NewsFusion | 017

NewsFusion for March 2016

Science...

• A tale of Teddy Roosevelt and the Louisiana Black Bear | Washington Post
• Another new particle, another new age in physics | Tech Times
• Howzit Brian? New surfing spider discovered in Australia | BBC

Design...

• Data candy - a timeline of media induced fears | Information is Beautiful
• MIT Media Lab's new Journal of Design and Science is WAY new, focuses on creating conversations | Wired
• Japanese and Swedish designers, separated at birth? | Quartz

Culture...

• Cheers! Ancient Nubians made antibiotic beer | Wired
• Europe needs to do a better job of treasuring its ancient treasures | The Economist
• World Culture Festival begins in New Delhi with 3.5 million celebrants | International Business Times Festival Website

Sceleb | Pardis Sabeti

Pardis Sabeti is an American computational geneticist. Born in Tehran, Sabeti's family moved to the US from Iran when she was four years old.

Sabeti completed a BS in biology at MIT where she was also class president and a member of the varsity tennis team. She was Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and received a doctorate in evolutionary genetics in 2002. In 2006, Sabeti completed a MD, summa cum laude, at Harvard Medical School. Sabeti is now an associate professor Harvard University in the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. She also holds positions at the Harvard School of Public Health the Broad Institute.

Sabeti's awards include a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, a Packard Foundation award in Science and Engineering, and an NIH Innovator Award. She also received awards from NIAID, TMTI, and the Gates Foundation and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a PopTech Science Fellow, and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.

Firmly in the 'rockstar scientist' category, Sabeti is also the lead singer and writer for the alternative rock band Thousand Days.

Sabeti also debuted on our Stylish Scientist List in 2013.

Play the Paradiso Synthesizer at MIT

Currently on exhibit at the MIT Museum, the Paradiso Synthesizer is the world's largest modular synthesizer built at home by Joseph Paradiso over 14 years (1974-1988). You can play it online through the web interface PATCHWERK, which was developed to enable remote users to control the massive synthesizer.



When you turn a knob or flip a switch on the PATCHWERK site, the corresponding knob or flip is mechanically turned or switched on the Paradiso synthesizer and, when someone at the museum changes a setting, you see it, too. You may have to wait in a short queue before you get to control it but it's thrilling to interact from afar with something so complex. It's worth the wait.  BP

Sceleb | Nina Tandon

Nina Tandon is an American electrical and biomedical engineer. She currently conducts research at Columbia University's Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering and is an adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union.

Tandon received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Electrical Engineering in 2001, an MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 2006, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia in 2009 for which she studied electrical stimulation in cardiac tissue engineering. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in Tor Vergata University in Rome, Italy between 2003 and 2004 where she researched electronic odor detection. Tandon was a Columbia and MIT Presidential Fellow and she was chosen as a Ted Fellow in 2011. Avocations include drums, photography, yoga, running, metalsmithing, playing with puppies, baking, and exploring. How she finds time to do all this, we have no idea but we are thrilled to have her among our most creative and inspiring Scelebs.

MIT's 'double bubble' green machine

Innovators at MIT have conceptualized the perfect ride for jet set environmentalists...what they call the double bubble. Using 70% less fuel, the aircraft will go far in reducing the footprint of air travel in coming decades. Reposted from Sustainable Sean