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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.

 
Times Higher Education ranks MIT No. 1...
The 2025 Times Higher Education World University Ranking has ranked MIT first in three subject categories: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, and Social Sciences.  The Times Higher Education World University Ranking is an annual publication of university rankings by Times Higher Education, a leading British education magazine. The subject rankings are based on 18 rigorous performance indicators. Criteria include teaching, research environment, research volume and influence, industry, and international outlook. Disciplines included in the 2025 top-ranked subjects are housed in...

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Faces of MIT: Michele David
Michele David has had a long and varied career in medicine. But, she says, it took coming to MIT nine years ago to find “a job that fully engages all of who I am.” David, a highly accomplished physician, currently serves as chief of clinical quality and patient safety at MIT Health, the Institute’s multispecialty group practice and health resource serving the MIT community — including students, faculty, and staff, as well as affiliated families and retirees. While she...

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Five years, five triumphs in Putnam Math...
For the fifth time in the history of the annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, and for the fifth year in a row, MIT swept all five of the contest’s top spots. The top five scorers each year are named Putnam Fellows. Senior Brian Liu and juniors Papon Lapate and Luke Robitaille are now three-time Putnam Fellows, sophomore Jiangqi Dai earned his second win, and first-year Qiao Sun earned his first. Each receives a $2,500 award. This is also the fifth...

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Rohit Karnik named director of J-WAFS
Rohit Karnik, the Tata Professor in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been named the new director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS), effective March 1. Karnik, who has served as associate director of J-WAFS since 2023, succeeds founding director John H. Lienhard V, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water and Mechanical Engineering. Karnik assumes the role of director at a pivotal time for J-WAFS, as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. Announcing the...

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Collaborating to advance research and innovation on...
The following is a joint announcement from the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories and GlobalFoundries.  MIT and GlobalFoundries (GF), a leading manufacturer of essential semiconductors, have announced a new research agreement to jointly pursue advancements and innovations for enhancing the performance and efficiency of critical semiconductor technologies. The collaboration will be led by MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) and GF’s research and development team, GF Labs. With an initial research focus on artificial intelligence and other applications, the first projects are expected...

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Will neutrons compromise the operation of superconducting...
High-temperature superconducting magnets made from REBCO, an acronym for rare earth barium copper oxide, make it possible to create an intense magnetic field that can confine the extremely hot plasma needed for fusion reactions, which combine two hydrogen atoms to form an atom of helium, releasing a neutron in the process. But some early tests suggested that neutron irradiation inside a fusion power plant might instantaneously suppress the superconducting magnets’ ability to carry current without resistance (called critical current),...

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Sometimes, when competitors collaborate, everybody wins
One large metropolis might have several different train systems, from local intercity lines to commuter trains to longer regional lines. When designing a system of train tracks, stations, and schedules in this network, should rail operators assume each entity operates independently, seeking only to maximize its own revenue? Or that they fully cooperate all the time with a joint plan, putting their own interest aside? In the real world, neither assumption is very realistic. Researchers from MIT and ETH...

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Rebuilding Ukraine
Nearly three years after Russian military forces invaded Ukraine, escalating a decade-long conflict, Ukrainian cities lie in ruin as the war drags on. The seaside city of Mariupol was particularly hard hit. Bombs hollowed out hospitals and homes and leveled banks and playgrounds. Schools sit charred and empty. The remaining 30 percent of the population still residing in Mariupol, now under Russian occupation, lack reliable electricity, clean water, and medical care. And of the 65,000 Mariupolites in exile across Ukraine and...

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Fiber computer allows apparel to run apps...
What if the clothes you wear could care for your health? MIT researchers have developed an autonomous programmable computer in the form of an elastic fiber, which could monitor health conditions and physical activity, alerting the wearer to potential health risks in real-time. Clothing containing the fiber computer was comfortable and machine washable, and the fibers were nearly imperceptible to the wearer, the researchers report. Unlike on-body monitoring systems known as “wearables,” which are located at a single point...

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A protein from tiny tardigrades may help...
About 60 percent of all cancer patients in the United States receive radiation therapy as part of their treatment. However, this radiation can have severe side effects that often end up being too difficult for patients to tolerate. Drawing inspiration from a tiny organism that can withstand huge amounts of radiation, researchers at MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the University of Iowa have developed a new strategy that may protect patients from this kind of damage. Their approach...

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MIT engineers prepare to send three payloads...
Three MIT payloads will soon hitch a ride to the moon in a step toward establishing a permanent base on the lunar surface. In the coming days, weather permitting, MIT engineers and scientists will send three payloads into space, on a course set for the moon’s south polar region. Scientists believe this area, with its permanently shadowed regions, could host hidden reservoirs of frozen water, which could serve to sustain future lunar settlements and fuel missions beyond the moon....

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Student Spotlight: Titus Roesler
The following is part of a series of short interviews from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) featuring a student describing themselves and life at MIT. Today’s interviewee, Titus Roesler, is a senior majoring in electrical science and engineering. As a first-year at MIT, Roesler joined the Experimental Study Group (ESG), a learning community that offers new MIT students the general Institute requirements (GIRs) in a small, tight-knit class setting. Roesler stuck around as an associate advisor...

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An “All-American” vision of service to others
Spencer Paysinger has already been many things in his life, including a Super Bowl-winning linebacker, a writer and producer of the hit television series “All-American,” and local-business entrepreneur. But as he explained during his keynote speech at MIT’s 51st annual event celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Paysinger would prefer to think about his journey in additional terms: whether he has been able to serve others along the way. “As I stand up here today...

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Two from MIT named 2025 Gates Cambridge...
MIT senior Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli and recent alumna Abigail (“Abbie”) Schipper ’24 have been selected as Gates Cambridge Scholars and will begin graduate studies this fall in the field of their choice at Cambridge University in the U.K. Now celebrating its 25th year, the Gates Cambridge program provides fully funded post-graduate scholarships to outstanding applicants from countries outside of the U.K. The mission of Gates Cambridge is to build a global network of future leaders committed to changing the world...

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High-speed videos show what happens when a...
Rain can freefall at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. If the droplets land in a puddle or pond, they can form a crown-like splash that, with enough force, can dislodge any surface particles and launch them into the air. Now MIT scientists have taken high-speed videos of droplets splashing into a deep pool, to track how the fluid evolves, above and below the water line, frame by millisecond frame. Their work could help to predict how...

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