MIT News Newsletter

	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
August 3, 2017
MIT News: top stories
A weekly digest of the Institute’s research and innovation

Closing the gender gap in mechanical engineering

Women make up 49.5 percent of MIT’s undergraduates in mechanical engineering, due to department’s proactive approach, study finds.

Automatic image retouching on your phone

System can apply a range of styles in real-time, so that the viewfinder displays the enhanced image.

Underground magma pulse triggered end-Permian extinction

Study ties specific interval during an extended period of volcanism to Earth’s most severe mass extinction.

Ultracold molecules hold promise for quantum computing

New approach yields long-lasting configurations that could provide long-sought “qubit” material.

Deadly heat waves could hit South Asia this century

Without action, climate change could devastate a region home to one-fifth of humanity, study finds.

Transparent, flexible solar cells

Researchers develop a novel technique using graphene to create solar cells they can mount on surfaces ranging from glass to plastic to paper and tape.

In the Media

MIT researchers have found that by 2100, climate change could cause deadly heat waves in parts of South Asia, reports Chris Arsenault for Reuters. “Climate change is not an abstract concept, it is impacting huge numbers of vulnerable people,” explains Prof. Elfatih Eltahir. “Business as usual runs the risk of having extremely lethal heat waves.”

Scientific American reporter Lindsay Brownell writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique to enlarge pathology samples. “Not only are expanded samples easier to see because they are larger and more transparent, fluorescent tags and other labels can also be added to track individual molecules of interest.”

Wired reporter Sian Bradley writes that a study co-authored by MIT researchers shows that the world’s largest mass-extinction was triggered by a massive underground magma pulse. The magma pulse “released dangerous levels of carbon dioxide, methane and sulphur dioxide into the environment and triggered the end of the Permian period.”

Reporting for WBUR on efforts to develop a treatment for glioblastoma, Karen Weintraub highlights Prof. Paula Hammond’s work creating a method to get drugs across the body’s blood-brain barrier. “By disguising her tiny, drug-carrying nanoparticles as proteins that normally carry iron across the barrier, she's been able to sneak them past the armor that lines the brain’s blood vessels.”