The Beatles is one of the biggest bands of all time and we are all familiar with their classic hits such as “She Loves You,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Today, it’s hard to imagine there was a time before the Fab Four were rich and famous. However, in 1960, the lads were still mediocre, unknown teen performers struggling to get gigs in their hometown of Liverpool. So when offered a residency at……
Situated in the heart of Australia’s Pilbara region at the mouth of the Harding River is the small historic town of Cossack. This once-abandoned area is steeped in history and in recent years the town’s buildings have been restored to allow visitors to step back in time. The history first started with the Ngarluma people, the local Aboriginal people who occupied the land for hunting and fishing for thousands of years. In 1863, a British-born Australian pioneer named Walter……
Just after dawn, Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train pulls into the station at Whitefish, Montana, as it does every day on its cross-country journey from Seattle to Chicago. The train usually consists of two locomotives and a string of utilitarian passenger cars. But on this morning, two of the cars, directly behind the locomotives, disrupt that familiar conformity. Unlike the regular Amtrak cars, these ones look just like they did decades ago: One is polished stainless steel and the……
In 1611, Johannes Kepler — known for his laws of planetary motion — offered a solution to the question concerning the densest possible way to arrange equal-sized spheres. The famed astronomer took on this problem when asked how to stack cannonballs so as to take up the least amount of space. Kepler concluded that the best configuration is a so-called face-centered cubic lattice — an approach commonly used in grocery stores for displaying oranges: Every cannonball should rest in……
Halide perovskites are a family of materials that have attracted attention for their superior optoelectronic properties and potential applications in devices such as high-performance solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and lasers. These materials have largely been implemented into thin-film or micron-sized device applications. Precisely integrating these materials at the nanoscale could open up even more remarkable applications, like on-chip light sources, photodetectors, and memristors. However, achieving this integration has remained challenging because this delicate material can be damaged by conventional……
CLEVELAND (AP) — The Braves don’t let losses linger. They quickly do something about them. All-Stars Sean Murphy and Matt Olson homered and Austin Riley also connected as Atlanta bounced back from one of its rare losses over the past month by smashing the Cleveland Guardians 8-1 on Wednesday night. Murphy hit a solo shot in the third inning off Cal Quantrill (2-6) and Olson blasted a 428-footer in the ninth as the Braves collected 19 hits and took…
This Miami cemetery holds the remains of two Cuban presidents, a Nicaraguan president, and the senior Desi Arnaz. And it was once the resting place of the crown prince of Spain. The Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Cemetery in Miami holds a who’s who of Miami royalty, like the Merricks and the Brickells, founders of Coral Gables and the University of Miami, and creators of Brickell Avenue, respectively. Also lying beneath the cemetery’s manicured lawns and blindingly white mausoleums is a less……
The Tanglin Brunei Hostel or Asrama Kerajaan Brunei di Singapura (AKBS), although largely unknown even to most locals, has a rich history as a residence for Bruneian students studying in Singapore. The hostel, now in a dilapidated state, was built in 1958 to accommodate the increasing number of students from Brunei that were sent for schooling abroad. This was common in the 1950s as Brunei was facing economic struggles and difficulties in setting up its own former education system…….
Pi is an irrational number with an infinite amount of decimals. While 3.14 is good enough for high school students and most engineers often use 4.0 just to be sure, there are actually a lot of uses for the rest of the decimals, primarily in cryptography. These days we know pi down to tens of trillions of decimals, but not too long ago calculating a few dozen could literally take a lifetime. Many people in history spent years of……
In the past three decades, quantum computing has grown from a theoretical fantasy to a worldwide industry, pushing closer to a technology that could one day solve problems too complex for even the most powerful supercomputers. MIT Lincoln Laboratory is not only at the forefront of research, but is making quantum research accessible to a broader community through its Superconducting Qubits at Lincoln Laboratory (SQUILL) Foundry. Quantum bits (qubits) are building blocks of quantum computers, like transistors are to classical……
Across MIT’s campus, faculty and research teams collaborate with international partners to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The Institute’s reputation as a global leader in research and innovation is built, in part, on these partnerships. That important work is guided and advised by the International Advisory Committee (IAC) and its Institute partners to ensure research projects align with the Institute’s mission and values and meet national rules and regulations for engagement with foreign entities. As an……
The Milwaukee folk punk band Nineteen Thirteen has showcased the talents of various musicians over the years, from cellist Janet Schiff to drummer Victor DeLorenzo, a founding member of the chart-topping, Milwaukee-based Violent Femmes. Recently, though, the band featured a guest musician playing a lesser-known instrument—the typewriter. “This was my first time playing the typewriter as a musical instrument, but hopefully not the last,” says poet Monica Thomas, who provided backup to Renee Bebeau’s percussion while typing a local……
MIT Professor Keeril Makan has been named associate dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), effective July 1. Agustín Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of SHASS, says Makan will serve concurrently as associate dean and in his current role as head of the MIT Music and Theater Arts (MTA) Section. “Throughout my time as dean, I’ve been consistently impressed by Keeril’s leadership and insight as head of MTA. I look forward to working with……
Camels, samovars, sewing machines, prayer beads, guns, cars, snakes, camels and fruits. What do these have in common? Fifty kilometers from Baku, hidden from the public eye, lies a mysterious place called Sofi Hamid. And this is the place where you will see all kinds of images from nature and daily life. If you would land there by helicopter, you would wonder: who was buried here? What do those symbols, images, and bright colors mean? Adding to this confusion,……
MIT Professor Emeritus Richard “Dick” Thornton SM ’54, ScD ’57 passed away on May 16. He was 93. An innovator, entrepreneur, adventurer, and outdoor enthusiast, Thornton’s influence upon all the communities he touched was profound. He was well known for his leading work on maglev technology and other electronics innovations, as well as his key contributions to electronics education. Born Sept. 24, 1929 in Scarsdale, New York, Thornton earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in electrical engineering, and……
