Technology and society

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?

Tish Scolnik ’10 selected as one of Glamour Magazine’s Top 10 College WomenThe October issue of Glamour Magazine has named 2009 Truman Scholar Tish Scolnik as one of their Top 10 College Women, recognizing her work on mobility issues for the disabled.

3 Questions: Vincent Lépinay on bankers unleashedAn MIT anthropologist, who studies financial practices, discusses how ever-changing banking tools baffle regulators.

The Red Sox' swing doctorSlumping sluggers could soon get help from MIT Media Lab researchers.

In Profile: Maria ZuberPlanetary scientist is driven by the thrill of exploring uncharted territory

Concentrating emissionsAhmed Ghoniem of mechanical engineering leads an MIT effort to make coal plants cleaner by using a pressurized combustion system to capture carbon dioxide.

Fish and chipsNew robots mimic fish's swimming and could explore areas where traditional underwater autonomous vehicles can't currently go.

Breaking the law, at the nanoscaleBringing objects close together can boost radiation heat transfer, according to new study that shows breakdown in Planck's law

'Crazy minds, able hands'MIT's problem-solving design summit moves to developing world