Technology and society

3 Questions: Bill Gates on MITAfter speaking about the importance of giving back, the philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder spoke to MIT News about innovation and learning at MIT

Guerrilla reporting in ‘difficult places’Activists describe their experiences using new technology to build free media networks in countries with scant resources or oppressive regimes.

Six from MIT elected to AAAS

In the World: Better wound treatment for allA streamlined version of 'negative-pressure' wound therapy is put to the test in Haiti — and could have 'enormous potential' across the developing world.

Bill Gates to visit MIT on April 21In a presentation at Kresge Auditorium, the philanthropist will discuss the importance of service.

In the World: Nanotech on the farmMIT chemical engineer Paula Hammond lends her nanotechnology expertise to farmers in Africa.

Explained: Radiative forcingWhen there’s more energy radiating down on the planet than there is radiating back out to space, something’s going to have to heat up

Action needed to save climate, create jobsMIT Energy Conference speakers see need to boost clean-energy businesses through a price on carbon and incentives for manufacturing

Communications Forum on The Culture Beat and New MediaFeaturing Bill Marx, Douglas McLennan, moderated by David Thorburn

Clapperton Mavhunga named Poesis FellowInaugural group to focus on rethinking cities

A silver lining to the Copenhagen cloud?Though widely seen as a failure, December’s climate conference may actually have set the world on the right path, panelists suggest

Carl Kaysen, MIT professor emeritus and national security expert, dies at age 89As an adviser under President Kennedy, he helped negotiate a key nuclear test ban treaty.

3 Questions: David Mindell on Obama’s NASA proposalMIT space researcher predicts that if adopted, Obama’s proposed budget and policy will lead to more joint human-robotic space exploration

Peering inside an artificial sunTechniques developed by MIT center provide detailed images from the inside of hellishly hot core of advanced fusion experiments

Figuring out where to put the carbonIf we plan to keep using fossil fuels, we need to figure out how to sequester the resulting carbon dioxide. New tools from MIT could help evaluate where to do it — and how to keep it contained.

Researching and writing a thesis (and a blog) in TanzaniaMechanical Engineering major, Tish Scolnik ’09, is spending this January developing her thesis focused on appropriate technology for the developing world.

The Future of Urban MobilityA Global Collaboration to Make Urban Transport Sustainable

The Tough Get Growing: how to succeed in a down economyPresented by the MIT Enterprise Forum

Moderated by Bo Fishback

Panelists:
Eugene Fitzgerald '85
Daphne Zohar
Helen Greiner '89, SM '90

Not easy being greenMIT historian Harriet Ritvo explains how a battle to save an English lake helped found modern environmentalism — but might worry greens today

Reporter’s Notebook: Where do we go from here?At MIT forum, former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine and other aerospace experts discuss the future of human spaceflight.

Reporter’s Notebook: Jules Verne, desperado?MIT historian of science Rosalind Williams on the overlooked legacy of Jules Verne, anti-globalization visionary

3 Questions: Henry Jacoby on CopenhagenThe co-director of MIT’s Global Change program discusses what to expect from the U.N. Climate Change Conference, and the effects of ‘Climategate’

Reporter’s Notebook: Emergency measuresFor drowning surfers, fallen bicyclists and injured mountaineers, students in MIT’s 2.009 class devise products that could save lives.

Education Across Borders: The India Perspective

Feeling the wayRobotic device developed in MIT’s Touch Lab can help visually impaired people navigate around a virtual model of a real building.

“Diagnosing” the U.S. health care system: in Soundings MagazineThe U.S. health system has been ranked second in the world in expenditures — and 38th in the world for performance. What's going on?

Blowin' in the windStudents bring wind-speed monitoring equipment to campus to evaluate potential sites for a wind turbine.

Will Innovation Still be Made in America?