Members of MIT’s Hobby Shop salvaged decommissioned MBTA Red Line seats and transformed them into “Choo-Choo Chairs,” reports Spencer Buell for The Boston Globe. The team “spiffed up seven of the old seats, mounting them onto wooden legs made out of reclaimed church pews,” writes Buell. “There’s so much nostalgia for that pattern,” said Coby Unger, an associate instructor at the Hobby Shop. “And the stainless steel construction is really beautiful.”
Parents reporter Tanay Howard writes that “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” offers up powerful role models, in particular Shuri and Riri Williams (also known as Ironheart), who is depicted as an MIT student. “Seeing Shuri and Riri Williams do their thing in Black Panther is not only an exciting dynamic for Marvel comic readers but an inspiration to Black girls and women,” writes Howard.
Landmark Bio, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing company co-founded by MIT and a number of other institutions, is focused on accelerating access to innovative therapies for patients, reports Rowan Walrath for Boston Business Journal. "Landmark's new facility includes laboratory space for research and early-stage drug development, as well as analytics tools,” writes Walrath.
MIT and a number of other local institutions have launched Landmark Bio, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing firm aimed at helping small startups develop experimental therapies that are reliable, consistent, and large enough to be used in clinical trials, reports Ryan Cross for The Boston Globe.
Graduate students James “Jimmy” McRae and Bert Vandereydt are on a mission to visit every Dunkin’ Donuts in Massachusetts, reports Michael Yoshida and Gladys Vargas for WDHD. “Seeing some older ones, some newer ones. Getting local cuisine on the way,” Vandereydt said. “We had pizza in the North Shore, roast beef in the North Shore ... it’s a lot of fun.”
Graduate students James (Jimmy) McRae and Bert Vandereydt have decided to visit every Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts, reports Matt Shearer for WBZ. “The two have visited 65 of the Dunkin’s on their list, leaving just 231 to go,” reports Shearer.
MIT Museum Director John Durant speaks with Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney about the significance of the new location of the MIT Museum and what makes the museum such a special place. Of the museum’s new home in the heart of Kendall Square, Durant says, “I think MIT is committing itself here to the importance of its museum as a kind of gateway institution, as a way of helping the wider community understand what MIT is about.”
Prof. Tod Machover’s multi-sensory musical score, “Brain, Body + Breath,” will premiere at the MIT Museum the weekend of Oct. 14, reports Lauren Williams for WBUR. “The concert will explore how music affects our entire beings, whether we are performing or listening to it,” writes Williams.
WBUR host Tiziana Dearing speaks to Namrata Sengupta, Associate Director of Scientific Public Engagement and the Broad Discovery Center at the Broad Institute, about the Innovation Trail, a walking tour that highlights the history of innovation in Boston and Cambridge. Sengupta shares what “a great honor [for the Broad Discovery Center] to be a part of the Innovation Trail of Greater Boston and this ecosystem.”
The new MIT Museum, a “purpose-built exhibition and gathering space in the heart of Kendall Square,” writes Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay, “seeks to demystify some of the school’s opaque inner workings, makes itself broadly approachable with expanded gallery space, forum areas, learning labs, and a maker hub where visitors can work on museum-led projects.” MIT Museum Director John Durant explains: “We want people to feel that this is their museum.”
The Engine has moved into a new building situated between Kendall and Central Square in Cambridge, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Katie Rae, chief executive and managing partner of The Engine, said having a physical place for startups to work was a crucial part of the original ‘tough tech’ concept,” writes Chesto.
The new MIT Museum opens to the public this weekend in its new location in Kendall Square, which is “quite significant because this is the heart of innovation,” notes GBH’s Jared Bowen. Museum visitors will not only get a sense of MIT’s long history of innovation, but also get a sense of the scientific process, with exhibits featuring “part of the machinery that was used to help sequence the human genome, [and] the star shade petal that allowed NASA to photograph exoplanets,” Bowen explains.
Boston Globe correspondent Necee Regis spotlights this year’s Cambridge Science Festival, which is being produced by the MIT Museum and hosted at the Kendall/MIT Open Space. “Programming falls into four categories: Science + Climate, Science + Food, Science + Fashion, and The Science Carnival, the latter of which includes a midway, main stage, sideshows and more,” Regis writes.
“Cosmic Cowboy,” a new sci-fi opera composed by lecturer Elena Ruehr, explores “the mysteries of space, time and love,” reports Llyod Schwartz for WBUR. Additionally, Schwartz spotlights how Collage New Music, a contemporary music series directed by David Hoose, will be held on October 16, 2022 at Killian Hall.
The Emerald Tutu, a climate resiliency project in Boston led by Gabriel Cira ’08, is developing a system of floating wetlands designed to reduce coastal flooding by knocking down waves, reports Hannah Chanatry for WBUR. The Emerald Tutu was the winning project at the 2018 MIT Climate Changed Ideas competition. “Fundamentally, it’s like a giant sponge that fits around urban coastlines like we have here in Boston,” said Cira. “It buffers those coastlines from the intense effects of coastal storms.”