From a new Institute-wide effort aimed at addressing climate change to a collaborative that brings together MIT researchers and local hospitals to advance health and medicine, a Nobel prize win for two economists examining economic disparities and a roller-skating rink that brought some free fun to Kendall Square this summer, MIT faculty, researchers, students, alumni, and staff brought their trademark inventiveness and curiosity-driven spirit to the news. Below please enjoy a sampling of some of the uplifting news moments MIT affiliates enjoyed over the past year.
Kornbluth cheers for MIT to tackle climate change
Boston Globe reporter Jon Chesto spotlights how MIT President Sally Kornbluth is “determined to harness MIT’s considerable brainpower to tackle” climate change.
Full story via The Boston Globe
MIT's “high-impact” initiative
The MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative is a new effort designed to “spur high-impact discoveries and health solutions through interdisciplinary projects across engineering, science, AI, economics, business, policy, design, and the humanities.”
Full story via Boston Business Journal
A fireside chat with President Sally Kornbluth
President Sally Kornbluth speaks with undergraduate student Emiko Pope about her personal interests, passions, and life at MIT. Sally “is proud of MIT and how it can provide real solutions to society’s problems,” writes Pope. “She loves that you can get a daily fix of science because you are surrounded by such amazing people and endeavors.”
Full story via MIT Admissions
Nobel economics prize goes to three economists who found that freer societies are more likely to prosper
Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu and Professor Simon Johnson have been honored with the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Science in memory of Alfred Nobel for their work demonstrating “the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity.”
Full story via Associated Press
MIT to cover full tuition for undergrads from households making below $200,000
“We really want to send a message that coming to school at MIT is affordable and that cost should not stand in the way of a student applying,” says Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services.
Full story via WBUR
MIT adds another architectural standout to its collection
The new MIT Schwarzman College of Computing is described as “the most exciting work of academic architecture in Greater Boston in a generation.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
Free roller skating rink open all summer long in Cambridge
WBZ NewsRadio’s Emma Friedman visits Rollerama, a free, outdoor pop-up roller skating rink that was “all about bringing the community together and having fun in the space.”
Full story via WBZ News Radio
Three actions extraordinary people take to achieve what seems impossible, from the co-founder of Moderna
“I’m utterly unreasonable and an eternal optimist," said Noubar Afeyan PhD ’87 during his commencement address at MIT, adding that to tackle improbable challenges having "a special kind of optimism" can help.
Full story via NBC Boston
Applying AI
How AI could transform medical research treatment
Professor Regina Barzilay discusses how artificial intelligence could enable health care providers to understand and treat diseases in new ways.
Full story via Babbage, a podcast from The Economist
What are sperm whales saying? Researchers find a complex “alphabet”
Using machine learning, MIT researchers have discovered that sperm whales use “a bigger lexicon of sound patterns” that indicates a far more complex communication style than previously thought.
Full story via NPR
“SuperLimbs” could help astronauts recover from falls
Researchers at MIT have developed a “set of wearable robotic limbs to help astronauts recover from falls.”
Full story via CNN
Tiny batteries for tiny robots that could deliver drugs inside our bodies
Professor Michael Strano delves into his team’s work developing tiny batteries that could be used to power cell-sized robots.
Full story via Somewhere on Earth
Origami and computers? Yes, origami and computers.
“We get stuck on a science problem and that inspires a new sculpture, or we get stuck trying to build a sculpture and that leads to new science,” says Professor Erik Demaine of his work combining the art of origami with computer science.
Full story via The Boston Globe
Creating climate impact
This map shows where the shift to clean energy will most affect jobs
MIT researchers have developed a new map detailing how the shift to clean energy could impact jobs around the country.
Full story via Fast Company
Climate change in New England may scorch summer fun, study finds
Inspired by his daily walks, Professor Elfatih Eltahir and his colleagues have developed a new way to measure how climate change is likely to impact the number of days when it is comfortable to be outdoors.
Full story via WBUR
Solving problems with Susan Solomon
Professor Susan Solomon speaks about her latest book “Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do it Again.”
