In the Media

Boston Globe correspondent Scott Kirsner explores the development underway in Kendall Square with Michael Owu, managing director of real estate for the MIT Investment Management Company, and Sarah Gallop, co-director of the MIT Office of Government and Community Relations. “If you haven’t been to Kendall recently, it’s turning into a real neighborhood,” writes Kirsner. “On our walk, we passed two barber shops, a florist, a grocery store, and a Dig restaurant I hadn’t noticed. We also ducked into the subterranean MIT Press Bookstore, recently relocated and newly renovated.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that brown carbon – released from burning biomass – could have a larger impact on the Earth’s climate than originally thought, write University of British Columbia student Nealan Gerrebos and University of British Columbia Prof. Alan Bertram for The Conversation. “The results show a warming effect on the climate from brown carbon that is twice that of the previous estimate,” write Gerrebos and Bertram.

Matthew Kearney , John "Jack” B. Cook ’22, and Jupneet K. Singh  are amongst the 2023 Rhodes Scholars, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. This year’s Rhodes Scholars "will go to Oxford University in England next October to pursue graduate degrees across the breadth of the social sciences, humanities, and biological and physical sciences,” says Elliot Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust. “They inspire us already with their accomplishments, but even more by their values-based leadership and selfless ambitions to improve their communities and the world.”

Matthew Kearney, John “Jack” B. Cook ’22, and Jupneet K. Singh have been named 2023 U.S. Rhodes Scholars, reports NBC Boston 10.

Boston.com reporter Clara McCourt spotlights how three MIT students - Jack Cook ‘22, Matthew Kearney and Jupneet K. Singh - have been selected as Rhodes Scholars. “The selected students — 32 in total — will go to Oxford University in England next October to pursue wide-ranging graduate degrees," writes McCourt, "with two or three years of study free of charge.”

Students and instructors at MIT’s Hobby Shop created “Choo-Choo Chairs,” transforming decommissioned seats from the MBTA Red Line into new chairs, reports Matt Reed for WCVB. “Some people see the chair, and they know exactly where it came from and are very excited, like, ‘Where can I buy one,’” says Coby Unger, an associate instructor for the Hobby Shop.

Prof. Kerstin M. Perez writes for Inside Higher Ed about the challenges posed by balancing inclusive teaching with personal and professional endeavors. “I quickly realized that some tenets of inclusive and antiracist teaching advice can undercut the career trajectories, classroom respect and mental health of instructors who are minoritized in their fields—whether due to race, gender or some other nondominant cultural identity—if those tenets are not thoughtfully adapted to our distinct positions in the academy,” writes Perez.

Popular Science reporter Helen Bradshaw writes that MIT researchers have improved the energy capacity of nonrechargeable batteries, the batteries used in pacemakers and other implantable medical devices, by employing a new type of electrolyte. “Expanding the life of primary batteries may also make them sustainable contenders,” writes Bradshaw. “Fewer batteries will have to be used in pacemakers as their lifespans increase, decreasing overall battery waste in addition to reducing the number of battery replacement surgeries needed.”

University of South Carolina Prof. Jennifer A. Frey reviews Prof. Kiernan Setiya’s new book “Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way” for The Wall Street Journal. Frey writes that Setiya's analysis "combines philosophical arguments and personal reflections on his own experience. He offers this in the hope that it will help readers better understand their own suffering and perhaps ease the weight of it." 

Members of MIT’s Hobby Shop salvaged decommissioned MBTA Red Line seats  and transformed them into “Choo-Choo Chairs,” reports Spencer Buell for The Boston Globe. The team “spiffed up seven of the old seats, mounting them onto wooden legs made out of reclaimed church pews,” writes Buell. “There’s so much nostalgia for that pattern,” said Coby Unger, an associate instructor at the Hobby Shop. “And the stainless steel construction is really beautiful.”

Dharik Mallapragada, a principal research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative, speaks with Vox reporter Neel Dhanesha about the pressing need to find new ways to store renewable energy. “We need to think about solutions that go beyond conventional lithium-ion batteries,” says Mallapragada. “No single technology is going to make this happen. We have to think about it as a jigsaw puzzle, where every piece plays its role in the system.”

MIT is part of the Transfer Scholars Network (TSN), an initiative aimed at opening a pipeline between community colleges and four-year colleges for transfer students, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. “As a part of TSN, we hope to send a message to community college students everywhere that you belong and you can succeed at a school like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” says Jeremy Weprich, senior assistant director of admissions.  

A stamp-sized reusable ultrasound sticker developed by researchers in Prof. Xuanhe Zhao’s research group has been named one of the best inventions of 2022 by TIME. “Unlike stretchy existing ultrasound wearables, which sometimes produce distorted images, the new device’s stiff transducer array can record high-resolution video of deep internal organs (e.g. heart, lungs) over a two-day period,” writes Alison Van Houten.

Researchers from the MIT Space Exploration Initiative are sending two payloads to the moon with Lunar Outpost, a space technology company, reports Arianna Johnson for Forbes. “The Resource camera will generate 3-3 images of different lunar points of interest,” writes Johnson. “The second payload is the AstroAnt, a miniature rover the size of a matchbox that will drive atop the MAPP rover and take contactless measurements of the rover’s radiator.”  

Researchers from MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital are working on developing new technology that could help predict and identify diseases through audio recordings of a patient’s voice, reports Jim Morelli for Boston 25 News. “It’s almost like being Sherlock Holmes to voice, taking voice as a signal and trying to understand what’s going on behind it,” said Satrajit Ghosh, a principal research scientist at the McGovern Institute. “And can we backtrack from voice and say this is ‘Disorder A’ versus ‘Disorder B’?”