Making machine learning more useful to high-stakes decision makers

A visual analytics tool helps child welfare specialists understand machine learning predictions that can assist them in screening cases.

Adam Zewe | MIT News Office • mit
Oct. 28, 2021 ~8 min

Punishment for the people

Professor Lily Tsai’s new book explains how “retributive justice,” the high-profile sanctioning of some in society, helps authoritarians solidify public support.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office • mit
Oct. 12, 2021 ~8 min


Distinguishing truth in communications

With a new National Science Foundation grant, Justin Reich and collaborators will apply information literacy research to communities outside the formal education system.

Andrew Whitacre | Comparative Media Studies/Writing • mit
Oct. 8, 2021 ~6 min

Clues to consciousness: how dopamine fits into the mystery of what makes us conscious – podcast

Plus, how a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony using AI. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Daniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast • conversation
Oct. 7, 2021 ~4 min

23,000-year-old human footprints are oldest in the Americas

The footprints offer hints of people's real lives 23,000 years ago. "What we see here is also activity of play, and of different ages coming together."

Kyle Mittan-U. Arizona • futurity
Sept. 30, 2021 ~7 min

Citizens emerge from the slums

PhD student Ying Gao's research reveals that the urban poor in the developing world are politically engaged and capable of effecting change.

Leda Zimmerman | Department of Political Science • mit
Sept. 28, 2021 ~8 min

Fossil footprints prove humans populated the Americas thousands of years earlier than we thought

The New Mexico findings could rewrite the history of human migration to the Americas.

Sally Christine Reynolds, Principal Academic in Hominin Palaeoecology, Bournemouth University • conversation
Sept. 23, 2021 ~7 min

Ancient beads are the earliest sign of communication with fashion

The beads are some of the earliest evidence of people expressing identity with clothing. "They're the tip of the iceberg for that kind of human trait."

Kyle Mittan-U. Arizona • futurity
Sept. 23, 2021 ~6 min


Data flow’s decisive role on the global stage

New research by political science PhD candidate Meicen Sun illuminates the broad economic and political impacts of internet restrictions.

Leda Zimmerman | Department of Political Science • mit
Sept. 21, 2021 ~8 min

New views of autocracy emerge from historic archives

Political science PhD student Emilia Simison has found that despotic regimes vary, and the move to democracy doesn’t necessarily guarantee policy change.

Leda Zimmerman | Department of Political Science • mit
Sept. 17, 2021 ~8 min

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