| Comparing Mammalian Brains | | | | | | Neuroscientists have found a striking difference between neurons of humans and other mammals, which might have allowed the human brain to operate more efficiently. “We were surprised to find strong evidence that human neurons are special,” says graduate student Lou Beaulieu-Laroche. |
| James Swan, associate professor of chemical engineering, dies at 39 The recently tenured professor, who joined the MIT faculty in 2013, studied the structure and dynamics of soft matter. |  |
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| Setting a new standard for hormone health Alumna-founded Aavia uses education, community, and technology to change the way people think about hormones. |  |
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| Diagnosing cancer with a barcode-inspired test Dana Al-Sulaiman, a recent postdoc with MIT’s Ibn Khaldun Fellowship for Saudi Arabian Women, has developed a cheap, minimally invasive diagnostic test for cancer. |  |
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| Giving robots social skills A new machine-learning system helps robots understand and perform certain social interactions. |  |
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| An aspiring human rights lawyer, wielding tools from mathematics and philosophy Senior Ana Reyes Sanchez has long been drawn to problems involving ethics, decision-making, and rationality. |  |
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| Opinion: How I cut my use of fossil fuels: tips from the pros // The Wall Street Journal Professor John Sterman details how he reduced his personal carbon footprint, from commuting via bicycle to completing a deep-energy retrofit on his home. |
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| A material thinner than human hair could slash carbon emissions // Bloomberg Osmoses, an MIT startup, has “created a membrane material thinner than human hair to reduce carbon emissions from industrial processes such as natural gas production.” |
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| COP26 is bringing many calls for action. Some are already taking action. // The Washington Post Professor Jessika Trancik has developed a tool that details the carbon imprints of different cars. |
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| Opinion: The challenge of being human in the age of AI // The Wall Street Journal Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state, and Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and former executive chairman of Google and Alphabet, explore how AI provides an opportunity for humans to redefine our roles in the world and the need to consider AI’s impact on culture, humanity and history. |
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| | | Military training has existed at MIT since 1865, with more than 12,000 officers commissioned from the Institute. Today, MIT offers U.S. Air Force, Army, and Naval ROTC programs. In honor of Veterans Day, cadets from all three branches presented the flag. |
| | | In their return to intercollegiate play after a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the MIT Engineers had a fantastic fall season. Special congratulations are in order for the men’s cross country, women’s cross country, women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball teams, whose championship trophies are seen here. |
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