How to communicate science visually

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:30:12 GMT

Sometimes color helps. Sometimes it just gets in the way, says MIT's Felice Frankel

Junot Diaz Book Reading

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 07:05:35 GMT

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and MIT Professor of Writing, Junot Díaz, reads from his new book This is How You Lose Her.

Fiction Writer Junot Díaz: 2012 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:52:12 GMT

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and writing professor receives unrestricted $500,000 prize.

Neal Stephenson on the Hieroglyph Project

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 07:09:51 GMT

Neal Stephenson explains his "Hieroglyph Project," and how it is intended to inspire us with optimistic visions of getting "big stuff done." This past spring, Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief of MIT Technology Review, conducted a wide-ranging but informal conversation with science fiction writer Neal Stephenson about his craft, preoccupations, influences, and inspirations. Enjoy a six-part weekly series of video shorts based on their conversation.

Neal Stephenson on Optimism

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 07:11:18 GMT

In this video, Neal Stephenson addresses the following: "Optimism is a moral duty," according to Karl Popper. Is there a similar categorical imperative for science fiction to be optimistic? This past spring, Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief of MIT Technology Review, conducted a wide-ranging but informal conversation with science fiction writer Neal Stephenson about his craft, preoccupations, influences, and inspirations. Enjoy a six-part weekly series of video shorts based on their conversation.

Neal Stephenson on the State of Science Fiction

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:08:02 GMT

This past spring, Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief of MIT Technology Review, conducted a wide-ranging but informal conversation with science fiction writer Neal Stephenson about his craft, preoccupations, influences, and inspirations. Enjoy a six-part weekly series of video shorts based on their conversation.

Prized Science: Robert Langer — A Founding Father of Tissue Engineering and Controlled Drug Release

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:46:53 GMT

Prized Science highlights the work of Robert Langer, whose influential research on tissue engineering and controlled drug release earned him the Priestley Medal.

Robert Darnton on Tristram Shandy - Communications Forum

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 07:03:34 GMT

A clip from "Books and Libraries in the Digital Age," a conversation between Robert Darnton and David Thorburn held October 16, 2008.

A pioneering scholar of the Enlightenment and of the history of the book, Robert Darnton has written extensively on the impact of digital technologies on the culture of print and on the responsibilities of libraries in the computer age. In this Forum, Darnton will discuss the emergence of the discipline of the history of the book, the future of books and reading, and his own vision of the ways in which new and old media can reinforce each other, strengthening and transforming the world of learning.

Robert Darnton is the director of the University Library and the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard. A former Rhodes Scholar and MacArthur Fellow, his books include The Business of the Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the Encyclopedie, The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History, and The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Prerevolutionary France.

Moderator: David Thorburn is professor of literature and director of the Communications Forum at MIT. He is the author of Conrad’s Romanticism, and, most recently, co-editor of Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition.

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 10: Bearings

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 1: Design is a Passionate Process

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 2: Creating Ideas

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 3: FUNdaMENTAL Principles

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 4: Linkages

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 5: Transmission Elements 1

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 7: Power Systems

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 8: Structures

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 9: Structural Connections and Interfaces

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS: Using the MIT Libraries

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:39 GMT

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 6: Transmission Elements 2

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:03:38 GMT

Unbound symposium: Reshaping the Book (May 4)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Unbound: Speculations on the Future of the Book
Reshaping the Book

Participants: Gita Manaktala (MIT Press), Christian Bök (University of Calgary), Bob Stein (SocialBook)
Moderator: Amaranth Borsuk (MIT Writing and Humanistic Studies and Comparative Media Studies)

Read more about Unbound: http://futurebook.mit.edu/symposium/schedule/

Unbound symposium: The Xenotext, So Far with Christian Bök (May 3)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Unbound: Speculations on the Future of the Book
The Xenotext, So Far with Christian Bök

We started the event with a kick-off reading, co-sponsored with Purple Blurb, featuring experimental poet Christian Bök, who has striven for ten years to engineer an unkillable bacterium so that it becomes not only a durable archive for storing a poem in its genome, but also an operant machine for writing a poem in response–a poem that might, in fact, outlive terrestrial civilization. Bök was introduced by Nick Montfort, and student readers Aimee Harrison and Alvin Mwijuka shared their work.

