Bryanna Cappadona reports for Boston.com that Matt Damon will be MIT’s 2016 commencement speaker. “Damon joins a long list of notable MIT commencement speakers, including U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith in 2015, DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman in 2014, and Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston in 2013,” writes Cappadona.
Actor and Cambridge native Matt Damon will speak at MIT’s 2016 commencement, writes Steve Annear for The Boston Globe. In addition to his success in Hollywood, Annear writes that Damon “is one of the founders of Water.org, a non-profit dedicated to delivering access to clean drinking water in developing countries.”
Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker and social activist Matt Damon will deliver the 2016 commencement address at MIT, reports the Associated Press.
Research scientist Caleb Harper speaks with Steph Yin of Popular Science about his work developing personal food computers, and the vegetables he grew for Thanksgiving using this technology with students in Boston-area schools. Harper says that food computers can help “kids understand the production of food.”
Atlantic reporter April Wolfe writes that three MIT materials science and engineering students have developed a washing machine filter that recycles 95% of laundry wastewater. The device filters “the small amount of waste and recycles the clean water and detergent for further cleaning cycles.”
Washington Post reporter Jim Tankersley writes about a new MIT study that found trade may not help countries cope with climate-induced agricultural problems. The researchers found countries needed the “ability to substitute new crops for the ones that don’t grow as well under climate change.”
Senior lecturer John Reilly writes for CNN about how to effectively combat climate change. “I am confident that sound economic measures—a broad carbon price—will unleash the creativity of people and industry to use existing solutions and invent new ones,” he explains.
In an article for USA Today, Colin Chilcoat highlights a study co-authored by Prof. Elfatih Eltahir that indicates that climate change could cause the Persian Gulf to experience severe heat with greater regularity. Greenhouse-gas buildup could raise “temperatures to intolerable seasonal highs and [increase] the frequency and severity of extreme heat waves,” writes Chilcoat.
Emily Price writes for The Guardian about MIT research scientist Caleb Harper’s work to develop sustainable, urban agriculture. “Depending on how you eat, about 30-40% of your diet could be produced urban or peri-urban and would be a lot better for you if it was,” says Harper.
Washington Post reporter Matt McFarland writes about Sprout, a company that sells pencils with “an attached seed capsule, containing everything from tomatoes to cilantro and lavender.” The idea for the pencils came from three MIT students, who were developing ideas for sustainable office products.
This CNN Money article explores a new company called Sprout, which develops plantable pencils that grow into vegetables, herbs and flowering plants. Three MIT students conceived the idea for Sprout and began selling the pencils in Europe in 2013.
“A study predicting deadly heat waves in the Persian Gulf by the century’s end has underscored concerns about the effects of rising global temperatures on cities in other parts of the world, including the United States,” writes Joby Warrick of a new study co-authored by MIT researchers in a piece for The Washington Post.
Brandon Miller reports for CNN on an MIT study that indicates that climate change could drastically increase the frequency of extreme heat events in the Persian Gulf. By 2100 temperatures could be “31°C on an average summer day and the most extreme days could exceed the lethal value of 35°C,” writes Miller.
Doyle Rice writes for USA Today about a new MIT study that finds evidence that heat in the Persian Gulf region could reach intolerable levels due to climate change. The researchers found that “extreme heat that might occur 1 out of 20 days now will be the normal summer day of 2070 and beyond.”
Nitya Rajan reports for The Huffington Post on a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that found that climate change could raise temperatures in the Persian Gulf region to fatal levels by the end of this century. “Beyond a certain threshold, the human body loses the ability to get rid of heat,” writes Rajan.