New York Times reporter Damien Cave spotlights Prof. Alan Lightman’s book, “In Praise of Wasting Time.” Cave writes that Lightman’s book “combines personal anecdotes with research on the way our wired world alters the way humans think, and guidance on how to resist the addiction of what he calls ‘the grid.’”
Paul Page at The Wall Street Journal reports on a new study co-authored by researchers at MIT, which shows that despite the pandemic, companies were largely able to maintain their supply-chain sustainability goals and increase their focus on social welfare. “It was surprising to see the focus on social issues,” said research scientist David Correll. “The notion of social issues as part of sustainability goals is something we didn’t expect to see generally accepted, but in fact there was an increase in interest in the respondents.”
Prof. Esther Duflo speaks with Mikaela Cohen of CNBC about how gender inequality, access to childcare and vaccine access are among the issues impacting the return to work in the U.S. and the global economic recovery. “We realized the current system is just not very workable. It just barely works,” says Duflo. “Women sustain themselves by pulling on their own boot straps.”
Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, makes the case that society is undergoing a Great Reframing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The pandemic, with far more impact than the Great Recession, has created a new psychosocial equilibrium — a renewed and heightened vigilance and priority to determine what is truly important and to make choices accordingly,” writes Coughlin. “Our view of life has been reframed.”
WHDH spotlights how MIT and Harvard researchers are creating wearable biosensors that could be used to detect Covid-19 in a person’s breath. “At the end of the day, what we wanted to do was basically to blend both to potentially produce a product that was more easily incentivized patients to both wear a mask and to get tested,” explains Luis Soenksen of the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health.
A new sensor developed by MIT and Harvard researchers can be embedded in a face mask and used to alert the wearer if they have Covid-19, reports CBS Boston. “Small disposable sensors can diagnose the wearer of the mask within 90 minutes," reports CBS Boston. "The technology has been used before to detect Ebola and Zika, but now researchers are embedding it into face masks and lab coats as a new method to safeguard health care workers.”
Researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a new sensor technology that can be embedded in a face mask to detect whether the wearer has Covid-19, reports Pranshu Verma for The Boston Globe. “We worked hard, sometimes bringing nonbiological equipment home and assembling devices manually,” says Luis Soenksen of the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health. “It was definitely different from the usual lab infrastructure we’re used to working under, but everything we did has helped us ensure that the sensors would work in real-world pandemic conditions.”
Boston Globe reporter Laura Krantz reports that edX will be transferred to the education technology company 2U, and proceeds from the transaction will be used by a nonprofit aimed at addressing education inequalities and reimagining the future of learning.
Wall Street Journal reporter Melissa Korn writes that 2U, an education technology company, will acquire edX for $800 million. The proceeds flow to a new nonprofit, led by MIT and Harvard, which will “focus on reducing inequalities in access to education. It will maintain the open-access course platform built by edX, research online and hybrid-learning models, and work to minimize the digital divide that still serves as a barrier for many younger students and adults,” writes Korn.
Researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a face mask outfitted with sensors that can detect if the wearer has Covid-19, reports Adele Peters for Fast Company. “If testing and sensing at a biological molecular level could be done in a format that can follow people around instead of people having to go to the clinic, maybe you can encourage people to get more testing done,” says Luis Soenksen, a Venture Builder at MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health.
Profs. Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee speak with Financial Times reporter Martin Sandbu about the need for better economic “plumbing,” the shortcomings of policy to address climate change and the state of the profession of economics. Duflo notes that before the pandemic there had been improvement in quality of life around the world, "in part because of more focus on these quality of life issues and, I would argue, a little bit more attention given to plumbing and setting pragmatic objectives and programs as opposed to aiming for some more elusive growth.”
Time reporter Alice Park spotlights how MIT startup BioBot is sampling and analyzing sewage for communities across the U.S. to help track the spread of Covid-19. “Over the course of this pandemic, the entire world has seen how valuable wastewater epidemiology is as a tool,” says Newsha Ghaeli, president and co-founder of Biobot. “Our long-term vision is that wastewater epidemiology becomes a permanent part of the infrastructure embedded on top of sewage systems across the country and around the world.”
In an interview with of CBC Radio, graduate student Carmelo Ignaccolo discusses the need to better understand how to make cities good places for residents and tourists to coexist. "There are very different ways in which data can really help us plan better cities," says Ignaccolo.
Students in Prof. Azra Akšamija’s class created Covid-19 masks that reflected their experiences and shared powerful messages with the world, reports 7 News. “Students learn how to articulate problems they see in the world and issues that we are facing,” says Akšamija. “And to communicate that and translate that through their designs.”
Writing for Inside Higher Ed, Shigeru Miyagawa, senior associate dean of the Office of Digital Learning, and Meghan Perdue, a digital learning scientist at MITx, explore how the shift to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed education. “Faculty are now more aware of the ‘whole student,’ acknowledging their lives outside the classroom,” they write. “They have a heightened awareness of the need to create teaching practices that keep the students engaged and to use technology tools that enhance their teaching.”