THE NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: A glacier’s gift
I’m from Vermont. My state has many trees and a few people. When you combine those two things, you get delicious maple syrup. In October, you also get hordes of tourists — the so-called “leaf-peepers.” Vermont calls itself the Green Mountain State, but it is really now, when the mountains are red and orange, that the forest gets the most attention. With winter approaching, trees pump the precious chlorophyll from their leaves and store it safely in their roots, revealing other leaf pigments that were previously obscured by green: the carotenoids (yellow/orange) and anthocyanins (red).
Events Oct. 08 – Oct. 14
Events Oct. 08 – Oct. 14 Tuesday (3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Truman Scholarship Info Session, sponsored by MIT Global Education and Career Development — 1-150 Wednesday (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.) Boston Babywearers visit MIT, featuring Jenny the Juggler — 10-105 (Bush Room) (7:15 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.) Mastering the Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI), sponsored by Prehealth Advising (registration on CareerBridge required) — 12-172 Thursday (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Mathematics department shows The Genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan — E25-111 Friday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) LSC shows World War Z (tickets for $4 in Lobby 16) — 26-100 Saturday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Symphony Orchestra Concert (free in advance to MIT community, $5 at door) — W16 (Kresge) Sunday (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) International Folk Dancing — La Sala de Puerto Rico Monday (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Jason Adasiewicz, Garrison Fewell, and Eddie Harris featured on WMBR’s Research & Development program — 88.1 FM Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Sweaters
The summer weather is slowly fading away, as you can tell from the abrupt change in temperature over the past few days. You’re starting to pull out your warm garments in an attempt to avoid getting a cold. You might already have a few jackets and coats to fight off the cold, but they seem too heavy for early fall. And so I present to you the sweater, which is one of the best types of clothing that is both lightweight and warm.
Hacking Arts
“We believe that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative. We believe that everyone can create the future and change the world.” The motto for invention kit Makey Makey, created by MIT Media Lab students Eric R. Rosenbaum G and Jay S. Silver G, seemed to implicitly set the tone of Hacking Arts as Rosenbaum and his band of randomly chosen volunteers kicked off with an audience-pleasing live performance of MJ’s “Billie Jean.” How did random untrained people come together to spontaneously perform “Billie Jean?” By becoming human synthesizers, of course. Makey Makey, a tiny circuit board that connects to Arduino, allows you to transform anything even mildly conductive into a live keyboard. As people became instruments on stage, linked together with bright colorful wires that were connected to a tiny device transmitting to speakers blasting The King of Pop, all I could think was, “This is so MIT.”
Connecting the dots
Life is full of lessons, and not just those learned in lecture. There are some lessons that you acquire not within a classroom, but through experiences outside the realm of academics. With all the new encounters and hardships and rewards that college brings, these four years are an ideal time to start tackling the big questions — why are we here studying? What is really important in life? What is the meaning of Stonehenge? Little Life Lessons will muse on philosophical questions that college students may face at this turning point in our lives. Perhaps you’ve already contemplated these issues before; perhaps such matters have never crossed your mind. My hope is that this column serves as a springboard for the next step along your path of thoughts.
Events Oct. 01 – Oct. 07
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: A previous version of this events calendar was labeled with the incorrect dates. The calendar is for Oct. 1–7.
Reading for fun
I have a homemade sign hanging up in my office that proclaims “sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” accompanied by a picture of a tipped over teacup, the only thing from Lewis Carroll’s books I was confident enough to draw. I like this quote because it reminds me that scientists aren’t supposed to look at things in mundane ways; we need to be brave and see things differently; we need to tackle the impossible.
THE NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: Moth hunting in Brazil
This article is dedicated to my dear friend and mentor Nick Wagerik, who first introduced me to entomology and with whom I spent countless hours roaming New York’s Central Park in pursuit of dragonflies and moths. Nick passed away last week.
