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June 22, 2024
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community. 
 
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Safer Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy patients getting treatment
      
Leuko, founded by a research team at MIT, is giving doctors a noninvasive way to monitor cancer patients’ immune health during chemotherapy. Rather than drawing blood, the device uses light to look through the skin at the top of the fingernail.
Top Headlines
Arvind, longtime MIT professor and prolific computer scientist, dies at 77
The dedicated teacher and academic leader transformed research in computer architectures, parallel computing, and digital design, enabling faster and more efficient computation.
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Study: Titan’s lakes may be shaped by waves
MIT researchers find wave activity on Saturn’s largest moon may be strong enough to erode the coastlines of lakes and seas.
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Just thinking about a location activates mental maps in the brain
MIT neuroscientists have found that the brain uses the same cognitive representations whether navigating through space physically or mentally.
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Researchers use large language models to help robots navigate
The method uses language-based inputs instead of costly visual data to direct a robot through a multistep navigation task.
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Investing for change
MIT Sloan research helps family enterprise investors amplify their impact with a systems approach.
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A smarter way to streamline drug discovery
The SPARROW algorithm automatically identifies the best molecules to test as potential new medicines, given the vast number of factors affecting each choice.
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#ThisisMIT
Seven people (plus an inflatable rabbit and stag), while smiling, pose with musical instruments in a conference room. Text via @‌mitlibraries: We're kicking off MIT Libraries Summer Fridays with a picture of the Libraries (book) cover band, The Dust Jackets! Made up of staff members from across the Libraries, the Dust Jackets perform at staff appreciation events.
In the Media
A wild plan to avert catastrophic sea-level rise // The Atlantic 
Professor Brent Minchew discusses his quest to develop new technology “that could slow down the cryosphere’s disintegration.”
Scientists may have found an answer to the mystery of dark matter. It involves an unexpected byproduct // CNN 
MIT physicists have discovered the composition of primordial black holes, “potentially discovering an entirely new type of exotic black hole in the process.”
What “naked” singularities are revealing about quantum space-time // New Scientist 
Associate Professor Netta Engelhardt discusses the possibility of singularities existing outside black holes. Theorists can now probe singularities from a deeper perspective, using insights into the possible quantum foundations of gravity.
“Jurassic Park” theme preserved in DNA in “amber” // Newsweek
An amber-like material created by MIT researchers could be used to preserve DNA so it can store data. 
Scene at MIT
Bust of Nikola Tesla on which someone has put a Celtics baseball cap
Congrats to the Celtics on their NBA Championship!
Remember This
The MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics logo is above the text “Supply Chain Frontiers”. Below that is an Illustration of Jaume Plensa’s “Alchemist”.
In a new episode of the MIT Supply Chain Frontiers podcast, members of the MIT Low Income Firms Transformation (LIFT) Lab — Director Josué Velázquez Martínez, postdoc Sreedevi Rajagopalan, and graduate student Fabio Castro — discuss the lab’s work empowering micro retailers and nanostores in emerging markets to lift themselves out of poverty. These retailers, while making up an overwhelming majority of retail business in their regions, are at a significant disadvantage when dealing with large suppliers and competing with large retailers. Using AI, the LIFT Lab is helping these retailers enhance their business decision-making and supply chain capabilities to help them survive and thrive.
Listen to the full episode
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