Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will visit MIT this Friday “to headline the annual meeting of the school's Solve initiative,” reports the Associated Press. Trudeau’s appearance at Solve, which “connects tech entrepreneurs with leaders in government, business and academia to tackle world problems,” will mark his first visit to Cambridge since becoming prime minister.
Forbes Contributor Steve Banker highlights Prof. Yossi Sheffi’s new book, Balancing Green, which focuses on sustainability in business. As Sheffi explains, “many companies engage in sustainability initiatives to prevent them from having to react to a rising tide of sentiment,” writes Banker. “Getting ahead of these kinds of campaigns can be at the heart of a robust risk management program.”
In an article for Salon, Associate Prof. Noelle Eckley Selin and postdoc Sae Yun Kwon discuss their latest research, which examined emissions in China. They write that although mercury pollution is often associated with fish consumption, “China’s future emissions trajectory can have a measurable influence on the country’s rice methylmercury” levels, as well.
In a Q&A with The Boston Globe’s Sarah Shemkus, Prof. Yossi Sheffi discusses his new book, Balancing Green, which examines “the challenges and benefits of ‘going green’ in a multilayered global economy.” Sheffi suggests green practices can be advantageous for companies because “certain things also cut costs and increase profit, like energy savings.”
In an opinion piece for The Boston Globe, Alex Amouyel, executive director of MIT Solve, explains how the initiative is ‘crowdsolving’ thorny global problems through open innovation. “We need to source ideas from innovators all around the world to find the next breakthroughs,” argues Amouyel. “We know talent and ingenuity exist everywhere.”
CNN’s Sophie Tatum reports that six scientists from the U.S., including a senior research scientist with MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, will join France’s new climate change initiative. The effort, notes Tatum, is meant to offer the international scientific community a chance to, “increase its efforts in battling climate change.”
A new study finds that a 4% reduction in China's carbon emissions by 2030 could save a total of $464.5 billion in healthcare costs, writes Chase Purdy for Quartz. “We have all these policy goals for a transition toward a more sustainable society,” says Associate Prof. Noelle Selin. “Mitigating air pollution, a leading cause of death, is one of them, and avoiding dangerous climate change is another.”
Postdoc Sameer Rao talks to the BBC World Service about his team’s development of a device for extracting water from the atmosphere of excessively dry climates. “I think it can address water scarcity in areas where there is no water and there’s a lot of social and economic challenges because of that,” said Rao.
In this 3-minute read, Katharine Schwab of Co.Design highlights Assistant Prof. Brandon Clifford's project, Cyclopean Cannibalism. Updating an ancient building technique, "Clifford and his students have built algorithms that can...suggest a type of cyclopean wall design that would be able to transform any mound of debris into a wall," writes Schwab.
Researchers utilized weather data from the region between Texas, North Dakota, and Ohio to see if an increase in crop growth had an effect on area climate change. Kimberly Hickok writes for Science that there is "strong indication" that the regional changes in climate in the late 20th century can be attributed to “agriculture, and not changing sea surface temperature."
New research shows that using volcanic ash in cement mixtures could enable “stronger and more environmentally friendly” construction in future cities, reports Sydney Periera for Newsweek. “There may be a tremendous implication of energy savings at the city scale,” Prof. Oral Büyükoztürk tells Periera.
International Business Times reporter Himanshu Goenka writes about MIT’s recent research that examines how volcanic ash could serve as a concrete additive and reduce manufacturing energy usage by 16%. “Volcanic ash forms under high heat and high pressure, and nature kind of does all those chemical reactions for us,” said study coauthor Stephanie Chin, a senior in CEE.
NBC Mach’s Denise Chow writes about MIT research being done to develop color-changing, 3D printed clothing using UV light. “We wanted to know, how can we update the color of an object at any time?” said Prof. Stephanie Mueller.
Kaya Yurieff reports for CNN that CSAIL researchers have developed a system that allows the colors of 3-D printed objects to be altered after they have been fabricated. Prof. Stefanie Mueller explains that, “this sort of technology could help minimize the amount of waste that is produced from updating products."
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have created a new system that allows users to change the color of 3-D printed objects. Heater explains that researchers, “are looking to bring color-changing properties to the 3D-printing process in an attempt to help reduce material waste.”