Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Immigration reform seen as key to U.S. AI leadership

Sep 15, 2023
If the U.S. fails to attract and retain foreign AI talent, the biggest winner could be Canada.
VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Defense Department awards Howard University first-of-its-kind research contract

Jan 24, 2023
HBCUs like Howard often lost out on research grants due to systematic underfunding. Now there’s a push to fund more research at HBCUs.
The Pentagon's $90 million contract with Howard University comes during a larger push to fund more research at HBCUs.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The free market is failing us on antibiotics

Dec 22, 2022
The free market is pretty simple: There’s supply, there’s demand, they meet somewhere in the middle. If there’s a need, there’s a product. But sometimes, that system breaks down, as it has in the market for antibiotics.
Above, a pharmacist measures out antibiotic pills. Only a handful of biotechs are currently developing new antibiotics.  
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

As the U.S. becomes more politically polarized, so does corporate leadership, paper says

Jun 28, 2022
Research indicates executives in a given company are now more likely to all be of the same party, and that has consequences.
"Executive teams have become more partisan. We like to match with other like-minded individuals," said Elisabeth Kempf, a professor at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the paper. 
Getty Images

As research labs reopen, scientists grapple with social distancing's effects

Jul 27, 2020
In March, many lab experiments ground to a halt. Now, researchers are figuring out how to start again.
Scientists work in the microbiology department of an Australian laboratory. Research has new constraints and costs post-lockdown.
Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

What can past pandemics teach economists about COVID-19?

Economists are adapting models and using social media to try to capture emerging trends in real time.
A group of MIT researchers found that nearly half of those they surveyed are now working from home.
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

How Nobel Prize winner Paul Romer redefined economics

Oct 8, 2018
Economists comment on what makes Romer’s views unique.
“I’ve been really disappointed that we just haven’t had the kind of political environment where we can think about speeding up technological progress,” Paul Romer said Monday.
ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images

One problem with fake news? It really, really works

Aug 27, 2018
MIT research finds false stories often travel further and faster than real ones.
Patrick Lux/Getty Images