Passion for biomaterials + Delta updates + Boosting Black entrepreneurs

MIT Weekly July 31, 2021 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](. A Passion for Biomaterials # Eesha Khare, a PhD student in materials science and engineering, studies the chemical bonds that allow mussels to bind to rocks along turbulent coastlines. Her interests also include science policy, climate advocacy, and entrepreneurship. “I like being outside of my comfort zone,” she says. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines How are things different with Delta? MIT Medical provides the latest guidance about Covid-19 viral loads, transmission, testing, and masking in response to the now-dominant Delta variant. [Full story via MIT Medical→]( [MIT Heat Island]( A new way to detect the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant in wastewater SMART researchers have developed an innovative method to detect and quantify the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant of concern via wastewater epidemiology. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Jing Wang, professor of Chinese media and cultural studies, dies at 71 Wang, who founded the China-based media activism nonprofit NGO2.0, taught at MIT since 2001. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Closing the gap for Black business owners Burunda Prince ’83 is working to build the infrastructure to support Black entrepreneurs in successfully building their companies. [Full story via Slice of MIT→]( [MIT Heat Island]( Top innovators under 35 for 2021 A dozen alumni, staff, and current or former postdocs from the MIT community were named to the MIT Technology Review“35 Innovators Under 35” list. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT # [Follow @MIT on Twitter →]( In the Media She has an MIT degree and doesn’t think skateboarding’s a sport. But she plans to win a medal. // The Washington Post Alexis Sablone MArch ’16 is “one of the world’s greatest female professional street skateboarders, with seven X Games medals, her own Converse shoe line and now a spot in the Tokyo Olympics.” Sablone discusses skateboarding, the Olympic Games, and why she’s uncomfortable with being defined. “I’m just always trying to be myself and do things that I love to do and not try to fit into these categories in ways that I don’t feel comfortable with,” she says. [Full story via The Washington Post→]( Startup claims breakthrough in long-duration batteries // The Wall Street Journal Form Energy, a startup co-founded by Professor Yet-Ming Chiang, has developed an inexpensive iron-air battery that can discharge power for days. The batteries could be “capable of solving one of the most elusive problems facing renewable energy: cheaply storing large amounts of electricity to power grids when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing.” [Full story via The Wall Street Journal→]( Stephen Hawking was right: Black holes simply can’t shrink // Popular Mechanics Researchers from MIT and elsewhere observationally confirmed one of Stephen Hawking’s theorems about black holes, measuring gravitational waves before and after a black hole merger to provide evidence that a black hole’s event horizon can never shrink. [Full story via Popular Mechanics→]( Rising seas pose an “existential threat” to MBTA, study warns // The Boston Globe Researchers from MIT and Tulane University have found the MBTA subway network faces the threat of flooding caused by rising sea levels over the next 50 years. “Severe flooding is a grave challenge for the T,” explains graduate student Michael Martello. [Full story via The Boston Globe →]( China’s digital yuan could pose challenges to the U.S. dollar // CNBC Researchers from MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative and the Federal Reserve of Boston are exploring what a digital currency might look like in the United States. “I think that if there is a digital dollar, privacy is going to be a very, very important part of that,” says Neha Narula, director of the Digital Currency Initiative. [Full story via CNBC→]( Scene at MIT # In 2018, photographer Jessica Wynne began capturing images of mathematicians’ chalkboards around the world. Many of her photographs appear in a new book, “Do Not Erase: Mathematicians and Their Chalkboards.” Two MIT chalkboards — those of mathematicians Ankur Moitra (above, top) and Alexei Borodin (above, below) — were recently featured in a Scientific Americanarticle about Wynne’s work. “The chalkboards almost felt like portraits of the person and depended on the personality of the mathematician,” Wynne says. [Full story via Scientific American→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [bee-ing an inventor](. 🐝 Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! —MIT News Office [Forward This Email]( [Subscribe]( [MIT Logo] Massachusetts Institute of Technology 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