Some robots can swim. Others can kick, fetch, jump or fly. But the latest development in the field of robotics lets machines carry out an activity that is somewhat less athletic: plugging in a USB cord. Performing this mundane task may not sound all that difficult to humans, but getting a robotto maneuver an object […]

Icahn has been fighting for decades. “Oh, gee, he goes way back,” says Donald Margotta, associate professor of finance at Northeastern University. In the 1980s, Icahn was known not as an activist, but as a corporate raider, using debt to acquire companies, often to break them up. “The corporate raiders were a little bit different [than […]

When scientists first published the initial results of the human genome in 2001, we seemed to be on the precipice of a revolution in medicine. Researchers could finally discover specific genetic mutations that lead to diseases. Pharmaceutical companies could devise scores of new drugs to target those mutations. Patients could be treated based on their […]

Generally speaking, a group of college students with a carton of eggs can only spell trouble. But on Thursday, a bunch of Northeastern students made a sizable splash with eggs and pumpkins behind the Gainsborough parking garage—all with the support and encouragement of their professors. That’s right—it’s college pumpkin drop season, everyone. As is tradition […]

Rising poverty and income inequality pose major challenges for Massachusetts, according to the forecast. The state is home to a vibrant technology sector, boasting the highest educational attainment levels in the country and earnings per worker that are nearly 20 percent higher than the nation as a whole. But poverty and inequality have been rising, […]

Since the Boston bombing, police departments in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara County have adopted a technology called LEEDIR, which allows them to solicit and sort through crowdsourced evidence during a crisis. Determining when crowdsourcing helps and when it is counterproductive is still a work in progress, Martin Dias, an expert on information sharing, told […]

This week, we spoke with Roderick Ireland, former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. It was the first in-depth interview he granted since his retirement this summer. At first, Ireland strikes a rather imposing figure. Suit and tie. Wire-rimmed glasses. Salt and pepper hair. And a black three-ringed binder, filled with carefully typed […]

“The US has created IP working groups and other trade working groups in the past,” Brook Baker, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law and a senior policy analyst for Health GAP, an advocacy group, writes us. “And in each instance, the working groups, which include advisors who strongly favor stronger US-style patent… protections […]

FORECASTED: EIGHT ARTISTS EXPLORE THE NATURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE A formidable roster of artists contemplates the future. On that list: painters Joe Wardwell, Cristi Rinklin, and John Guthrie, and conceptual artist Andrew Mowbray. Resa Blatman curates. Through Dec. 7. Gallery 360, Northeastern University

People who’ve had severe strokes and have a condition called “locked-in” syndrome may benefit from a new technology that allows them to communicate with the outside world, according to new research. The new study reports on a male stroke patient with locked-in syndrome who was paralyzed and could not communicate. With the new “brain-computer interface” […]

John LaBrie, the dean of Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, sees more working adults returning to the classroom to gain new skills and build on old ones. Globe correspondent Jack Newsham recently spoke with LaBrie in his office on Christian Science Plaza about surging interest in continuing education and his own experience as an […]

Wendy Parmet, director of the Program on Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University School of Law, in Boston, said that travel bans are appealing because they make people feel safe. But she argued that safety could be an illusion. “It gives us the false assurance that we can ignore the problems that are happening […]