Enriquez writes about the groundbreaking research and developments coming out of the Boston-Cambridge region, highlighting the work of several MIT faculty members, including Professors Angela Belcher, Ed Boyden, Robert Langer, Susan Lindquist, David Page and Eric Lander.
Richard Moran writes for The Huffington Post about an MIT study that examines why Silicon Valley is home to so many tech companies. "The entire ecosystem is nurturing and helping companies within Silicon Valley realize their promise on a more guaranteed basis than anywhere else in the state," says Professor Scott Stern.
Karen Kaplan of The Los Angeles Times writes that MIT researchers have calculated that the measles vaccination rate among individuals exposed to the disease during the current outbreak ranges from 50 to 86 percent. “Vaccination rates in many of the communities that have been affected by this outbreak fall well below the necessary threshold to sustain herd immunity,” the researchers explain.
Based on the rapid spread of the measles outbreak, researchers believe that vaccination rates could be as low as 50 percent in some areas, Lisa Rapaport reports for Reuters. That rate “is far below the level necessary to achieve herd immunity,” explains graduate student Maimuna Majumder.
Prof. Nikhil Agarwal has found that a lack of positions at prestigious institutions leads to low salaries among medical residents, reports Angela Chen for The Wall Street Journal. Agarwal found that, "applicants are willing to pay an 'implicit tuition'...to have a prestigious and high-demand residency."
Benedict Carey reports for The New York Times on how MIT researchers have found that different portions of human intelligence peak at different ages. The researchers found that while an older brain may move slower than a younger one, it is “just as accurate in many areas and more adept at reading others’ moods — on top of being more knowledgeable.”
Steven Rosenbaum highlights PhD student Abe Davis’ TED talk in a piece for Forbes. Rosenbaum writes that Davis “has co-created the world’s most improbable audio instrument.”
Adam Rutherford of BBC Radio 4 speaks with Prof. Nicholas Makris about his work examining the evolution of violin design during the 17th and 18th centuries. Makris explains that, “if you go over that roughly 200 years you see that the F-hole length was increasing over that time period,” an adjustment that increased the violin’s acoustic power.
Washington Post reporter Annie Gowen writes about how MIT researchers have found that India’s latest swine flu outbreak may have mutated into a more dangerous strain. The researchers found “new mutations in the protein known to make the virus more virulent.”
Professor Ram Sasisekharan and research scientist Kannan Tharakaraman have found that a strain of H1N1 influenza in India is more virulent than health authorities have indicated, writes Rishi Lyengar of Time. “They found mutations in the Indian strains in a protein called hemagglutinin, which binds with receptors on the human body’s respiratory cells,” Lyengar writes.
Laura Santhanam writes for the PBS NewsHour that MIT researchers have found that a strain of swine flu in India is more dangerous than originally thought. The researchers found that “a mutation in the new H1N1 strain allows this form of swine flu to attack an infected person’s respiratory cells more virulently.”
Dr. Judah Cohen examines whether climate change could be leading to more extreme snowfall in a piece for The Washington Post. “The influence of climate change may be that the warming brings the atmosphere closer to the 'optimal' profile to generate heavy snowfalls, more so in the present than in the past,” Cohen writes.