CBS Boston reporter Juli McDonald spotlights how NASA's ORISIS-Rex spacecraft carried a key imagine instrument, designed and built by students from MIT and Harvard, on its mission to sample the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Prof. Richard Binzel, co-investigator for the mission, explains that, the device was developed to “measure the asteroid in X-ray light, which is part of the process of figuring out what the asteroid is made out of.”
When NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft touched down on the asteroid Bennu, onboard was the REgolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS), a device built by students from MIT and Harvard, write Breanne Kovatch and Andrew Stanton for The Boston Globe. “We as scientists feel the drive of curiosity and the thrill of exploration and it’s humbling and satisfying to think that we can share that sense of exploration with the world,” explains Prof. Richard Binzel, a co-investigator for the mission.
Third-year student Casey Johnson speaks with Washington Post reporter Luz Lazo about his work exploring the feasibility of using GPS technology to determine when a scooter is on the sidewalk. Lazo explains that Johnson wrote a “surface categorization algorithm to detect the periodic cracks in a sidewalk. He then added an accelerator sensor — which costs less than $1 — to detect when the scooter is being used on an asphalt road versus a concrete sidewalk.”
MIT alumnus Dario Gil, SM ’00, PhD ’03, director of research for IBM, writes for Scientific American about why it is essential that the U.S. retain its ability to attract foreign students. “Continuing to attract foreign highly skilled scientists to the United States and retaining them is crucial for building a bright future that relies on emerging technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI),” writes Gil.
Danielle Geathers, president of the Undergraduate Association (UA), writes for Time about how her childhood helped inspire her to desire to advocate for change. “My activism was nurtured by my mother’s emphasis on cultural education,” writes Geathers. “I had early exposure to Alex Haley’s Kunta Kinte, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Maya Angelou. I was planted in solid ground with roots that stretched back generations.”
Michael Hecht of MIT’s Haystack Observatory speaks with Perry Russom of NECN about MOXIE, a new experimental device that will convert carbon dioxide in the Marian atmosphere into oxygen. Hecht explains that the inspiration for MOXIE lies in how it would be easier, “if we could make that oxygen on Mars and not have to bring this huge honking oxygen tank with us all the way from Earth.”
Prof. Tanja Bosak speaks with Vox reporter Brian Resnick about how Martian materials collected by the Perseverance rover might provide clues about early life forms on Earth. "These [Martian] rocks are older, by half a billion or a billion years, than anything that’s well preserved that we have on Earth,” says Bosak.
Boston Globe reporter Caroline Enos spotlights the contributions of MIT researchers to the Mars 2020 mission, in particular the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment or MOXIE. “MOXIE could have a big impact on future missions if it is successful,” Enos explains.
Haystack’s Michael Hecht, the principal investigator for the Mars MOXIE experiment, speaks with Max G. Levy of Smithsonian about the challenges involved in developing MOXIE’s oxygen-producing technology. “We want to show we can run [MOXIE] in the daytime, and the nighttime, in the winter, and in the summer, and when it’s dusty out," says Hecht, "in all of the different environments."
Wall Street Journal reporters Michelle Hackman, Melissa Korn and Andrew Restuccia report on the Trump administration’s reversal of a new policy that would have prevented thousands of foreign students from studying in the U.S. “These students make us stronger, and we hurt ourselves when we alienate them,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif.
AP reporter Collin Binkley writes that the Department of Homeland Security rescinded a rule that would have barred foreign students from studying in the U.S. “This case also made abundantly clear that real lives are at stake in these matters, with the potential for real harm,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “We need to approach policy making, especially now, with more humanity, more decency — not less.”
WBUR’s Max Larkin and Shannon Dooling report that the Department of Homeland Security has agreed to withdraw its July 6th policy. "Lawyers from across the United States had swarmed behind Harvard and MIT as they challenged the policy,” note Larkin and Dooling. “As of Tuesday morning, the docket showed over a dozen amicus briefs filed in the case’s weeklong history.”
In response to a lawsuit filed by MIT and Harvard, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded a directive that would have prevented thousands of foreign students from studying in the U.S. “It’s a huge relief,” graduate student Angie Jo told The Boston Globe. “I’ve really put down roots here. It would be like leaving home for me.”
A growing number of colleges and universities have “backed Harvard and MIT in their legal challenge to a July 6 directive from the Trump administration requiring international students to take fall classes in-person amid the COVID-19 pandemic to remain in the country, even though many schools have announced plans to hold classes online,” reports Travis Anderson forThe Boston Globe.
Axios reporter Ashley Gold writes that Google, Facebook, Microsoft and a number of other tech companies are joining the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in submitting an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed by MIT and Harvard. The suit challenges a new visa policy that would prevent international students from entering the U.S. if they are taking a full online course load during the Covid-19 pandemic.