Pumpkin Patch | | | To comply with Covid-19 safety protocols, a new method of blowing glass was developed for MIT’s W. David Kingery Ceramics and Glass Lab. A year later, the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch is back, with 2,000 beautiful works of pumpkin art waiting for new homes. Full story via MIT News → |
A new method for removing lead from drinking water Engineers have designed a relatively low-cost, energy-efficient approach to treating water contaminated with heavy metals. Full story via MIT News → | |
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New bionics center established at MIT with $24 million gift An interdisciplinary research center funded by philanthropist Lisa Yang aims to mitigate disability through technologies that marry human physiology with electromechanics. Full story via MIT News → | |
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Institute Professor Paula Hammond named to White House science council The head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering will serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Full story via MIT News → | |
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Five tools for fostering worker well-being An employer toolkit from MIT Sloan and Harvard University shows how a work environment shapes employee well-being, and suggests how to build a healthy workplace culture. Full story via MIT Sloan→ | |
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Concrete’s role in reducing building and pavement emissions | MIT researchers find emissions of U.S. buildings and pavements can be reduced by around 50 percent even as concrete use increases. Full story via MIT News → | |
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“It’s become increasingly hard for them to feel good about themselves” // The New York Times Columnist Thomas B. Edsall spotlights Professor David Autor’s research exploring the state of men in the U.S., including the growing gender gaps in educational attainment and the labor market. Full story via The New York Times→ |
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Most mental health apps don’t work as advertised. This one actually does — and it’s a video game // Fast Company “The Guardians: Unite the Realms,” a video game created by Media Lab developer Craig Ferguson, has won Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design award in the Wellness category. Full story via Fast Company→ |
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Research busts popular myths about innovation // The Wall Street Journal Professor of the practice emeritus Christopher Magee and his colleagues have developed a platform that can help provide insights into how quickly different innovations are advancing. Full story via The Wall Street Journal→ |
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Biology starts to get a technological makeover // The New York Times MIT startup Ginkgo Bioworks began with a “shared belief that biology could be made more like computing with reusable code and standard tools instead of the bespoke experiments of traditional biology.” Full story via The New York Times→ |
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MIT researchers develop glow-in-the-dark plants // USA Today “The high-tech plants are embedded with nanoparticles that absorb light during the day or from other light sources like LEDs. After the lights go out, they slowly release that stored energy as luminescence over time.” Full story via USA Today→ |
| | This week’s equinox, which took place Wednesday at 3:21 p.m. ET, marked one of two points in the calendar year (the other being the March equinox) at which the length of day and night are nearly the same. To mark the occasion, here’s a recent “Kendallhenge” photo, taken last week and looking west along Main Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | | | People often ask me about my ballet background because it seems like strange preparation for an engineering career. To me it’s not peculiar at all. Ballet taught me many of the skills I use to excel in both the classroom and technical fields. | —Grace Young ’14, in a recent essay, “5 Ways Ballet Prepared Me for My Engineering Career” 🩰 Full story via Pointe Magazine→ | |