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Provost Marty Schmidt speaks with TopUniversities.com reporter Chloe Lane about how MIT has maintained its position as the top university in the world on the QS World University Rankings for 10 consecutive years. “I am honored to have been a part of the MIT community for almost 40 years,” says Schmidt. “It’s a truly interdisciplinary, collaborative, thought-provoking place that encourages experimentation and pushes you to expand your mind. I think it’s a wonderful place to call home.”

UPI reporter Brooks Hays writes that researchers from MIT and other institutions have developed a programmable digital fiber that can capture, store and analyze data. The technology could “be paired with machine learning algorithms and used to make smart fabrics to record health data and aid medical diagnosis,” writes Hays.

Popular Mechanics reporter Courtney Linder spotlights how Prof. Alfredo Alexander-Katz is developing a “rapid antigen Covid-19 test that can accurately detect viral proteins in just minutes.”

Danielle Grey-Stewart speaks with Robert Brodsky of Newsday about receiving a Rhodes Scholarship. “It will allow me to study how environmental policy is formed from the context of how we look at society and nature,” says Grey-Stewart. “It’s really important that when finding engineering solutions, you can connect with communities… and uplift them as equal thought partners in finding solutions to pervasive problems.”

MIT seniors Danielle Grey-Stewart and Ghadah Alshalan have been selected for the 2021 Rhodes Scholarship program, reports Gal Tziperman Lotan for The Boston Globe.

Financial Times reporter Henry Sanderson spotlights Prof. Donald Sadoway’s work developing new battery chemistries that would allow batteries to store energy for longer than six hours.

Popular Mechanics reporter Kyro Mitchell spotlights how MIT researchers have created a new material, inspired by camel fur, that could be used to help insulate food and medical supplies. “Field tests on the new material show that it can provide cooling of more than seven degrees Celsius,” writes Mitchell. “It can also maintain that low temperature for five times longer than using hydrogel alone.”

Smithsonian reporter Corryn Wetzel spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new technology inspired by camel fur that could be used to keep food and medical supplies chilled. The researchers hope the new system could be applied to “lots of areas that require passive cooling—meaning no external energy needs to power the process. Possible applications include insulating food storage, medical supplies and buildings.”

MIT researchers have created a new material that mimics camel fur and could be used to help keep food and medical supplies cool without electricity, reports Layal Liverpool for New Scientist. “We achieve evaporation and insulation at the same time, extending the cooling period significantly,” explains Prof. Jeffrey Grossman.

MIT researchers have designed a completely flat wide-angle lens that can produce clear, 180-degree images, reports Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch. “The engineers were able to make it work by patterning a thin wafer of glass on one side with microscopic, three-dimensional structures that are positioned very precisely in order to scatter any inbound light in precisely the same way that a curved piece of glass would,” writes Etherington.

Researchers at MIT have determined why shaving causes everyday razors made of Martensitic stainless steel to wear down so quickly. “Now that researchers know why razors fail so quickly, they can start to develop steel without the same weaknesses,” notes Theresa Machemer for Smithsonian Magazine.

Using a scanning electron microscope, MIT researchers observed how hair produces tiny chips in steel razor blades, reports Nell Greenfieldboyce for NPR. "For me, personally, it was both a scientific curiosity, of 'What's going on?' and also aiming to solve an important engineering problem," says Prof. C. Cem Tasan.

By observing and recording the cutting process, MIT researchers have found that human hairs chip razor blades during the shaving process, reports Leah Crane for New Scientist. “We expected that the failure of these materials should just be wear,” says Prof. C. Cem Tasan. “But this is not the case: the process of chipping is much faster.”

Wired reporter Eric Niiler writes that a new study by MIT researchers sheds light on why razor blades get dull so quickly. “We want to design new materials that are better and go longer,” says Prof. C. Cem Tasan. “This problem of the blade is an excellent example. We are so used to it, you don’t think about it. You use the razor for a few weeks and then move on.”

Fast Company reporter Katharine Schwab spotlights MIT startup Embr Labs, which has developed a wearable device that can help keep users cool. “Cooling individuals could be a lot cheaper and less wasteful than cooling entire buildings,” writes Schwab.