| Infinite Sunlight | | | | | Twice a year, in January and November, the setting sun aligns perfectly with MIT’s 825-foot-long Infinite Corridor. Planetary scientist Richard Binzel describes MITHenge as “a major cultural moment on campus … when the heavens and MIT seem to align.” |
| Vibrating atoms make robust qubits, physicists find The new qubits stay in “superposition” for up to 10 seconds, and could make a promising foundation for quantum computers. |  |
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| Cynthia Breazeal named dean for digital learning at MIT Overseeing business and research units across MIT Open Learning, Breazeal will focus on the future of digital technologies and their applications in education. |  |
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| Agustín Rayo named dean of SHASS |
The philosophy professor brings deep experience in campus leadership to his role as head of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. |  |
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| A creative desire, and the grit to get it done Senior Laura Rosado settled on her major while designing a flying car. |  |
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| Immersive video game explores the history of women at MIT “A Lab of One’s Own” invites players to engage with archival materials in a virtual environment. |  |
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| Expert explains 5G impact on airports // NBC Boston Professor Muriel Médard explains the science behind 5G technologies and explores the concerns surrounding 5G networks and airline safety. |
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| NASA has found over 5,000 potential alien worlds — here are some of the weirdest // Newsweek TESS, a NASA mission led and operated by MIT, has identified over 5,000 planet candidates outside of our solar system. |
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| The Cambridge startup tracking Covid in America’s waste water // The Boston Globe MIT startup Biobot Analytics is studying sewage to better predict the spread of Covid-19 in communities. For health officials, their data confirm “whether Covid spikes in the community are real, and not due to increased testing or other factors. Moreover, Covid levels in waste water are a leading indicator for new clinical cases, giving health officials a few days’ notice if they’ll see more sick patients showing symptoms.” |
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| Will robots really destroy the future of work? // The New York Times Professor David Autor discusses “The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines,” a book he wrote with Professor David Mindell and Elisabeth Reynolds. Autor explains: “Most people’s fear of technology is really a fear of capitalism, what the markets will do with the technology. You can’t make a lot of progress if you’re making people poorer at the same time.” |
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| | | Inspired by the growth of healthy, fast-casual eating, Cassandria Campbell MCP ’11 developed Fresh Food Generation, which uses local ingredients in its Caribbean-inspired meals. “I really enjoy being able to provide people food with love,” she says. |
Defining what is, or isn’t, artificial intelligence can be tricky. So MIT Technology Review’s Senior AI Editor Karen Hao created a flowchart to explain it. In this quirky episode of the In Machines We Trust podcast, Hao’s original reporting has been reimagined and gamified into a radio play.
Listen to the episode→ |
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| | | Little by little, the days are getting longer here in Cambridge, and sunsets later and later. We hope you had a pleasant Independent Activities Period and are looking forward to the spring semester, beginning Monday! To end the week, here’s a recent photo of the Great Dome taken by Allisyn Levy, a strategy consultant with the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. 🌇 |
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