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July 6, 2024
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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Brain-Controlled Prosthetic
A person wears a prosthetic leg with a circuit board while walking up stairs in a lab.
        
With a new surgical intervention and neuroprosthetic interface, researchers restored a natural walking gait in people with amputations below the knee. Seven patients could walk faster, avoid obstacles, and climb stairs more naturally than people with a traditional amputation.
Top Headlines
What happens during the first moments of butterfly scale formation
New findings could help engineers design materials for light and heat management.
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How to increase the rate of plastics recycling
A national bottle deposit fee could make a dramatic difference in reducing plastic waste, MIT researchers report.
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Melissa Choi named director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory
With decades of experience working across the laboratory’s R&D areas, Choi brings a focus on collaboration, technical excellence, and unity.
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Startup aims to transform the power grid with superconducting transmission lines
VEIR, founded by alumnus Tim Heidel, has developed technology that can move more power over long distances, with the same footprint as traditional lines.
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Professor Emerita Mary-Lou Pardue, pioneering cellular and molecular biologist, dies at 90
Known for her rigorous approach to science and her influential research, Pardue paved the way for women in science at MIT and beyond.
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Owen Coté, military technology expert and longtime associate director of the Security Studies Program, dies at 63
An influential national expert on undersea warfare, Coté is remembered as “the heart and soul of SSP.”
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#ThisisMIT
Thirteen students pose for portrait in front of Kinkakuji Temple. Text via @‌misti_japan: First stop of our Kyoto cultural tour today is Kinkakuji—the Golden Pagoda! We’re here again with the Barker’s, who first Les the tour back in 2008! @‌mistiatmit @‌mit
In the Media
The economist who figured out what makes workers tick // The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart spotlights the work of Professor David Autor, an economist whose “thinking helped change our understanding of the American labor market.”
MIT ice flow study takes “big” step towards understanding sea level rise, scientists say // The Boston Globe
MIT scientists have developed a new model to analyze movements across the Antarctic Ice Sheet, “a critical step in understanding the potential speed and severity of sea level rise.”
Simple paper-strip test might spot flu, and which type you have // HealthDay
MIT scientists have developed a simple paper-strip test that can detect the flu and identify the specific strain, which is useful in improving outbreak response and infection care.
Opinion: Climate change solutions must involve the global economy // Boston Business Journal
MIT Energy Initiative Director William Green emphasizes that in order to address the climate crisis, “we need to convene universities, industry, and government to address the challenges of every sector including construction, manufacturing, agriculture, and the electric grid.”
Verse
Sunshine and shadow play amid the trees
In bosky groves, while from the vivid sky
The sun’s gold arrows fleck the fields at noon,
      Where weary cattle to their slumber hie.
How sweet the music of the purling rill,
Trickling adown the grassy hill!
While dreamy fancies come to give repose
When the first star of evening glows.

—“July” by Henrietta Cordelia Ray
Watch This
Nergis Mavalvala
In this installment of the “World at MIT” video series, Nergis Mavalvala PhD ’97 describes how her upbringing in Karachi, Pakistan, and her family’s emphasis on pursuing a high-quality education shaped an early interest in math and science, which set her on the path to MIT. As the Marble Professor of Astrophysics and dean of the School of Science at the Institute, Mavalvala describes her position as “the best job in the world.”
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