Fighting Lyme disease + livestock and climate + chair design

[view in browser]( MIT Weekly [MIT Logo] March 23, 2024 Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community. Want a daily dose of MIT in your inbox? [Subscribe to the MIT Daily](. Fighting Lyme Disease #[A tick held by a forceps, with blurry background]( Human sweat contains a protein that may protect some people against Lyme disease, MIT scientists report. “We think there are real implications here for a preventative and possibly a therapeutic based on this protein,” says Principal Research Scientist Michal Caspi Tal. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines Study finds lands used for grazing can worsen or help climate change Too much livestock on a given amount of land can lead to carbon losses, but appropriate numbers can actually help sequester the carbon. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( How free online courses from MIT can “transform the future of the world” MIT OpenCourseWare’s YouTube channel inspires millions of learners across the globe to expand their knowledge and develop new skills for free. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Forging her own path By blending mechanical engineering, creative writing, and history studies, senior Amber Velez is discovering new ways of addressing climate change. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( For MIT students, there is much to learn from crafting a chair In class 4.500 (Design Computation), Professor Larry Sass teaches the thoughtful and experimental process of design through the familiar idea of a chair, while exploring “foundational technologies.” [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( How Lotte Bailyn reframed workplace practices The professor emerita’s pioneering research connecting organizational priorities and employee well-being is foundational to work practices today. [Full story via MIT Sloan →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Building success on a foundation of happiness “A sincere commitment to putting happiness first had pretty amazing, unexpected results,” says Schell Brothers founder and CEO Chris Schell ’96. [Full story via Slice of MIT→]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT #[17 students pose together outside in front of a 4-storey brick house on cloudy day. Text via @‌mit_sole: Last Saturday, March 16th, the Student Events Board (SEB) embarked on an enriching journey at the prestigious MIT Endicott House. This exclusive workshop focused on event planning and concert execution aimed to equip SEB members with enhanced leadership skills and refined event management abilities.]( [Follow @mit_sole on Instagram→]( In the Media How blatantly false headlines can distort what we believe in // Scientific American MIT researchers find that high exposure to implausible and outlandish false claims can increase an individual’s belief in more ambiguous-seeming claims. [Full story via Scientific American →]( Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly // CNN Radia, an energy startup founded by Mark Lundstrom ’91, SM ’93, MBA ’93, has developed the Windrunner, an airplane designed to deliver 300-foot-blades directly to wind farms. [Full story via CNN→]( AI doesn’t have to destroy jobs. It can empower the working class // The Washington Post Columnist Eduardo Porter spotlights various MIT research efforts aimed at ensuring that AI is used to empower human workers rather than replace them. [Full story via The Washington Post→]( Cambridge startup launching clinical trial for bra tracking heart health // Axios Bloomer Tech, a health tech startup founded by Alicia Chong Rodriguez SM ’17, SM ’18, is working to address the “gender gap in health care, which has led to less clinical trial representation and fewer resources to diagnose and treat women with various diseases.” [Full story via Axios→]( Watch This #[Video thumbnail of a student holding a large curved metal sculpture, spanning the width of a worktable, with gloved hands inside of workshop.]( Over Independent Activities Period, Jessica Rosenkrantz ’05 and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, co-founders of generative design studio Nervous System, offered a weeklong workshop where MIT students could build unique structures though mathematics and digital fabrication. In addition to building their own pieces, the 15 students worked on “[Building Complex Curvature from Flat Sheets]( a striking aluminum sculpture made from flat metal panels, currently on display in the courtyard of Building N52. On Nervous System’s varied work with mathematicians, scientists, craftspeople, and artists, Rosenkrantz mentions that “design seems to be a thing that naturally bridges between these different disciplines.” [Watch the video →]( Scene at MIT #[Deborah Tsogbe, a Black woman with short hair and glasses, stands next to display case featuring pieces from the Sisters in Making exhibit, including monochromatic photos, core rope memory prototype, and photos of the prototype.]( “I’d never heard before about how women built — by hand — the computer used for the Apollo 11 mission, and I wanted to do my part to bring their efforts to light,” says Deborah Tsogbe SM ’23 of the MIT Rotch Library exhibit, Sisters in Making: Prototyping and the Feminine Resilience, which she curated with graduate student Soala Ajienka. “The exhibit features original photos of the women and includes a visualization of the number of women over a 37-year period who were instrumental in MIT’s space race efforts. It also includes a physical prototype that I built of core rope memory that stores the names of 20 women who were integral to the Apollo 11 launch in 1969, along with accompanying documentation of that prototype.” [Full story via Slice of MIT→]( The Reason for the Seasons #[Construction paper cutouts of the sun and Earth showing its tilt appear on a black background]( Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere welcomed spring this week, as the vernal equinox took place March 19 at 11:06 p.m. ET. Would you be able to explain why we experience seasons to a 6-year-old? In this classic stop-motion primer, MIT K-12 Videos has got you covered. [Watch the video →]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [knowing that there are no ceilings](. 🪜 Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! —MIT News [Forward This Email]( [Subscribe]( [MIT Logo] This email was sent to {EMAIL} because of your affiliation with MIT, or because you signed up for our newsletters. [subscribe]( [update preferences]( [unsubscribe]( [view in browser]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( MIT News Office · 77 Massachusetts Avenue · Cambridge, MA 02139 · USA