What happens to science when the government closes?
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended last Friday. MIT researchers wrote to The Tech to recount how they were impacted by losses of funding, cancelled conference sessions, missed opportunities for collaborations, and more.
Towards the future of nuclear energy: materials
The Mesoscale Nuclear Materials Group, built in 2013 and led by Michael P. Short, aims to address problems of material performance by reinventing our understanding and measurement techniques of nuclear materials degradation.
Mental health and the brain
According to the National Institute for Mental Health, approximately 20 percent of the world is affected by brain disorders. At MIT, there are a number of groups dedicated to studying brain disorders specifically. Some labs focus on the genetic origins of neurological disorders, while others use imaging to predict and respond to indications of mental health conditions.
From analyzing M&Ms to illuminating cells
Ibrahim Cissé, Assistant Professor of Physics and principal investigator of Cissé Laboratory, has been interested in science for as long as he can remember — he was "very curious as a child, wanted to find out how things worked," and loved watching scientific Hollywood movies. As a young boy, he converted a storage room in his house into a laboratory, where he would tinker with electronics, taking things apart to build creations of his own.
The next generation of materials
The Electrochemical Materials Lab focuses on finding new ways to process ceramic and glass, leveraging new methods and design paradigms towards new device functionalities that have the potential to make our phones and computers smaller, faster, and smarter than ever before.
Preparing for disaster
The Urban Risk Lab, led by Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism Miho Mazereeuw, aims to develop and provide integrated solutions for disaster preparedness, focusing on natural disasters and environmental impact research.
Understanding diseases at the nanoscale
Researchers at the Nanomechanics Laboratory strive to utilize the mechanical properties of nanomaterials to study the progression and to understand the mechanisms of sickle cell disease and other life-threatening diseases.
How technology impacts the democratic process
The MIT programs in Anthropology, History, and Science, Technology and Society (STS) invited a multidisciplinary panel of experts specializing in topics relating to the interaction of emerging technologies with society and government to speak about their work to interested attendees.
A collaborative quest
BeeMee was developed by Niccolo Pescetelli, a human psychologist working to understand the dynamics of human collective intelligence, and Dr. Iyad Rahwan, a scientist who leads the Scalable Cooperation group at the MIT Media Lab. This immersive social event invites Internet users to work together to stop AI Zookd from succeeding in his mission.
Optimizing the human brain
After a prolific residence in MIT's Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which included developing a super-resolution microscope to look at nanoscale resolution of building blocks of brain, Deblina Sarkar is seeking out a new challenge in forming the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek research group to engineer nanoelectronics for the human brain.
Machines and medicine
Ranging from diagnostics solutions to making unbiased algorithms, MIT researchers across campus are working to provide new technologies and insights into the future of AI in healthcare.
Creative collaboration
In Pinar Yanardag’s “How to Generate (Almost) Anything” series, humans and AI collaborate on everything from designing dresses to cooking up recipes for pizza.
Investigating influenza
Flu viruses evolve every year, even within a “flu season.” At MIT, the Shoulders Lab investigated the mechanisms behind influenza virus evolution.
Photovoltaics and solar power
Tonio Buonassisi, the PI at MIT’s Photovoltaics Lab, recently took a trip to the Folgefonna National Park in Norway. There, he hiked across nearly 200 square km of glaciers. Under the crunch of snow with each step he took, he could hear the water rushing below him — more water than was normal for the ebbs and flows of a glacier’s natural lifetime — a constant reminder that his time to act was running out.
Districts and Data
Justin Solomon, Principal Investigator of the Geometric Data Processing Group at MIT, is a prominent member of the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG), a cohort of Boston-based computer scientists and mathematicians that are leveraging modern computing power to study the problem of fairness in redistricting with a level of quantitative rigor that has not been possible until recently.
Fluid intelligence
Artificial intelligence's meaning is vague, and its definition remains fluid as the field evolves. The Tech interviewed three PhD candidates at CSAIL, LIDS and EECS/EEMS/INCCI at MIT on how they interpret the science, and how they work to advance it.
Citizen science
A mysterious object was seen hovering on what seemed to be a perfectly normal day.
The Heavenly Palace falls
A non-operational Chinese space station long expected to fall out of orbit crashed harmlessly into the Pacific last week, but raised concerns about space debris causing damage to orbiting spacecraft.
TESS exoplanet search to start next week
The NASA satellite will search for possible exoplanets orbiting stars outside our solar system.
Perfecting the phosphorous process
Professor Christopher ‘Kit’ Cummins, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry, has been interested in phosphorus and its processing for industrial use for many years. Cummins’ lab is exploring alternative ways and options of optimizing phosphate processing.