Peter Dizikes

Writer

MIT

Peter Dizikes writes for MIT News and MIT Technology Review at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His writing covers social sciences, humanities, and business, with many stories involving the history of science and science policy. Dizikes has reported and written articles for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Salon, Slate, Seed, Nature, and other publications. He was an editor/writer for ABCNews.com and for Time, and frequently wrote features on education and also produced articles for university publications. Special projects included writing an educator’s guide to evolution accompanying NOVA’s acclaimed documentary, Judgment Day.

Tue, 11/23/2010 - 04:30
MIT Takes Manufacturing Education Across the Country New TechAMP program teaches production principles to workers
Thu, 01/08/2026 - 12:03
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- MIT has long bolstered U.S. manufacturing by developing key innovations and production technologies, and training entrepreneurs. In fall 2025, the institute introduced a new tool for U.S. manufacturing: an education program…
Study: Automation Drives Income Inequality New data suggest most of the growth in the wage gap since 1980 comes from automation displacing less-educated workers
Tue, 12/06/2022 - 12:01
(MIT: Cambridge, Massachusetts) -- When you use self-checkout machines in supermarkets and drugstores, you’re probably not doing a better job of bagging your purchases than checkout clerks once did. Automation just makes bagging less expensive for…
A Serious Plea for Playful Design In their book, Urban Play, MIT researchers advance the idea of using technology to make urban life creative and unpredictable
Tue, 09/14/2021 - 12:02
 First published August 25, 2021, on MIT News. In 2010, the city of Rio de Janeiro opened its Operations Center, a high-tech command post centralizing the activities of 30 agencies. With its banks of monitors looming over rows of employees, the…
A Better Way to Introduce Digital Tech in the Workplace ‘Experimentalist governance’ looks for what works best for employees, then implements it widely
Wed, 06/30/2021 - 12:02
When bringing technologies into the workplace, it pays to be realistic. Often, for instance, bringing new digital technology into an organization does not radically improve a firm’s operations. Despite high-level planning, a more frequent result is…
Why We Shouldn’t Fear the Future of Work Automation and artificial intelligence don’t just replace jobs; they also create them
Wed, 12/09/2020 - 12:03
The American workforce is at a crossroads. Digitization and automation have replaced millions of middle-class jobs, while wages have stagnated for many who remain employed. A lot of labor has become insecure, low-income freelance work. Yet there is…
The Changing World of Work MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future responds to rapid changes brought by the pandemic
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 12:03
With 20.5 million jobs slashed from U.S. payrolls in April, and a 14.7 percent unemployment rate, the Covid-19 pandemic has created workforce problems unseen since the Great Depression. These dynamics are being closely observed by MIT’s Task Force…
The Elephant in the Server Room In Data Feminism, Catherine D’Ignazio examines problems of bias and power that beset modern information
Wed, 04/01/2020 - 12:01
Suppose you would like to know mortality rates for women during childbirth, by country, around the world. Where would you look? One option is the WomanStats Project, the website of an academic research effort investigating the links between the…
Hospital Rankings Hold Up Some basic metrics do effectively diagnose care quality
Wed, 02/19/2020 - 12:01
Given the complexities of healthcare, do basic statistics used to rank hospitals really work well? A study co-authored by MIT economists indicates that some fundamental metrics do, in fact, provide real insight about hospital quality. “The results…
Why Business Leaders Should Ask Questions MIT Sloan’s Hal Gregersen talks about his new book, Questions Are the Answer
Wed, 01/16/2019 - 12:00
Should business leaders spend more time asking questions? Hal Gregersen has a firm answer to that: Yes. Gregersen, the executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer on leadership and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of…
A Stake in Innovation Laws allowing companies to prioritize stakeholders boost innovative activity
Wed, 03/09/2016 - 13:09
Want to encourage innovation? A new study co-authored by an MIT professor finds that little-known state laws called “constituency statutes” have significant effects on the quantity and quality of innovative business actions. The statutes, which…