August 6, 2022
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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Optimizing Health Logistics
Portrait photo of Emma Gibson standing next to a tree, with a woodsy path to the left and a cement wall to the right
 
PhD student Emma Gibson is working to improve diagnostic services in Malawi. “We have the tools” to treat diseases like HIV, she says. “But in resource-limited settings, we often lack the money, the staff, and the infrastructure to reach every patient.”
Top Headlines
Monkeypox: What you should know
MIT Medical provides guidance on this public health emergency, including information about symptoms, treatment, and prevention.
MIT Heat Island
Friendly skies? An MIT study charts Covid-19 odds for plane flights
Researchers calculated the chances of catching the illness when aloft during the first year of the pandemic.
MIT Heat Island
MIT submits U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in Harvard/UNC admissions cases
MIT, together with Stanford University, IBM, and Aeris Communications, filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to allow colleges and universities to consider race as one of many factors in admissions.
MIT Heat Island
MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body
New stamp-sized ultrasound adhesives produce clear images of heart, lungs, and other internal organs.
MIT Heat Island
3 Questions: John Durant on the new MIT Museum at Kendall Square
The MIT Museum director describes how the museum is reinventing itself for the 21st century.
MIT Heat Island
#ThisisMIT
MIT quote-tweet of Robert Downey Jr., who posts a photo of himself with Hugh Herr standing on a rooftop overlooking MIT campus and the Boston skyline. He says "Optogenetics! Biomechatronics! Osseointegration! Magnetomicrometry! Tony Stark went to MIT, and thanks to Hugh Herr and the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics, I'm witnessing the REAL WORLD TECHNOLOGY MIRACLES that will affect countless lives in previously unimagiable ways." MIT replies, " Always good to have you back on campus, Tony.
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In the Media
Major semiconductor support bill passes first hurdle // Science Friday
Professor Jesús del Alamo discusses the importance of the CHIPS Act and the pressing need to invest in semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. “There is a deep connection between leading-edge manufacturing and innovation,” says del Alamo.
Slowly but surely, robots will wind up in our clothes // The Washington Post
Professor Yoel Fink and colleagues “have created fibers with hundreds of [silicon] microchips to transmit digital signals — essential if clothes are to automatically track things like heart rate or foot swelling.”
Manifesta 14 reinvigorates neglected spaces in Kosovo’s capital // Economist
Professor of the practice Carlo Ratti speaks on his work aimed at revitalizing unused spaces in Kosovo’s capital. “We wanted to start something that could continue in the long term: small interventions that, little by little, could become part of the city,” he says.
Could silk take a bite out of humanity’s microplastic problem? // Salon
MIT researchers led by Assistant Professor Benedetto Marelli and postodoc Muchun Liu developed a silk-based substitute that could be used to replace microplastics.
Watch This
Three students are deep in conversation about something off to the right, while other students also look to the right. A large "ENGINEERS" is painted on the wall behind them.
Unified Engineering is a rite of passage for AeroAstro sophomores, putting them on a path toward careers as aeronautical engineers. “It equips the students with fundamental skills,” Professor Zoltán Spakovszky says. “There’s hands-on experience as well.”
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Covid is far from over, but we are moving to a place where, as a society and as individuals, we are learning how to live with the disease. ... [W]e are progressing to a point where Covid is more closely resembling the flu than the terrifying disease it was back in early 2020.
—Cecilia Stuopis, director of MIT Medical, on where things stand with Covid-19 at MIT, and what to expect for the fall
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