Full story via The New York Times
MIT ice flow study takes “big” step towards understanding sea level rise, scientists say
MIT scientists have developed a new model to analyze movements across the Antarctic Ice Sheet, “a critical step in understanding the potential speed and severity of sea level rise.”
Full story via Boston Globe
Meet the MIT professor with eight climate startups and $2.5 billion in funding
Professor Yet-Ming Chiang has used his materials science research to “build an array of companies in areas like batteries, green cement and critical minerals that could really help mitigate the climate crisis.”
Full story via Forbes
Hacking health
A bionic leg controlled by the brain
New Yorker reporter Rivka Galchen visits the lab of Professor Hugh Herr to learn more about his work aimed at the “merging of body and machine.”
Full story via The New Yorker
From inflatable balloons to vibrating pills, scientists are getting creative with weight loss
Professor Giovanni Traverso speaks about his work developing weight loss treatments that don’t involve surgery or pharmaceuticals.
Full story via GBH
MIT scientists want to create a “Lyme Block” with proteins found in your sweat
MIT researchers have discovered a protein found in human sweat that holds antimicrobial properties and can “inhibit the growth of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.”
Full story via NECN
Wearable breast cancer monitor could help women screen themselves
Professor Canan Dagdeviren delves into her work developing wearable ultrasound devices that could help screen for early-stage breast cancer, monitor kidney health, and detect other cancers deep within the body.
Full story via CNN
The surprising cause of fasting’s regenerative powers
A study by MIT researchers explores the potential health benefits and consequences of fasting.
Full story via Nature
Spooky and surprising space
Planet as light as cotton candy surprises astronomers
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered an exoplanet that “is 50% larger than Jupiter and as fluffy as cotton candy.”
Full story via The Wall Street Journal
Two black holes are giving the cosmos a fright
Researchers at MIT have discovered a “black-hole triple, the first known instance of a three-body system that includes a black hole, which is not supposed to be part of the mix.”
Full story via New York Times
Astronomers use wobbly star stuff to measure a supermassive black hole’s spin
MIT astronomers have found a new way to measure how fast a black hole spins, observing the aftermath of a black hole tidal disruption event with a telescope aboard the International Space Station.
Full story via Popular Science
Are some of the oldest stars in the universe right under our noses?
Researchers at MIT have discovered “three of the oldest stars in the universe lurking right outside the Milky Way.”
Full story via Mashable
Waves of methane are crashing on the coasts of Saturn’s bizarre moon Titan
New research by MIT geologists finds waves of methane on Titan likely eroded and shaped the moon’s coastlines.
Full story via Gizmodo
Mastering materials
A vibrating curtain of silk can stifle noise pollution
Researchers at MIT have created a noise-blocking sheet of silkworm silk that could “greatly streamline the pursuit of silence.”
Full story via Scientific American
This is how drinking a nice cold beer can help remove lead from drinking water
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a new technique that removes lead from water using repurposed beer yeast.
Full story via Boston 25 News
Some metals actually grow more resilient when hot
A new study by MIT engineers finds that heating metals can sometimes make them stronger, a “surprising phenomenon [that] could lead to a better understanding of important industrial processes and make for tougher aircraft.”
Full story via New Scientist
The human experience
The economist who figured out what makes workers tick
Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart spotlights the work of Professor David Autor, an economist whose “thinking helped change our understanding of the American labor market.”
Full story via The Wall Street Journal
If a bot relationship feels real, should we care that it's not?
Professor Sherry Turkle discusses her research on human relationships with AI chatbots.
Full story via NPR
AI should be a tool, not a curse, for the future of work
The MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative is a new effort aimed at analyzing the forces that are eroding job quality for non-college workers and identifying ways to move the economy onto a more equitable trajectory.
Full story via The New York Times
Phenomenal physics
Physicists captured images of heat’s “second sound.” What?
MIT scientists have captured images of heat moving through a superfluid, a phenomenon that “may explain how heat moves through certain rare materials on Earth and deep in space.”
Full story via Gizmodo
Think you understand evaporation? Think again, says MIT
Researchers at MIT have discovered that “light in the visible spectrum is enough to knock water molecules loose at the surface where it meets air and send them floating away.”
