July 12, 2023 – In a study appearing today in Nature, the team writes that they have detected changes in ocean color over the past two decades that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These color shifts, though subtle to the human eye, have occurred over 56 percent of the world’s oceans — an expanse […]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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MIT Sloan research finds Americans are more receptive to counter-partisan messages than previously thought
Party loyalty and partisan motivation may interfere less with Americans’ thinking than previously believed, MIT behavioral researchers Ben M. Tappin, Adam J. Berinsky, and David G. Rand report in new research published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. The study, which looked at how Democrats and Republicans react to persuasive messaging that doesn’t align with their party leader’s position, challenges the view […]
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New book explains how “retributive justice,” the high-profile sanctioning of some in society, helps authoritarians solidify public support
October 13, 2021 – By some lights, it seems curious how authoritarian leaders can sustain their public support while limiting liberties for citizens. Yes, it can be hard to overthrow an entrenched leader; that does not mean people have to like their ruling autocrats. And yet, many do. After all, authoritarian China consistently polls better […]
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Books: The Politics of Rights of Nature, By Craig M. Kauffman and Pamela L. Martin
August 17, 2021 – With the window of opportunity to take meaningful action on climate change and mass extinction closing, a growing number of communities, organizations, and governments around the world are calling for Rights of Nature (RoN) to be legally recognized. RoN advocates are creating new laws that recognize natural ecosystems as subjects with […]
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New MIT study shows devastating cost of failure to coordinate economic reopenings
May 21, 2020 – Social distancing is the core policy response to COVID-19. But as federal, state, and local governments begin opening businesses and relaxing shelter-in-place orders worldwide there is a lack of quantitative evidence on how policies in one region affect mobility and social distancing in other regions. In particular, no one has measured […]
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Origins of Earth’s magnetic field remain a mystery
April 13, 2020 – Microscopic minerals excavated from an ancient outcrop of Jack Hills, in Western Australia, have been the subject of intense geological study, as they seem to bear traces of the Earth’s magnetic field reaching as far back as 4.2 billion years ago. That’s almost 1 billion years earlier than when the magnetic […]
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MIT Study: Commercial air travel is safer than ever
January 24, 2020 – It has never been safer to fly on commercial airlines, according to a new study by an MIT professor that tracks the continued decrease in passenger fatalities around the globe. The study finds that between 2008 and 2017, airline passenger fatalities fell significantly compared to the previous decade, as measured per […]
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Breaching a “carbon threshold” could lead to mass extinction
July 9, 2019 – In the brain, when neurons fire off electrical signals to their neighbors, this happens through an “all-or-none” response. The signal only happens once conditions in the cell breach a certain threshold. Now an MIT researcher has observed a similar phenomenon in a completely different system: Earth’s carbon cycle. Daniel Rothman, professor […]
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Study: Democracy fosters economic growth
March 8, 2019 – As long as democracy has existed, there have been democracy skeptics — from Plato warning of mass rule to contemporary critics claiming authoritarian regimes can fast-track economic programs. But a new study co-authored by an MIT economist shows that when it comes to growth, democracy significantly increases development. Indeed, countries switching […]
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Study: Much of the surface ocean will shift in color by end of 21st century
Feb. 4, 2019 – Climate change is causing significant changes to phytoplankton in the world’s oceans, and a new MIT study finds that over the coming decades these changes will affect the ocean’s color, intensifying its blue regions and its green ones. Satellites should detect these changes in hue, providing early warning of wide-scale changes […]
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Existing laser technology could be fashioned into Earth’s “porch light” to attract alien astronomers
Nov. 4, 2018 – If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new MIT study proposes that laser technology on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something of a planetary porch light — a beacon strong enough to attract attention from as far as 20,000 light years away. The research, which author James […]
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Study: China’s climate policy would more than pay for itself
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. April 23, 2018 – A new MIT study reports that, if China follows through with its international pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, every one of its provinces will experience benefits to air quality and human health, with associated monetary savings that could offset the total cost of implementing the climate policy. The […]
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Study: NIH funding generates large numbers of private-sector patents
April 3, 2017 – Research grants issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) contribute to a significant number of private-sector patents in biomedicine, according to a new study co-authored by an MIT professor. The study, published today in the journal Science, examines 27 years of data and finds that 31 percent of NIH grants, […]