Don’t shirt the issue
A t-shirt is one of the most versatile and cheap types of clothing that you can find at any store. Because t-shirts are so common, we usually don’t see the potential in them. In fact, t-shirts can make up a powerful tool in your fashion arsenal when you incorporate them appropriately.
Events Sep 24- Sep 30
Events Sept. 24 – Sept. 30 Tuesday (10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) Water, Water Everywhere: How clean is it? seminar — E38-300 (7:15 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) The World’s Religions: Precepts Practices and Principle Beliefs — W11-Main dining room Wednesday (7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Katsura Sunshine presents Japanese Rakugo comic story-telling — 32-123 Thursday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) CSAIL Colloquium: Innovating for Society: Realizing the Transformative Impact of Computing and Communication — 32-G449 (6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) The Future of MOOCs: Prospects and Pitfalls, the MIT Perspective — 34-101 Friday (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows Much Ado About Nothing (2012) — 26-100 Saturday (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.) Animal Petting Zoo — E55-Courtyard (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Living in the Future, talk — MIT Museum Sunday (11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.) MIT Bike Show and Market — N10, Annex parking lot (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) MITHAS presents: Violin Maestro Padmashri Lalgudi G. Jayaraman Memorial Concert & biography book release — E51-Wong auditorium Monday (6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.) Archipelago Town-lines: A sustainable model for urban growth, lecture — 7-429 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Hacking my way home
Walking into last week’s t=0 hackathon, the first official hackathon of the school year, I was well aware of my status as a Sloanie, that species of MIT grad student prone to business plan writing and jargon slinging.
Shopping made easy
Welcome to the world of fashion. Sketch Your Look will cover the basics of menswear, such as fit, color, fabric, etc., in a detailed manner. I’m sorry to say I have little knowledge in clothes for women, so I won’t be writing articles specifically for women. However, I believe that women can get inspiration from menswear too.
Events Sep 17 - Sep 23
Events Sep. 17 – Sep. 23 Tuesday (5:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.) Music, Manuscripts, and Megabytes: Unlocking sound in the ‘Ars Mutandi,’ talk by Professor Michael S. Cuthbert — 14E-304 (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) Contra Dance with live music by Forks of Nature — W20-491 Wednesday (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Innovation Series Event: From Farm to Tablet: A Food Startup Feast — 32-123 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) From MIT to Andy’s Room: the Birth and Evolution of Computer Graphics — MIT Museum (6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Reading the Human Genome, talk by Prof. Eric Lander Thursday (4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Starr Forum: Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century — 66-110 (4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Opening Reception for Sidewalk City: Mapping the Unmapped — 7-338 Friday (7:30 p.m.) LSC shows Radical Reels — 26-100 Saturday (11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Latin American Independence Day BBQ — Kresge pits (7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival Gala — 50-Morss Hall Sunday (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Eastgate Fall Harvest Festival and BBQ — E55 Monday (2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.) Media Lab Conversations Series: Mark Bauman, Chairman of National Geographic’s Cross Platform Committee — Media Lab 3rd floor (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Moral, Political, Scientific: What is Thoughtful Engineering? — 66-110 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
A week of innovation
Robotic cheetahs, body-heat fueled technology, cameras that operate at the speed of light, and a potential cure for HIV? This compilation of fascinating topics at the cutting edge of research led the conversation at MIT’s t=0 week. Students filled rooms until it was standing room only as some of MIT’s leading professors presented state-of-the-art technologies, ideas, and businesses during this week to kick off entrepreneurship at MIT.
Stand up against back pain
It’s not easy being MIT students. In addition to carpal tunnel, eye strain, and weight gain from too much free food, we must deal with back pain from sitting hunched over a desk for long hours. Fortunately, there’s a solution for that last problem: a standing desk.
