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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.

 
Exploring new paths to future quantum electronics
When ultrathin layered materials are coupled with other quantum materials having different properties, the resulting interface could produce a new quantum phenomenon — and new properties of the hybrid system could be unprecedented. This rich interface phenomenon is the topic of new investigation by Jagadeesh Moodera and his group at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. “Surface and interface play pivotal roles in many of the recently discovered quantum phenomena in condensed matter physics,” Moodera points out. “Investigating the complex interface...

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3 Questions: Harnessing wave power to rebuild...
Many island nations, including the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, are facing an existential threat as a result of a rising sea level induced by global climate change. A group of MIT researchers led by Skylar Tibbits, an associate professor of design research in the Department of Architecture, is testing ways of harnessing nature’s own forces to help maintain and rebuild threatened islands and coastlines. Some 40 percent of the world’s population lives in coastal areas that are threated...

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The Pandemic Strands Some Ship Crews at...
Marinder Singh was supposed to be home in Pune, India, by now. The marine engineer set sail on a chemical tanker in mid-September on what was supposed to be a four-month voyage. Early this year, as the Covid-19 pandemic began its spread, he extended his contract to mid-March, when the ship was set to dock in the United States. From there, Singh planned to fly to Pune for a few months relaxing with his family before his next voyage....

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Fantastical Plans Are on Hold, and More...
It continues to be pretty awful out there in the world. Flying cars might not be coming anytime soon, the Google sister company Sidewalk Labs canceled its fantastical plans to build the city of the future in Toronto, and suffering government budgets will make it harder to fix roads. And yet! WIRED found some bright spots this week. As cities experiment with shutting streets to car traffic, it might soon be safe in some places to run restaurants and...

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Covid-19 Casts a Dark Cloud Over the...
The electric air taxi business—spurred along for years by Uber’s Elevate initiative and also known as flying cars—is flying into a cloudy unknown: The murky pall of the Covid-19 pandemic and its related, brutal economic downturn. Given how plummeting revenues and homebound consumers have gut punched the established airline and automotive industries, it’s easy to lose all hope for a newcomer that requires an especially long runway to take off. For certain, some players chasing the urban aviation dream...

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Daniel Kemp, professor emeritus of chemistry, dies...
Daniel S. Kemp, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry, died peacefully and comfortably from respiratory complications due to Covid-19, after a battle with dementia, on Saturday, May 2. He was 83. “Dan’s broad research reached across disciplines and he was famous for his ability to captivate both students and faculty with his insight and enthusiasm,” said Professor Troy Van Voorhis, head of the Department of Chemistry, upon learning of Kemp’s passing. “He will be long remembered for his...

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An innovation plan to beat Covid-19
For humans, the Covid-19 virus is a novel foe. And to combat a new pathogen, we need innovation: a new vaccine, new drugs, new tests, new clinical knowledge, and new data for epidemiology models. In response to the current crisis, many private companies and some governments have been trying to generate a vaccine and other medical advances in short order. And yet, whatever progress is being made, we can do better, suggests an MIT professor who has spent two...

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3 Questions: The rapidly unfolding future of...
In an opinion piece published in the journal Matter, members of the Fibers@MIT research group recently laid out a detailed vision for how the rapidly growing field of  advanced fibers and fabrics could transform many aspects of our lives. For example, “smart clothing” might continuously monitor temperature, heart rate, and other vital signs, then analyze the data and give warnings of potential health conditions. Headed by Professor Yoel Fink, the group is developing fibers and fabrics with advanced computational...

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Kerry Emanuel, David Sabatini, and Peter...
The BBVA Foundation awarded three MIT professors Frontiers of Knowledge Awards for their work in climate change, biology and biomedicine, and quantum computation. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Professor Kerry A. Emanuel, Department of Biology Professor David Sabatini, and Department of Mathematics Professor Peter Shor were recognized in the 12th edition of this annual award. Kerry Emanuel Emanuel, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science, earned the BBVA’s Climate Change award “for his fundamental contributions...

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Infusing ethics into experiential learning
“Learning about ethics isn’t like a vaccine — where you take one or two philosophy classes and you’re set for life — but more like eating your vegetables every day to stay healthy,” says Kate Trimble, senior associate dean and director of the Office of Experiential Learning. “It’s a muscle that you develop over time, with repeated exposure, in different contexts, and by talking to people who have different perspectives and experiences than you do.” Now, MIT undergraduates have...

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When baby planets melt
Let’s start at the beginning. Before humans, before Earth, before any of the planets existed, there were baby planets — planetesimals. Coalesced from dust exploded outward by the solar nebula, these blobs of material were just a few kilometers in diameter. Soon, they too aggregated due to gravity to form the rocky planets in the innermost part of the solar system, leaving the early details about these planetesimals to the imagination. Their mysterious identity is complicated by the fact...

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In a suddenly remote spring, library support...
While the MIT Libraries’ physical spaces and tangible collections are currently inaccessible, its network of people, services, and resources has mobilized behind the scenes to ensure that Institute learning and research continue despite the disruptions of Covid-19.  Since mid-March, the MIT Libraries have provided only services and resources that can be accessed remotely. Library staff — like many across MIT — had to quickly pivot to a new reality, finding creative solutions to providing the expertise and resources the...

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Optogenetics with SOUL
Optogenetics has revolutionized neurobiology, allowing researchers to use light to activate or deactivate neurons that are genetically modified to express a light-sensitive channel. This ability to manipulate neuron activity has allowed causal testing of the function of specific neurons, and also has therapeutic potential to reduce symptoms in brain disorders. However, activating neurons deep within a given brain, especially a large primate brain but even a small mouse brain, is challenging, and currently requires implanting fibers that could cause...

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Rockin’ the Zoom room
Matt Fulton is not used to “rocking out” alone on his sunporch. The MIT facilities and operations administrator usually sings and plays guitar before a full room at Boston’s Green Dragon on Thursday nights. At least, he did until bars closed and physical distancing increased in response to Covid-19. Recently he found himself playing for a new audience, his Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) colleagues, welcoming them to an end-of-the-week Zoom concert of “pub tunes” with Elton John’s...

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MIT’s second virtual town hall addresses the...
Although many are eager to find out what MIT’s plans will be for reopening the campus, President L. Rafael Reif said Tuesday that those decisions should wait until more information is available about the Covid-19 virus and the effectiveness of various countermeasures or treatments. Speaking at the Institute’s second online “town hall,” he noted that those decisions will likely be announced by late June or early July. Whenever people do return to campus, it will almost certainly be a...

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