| Chronicling Black Resilience | | | | | | Darien Alexander Williams, a PhD student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, notes that much public attention has focused on trauma and destruction in communities of color. But he adds: “There’s also a tradition of Black people building things, and that is not talked about as much.” |
| Super-strong surgical tape detaches on demand Removable adhesive could make it easier for surgeons to close up internal wounds. |  |
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| Embracing the immediacy of lectures by Zoom Associate Professor Polina Anikeeva describes what happened when her course on the properties of materials went virtual this spring. |  |
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| An experimental peptide targets Covid-19 |
Computational modeling yields a protein fragment that could bind to coronavirus spike proteins and destroy them. |  |
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| Programmable materials design Architecture grad student Athina Papadopoulou SM ’14 creates wearable tech for well-being. |  |
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| Michael Hawley, former professor of media arts and sciences, dies at 58 A modern-day Renaissance man, Hawley pioneered the internet of things, won the Van Cliburn amateur piano competition, and published the world’s largest book. |  |
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| Hope for an Alzheimer’s treatment // Chronicle Professor Li-Huei Tsai discusses her work developing a non-invasive technique that uses the power of light and sound and could potentially help treat or even cure Alzheimer’s disease. |
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| America’s democratic unraveling // Foreign Affairs |
“The next administration must confront endemic racism as well as economic inequality. Good jobs must once again be on offer for most Americans — even those without college degrees,” writes Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu of how to address the unraveling of U.S. institutions. “Redressing these wrongs will go a long way toward restoring faith in American democratic institutions.” |
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| Science finally explains this classic optical illusion // Popular Mechanics |
A study by MIT researchers sheds light on an optical illusion called simultaneous brightness contrast. |
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| Stiffer roads could drive down carbon emissions // Scientific American MIT researchers have found “stiffening 10 percent of the nation’s roads every year could prevent 440 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over the next five decades — enough to offset half a percent of projected transportation sector emissions over that time period.” |
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| | | In response to Covid-19, a team of engineers, designers, clinicians, technicians, molders, and others teamed up to create an “open hardware, reusable, sterilizable, modular, and filter-media agnostic face mask that aims to hit the N95 efficacy criteria.” Earlier this month, the “Open Standard Respirator, Model 1” entered production in the U.S. and Portugal before expanding to Colombia and Brazil. An interview with Matt Carney, project lead and postdoc at the MIT Media Lab, describes the creation process. |
 | | | | The stakes for you shouldering this burden, unlike for me, isn’t life or death. If the burden is too heavy for you, then help us fix the system. If the system cannot be fixed, help us dismantle it in order to ensure equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That’s not us asking for revenge, that is us demanding active recognition of our Constitutional right to equal protection under the law. That is justice. |
| | —Netia McCray ’12, in a recent op-ed, “The impossible burden of being Black in America” |
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