August 28, 2021
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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MIT's Approach to Covid-19
Student move-in has begun for the fall semester, with new Covid-19 protocols in place.
Extensive modeling by MIT’s Isolat group has helped shape the Institute’s Covid-19 policies, including procedures for returning to campus this fall. “I believe that we are a generous community and that we will be willing to take precautions to help keep each other healthy,” says Associate Dean of Engineering Peko Hosoi.
Top Headlines
Countering climate change with cool pavements
Researchers affiliated with the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub find that paving material selection could mitigate extreme heat and greenhouse gas emissions.
MIT Heat Island
A pivot from accounting to neuroscience
Through a summer research program at MIT, Patricia Pujols explored the neuromuscular junction, and a future in science.
MIT Heat Island
3 Questions: Martin Schmidt on MIT’s Strategic Action Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
MIT’s provost discusses how community building, collaboration, accountability, and critical investments will build a more impactful MIT.
MIT Heat Island
Inflatable robotic hand gives amputees real-time tactile control
Prosthetic enables a wide range of daily activities, such as zipping a suitcase, shaking hands, and petting a cat.
MIT Heat Island
3Q: Lynsey Ford on fostering confidence, passion for science, and student-centered learning
The SEED Academy program administrator describes how she and her colleagues help middle and high school students see why “science makes the world magic.”
MIT Heat Island
#ThisisMIT
In the Media
Opinion: That $56,000 drug? Blame Medicare // The New York Times
“Economists tend to favor letting the private sector set prices, but this requires a well-functioning market,” writes Professor Amy Finkelstein of the need to reign in prices of drugs administered by physicians.
Barnacle-inspired glue seals bleeding organs in seconds // Wired
MIT researchers have developed a glue, inspired by barnacles, that can adhere to wet tissues and stop bleeding nearly instantly.
Opinion: What can we do now to avert the worst climate impacts? // The Hill
Sergey Paltsev, deputy director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, examines the findings of the IPCC report on climate change.
Climate change will disrupt supply chains much more than Covid — here’s how businesses can prepare // CNBC
Professor John Sterman discusses how climate change will impact supply chains.
Recruiting student and teacher voices to rethink schools because of the pandemic // KQED
A report co-authored by Associate Professor Justin Reich proposes a path for rethinking K-12 schools after Covid-19.
Scene at MIT
This tranquil view of the Great Dome was captured by physics postdoc and shutterbug Tianyi Han. The Charles River is one of his favorite places to photograph. “I love the sense of seasons changing when I observe the river freezing, the trees blossoming, the full moon rising,” he says.
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I am honored to call myself a pilot and join the ranks of around 200 deaf pilots in the nation. ... My flying experience has motivated me to earn my private pilot license this fall to further challenge myself as a deaf pilot. Continuing my pilot training will raise the visibility and representation of deaf pilots, so others will realize that deaf people can become pilots.
—Sheila Xu ’14, in a recent essay, “A Deaf Pilot’s Path to Aviation”
High-Impact Images
In a new study that may help engineers develop a way to inject drugs without needles, MIT researchers fired small jets of water through many kinds of droplets, using high-speed cameras to capture each watery impact. The results were similar to the famous strobe-light photographs of a bullet piercing an apple pioneered by Harold “Doc” Edgerton. With his development of the electronic stroboscope, the inventor, entrepreneur, explorer, and beloved MIT professor succeeded in photographing phenomena that were too bright, dim, fast, or slow to be captured with traditional photography.
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