Read more about Unbound: http://futurebook.mit.edu/symposium/schedule/

Unbound symposium: Unbinding the Book (May 4)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Unbound: Speculations on the Future of the Book
Unbinding the Book

Participants: Bonnie Mak (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), James Reid-Cunningham (Boston Athenaeum), Wyn Kelley (MIT Literature), Mary Fuller (MIT Literature)
Moderator: Gretchen Henderson (MIT Writing and Humanistic Studies)

Read more about Unbound: http://futurebook.mit.edu/symposium/schedule/

Building (and using) Big Digital Libraries - John Unsworth

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:03:07 GMT

John Unsworth discusses the recent formation of large-scale, collaborative digital libraries and the challenges and opportunities they pose for researchers seeking to use and study their collections. He describes the various challenges facing the new kinds of research these vast digital collections should enable.

Recorded on 5/25/12 at the MIT Faculty Club.

Building (and using) Big Digital Libraries - Paul N. Courant

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:03:07 GMT

Paul N. Courant discusses the recent formation of large-scale, collaborative digital libraries and the challenges and opportunities they pose for researchers seeking to use and study their collections. He explains the interconnected genesis of the Google Project, the HathiTrust, and the Digital Public Library of America.

Recorded on 5/25/12 at the MIT Faculty Club.

Building (and using) Big Digital Libraries - Q&A

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:03:07 GMT

With Paul N. Courant & John Unsworth.

Recorded on 5/25/12 at the MIT Faculty Club.

BOOKISH: Artist books from the collection of the Rotch Library of Architecture & Planning, 1960-present

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:03:20 GMT

Rotch Library of Architecture & Planning

Guest curator: Samuel Ray Jacobson, MIT SMArchS ’13, History Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art

On view April 20-June 10, 2012

Video for the exhibit created in conjunction with the symposium “Unbound: Speculations on the Future of the Book”, BOOKISH explores the means and methods through which artist books challenge the book as traditionally conceived. By their selective, intentional performance and denial of normative aspects of book design, these artist-conceived objects negate such norms while sustaining their worth and continued relevance.

Matthew Hutson: The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:30:11 GMT

Matthew Hutson's talk on his book "The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep us Happy, Healthy, and Sane" at MIT May 14, 2012. Introduction by Alan Lightman.

Read more about Matthew Hutson on the Graduate Program in Science Writing's website: http://sciwrite.mit.edu/news/spotlight-on-matt-hutson-03

Communications Forum: Electronic Literature and Future Books

Thu, 17 May 2012 07:03:04 GMT

How has electronic literature influenced other media, including the Web and the book? What are the implications of having literary projects in the digital sphere alongside other forms of communication and art

The MIT Science Fiction Society

Mon, 07 May 2012 14:30:10 GMT

MIT’s Science Fiction Society curates an enormous library containing more than 90 percent of all English language science fiction ever published.

MIT economist Gruber clarifies health care law in a comic book

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:48:19 GMT

Gruber, a key architect of Massachusetts health reform, uses a visual, comic book-style narrative to make the case for the national health law.

Daron Acemoglu on Why Nations Fail

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:30:07 GMT

It is among the grandest topics in scholarship: Why do some nations, such as the United States, become wealthy and powerful, while others remain stuck in poverty? And why do some of those powers, from ancient Rome to the modern Soviet Union, expand and then collapse? From Adam Smith and Max Weber to the current day, scores of writers have grappled with these questions. Some scholars, like Weber, have argued that religious or cultural differences create vastly different economic outcomes among countries. Others have asserted that a lack of natural resources or technical expertise has prevented poor countries from creating self-sustaining economic growth.

Economists Daron Acemoglu of MIT and James Robinson of Harvard University have another answer: Politics makes the difference. Countries that have what they call "inclusive" political governments -- those extending political and property rights as broadly as possible, while enforcing laws and providing some public infrastructure -- experience the greatest growth over the long run. By contrast, Acemoglu and Robinson assert, countries with "extractive" political systems -- in which power is wielded by a small elite -- either fail to grow broadly or wither away after short bursts of economic expansion.

Read more at: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/why-nations-fail-0323.html

Unique languages, universal patterns

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:30:08 GMT

Under the surface, English and Japanese have deep similarities, as MIT linguist Shigeru Miyagawa argues in his new book, Case, Argument Structure, and Word Order.

Dynamic Economic Systems

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:30:06 GMT

Conversation with Nicholas Ashford, a professor of technology and policy in MIT's School of Engineering.

Leveraging Human Capital

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:30:06 GMT

Conversation with Nicholas Ashford, a professor of technology and policy in MIT's School of Engineering.

Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build A Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System (Podcast)

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:49:37 GMT

Prof. Richard Lester

IPC Forum on Energy Innovation

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:57:03 GMT

The IPC Forum on Energy Innovation discussed key ideas from the new book Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System by Richard K. Lester and David M. Hart.

Speakers:
Richard K. Lester, Japan Steel Industry Professor and Head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT
David M. Hart, Professor in the School of Public Policy and Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy, George Mason University

Panelists:
Daniel Goldman, CFO, Great Point Energy
Neil Rasmussen, SVP of Innovation, Schnieder Electric
Peter Rothstein, President, New England Clean Energy Council

Unlocking Energy Innovation :: Richard K. Lester

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:09:58 GMT

Energy innovation offers us our best chance to solve the three urgent and interrelated problems of climate change, worldwide insecurity over energy supplies, and rapidly growing energy demand. But if we are to achieve a timely transition to reliable, low-cost, low-carbon energy, the U.S. energy innovation system must be radically overhauled. Unlocking Energy Innovation by Richard K. Lester and David M. Hart outlines an up-to-the-minute plan for remaking America's energy innovation system by tapping the country's entrepreneurial strengths and regional diversity in both the public and private spheres. The authors map three waves of energy innovation to show how we can speed up the introduction of new technologies and business models and accelerate their deployment on a massive scale.

Professor Fitzgerald talk on: Inside Real Innovation

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:01:55 GMT

Walter Lewin - For The Love of Physics

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:12:15 GMT

Professor of Physics Emeritus Walter Lewin performing his most famous physics demonstrations on the occasion of the publication of his new book, FOR THE LOVE OF PHYSICS: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge Of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders

13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:00:00 GMT

MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Simon Johnson warns in a new book that a "new financial oligarchy" threatens not only the nation's economy, but its political core.

MIT's Stefan Helmreich on his book "Alien Ocean"

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:01:37 GMT

When anthropologist Stefan Helmreich decided to study scientists who chase some of the world's smallest creatures in some of the world's most forbidding places, his research took an unexpected twist.

The World is Flat 3.0

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:00:00 GMT

Elaborating on his World is Flat thesis, Friedman describes how this new global order puts creative, entrepreneurial individuals in the driver's seat, and poses distinct new challenges and opportunities.

Narratives of Science

Sat, 07 May 2005 04:00:00 GMT

Robert Kanigel poses the central question of this panel: "The storytelling express is leaving the station. Do we want to jump aboard, or under some circumstances, stay where we are?"

Recent Videos tagged 'Books and authors' on MIT Video

How to communicate science visually

Junot Diaz Book Reading

Fiction Writer Junot Díaz: 2012 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation

Neal Stephenson on the Hieroglyph Project

Neal Stephenson on Optimism

Neal Stephenson on the State of Science Fiction

Prized Science: Robert Langer — A Founding Father of Tissue Engineering and Controlled Drug Release

Robert Darnton on Tristram Shandy - Communications Forum

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 10: Bearings

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 1: Design is a Passionate Process

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 2: Creating Ideas

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 3: FUNdaMENTAL Principles

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 4: Linkages

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 5: Transmission Elements 1

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 7: Power Systems

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 8: Structures

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 9: Structural Connections and Interfaces

FUNdaMENTALS: Using the MIT Libraries

FUNdaMENTALS Topic 6: Transmission Elements 2

Unbound symposium: Reshaping the Book (May 4)

Unbound symposium: The Xenotext, So Far with Christian Bök (May 3)

Unbound symposium: Unbinding the Book (May 4)

Building (and using) Big Digital Libraries - John Unsworth

Building (and using) Big Digital Libraries - Paul N. Courant

Building (and using) Big Digital Libraries - Q&A

BOOKISH: Artist books from the collection of the Rotch Library of Architecture & Planning, 1960-present

Matthew Hutson: The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking

Communications Forum: Electronic Literature and Future Books

The MIT Science Fiction Society

MIT economist Gruber clarifies health care law in a comic book

Daron Acemoglu on Why Nations Fail

Unique languages, universal patterns

Dynamic Economic Systems

Leveraging Human Capital

Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build A Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System (Podcast)

IPC Forum on Energy Innovation

Unlocking Energy Innovation :: Richard K. Lester

Professor Fitzgerald talk on: Inside Real Innovation

Walter Lewin - For The Love of Physics

13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

MIT's Stefan Helmreich on his book "Alien Ocean"

The World is Flat 3.0

Narratives of Science