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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
AI model can reveal the structures of...
For more than 100 years, scientists have been using X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of crystalline materials such as metals, rocks, and ceramics. This technique works best when the crystal is intact, but in many cases, scientists have only a powdered version of the material, which contains random fragments of the crystal. This makes it more challenging to piece together the overall structure. MIT chemists have now come up with a new generative AI model that can make...

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Study: AI could lead to inconsistent outcomes...
A new study from researchers at MIT and Penn State University reveals that if large language models were to be used in home surveillance, they could recommend calling the police even when surveillance videos show no criminal activity. In addition, the models the researchers studied were inconsistent in which videos they flagged for police intervention. For instance, a model might flag one video that shows a vehicle break-in but not flag another video that shows a similar activity. Models...

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Improving biology education here, there, and everywhere
When she was a child, Mary Ellen Wiltrout PhD ’09 didn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a K-12 teacher. Growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, Wiltrout was studious with an early interest in science — and ended up pursuing biology as a career.  But following her doctorate at MIT, she pivoted toward education after all. Now, as the director of blended and online initiatives and a lecturer with the Department of Biology, she’s shaping biology pedagogy at...

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A wobble from Mars could be sign...
In a new study, MIT physicists propose that if most of the dark matter in the universe is made up of microscopic primordial black holes — an idea first proposed in the 1970s — then these gravitational dwarfs should zoom through our solar system at least once per decade. A flyby like this, the researchers predict, would introduce a wobble into Mars’ orbit, to a degree that today’s technology could actually detect. Such a detection could lend support to...

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Affordable high-tech windows for comfort and energy...
Imagine if the windows of your home didn’t transmit heat. They’d keep the heat indoors in winter and outdoors on a hot summer’s day. Your heating and cooling bills would go down; your energy consumption and carbon emissions would drop; and you’d still be comfortable all year ’round. AeroShield, a startup spun out of MIT, is poised to start manufacturing such windows. Building operations make up 36 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and today’s windows are a major...

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Finding some stability in adaptable brains
One of the brain’s most celebrated qualities is its adaptability. Changes to neural circuits, whose connections are continually adjusted as we experience and interact with the world, are key to how we learn. But to keep knowledge and memories intact, some parts of the circuitry must be resistant to this constant change. “Brains have figured out how to navigate this landscape of balancing between stability and flexibility, so that you can have new learning and you can have lifelong...

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A new way to reprogram immune cells...
A collaboration between four MIT groups, led by principal investigators Laura L. Kiessling, Jeremiah A. Johnson, Alex K. Shalek, and Darrell J. Irvine, in conjunction with a group at Georgia Tech led by M.G. Finn, has revealed a new strategy for enabling immune system mobilization against cancer cells. The work, which appears today in ACS Nano, produces exactly the type of anti-tumor immunity needed to function as a tumor vaccine — both prophylactically and therapeutically. Cancer cells can look very similar to the...

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Study: Early dark energy could resolve cosmology’s...
A new study by MIT physicists proposes that a mysterious force known as early dark energy could solve two of the biggest puzzles in cosmology and fill in some major gaps in our understanding of how the early universe evolved. One puzzle in question is the “Hubble tension,” which refers to a mismatch in measurements of how fast the universe is expanding. The other involves observations of numerous early, bright galaxies that existed at a time when the early...

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Startup’s displays engineer light to create immersive...
One of the biggest reasons virtual reality hasn’t taken off is the clunky headsets that users have to wear. But what if you could get the benefits of virtual reality without the headsets, using screens that computationally improve the images they display? That’s the goal of the startup Brelyon, which is commercializing a new kind of display and content-rendering approach that immerses users in virtual worlds without requiring them to strap goggles onto their heads. The displays run light...

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3 Questions: What does innovation look like...
In 2020, more than 278,000 people died from substance use disorder with over 91,000 of those from overdoses. Just three years later, deaths from overdoses alone rose by over 25,000. Despite its magnitude, the substance use disorder crisis still faces fundamental challenges: a prevailing societal stigma, lack of knowledge around its origin in the brain, and the slow pace of innovation in comparison to other diseases. Work at MIT is contributing to meaningful innovations in the field of substance use...

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MIT welcomes nine MLK Scholars for 2024-25
Every year since 1991, MIT has welcomed outstanding visiting scholars to campus through the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professors and Scholars Program. The Institute aspires to attract candidates who are, in King’s words, “trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom.” MLK Scholars enhance the intellectual and cultural life of the Institute through teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and through active research collaborations with faculty. They work within MIT’s academic departments, but also across fields such...

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Meet the 2024 tenured professors in the...
In 2024, eight faculty were granted tenure in the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. They include the following: Dwaipayan Banerjee is an associate professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. His work foregrounds the intellectual labor of South Asian scientists, engineers and medical practitioners, challenging conventional understandings of science, technology, and medicine. Banerjee has published two books, “Enduring Cancer” and “Hematologies,” with a third, “Computing in the Time of Decolonization,” under review at Princeton...

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Harnessing the power of placebo for pain...
Placebos are inert treatments, generally not expected to impact biological pathways or improve a person’s physical health. But time and again, some patients report that they feel better after taking a placebo. Increasingly, doctors and scientists are recognizing that rather than dismissing placebos as mere trickery, they may be able to help patients by harnessing their power. To maximize the impact of the placebo effect and design reliable therapeutic strategies, researchers need a better understanding of how it works....

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MIT graduate programs empower the next generation...
Designing a ship or submarine for the U.S. Navy requires an understanding of naval architecture, hydrodynamics, electrical and structural engineering, materials science, and more. That’s why the Navy works so closely with MIT, where some of the world’s foremost experts in each of those disciplines converge. The largest among the graduate-level naval programs at MIT is the 2N Graduate Program in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. The three-year 2N program helps naval officers work at the intersection of different...

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MIT students combat climate anxiety through extracurricular...
Climate anxiety affects nearly half of young people aged 16-25. Students like second-year Rachel Mohammed find hope and inspiration through her involvement in innovative climate solutions, working alongside peers who share her determination. “I’ve met so many people at MIT who are dedicated to finding climate solutions in ways that I had never imagined, dreamed of, or heard of. That is what keeps me going, and I’m doing my part,” she says. Hydrogen-fueled engines Hydrogen offers the potential for...

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