May 2, 2020
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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MIT EMS
Eight students and alumni volunteered to stay on campus during the Covid-19 crisis to keep MIT EMS running. Junior Nathan Han sees his work on the ambulance service as “a great opportunity to give back to the MIT community in a time of necessity.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Top Headlines
Love Lab is developing a Covid-19 vaccine to potentially reach billions
Manufacturability is key to producing a widely available, affordable vaccine.
MIT Heat Island
3 Questions: Tom Leighton on the major surge in internet traffic triggered by physical distancing
Mathematics professor and CEO of web services company Akamai looks ahead to how the pandemic-driven shift to remote working might change society.
MIT Heat Island
Will the Covid-19 pandemic change national security?
At MIT’s Starr Forum, experts consider whether the coronavirus crisis might lead to a rethinking of defense strategies.
MIT Heat Island
Q&A: Gregory Rutledge on initial testing of KN95 respirators for public health officials
MIT professor’s research group leverages its capability for testing filtration efficiency to assess certain respirators for MEMA, others.
MIT Heat Island
Six from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2020
Prestigious honor society announces more than 250 new members.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#ThisisMIT
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In the Media
Why Europe has kept down pandemic unemployment — and the U.S. hasn’t // The Washington Post
Professor Kathleen Thelen examines the effectiveness of European and U.S. programs aimed at reducing unemployment. Thelen and Anke Hassel of the Hertie School in Germany note, “it isn’t just the size of the assistance package that counts: it is how it is delivered.”
MIT out-MITs itself; builds full scale campus replica on Minecraft // Boston Magazine
MIT community members recreated the MIT campus in Minecraft, providing an opportunity for students to enjoy MIT’s “intensely collaborate culture” from afar.
Researchers say they’ve ID’d cells targeted by coronavirus // The Boston Globe
MIT researchers have identified specific cells that appear to be targeted by coronavirus. They hope their finding will “help scientists working on developing new drug treatments or testing existing medications that could be repurposed for treating Covid-19.”
You need something new to watch. What about the universe? // The New York Times
A short documentary chronicles Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss’ quest to detect gravitational waves.
Tech from MIT may allow caregivers to monitor coronavirus patients from a distance // The Boston Globe
“It really increases the safety that we can provide to doctors, nurses, and staff, and at the same time be able to access information that is otherwise unavailable," explains Professor Dina Katabi.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Featured Video
“This is my new life as a quaranteen
Pandemic nation like I’ve never seen

When daily life is full of pathogens and landmines
It’s the docs who are fighting on the front lines
The rest of us just need a little distance

I want you to know
That I miss you
And I’ll see you on the other side...”

Take a music break with “Quaranteen,” an original rock song and video by sophomore Kyle Markland, a materials science and engineering major and member of the MIT Symphony Orchestra.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Digit
24,090
Collective number of minutes logged by participants of the community-wide MIT@2:50 since the daily quiet-reflection sessions began 50 days ago
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Listen
A new episode of Deep Tech, a podcast from MIT Technology Review, tackles the question of what life will look like on the road to a post-pandemic recovery. Host Wade Roush, a research affiliate in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, asks: How do we safely roll back current physical-distancing measures? MIT Technology Review Editor-in-Chief Gideon Lichfield explains the key Covid-19 testing and tracing measures we’ll need before we can think about venturing back to work, school, and other socially dense settings.
Listen to the podcast
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Visit the MIT Covid-19 website for the latest updates on the Institute’s response to the Covid-19 emergency.

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