Chun Han Wong writes for The Wall Street Journal about a study coauthored by MIT graduate student Yiqing Xu that finds an ideological divide in China based on geography. The researchers found that, “provinces with higher levels of economic development, trade openness, urbanization are more liberal than their poor, rural counterparts.”
A new study by researchers from MIT and Harvard finds a geographic divide between liberals and conservatives in China, reports Michael Forsythe for The New York Times. “China may even be divided, much like the United States, into ‘red’ conservative provinces mostly in the poorer rural interior and richer, urbanized ‘blue’ coastal provinces,” writes Forsythe.
Prof. Philip Sharp writes for The Huffington Post that the government needs to increase support for cancer research. Sharp and his co-author Sherry Lansing, founder and CEO of The Sherry Lansing Foundation, explain that current progress again cancer “can be turned into a tidal wave if we as a nation devote the right level of funding, intensity, and collaboration.”
Craig Torres and Christine Idzelis write for Bloomberg Businessweek about a study coauthored by Prof. Xavier Giroud that indicates that employees working for companies with large amounts of debt “were particularly vulnerable to firings when household demand collapsed during the last recession.”
In an article for Bloomberg Businessweek about batteries, Christopher Martin highlights how Prof. Donald Sadoway’s liquid metal battery will be deployed this year. The batteries, which are being commercialized by Sadoway’s startup Ambri, will power solar and wind farms and store surplus energy for a power company in Manhattan.
Anya Kamenetz reports for NPR on a new MIT-Harvard study examining data compiled from two years of courses offered by edX. Researchers found that a large number of Greek and Spanish citizens took MOOCs, leading them to wonder if austerity measures in these two countries led students to “look online for an education alternative.”
Carey Goldberg reports for NPR on Project Prakash, Prof. Pawan Sinha's non-profit that provides cataract operations for children in India. Sinha explains that by examining how a child reacts to gaining vision, “you have a ringside seat into the process of visual development.”
In a Scientific American podcast, Cynthia Graber examines MIT research showing typing speed can indicate if a person is fatigued and can help diagnose certain diseases. Typing speed could be used as a “safety feature on software programs for night shifts” or could diagnose Parkinson’s “by tracking changes in someone’s ability to manipulate the common keyboard.”
Conor Gaffey writes for Newsweek about new body armor being developed by researchers at MIT and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The design is based on fish scales and “mimics the overlapping layers of hard scales and soft tissues found in certain fish, using 3D printers,” reports Gaffey.
A team of researchers from MIT and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has designed a flexible body armor inspired by fish scales, reports Kelsey D. Atherton for Popular Science. “The researchers were able to greatly increase the strength of the armor while only modestly reducing its flexibility,” writes Atherton.
Researchers at MIT have developed software that tracks typing speed in order to help diagnose Parkinson’s disease, writes Alexandra Ossola for Popular Science. Ossola explains that the researchers "hope that this type test could eventually lead to earlier diagnoses of Parkinson’s.”
A new MIT-Harvard study examining two years of edX courses found that nearly 40 percent of online learners are teachers, reports Kirk Carapezza for the PBS NewsHour. The findings have researchers wondering how to better design online courses "to meet teachers’ needs.”
MIT and Harvard have released a comprehensive new report examining MOOCS offered by edX over a two-year period, reports Carl Straumsheim for Inside Higher Ed. The researchers found that while more than half of total enrollment was in edX computer science courses, “learner demographics and intent vary by the courses they take.”
Brett Smith reports for redOrbit on a new study by Prof. Shigeru Miyagawa on the development of human language. Miyagawa explains his finds that the brain “at some point 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, hit a critical point, and all the resources that nature had provided came together in a Big Bang and language emerged pretty much as we know it today.”
A study examining courses offered through edX, the nonprofit learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT, found that teachers are enrolling in MOOCS in large numbers, reports Casey Fabris for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Of the 200,000 participants who responded to a survey about teaching, “39 percent of them said they were current or former teachers.”