Full story via New Atlas
Scientists shrunk the gap between atoms to an astounding 50 nanometers
MIT physicists have “successfully placed two dysprosium atoms only 50 nanometers apart — 10 times closer than previous studies — using ‘optical tweezers.’”
Full story via Popular Mechanics
Making art and music
Composing for 37 Years at MIT
A celebration in Killian Hall featured recent works composed by Professor Peter Child and honored the musician as he prepares to retire after 37 years of teaching and composing at MIT.
Full story via The Boston Musical Intelligencer
MIT puts finishing touches on new music hub
The new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building will serve as a “hub for music instruction and performance” for MIT’s 30 on-campus ensembles and more than 1,500 students enrolled in music classes each academic year.
Full story via The Boston Globe
MIT art lending program puts contemporary works in dorm rooms
The MIT Student Lending Art Program allows undergraduate and graduate students to bring home original works of art from the List Visual Arts Center for the academic year.
Full story via WBUR
Michael John Gorman named new director of MIT Museum
Michael John Gorman, “a museum professional who has created and run several organizations devoted to science and the arts,” has been named the next director of the MIT Museum.
Full story via The Boston Globe
Engineering impact
A Greek-Indian friendship driven by innovation
Dean Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, and Pavlos-Petros Sotiriadis PhD ’02 discuss MIT’s unique approach to entrepreneurship, the future of AI, and the importance of mentorship.
Full story via Kathimerini
Metabolizing new synthetic pathways
“The potential to educate, encourage, and support the next generation of scientists and engineers in an educational setting gives me a chance to amplify my impact far beyond what I could ever personally do as an individual,” says Professor Kristala Prather, head of MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering.
Full story via Nature
MIT’s biggest contributions of the past 25 years? They aren’t what you think.
Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner spotlights Professor Mitchel Resnick, Professor Neil Gershenfeld, and the late Professor Emeritus Woodie Flowers and their work developing programs that “get kids excited about, and more proficient in, STEM.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
Barrier breaker shapes aerospace engineering’s future
Professor Wesley Harris has “not only advanced the field of aerospace engineering but has also paved the way for future generations to soar.”
Full story via IEEE Spectrum
Amos Winter: MIT professor, racecar driver, and super tifosi
Lecturer Amy Carleton profiles Professor Amos Winter PhD ’11, a mechanical engineer driven by his Formula 1 passion to find “elegant engineering solutions to perennial problems.”
Full story via Esses Magazine
New documentary features African students at MIT and their journey far from home
Arthur Musah ’04, MEng ’05 and Philip Abel ’15 discuss Musah’s documentary, “Brief Tender Light,” which follows the life of four African-born students on their personal and academic experiences at MIT.
Full story via GBH
Putting pen to paper
Strong universities make for a strong United States
President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif cautions against treating universities “like the enemy,” pointing out that “without strong research universities and the scientific and technological advances they discover and invent, the United States could not possibly keep up with China.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
To compete with China on AI, we need a lot more power
Professor Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, makes the case that the United States should not only be building more efficient AI software and better computer chips, but also creating “interstate-type corridors to transmit sufficient, reliable power to our data centers.”
Full story via The Washington Post
“Digital twins” give Olympic swimmers a boost
“Today the advent of sensor technology has turned this idea into a reality in which mathematics and physics produce useful information so that coaches can ‘precision-train’ 2024 Olympic hopefuls,” writes master’s student Jerry Lu. “The results have been enormously successful.”
Full story via Scientific American
The miracle weight-loss drug is also a major budgetary threat
Professor Jonathan Gruber, MIT Innovation Fellow Brian Deese and Stanford doctoral student Ryan Cummings explore the health benefits of new weight-loss drugs and the risk they pose to American taxpayers.
Full story via The New York Times
What if we never find dark matter?
“Although we can’t say exactly when or even whether we’ll find dark matter, we know that the universe is filled with it,” writes Professor Tracy Slatyer. “We’re optimistic that the next years of our quest will lead us to a deeper understanding of what it is.”
Full story via Scientific American
