Interstellar Experiment | | | Built by MIT researchers, the Plasma Science Experiment aboard the Voyager 2 spacecraft took measurements for the last 47 years and 15 billion miles, before shutting down on Sept. 26. “It is very sad to lose this instrument and data,” says Principal Research Scientist John Richardson. Full story via MIT News → |
AI simulation gives people a glimpse of their potential future self By enabling users to chat with an older version of themselves, Future You is aimed at reducing anxiety and guiding young people to make better choices. Full story via MIT News → | |
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Where flood policy helps most — and where it could do more A U.S. program provides important flood insurance relief, but it’s used more in communities with greater means to protect themselves. Full story via MIT News → | |
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Can skin care be health care? Sophie Bai ’14 started B.A.I. Biosciences to bring biotech solutions to skin problems such as eczema and skin cancer. Full story via Slice of MIT→ | |
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Helping robots zero in on the objects that matter A new method called Clio enables robots to quickly map a scene and identify the items they need to complete a given set of tasks. Full story via MIT News → | |
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AI pareidolia: Can machines spot faces in inanimate objects? A new dataset of “illusory” faces reveals differences between human and algorithmic face detection, links to animal face recognition, and a formula predicting where people most often perceive faces. Full story via MIT News → | |
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MIT launches a new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program The program will invite students to investigate new vistas at the intersection of music, computing, and technology. Full story via MIT News → | |
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MIT designed these tiny R2-D2 robots to help keep spaceships safe // Fast Company Researchers at MIT have developed “AstroAnts,” autonomous, magnetic rovers roughly the size of a toy car that are designed to monitor space vehicles and other hard-to-reach machinery. Full story via Fast Company→ |
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She was one of the only Black women in her engineering program. Now, this MIT grad is using dance to introduce a new generation to STEM // CNN Yamilée Toussaint ’08 has founded STEM From Dance — a program that combines STEM education and dance as part of an effort to make STEM fields more accessible and engaging. Full story via CNN→ |
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Opinion: Pedagogy in bioengineering: pipettes, practice and patience // Nature Assistant Professor Ritu Raman explores how she drew upon her childhood experiences attending different schools across three continents to inform her teaching practices. Full story via Nature→ |
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Watch: Wearable breast cancer monitor could help women screen themselves // CNN Associate Professor Canan Dagdeviren shares her work developing wearable ultrasound devices that could help screen for early-stage breast cancer, detect other cancers deep within the body, and monitor kidney health. Full story via CNN→ |
| | Can solar panels be recycled? Meng Tao, a professor at Arizona State University who studies terawatt-scale solar technologies and a recent guest expert on “Ask MIT Climate,” explains that the design behind most solar panels, while made to last 20 to 30 years, is also what makes them hard to recycle. The best practice for recycling is to mechanically break down a solar panel into its parts, but separating glass from panels is extremely difficult. The glass also contains silicon particles, which is difficult to melt down for reuse since it has a melting point twice that of glass. Recycling solar panels also poses a financial challenge, as it costs more to recycle than to recover materials from them — something Tao and his colleagues hope to change with their research. Learn more via MIT Climate Portal → | Name: Gabi Wenzel MIT affiliation: Postdoc in the Department of Chemistry Research focus: Laboratory astrochemistry and aromatic compounds What game or movie universe would you most like to live in? Aren’t we all still waiting for our Hogwarts letters? If you were given $5 million to open a small museum, what kind of museum would you create? Probably a forensic science museum, from fingerprints and hair analysis all the way to the discovery and usage of DNA profiling. What skill would you like to master? Sailing! I just started here at MIT’s sailing pavilion and love it! … Highly recommend signing up for a class! An epic feast is held in your honor. What’s on the table? Sushi, Kinder chocolate, avocado toast, raspberry pastries, pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. Full interview via MIT Chemistry→ |
| Verse | | O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; To-morrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; To-morrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Begin the hours of this day slow, Make the day seem to us less brief. Hearts not averse to being beguiled, Beguile us in the way you know; Release one leaf at break of day; At noon release another leaf; One from our trees, one far away; Retard the sun with gentle mist; Enchant the land with amethyst. Slow, slow! For the grapes’ sake, if they were all, Whose leaves already are burnt with frost, Whose clustered fruit must else be lost— For the grapes’ sake along the wall. —“October” by Robert Frost | |