Events Sept. 10 – Sept. 16
Events Sept. 10 – Sept. 16 Tuesday (10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Employer Resume Critiques with 30+ companies, hosted by the Global Education and Career Development Center (sign-ups on CareerBridge) — 12-172 Wednesday (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Israeli Dancing with kosher snacks provided, hosted by the MISTI MIT-Israel Program, Folk Dance Club, and MIT Hillel — Sala de Puerto Rico (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Starr Forum — Syria: A Just War? with speakers Barry Posen, Jeanne Guillemin, Augustus Richard Norton, and John Tirman — E15-070 (Bartos theater) Thursday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) MISTI Open House, sponsored by the Center for International Studies and MISTI — E40-496 (6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) MIT Undergraduate Biochemistry Association General Body Meeting, with free dinner — W20-201 Friday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) LSC shows Fast & Furious 6, tickets for $4 in Lobby 16 — 26-100 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) McKinsey Business Analyst Coffee Chats, sponsored by Sloan Business Club (sign-up necessary) — Area Four Saturday (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) The Ig Informal Lectures at MIT by 2013 Ig Nobel Prize winners, sponsored by The MIT Press Bookstore and The Annals of Improbable Research — 26-100 Sunday (6:45 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Film on the Green @ MIT - Les Chansons d’Amour, sponsored by the Center for International Studies, FL&L, and French Consulate of Boston — Kresge Oval Monday (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Wall Street and the Housing Bubble with speaker Wei Xiong (Princeton), sponsored by the Applied Theory Workshop (joint MIT/Harvard) — Harvard Littauer M15 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Events Sept. 02 – Sept. 08
Events Sept. 02 – Sept. 08 Tuesday (11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Wonder Woman Photo Shoot — Lobby 10 (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Trash2Treasure sale, free Reuse items — Kresge Oval Wednesday (11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.) MIT police laptop tagging and registration — 32 (Stata Student St.) Thursday (12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Tour de SHASS, free lunch — 10-105 (Bush Room) (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild presents AVENUE Q — W16-035 (Kresge Little Theatre) Friday (9:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Sidney Pacific Orientation Dance Party. Featuring DJ BIG from WPOT Hot 97 Boston radio station — NW-86 Saturday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) MITMASA welcoming dinner, with Malaysian food — W20 (PDR 1 and 2) Sunday (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Student Loan Art Program Exhibition public brunch/reception — E15 Monday (12:00p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Electricity Student Research Group interdisciplinary research lunch series on sustainable electricity — E19-319 (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) The Economic Effects of Combat Exposure, with speaker Michael Yankovich — E51-151 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Events aug. 27 – sept. 02
Events aug. 27 – sept. 02 Tuesday (12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Japanese Tea Ceremony Lessons ($10 MIT community, $5 students) — W4 Green Living Room (5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) McKinsey & Company Info Session: MIT Happy Hour (RSVP online) — 50 Muddy Charles Wednesday (2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.) MIT spouses & partners stroller tour of MIT, snacks afterward — Kendall outbound T Thursday (10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Gelfand Centennial Conference: A View of 21st Century Mathematics — 34-101 Friday (7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) Community Shabbat Dinner at Hillel — W11 Main Dining Room (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) LSC shows Zero Dark Thirty (free tickets in Lobby 16)— 26-100 Saturday (9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Westgate Fall 2013 yard sale — W85 lawn Sunday (2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild presents AVENUE Q — W16-035 (Kresge Little Theatre) Monday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Ashdown House Dessert Night: International Dessert Sampling — NW35-Hulsizer Room Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Of toothpaste, and the arc of the moral universe
Sometime in June, a discovery in Senior House threw me briefly into a personal crisis. Someone had used my toothpaste.
Flying monkeys, hedgehogs, and castles, oh my!
I originally wanted this article to show that graduate students can kick back, relax, and stave off the insanity that is just a stone’s throw away from the genius we all aspire to achieve. However, as I wrote the title, I realized this may actually convince you of the opposite, that graduate school does in fact drive graduate students off the deep end. So, throwing caution to the wind, I am sharing two tales of the silly, the frivolous, and the fun that I’ve experienced this summer.