On the first day of jury selection, some 40 potential people were brought in to be considered for a spot on the bench. By the start of day three, only 34 people had been questioned. As of Thursday, Jan. 22, just 61 people have been questioned and questioning will continue until the court finds 70 qualified […]

There is no shortage of stories related to efforts by players and teams to gain a competitive advantage by manipulating equipment or uniforms. To varying degrees, the practice is found across all four of the major sports, and certainly in many others as well. “The concept of pushing the envelope in one way or another […]

Massachusetts has little experience with modern death penalty cases. It is one of 18 states that have abolished capital punishment, and the last execution here was carried out in 1947. Mr. Tsarnaev is charged with 30 federal crimes, 17 of which carry the death penalty if he is convicted. He has pleaded not guilty to […]

The common lithium-ion battery that’s used to power laptops, cellphones and tablet computers has improved in recent years. Battery capacity has tripled since 1990, says K. M. Abraham, a professor at Northeastern University who researches batteries. But it’s not nearly enough to keep up with the demand we gadget addicts have for constant use of […]

Alan Clayton-Matthews, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, said the benefits of the economic expansions are beginning to reach more people. The spread between the unemployment rate of college graduates and high school dropouts has narrowed over the last year, according to Clayton-Matthews’s analysis of federal data.

Suzanna Walters is an alumna of Mount Holyoke and a professor of sociology and the director of the women’s, gender and sexuality studies program at Northeastern University.  She said that she expects that there was a lot of intelligent debate among students about whether to retire The Vagina Monologues, and she respects their right to produce […]

In the lead-up to last night’s State of the Union address, a number of computational analyses of past SOTU speeches appeared, examining word frequency over time or constructing new pseudo-speeches out of past ones. Even something as simple as a word count or word cloud can communicate important insights into the key ideas in a […]

Access to affordable childcare can have a big impact on workers, yet companies have largely stayed out of the debate, beyond offering programs for workers to put away pre-tax dollars to spend on childcare. Seven percent of U.S. employers offer on-site daycare, while 2% provide vouchers or subsidies, according to a recent report . Jamie […]