Nobel laureate John Nash, who taught at MIT from 1951 until 1959, died Saturday at age 86, writes Erica Goode for The New York Times. “John’s remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists,” says Christopher L. Eisgruber, the president of Princeton.
Sarah Lewin writes for Wired about research by Professor Pedro Reis and a team of MIT mathematicians on the formation of wrinkles in materials. “What’s beautiful about this work is the collaboration between experimentalists and theorists,” says Reis. “We challenged them with results we didn’t understand, and they went somewhere new.”
Francie Diep writes for Popular Science about how a new mathematical theory developed by MIT researchers may help to explain how surfaces wrinkle. “The equation could help chemists working on high-tech materials,” explains Diep.
MIT alumnus Noam Angrist and seniors Anisha Gururaj and Elliot H. Akama-Garren were among 32 Rhodes scholars selected from the U.S. this year, reports Jennifer Smith for The Boston Globe. “The American scholars will join an international group of students chosen from 14 other global jurisdictions, according to the Rhodes Trust,” Smith reports.
Two MIT seniors and alumnus Noam Angrist have been named Rhodes Scholars, reports Dave Collins for the Associated Press. “It’s a total dream come true,” says Angrist. “The skills I will get at (Oxford) are just incredible, and I’ll come back into the world fully equipped to do what I love to do.”
In a piece for PBS, Jennifer Ouellette writes about Professor John Bush’s work with quantum mechanics, in particular his replication of a quantum corral. “Time will tell whether the quantum-like behavior of the walking [droplets] is mere coincidence,” says Bush.
Marcelo Gleiser writes for NPR about different theories on furthering our understanding of the universe, including Professor Max Tegmark’s book “Our Mathematical Universe.” “According to Tegmark, math is not just the tool we invent to describe both physical reality and pure rational constructions, but the very essence of nature,” writes Gleiser.
Dennis Overbye of The New York Times writes about Illustris, a calculation by Professor Mark Vogelsberger’s team that mathematically models how dark matter evolved from its initial, uniform cloud. They found “the closest match yet between dark matter models and the distribution and types of galaxies in the visible universe,” writes Overbye.
The Huffington Post reports on new MIT research examining how sperm cells travel and function. The team’s findings, which show how sperm travel upstream so efficiently, could lead to advances in artificial insemination.
MIT senior Kirin Sinha talks with FOX 25 about the SHINE for Girls program, which uses dance to get young girls excited about math and science. Sinha, who founded the program, says SHINE provides a content-based curriculum that teaches self-confidence along with math skills.
A Slate video by Paca Thomas features new MIT research that shows particles from coughs and sneezes travel much farther than previously thought.
“Sinha, a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is majoring in theoretical math and computer science and electrical engineering -- fields that have remained heavily dominated by men,” Boston Globe reporter Carolyn Johnson writes of the SHINE for Girls program, founded by Kirin Sinha, that teaches young girls math through dance.
“Researchers found that a droplet just a millionth of a meter in size (100 micrometers) can travel five times farther than previously thought, and a droplet just 10 micrometers in size can travel 200 times farther than previously thought,” writes Huffington Post reporter Amanda Chan of new research on coughing and sneezing.
“A new study from MIT that could change the way building ventilation systems are designed found that the germs stay airborne in gas clouds, spreading the droplets throughout an entire room,” writes Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham of the MIT study on coughing and sneezing.
“In a new study, published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, researchers report that coughs and sneezes have “associated gas clouds that keep their potentially infectious droplets aloft over much greater distances than previously realized”,” writes Boston Magazine reporter Melissa Malamut about a new MIT on how coughs and sneezes spread disease.