Author: Ms. R.

Amid the brick furnaces of MIT’s forge and foundry, Mike Tarkanian poured liquid metal into a mold until it filled, then he emptied the rest into a trough. To demonstrate how quickly it solidified in the ambient temperature of the room, the senior lecturer in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) kicked the trough over, and a solid chunk of metal fell out. The demonstration was part of the annual Materials Genome Camp, a weeklong workshop to educate……

Read More

Although women’s wartime roles and agency tend to be neglected in conventional discourses on conflict, there are times when women not only take up arms but also shape the practices and policies of insurgent groups they fight for. Apekshya Prasai, a PhD candidate in MIT’s Department of Political Science, studies how rebel groups subvert entrenched patriarchal structures, ideas, and norms, and the role women play in this process.     “All insurgents operate in, recruit from, and depend on……

Read More

Ocean waves are easy on the eyes, but hard on the brain. How do they form? How far do they travel? How do they break? Those magnificent waves you see crashing into the shore are complex. “I’ve often asked this question,” the eminent wave scientist Walter Munk told MIT Professor Stefan Helmreich several years ago. “If we met somebody from another planet who had never seen waves, could dream about what it’s like when a wave becomes unstable……

Read More

MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is launching the Clean Air and Water Labs, with support from Community Jameel, to generate evidence-based solutions aimed at increasing access to clean air and water. Led by J-PAL’s Africa, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and South Asia regional offices, the labs will partner with government agencies to bring together researchers and policymakers in areas where impactful clean air and water solutions are most urgently needed. Together, the labs aim……

Read More

On the first day of fall class registration, MIT President Sally Kornbluth entered her office to find a life-sized Barbie-themed phone booth sitting in the reception area. Intrigued, she opened the pink phone booth door and stepped inside, where she discovered a complex web of mirrors and lights that give the illusion of infinite space travel. After enjoying a good laugh, she was greeted by the six incoming first-year students behind the project. “This exemplifies the creativity, the innovation,……

Read More

Figuring out how hundreds of different kinds of brain cells develop from their unique expression of thousands of genes promises to not only advance understanding of how the brain works in health, but also what goes wrong in disease. A new MIT study that precisely probes this “molecular logic” in two neuron types of the Drosophila fruit fly shows that even similar cells push and pull many levers to develop distinct functions. In the study in Neuron, a team of neurobiologists at……

Read More

The Tata Fellowship at MIT gives graduate students the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary research and work with real-world applications in developing countries. Part of the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, this fellowship contributes to the center’s goal of designing appropriate, practical solutions for resource-constrained communities. Three Tata Fellows — Serena Patel, Rameen Hayat Malik, and Ethan Harrison — discuss the impact of this program on their research, perspectives, and time at MIT. Serena Patel Serena Patel graduated……

Read More