Writing for Atlas Obscura, Abigail Cain spotlights how Jana Dambrogio, a conservator at MIT Libraries, is building a dictionary cataloging the historical practice of letterlocking. Dambrogio explains that to accurately recreate some of the more intricate locks requires “looking at thousands of artifacts and having the ability to remember them.”
Wired reporter Robbie Gonzalez highlights Prof. David Rand’s research showing that reasoning and critical thinking skills allow people to differentiate between real and fake news. Rand explains that he thinks “social media makes it particularly hard, because a lot of the features of social media are designed to encourage non-rational thinking.”
TIME reporter Precious Adesina writes that researchers from MIT’s Senseable City Lab have developed an algorithm that measures how many urban trees are seen from a pedestrian’s perspective. Prof. Carlo Ratti explains that in addition to lowering urban temperatures, increasing the number of trees in a city can be “extraordinary in terms of collective well-being.”
UPI reporter Tauren Dyson writes that MIT researchers have developed a coating that can reject up to 70 percent of incoming solar heat. “The film resembles transparent plastic wrap, implanted with tiny microparticles that contain water that releases when met with temperatures higher than 85 degrees Fahrenheit,” Dyson explains.
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with Marketplace reporter Sabri Ben-Achour about MITEI’s study showing the potential impact of nuclear power in addressing climate change. Buongiorno noted that if costs can be reduced and more supportive policies enacted, nuclear power has the “potential to decarbonize the power sector on a global scale.”
WGBH reporter Esteban Bustillos highlights MIT’s football team, which is “having a year for the books.” Head coach Brian Bubna explains that sports can help augment a student’s college experience, noting that “there's a lot of stuff that you can learn on a football field about yourself that you can't learn in a classroom.”
Forbes contributor Vivian Nunez speaks with MIT alumna Jessica Marquez about what inspired her to pursue a career in STEM and how she encourages other Latinas to succeed. “I recommend finding mentors,” says Marquez. “I may have never chosen to pursue a PhD at MIT if I had not met Professor Dava Newman – she continues to be a wonderful mentor.”
MIT researchers have developed a new see-through film that reflects 70 percent of the sun’s incoming heat and could be used to coat a building’s windows, reports the Xinhua news agency. The material, “can cool a building while still letting in a good amount of light, offering an affordable and energy-efficient alternative to existing smart window technologies,” Xinhua explains.
Graduate student James Clark speaks with Boston Globe reporter Andres Picon about his study that provides evidence laser technology could be used to attract aliens. “A laser produces all of its power in one wavelength,” explains Clark, “so the way that it’s detectable is not that it’s more powerful than the sun, but that it’s very distinct from the sun.”
Prof. Michael Strano speaks about his research on carbon-fixing materials, which are “substances powered by the sun that use atmospheric carbon dioxide to grow and repair themselves, just as plants do,” writes Marlene Cimons for Popular Science. “Making a material that can access the abundant carbon all around us is a significant opportunity for materials science,” said Strano.
Prof. Dava Newman speaks with Space.com reporter Meghan Bartels about her work designing the next generation of spacesuits. "We're going to Mars not to sit in the habitat — we're going there to explore," says Newman. "We don't want you to fight the suit. We want you to find life on Mars."
Prof. Angelika Amon, winner of a 2019 Breakthrough Prize, speaks with Nature about her reaction to winning the prize and her research investigating the consequences of a cell having the wrong number of chromosomes. Amon explains that that next big challenge for her work is to “figure out how these changes in copy number affect cancer.”
Chronicle highlights MIT startup Spyce, a restaurant with a robotic kitchen. At Spyce, the flames used to heat a wok “are replaced with induction metal,” explains Erika Tarantal. “The robot-controlled rotation ensures cooking on all sides.”
This Quartz video highlights how MIT researchers are developing a self-driving boat system that can navigate waterways and can transform into different structures to move cargo, trash or build a temporary bridge. “The boats find the best path between preprogrammed locations, while using GPS, laser sensors, and cameras to avoid hitting anything,” explains Michael Tabb.
Fast Company reporter Melissa Locker writes that a study by MIT researchers examines the feasibility of harnessing laser technology to try to attract the attention of aliens. Locker explains that the researchers found that if contact was made, “lasers could potentially be used to send Morse code-like message via light pulses.”