| Deepfakes Explained | | | | | | Digitally altered “deepfakes” can be used to manipulate and threaten individuals and corporations. While there isn’t a foolproof checklist, experts have identified some things to look for when trying to decipher whether an image or video is real. |
| With Perseverance and a little MOXIE, MIT is going to Mars Led by MIT researchers, one of the experiments aboard the next mission to the Red Planet aims to generate oxygen from Martian air. |  |
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| $25 million gift launches ambitious new effort tackling poverty and climate change The King Climate Action Initiative at J-PAL will develop large-scale climate-response programs for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. |  |
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| Ila Fiete studies how the brain performs complex computations The MIT professor takes a mathematical approach to exploring memory, navigation, and other neural functions. |  |
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| Five ways to stabilize the Covid-19 economy |
U.S. markets are likely to face an extremely tough road ahead. At an MIT Sloan event, financial experts discussed measures that may help. |
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| Better suits for groomsmen — and for women |
The Groomsman Suit, co-founded by Diana Ganz MBA ’14, is one of a limited number of retailers challenging the idea that tuxedos are only for men. |  |
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| Will autonomous vehicles bring a jobless future? An MIT report says not so fast // Forbes Professor David Mindell highlights a report by researchers from MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future that explores the future of automation. “What comes to pass is up to us, and will be shaped by policy choices we make today,” Mindell writes. |
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| Opinion: A coronavirus vaccine can’t come at the expense of fighting the virus now // The Washington Post Associate Professor Robin Wolfe Scheffler underscores the importance of not only pursuing coronavirus vaccine development initiatives, but also “addressing the social and political factors that exacerbate disease and limit the access of many Americans to basic medical care.” |
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| NASA’s new Mars rover is about to embark on a hunt for ancient alien life // The Verge |
| “This is really a unique — really a once-in-a-lifetime — opportunity to get samples from a known location on Mars,” says Professor Tanja Bosak, a member of the mission’s Project Science Group, of the significance of the Mars 2020 mission and the Perseverance rover’s quest to bring samples of Martian material back to Earth. |
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| Scientists are developing synthetic biosensors to monitor lung disease // STAT Professor Sangeeta Bhatia and senior postdoc Leslie Chan discuss their work developing a synthetic biosensor that uses specialized nanoparticles to diagnose lung disease. |
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| Save the Date: Day of Dialogue | | | | On Aug. 5, MIT will be holding a Day of Dialogue, a space for us all to reflect on, and consider actions to address, racism in our community and around the nation. Through a broad menu of speakers and interactive sessions, the Day of Dialogue will offer opportunities to learn from national experts, ask questions, build skills for personal action, make new connections, share personal experiences, and listen thoughtfully to one another with open minds and open hearts. Registration is now open for this important community event. |
| | | Earlier this month, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard processed its 300,000th Covid-19 test in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the City of Cambridge, and more. Since March, the Broad has steadily increased the pace and scale of diagnostic testing, while also developing test protocols that make them easier to administer and process, all at a low cost. (MIT Medical uses these protocols in their diagnostics.) This recent video provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Broad’s Covid-19 diagnostic process. |
| | | NASA’s Mars 2020 mission took a giant leap yesterday with a successful launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Onboard is the Perseverance rover — including the MOXIE instrument developed by MIT researchers — and Ingenuity helicopter, which are slated to reach the Red Planet in February 2021. Just about 4 miles away, Natalia Guerrero, an MIT technical associate with the Kavli Institute serving as a press liaison for the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, snapped this photo. “The last time I was here was as part of the science team speaking to press for the TESS launch,” she says. “I grew up in Orlando being able to see rocket launches from my front yard, or driving an hour to [Cape Canaveral] after school to watch them from the beach, so it’s a surreal experience to be involved in not just one, but two launches as an adult.” |
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