breaking news

Live Updates: Trump emerges victorious in 2024 presidential election

This is a live page and will be continuously updated as new developments concerning the 2024 presidential election are reported.

News

The 2024 Election: The Institute Reacts

Student voices echo the sentiments of the nation, administration largely silent

editorial

What now?

We write, as an editorial board, not as partisan representatives of any one group or ideology; we write not to repeat statements that have already been made by many before us, nor to incite further division in an already fractured community, nor to stoke fear of what may lie ahead—but to allow us, the people of MIT, the opportunity to reflect on this election and our role in helping shape the future of this nation and this world.

News

Undergraduate Association Voting Closes for Participatory Budgeting Proposals 

On Oct. 24, the Undergraduate Association (UA) opened up voting for various proposals that utilize the $25,000 set aside for participatory budgeting in the fall semester. The vote, which was conducted through rank choice, closed midnight Nov. 6. An additional $25,000 is set aside for the spring semester, during which there will be another round of funding. 

Science

Designing a Realistic Tissue-Mimicking Bladder: Improving Imaging Devices and Opening up New Recipes for Creating Model Organs

A new study on building an acoustically and mechanically accurate synthetic bladder model may become a more reliable tool for testing imaging devices.

News

Meet Simon Johnson, 2024 Winner of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Johnson: “You have to be looking for something. You have to be dissatisfied. You have to be wanting to take that risk.”

Science

MIT Assistant Professor Ariel Furst Stars in Chemistry Shorts Documentary

Lessons in Microbes, Redox Reactions, and Careers in Science

Sports

Upcoming (and ongoing) NEWMAC Championship Tournaments

With the regular season in the books, many of MIT’s fall athletic teams are slated to compete in their respective NEWMAC Championship Tournaments. At the time of publication, many are still ongoing. Here is a recap of how MIT’s teams stand.

Sports

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SPORTS BLITZ

Science

Dr. Francis Collins presents The Road to Wisdom at the 2024 Boston Book Festival

Collins: “It’s not a book that I really felt a strong urge to try to put together until it seemed it was pretty much impossible for me to resist.”

News

MIT Human Insight Collaborative holds launch event on Oct. 28.

The Institute launched the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC), an initiative seeking to promote intersectionality between faculty in the humanities, arts, and social sciences and their peers across MIT in a formal kickoff event on Oct. 28. 

inside the institute

MIT Runs on Dunkin’

Donuts, dollars, and dismissals: The Student Center Dunkin’ encounters friction between management, ownership, and MIT.

movie review

40 years of naysayers were right about Megalopolis, Coppola’s visually ugly and thematically inept magnum opus

For a movie this personal, its failure singularly lies in the hands of its director. However, it doesn't help that the leading actors are all in over their heads, including phoned-in performances that are neither camp or serious enough from a cast led by Adam Driver.

ballet review

Boston Ballet Stuns in the 2024 Fall Experience Premiere

Boston Ballet combines phenomenal dancing, music, and creativity within four contemporary dance pieces.

concert review

Beyond the keys in Schubert: a dynamic between instrument and concert hall

A pianist’s instrument is both the piano and the hall, and the interplay of these was challenged at Paul Lewis’s all-Schubert Celebrity Series recital in NEC Jordan Hall. Known to be an expert in Schubert’s music, Paul Lewis made it clear that there were voices he wanted the audience to pick up in the performance.

concert review

Magic, tap dancing, and the electric wind instrument: MIT’s annual Family Weekend concert

Conducted by Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr., Kenneth Amis and Laura Grill Jaye, the three ensembles performed a wide array of pieces that kept the audience captivated.

movie review

40 years of naysayers were right about Megalopolis, Coppola’s visually ugly and thematically inept magnum opus

For a movie this personal, its failure singularly lies in the hands of its director. However, it doesn't help that the leading actors are all in over their heads, including phoned-in performances that are neither camp or serious enough from a cast led by Adam Driver.

ballet review

Boston Ballet Stuns in the 2024 Fall Experience Premiere

Boston Ballet combines phenomenal dancing, music, and creativity within four contemporary dance pieces.

concert review

Magic, tap dancing, and the electric wind instrument: MIT’s annual Family Weekend concert

Conducted by Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr., Kenneth Amis and Laura Grill Jaye, the three ensembles performed a wide array of pieces that kept the audience captivated.

concert review

Beyond the keys in Schubert: a dynamic between instrument and concert hall

A pianist’s instrument is both the piano and the hall, and the interplay of these was challenged at Paul Lewis’s all-Schubert Celebrity Series recital in NEC Jordan Hall. Known to be an expert in Schubert’s music, Paul Lewis made it clear that there were voices he wanted the audience to pick up in the performance.

