People near the end of their lives sometimes don’t get the chance to have these important conversations before it’s too late, says Timothy Bickmore at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. So Bickmore and his team – which included doctors and hospital chaplains – built a tablet-based chatbot to offer spiritual and emotional guidance to people […]

“A savvier, more sophisticated terrorist group wouldn’t take credit for a botched attack,” said Max Abrahms, a political science professor and terror expert at Northeastern University. “Your typical Islamic State operative in the West isn’t particularly sophisticated — he’s just a Joe Schmo who is committing violence.”

Leo Beletsky, an associate professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University, went further, calling the insurance system “one of the major causes of the crisis” because doctors are given incentives to use less expensive treatments that provide fast relief.

Campaigning for the October 15 presidential election officially started on September 10, when Kyrgyzstan’s Central Election Commission announced the names of the 13 people who qualified to run in the race. Muhammad Tahir, RFE/RL’s media relations manager, moderated the discussion in this week’s podcast. From Bishkek, Timur Tokotonaliev, Central Asia editor from the Institute for […]

Nicole Boyson, associate professor of finance at Northeastern University in Boston, said it was not clear if women were inherently better hedge fund managers than men over the long term. But she added: “We can say pretty definitively that women are not worse performers.” Prof Boyson said that female managers faced “several disadvantages” in the […]

Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston have developed an infrared sensor based on plasmonics that is capable of turning itself on when it needs to perform its sensing duties and then turns itself off when not needed to decrease energy demands and increase its lifetime.

Researchers at Northeastern University have developed a next generation smart sensor for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that is capable of identifying infrared (IR) wavelengths — without having to have its own always-present power source. Instead, it is powered by the same infrared wavelengths it’s designed to look for.

For liberals and progressives trying to make sense of President Trump’s victory last November, the role of race has posed something of a dilemma. On the one hand, Trump’s racist rhetoric clearly played into pre-existing resentments on the populist right, thus boosting turnout among his more deplorable (to coin a phrase) supporters. On the other hand, if […]

WGBH’s Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with WGBH legal analyst and Northeastern law professor Daniel Medwed about Victor Rosario, a Lowell man who spent 32 years in prison for an arson that caused eight deaths, including five children. In May, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld a lower court decision that granted him a new trial, and […]

Marty Blatt, director of Northeastern University’s public history program, said the institute’s crown jewel is its replication of the Senate floor and the interactive activities that take place there. The museum also features a replica of the late senator’s office. But Blatt said the institute probably relies too heavily on digital exhibits and could probably […]

Leo Beletsky, an associate professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University, says people are so desperate that they are willing to disregard someone’s civil liberties to get any type of care, even if there is little evidence about whether it works. “The treatment sector in the state, as well as nationally, is in […]

A team from the Northeastern University has developed a sensor that requires almost no power to work and operate. Made for the US Department of Defense’s Darpa (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) for its N-Zero programme, it can detect and read infra red (IR) light and frequencies.