In the Media

"I've been studying chemical tracers in foraminifera for pretty much my whole career, and there are often unexpected twists and turns." - Ed Boyle, professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, on an ancient carbon dioxide/climate change link.

The scientists use a computer model called the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model. This model is unique in that it couples a climate model with a model of human economic activity and associated energy use. - Story on a new analysis of climate risk, published by researchers at MIT and elsewhere.

Somehow, the stratosphere above the North Pole was linked to the ionosphere above Massachusetts, some 100 km higher and 4000 km south. - Story on research out of MIT's Haystack Observatory linking processes in the stratosphere and ionosphere.

"We want to be the Silicon Valley for the poor world — here in Cambridge." - Iqbal Z. Quadir, founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT, on the center's goals.

"You want people who can communicate and who are going to be involved in different parts of campus life. You want them to be positive, but it’s not mandatory." - Dave McOwen, communication manager in the admissions office, on how MIT picks students for its admissions blogs

All you have to do is drool over the beautiful orbs at the annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch. - Story on the Glass Lab's annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch sale.

"Having a very severe recession is going to cause a lot of people who would have stayed in the labor force to apply for disability." - David Autor, professor in the Department of Economics, on job losses in today's economy.

"Taking someone who’s uninsured and giving them insurance unambiguously improves their health, but taking someone who’s well-insured and making them really well-insured doesn’t make them any healthier." - Jonathan Gruber, professor of economics, on the impact of health care reform

"There was no financial gain for me. It was more of joining for a higher calling." - MIT junior and Staff Sergeant Alejandro Lopez on participation in an ROTC program.

"They tilt toward the readability, sort of graphic artist influence, versus the engineer." - Nigel Wilson, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Transit Research Program, on the MBTA's subway maps.

"If they can recognize faces of people in a room, that brings them into the social environment as opposed to sitting there waiting for someone to talk to them." - Shawn Kelly, a researcher in MIT's Research Laboratory for Electronics

"We have for a long time had two shorter essays on the application, and from those we got very direct, clear answers to our questions." - Dean of Admissions Stuart Schmill on a new way to write admissions essays.

"The great advantage of the prize model is that it moves work away from the realm of the beauty contest to being performance-oriented." - Michael Schrage, research fellow at the Center for Digital Business at the Sloan School of Management, on Netflix's million-dollar prize competition.

"Most people who are really active in the fight against poverty fundamentally are very keen to do the best thing." - Esther Duflo, J-PAL director, on her work. Duflo was recently honored with a MacArthur "genius" grant.

"How do we rethink human-environment interactions in light of these mobile devices?" - Dale Joachim, a visiting scientist at MIT’s Media Lab, on a project that uses consumer electronics in the study of flora and fauna.