Opinion

A New, Greener Leaf for MIT Committees on Climate?

On Friday, September 13th, 2024, Professor Richard Lester announced the formation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Climate-Related Industry Engagements, charged with examining the question of whether or not President Kornbluth’s new Climate Project – an initiative to address the challenges of climate change—should accept funding from the fossil fuel (FF) industry. The Committee will deliver recommendations on this question by next summer.

Opinion

The Pen and the Sword

I am writing to contextualize the recent sanctions imposed on the student publication Written Revolution and its editors; these sanctions carry troubling implications for the state of free thought and expression on MIT’s campus.

Opinion

Eight more days on Kresge

Five months after the 4 AM police raid on the sleeping students of Students Against Genocide Encampment (MIT SAGE), we made our way back to Kresge with another tent. On October 16th, the MIT Jews for Collective Liberation (JCL) erected a sukkah to mark Sukkot during the 12th month of Israel’s horrific genocide in Palestine. In this letter, we want to explain what Sukkot is, why we chose to build our sukkah on Kresge, and why doing so is consistent with our Jewish traditions. We close by asking the MIT administration and faculty to end collaboration with Israel’s Ministry of Defense and war profiteers. 

Opinion

Daniela Rus, The People Demand: No More Research for Genocide

Today, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) conducts research funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMoD), with direct applications to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We, the MIT Coalition for Palestine, whose tuition and labor support CSAIL, call on CSAIL Director Daniela Rus to lead by example and end her IMoD-sponsored research. 

News

Warm Beginning of November

The leaves are falling, the clock moved forward, and the days are shorter, all signaling the beginning of the end of Fall. While the optics suggest the move towards Winter, the temperatures do not with the highs being around 60°F. For those who are spending their first Winter here, heads...

in-short-v144-n17

Oct 28. Second quarter Physical Education and Wellness classes begin.

Nobel Week at the Institute

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson PhD ’89, and James A. Robinson shared the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2024 "for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity." Their work traces increased prosperity in nations today back to having more inclusive institutions during...

Opinion

Research for human rights abuses: how MIT breaks its own rules 

Admin had to be dragged to the negotiation table, and when confronted with the atrocities and their power to stand against them, they equivocated about the “nuance” of the situation.

Lockheed Leaves The Career Fair: Reflections on the Power of Principled Dissent

It is exceedingly clear that MIT weaponizes a facade of neutrality to defend its bottom line. We reject MIT’s presentation of itself as an unbiased arbitrator between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine voices because it is simply untrue.

Rebuttal of Anti-Israel Claims (Part 2)

This is a continuation of my rebuttal of anti-Israel claims from a previous issue of The Tech.

Sports

Women’s Club Soccer Loses 0-3 at Regionals

MIT’s Women Club Soccer traveled to Stony Brook University this past weekend to compete in the NIRSA Region 1 Club Soccer Tournament. They entered the tournament as the No. 21 seed, and were slated to face fourth-seeded RIT, ninth-seeded Temple, and sixteenth-seeded Brown in pool play.

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SPORTS BLITZ

Previewing November for MIT Fall Sports

MIT’s Fall athletic teams are preparing for the home stretch of their seasons as the semester nears its end. Many teams are vying for postseason spots, while others are longing for the relief of the offseason. If you have not been keeping track of teams this fall, here is a...

Campus Life

Crushing on my friend’s ex

Auntie's Family addresses the perennial question of when budding romance clashes with existing friendships.

For Your Thoughts: American Healthcare

Each time I make a visit to a hospital, I am austerely reminded, no niceties spared, that our glorious nation’s top-of-the-line medical system is in complete and utter shambles.

On Freshman Fall: Fears and the Firehose

Auntie Matter provides advice to a freshman facing the fall firehose.

Science

Fireside Chat with Dan Riccio: Former Apple Executive Shares Reflections on his Journey

Riccio: “I always wanted to be the first person to get there in the morning and the last person to be there at night. When anything came up, I wouldn't wait… It’s just how I was.”

10703 dean of engineering

Meet Anantha Chandrakasan, Dean of Engineering

Minding the Brain: Professor Mehrdad Jazayeri on brain models research, the HHMI award, and the growth of neuroscience

Mehrdad Jazayeri, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, has recently been named an HHMI Investigator for his research on the mind-brain connection. Having immigrated from Iran and pursued his academic journey at NYU and the University of Washington, Jazayeri's research at MIT combines cognitive science, neuroscience, and machine...