| Fortifying Coastlines | | | | | | MIT engineers designed an artificial reef that mimics the wave-buffering effects of coral reefs and provides pockets for marine life. The structure could dissipate more than 95 percent of incoming wave energy using a small fraction of the material normally needed. |
| Is it the school, or the students? A study shows perceptions of “good” schools are heavily dependent on the preparation of the students entering them. |  |
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| A new way to quantify climate change impacts: “Outdoor days” This measure, developed by MIT researchers, reflects direct effects on people’s quality of life — and reveals significant global disparities. |  |
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| Engineers find a new way to convert carbon dioxide into useful products A catalyst tethered by DNA boosts the efficiency of the electrochemical conversion of CO2 to CO, a building block for many chemical compounds. |  |
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| Large language models use a surprisingly simple mechanism to retrieve some stored knowledge Researchers demonstrate a technique that can be used to probe a model to see what it knows about new subjects. |  |
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| Optimizing nuclear fuels for next-generation reactors While working to nurture scientific talent in his native Nigeria, Assistant Professor Ericmoore Jossou is setting his sights on using materials science and computation to design robust nuclear components. |  |
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| Creative collisions: Crossing the art-science divide A collaboration between ACT and MIT.nano, class 4.373/4.374 (Creating Art, Thinking Science) asks what it really takes to cultivate dialogue between disciplines. |  |
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| Weird new electron behavior in stacked graphene thrills physicists // Nature Assistant Professor Long Ju and his colleagues observed the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect when five layers of graphene were sandwiched between sheets of boron nitride. |
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| A protein in human sweat protects against Lyme disease, study finds // Salon Researchers from MIT have isolated a protein in human sweat that protects against Lyme disease. |
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| Baltimore’s Key Bridge collapse will “significantly disrupt” East Coast car shipments // Boston 25 Professor Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, discusses how the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the closing of the Port of Baltimore could impact car shipments on the East Coast. |
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| Tech maze // Politico Research by MIT engineers finds that “when an AI tool for radiologists produced a wrong answer, doctors were more likely to come to the wrong conclusion in their diagnoses.” |
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| | | In case you missed Monday’s New York Times Crossword puzzle, we’ll get you started! |
 | | | | You could be doing the most interesting science in the world, but if you’re unable to explain it in a compelling way, nobody is going to know. | | —Diana Chien PhD ’16, manager of the MIT School of Engineering Communication Lab, which helps students and postdocs hone their presentations, applications, resumes, and more |
| | | Are all minerals crystals? Do diamonds last forever? Where do the minerals in our cellphones come from? Gabriela Farfan PhD ’19, who studied chemical oceanography through the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program, answers these questions and more in a recent episode of the Wired “Tech Support” video series. Farfan is the curator of gems and minerals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and a biomineralogist studying crystals formed organically through biological processes. |
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