Topic: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Get irrational: 3.14 things to do on Pi Day
March 14 is Pi Day, which celebrates the mathematical constant measuring the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter (beginning with 3.14). Pi Day is celebrated internationally, and in 2009 it was decreed an official holiday by the US House of Representatives. Here are 3.14 ways to celebrate.
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Four job trends for 2013
With unemployment still high, many Americans are looking to find a job, change careers, or update their skills. Here are four trends for 2013 that can help you make smart career moves.
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The 20 most fascinating accidental inventions
Most inventors strive for weeks, months, or years to perfect their products. (Thomas Edison tried thousands of different light bulb filaments before arriving at the ideal mixture of tungsten.) But sometimes, brilliance strikes by accident. Here's a salute to the scientists, chefs, and everyday folk who stumbled upon greatness – and, more important, shared their mistakes with the world.UPDATE: After great reader feedback, we've added five additional accidental inventions: Stainless steel, plastic, ice cream cones, Post-it Notes, and matches.
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A literary road trip through New England
Take a trip through historic New England and visit the homesteads of famous literary figures.
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Tax tips: Top 5 reasons to hire a tax pro
Tax tips can take you only so far if you're filling out your own returns. Sometimes, you need a tax pro. Most taxpayers, to the tune of 60 percent, opt to go with a tax professional. That share has climbed steadily: Just 41 percent used a professional preparer 30 years ago. Although a growing swath of the population – about 20 percent – is using tax-preparation software to complete returns, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), it seems that software isn't displacing accountants as much as it's simply becoming the mode of choice for do-it-yourself filers. As the Tuesday, April 17, tax filing deadline nears, here are five cases in which it might be wise to consider bringing a pro aboard:
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The Monitor's View: From DARPA to Google, the search for sources of innovation
Regina Dugan, the head of the Pentagon's research arm, is going to Google. What her move means in the global race for innovation.
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Confab in Silicon Valley: How to move from 'dumb mob' to 'smart mob'
In early March, leading thinkers in the private and public sectors gathered in the epicenter of California's Silicon Valley – Palo Alto – to take in a bird's eye view of how social media is affecting governance. Social media can empower people, but turning a 'dumb mob' into a 'smart mob' is another matter.
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Change Agent Five poverty-fighting women to watch
These women don't hand out aid. They're creating innovative new ways for women – and men – to lift themselves out of poverty.
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Gas prices fact check: Six ideas in Congress, but can they work?
Soaring gas prices have also shown a consistent and significant ability to push members of Congress over the deep end. Here's the experts' take on 6 ideas floating through Congress.
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Cheetah robot sets new speed record (+video)
However, a robot in the form of a cheetah and funded by the US military doesn't run as fast as the real thing.
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Change Agent Rethinking Carbon Dioxide (CO2): from a pollutant to a moneymaker
Three startup companies led by prominent scientists are working on new technologies to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The scientific community is skeptical, but these entrepreneurs believe removing CO2 can eventually be profitable and help cool the planet.
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Have scientists unraveled the mystery of the northern lights?
Science is closer to explaining how electrons in the earth's upper atmosphere can generate spectacular auroras.
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New Orleans' razing craze aims to clear way for post-Katrina recovery
New Orleans is on a mission to raze thousands of properties abandoned after hurricane Katrina. Many are in neighborhoods, such as the Lower Ninth Ward, where poor and minority residents were concentrated.
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Janice Voss, shuttle astronaut, remembered for NASA contributions
Janice Voss began her NASA career while still a student at Purdue University. Janice Voss was one of six women to fly at least five times on the space shuttle.
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Change Agent As tensions over wealth gap rise, the rich are giving more
The top 50 charitable donors gave more in 2011: Are the super rich feeling the sting of public opinion?
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Editor's Blog Reinvention: The rewards of trying again
First-time wonders deserve our awe and applause. But almost every good thing in life -- from careers to ideas, products to poetry -- is more reinvention than invention.
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NASA probe shoots video of the dark side of the moon (+video)
One of NASA's twin Grail probes circling the moon has captured a video of the side that perpetually faces away from Earth.
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Can a spider web hold clues for better buildings? Science takes a step.
A research team has discovered how spider silk responds to stress. The results of the spider web study appear in the Thursday issue of the journal Nature.
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Canadian teenagers launch Lego man to the stars (+video)
A duo of 17-year-olds from Toronto attached a Lego man to a weather balloon, along with several cameras and a GPS tracker, and launched it into the Earth's upper atmosphere.
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Canadian teens send Legonaut into 'space' (+video)
Two Canadian boys sent a Lego Man 80,000 feet above the Earth and captured the voyage on video.
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Who is Mansoor Ijaz? The US businessman behind Pakistan's 'Memo-gate'
A whistle blowing hero to some, a villain doing the Pakistan military's dirty work to others, Ijaz is above all a mysterious anomaly.
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Toddlers to tweens: relearning how to play
Children's play is threatened, say experts who advise that kids – from toddlers to tweens – should be relearning how to play. Roughhousing and fantasy feed development.
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Mysterious invisible galaxy may be composed of dark matter
Though telescopes can't spot the dwarf galaxy, scientists detected its presence through the tiny distortions its gravity causes to light that passes it by.
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Dwarf galaxies: breakthrough in bid to find 'fossils' of early universe
A team of astronomers reports that it has detected the most distant dwarf galaxy yet discovered orbiting an enormous elliptical galaxy some 10 billion light-years away.
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NASA's twin moon probes renamed by children: 'Ebb' & 'Flow'
The probes' new names were offered by fourth grade students in Bozeman, Mont., who were chosen as the winners of NASA's naming contest.
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Stampede at university highlights South Africa's education shortage
A late application period at the University of Johannesburg led to a stampede that killed one and injured 22. Critics say South Africa doesn't provide as much access to higher education as it promises.
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Donald Marron How do consumers use engine efficiency? On bigger, faster cars.
Engine efficiency has vastly improved in recent decades, but that has made cars bigger and faster, rather than more fuel-efficient
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NASA Grail probes circling the moon on New Year's Day
After a 3½-month journey, a NASA spacecraft flew over the moon's south pole, fired its engine and dropped into orbit in the first of two back-to-back arrivals over the New Year's weekend.
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Gold rush? Why gold standard glitters for some in GOP.
Backers of a gold standard – a view popular with many tea party advocates – see a gold-backed currency as a way to rein in government spending and minimize the role of the Federal Reserve.
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Why do objects have mass? The elusive Higgs boson could hold the key.
Scientists at CERN say that they are closing in on demonstrating the existence of the elusive Higgs boson – the theoretical subatomic particle that could explain why particles have mass.
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