Marcos Berríos ‘06, Christina Birch PhD ’15, and Christopher Williams PhD ’12 are among the ten selected to be a part of NASA’s 2021 astronaut candidate class, reports Emre Kelly for USA Today. “Flanked by T-38 Talon jets to be used over their two-year training course at Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA officials introduces the 2021 class of six men and four women in front of their families, friends, and soon-to-be colleagues,” writes Kelly.
Marcos Berríos ‘06, Christina Birch PhD ‘15 and Christopher Williams PhD ’12 have been selected as part of NASA’s 2021 astronaut candidate class, reports WBUR’s Bill Chappell. “Alone, each candidate has ‘the right stuff,’ but together they represent the creed of our country: E pluribus unum – out of many, one,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Marcos Berríos ‘06, Christina Birch PhD ‘15, Christopher Williams PhD ‘12 are among the ten astronauts selected for the 2021 NASA astronaut class, reports Breanna Kovatch for The Boston Globe. “The class of astronauts were selected from among 12,000 candidates and is the first class in four years,” writes Kovatch.
Writing for The Hill, Prof. Jinhua Zhao, Prof. Franz-Josef Ulm, Research Scientist Anson Stewart and Principal Research Scientist Randolph Kirchain explore how to maximize the impact and effectiveness of the infrastructure spending bill. “Here’s what we should do," they write. "Modernize planning tools to consider systems holistically, get out of technology ruts, and, most fundamentally, measure performance.”
Edgar Herwick of GBH News visits the lab of Prof. Mathias Kolle to explore the science behind what causes rainbows to arc across the sky. “The sun has to be behind you. Then water in the atmosphere in front of you. And that's usually when it rains, you get that condition,” says Kolle. “Then what you also want to do is you want to look at the right spot.”
Google created a doodle honoring the late Lotfi Zadeh ’46 for creating the mathematical framework known as “fuzzy logic,” reports Brett Molina for USA Today. Zadeh’s theory “has been used in various tech applications, including anti-skid algorithms for cars,” writes Molina.
MIT scientists have mapped out the web of a tropical tent-web spider and assigned each strand a tone audible to humans reports, Hicks Wogan for National Geographic. “We’re trying to give the spider a voice, and maybe someday, communicate with the arachnid via vibrations,” explains Prof. Markus Buehler.
Provost Martin A Schmidt has been named the 19th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), reports Diverse Issues in Higher Education reporter Jessica Ruf. “MIT has been a remarkable home for me,” Schmidt told Ruf. “It has allowed me to pursue my research and teaching passion, and I’ve been presented with outstanding opportunities.”
CNET science writer Monisha Ravisetti spotlights MIT researchers who have successfully recorded the scale formation of butterfly wings during its transformation. “Understanding their schematics could ultimately benefit constructed materials like windows and thermal systems and even bring an ethereal quality to textiles,” writes Ravisetti.
Popular Science reporter Hannah Seo writes that MIT researchers have developed a way to watch and record how the microscopic scales on a butterfly’s wings grow and tile themselves as the butterfly develops inside its chrysalis. The researchers hope to “use butterfly scales as inspiration for the design of new materials,” writes Seo. “Butterfly scales have other fascinating properties such as water repellency and the ability to regulate temperature.”
Researchers from MIT have developed a 3-D printable ink made from bacterial cells that can release anti-cancer drugs or remove toxins from the environment, reports Carissa Wong for New Scientist. This is the first of its kind,” says research affiliate Avinash Manjula-Basavanna. “A living ink that can respond to the environment. We have repurposed the matrix that these bacteria normally utilise as a shielding material to form a bio-ink.”
MIT Provost Martin Schmidt has been named the next president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he received his undergraduate degree, reports the Associated Press. “Marty is a unifying, visionary leader, and a renowned scholar in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science," said Arthur F. Golden, chair of the Rensselaer Board of Trustees.
ARS Technica senior writer Jennifer Ouellette spotlights MIT researchers who have successfully recorded the structural growth of butterfly wings inside its chrysalis for the first time. “A lot of these stages were understood and seen before, but now we can stitch them all together and watch continuously what’s happening, which gives us more information on the detail of how scales form,” says research assistant Anthony McDougal.
MIT researchers developed a new control system for the mini robotic cheetah that allows the robot to jump and traverse uneven terrain, reports Jules Suzdaltsev for Mashable. “There’s a camera for processing real-time input from a video camera that then translates that information into body movements for the robot,” Suzdaltsev explains.
During CNBC’s Technology Executive Council summit, Prof. Christopher Magee related how “allocating R&D resources efficiently is a critical skill, but one that most companies struggle with,” according to CNBC reporter Susan Caminiti. Magee's latest research “uses AI to predict the speed of the development of specific new innovations, all with the goal of deploying resources smartly and effectively,” writes Caminiti.