Mystery space pulse + Remembering Octavian-Eugen Ganea + superconductor family

MIT Weekly July 16, 2022 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](. “Heartbeat” From Afar # Astronomers have detected a strange and persistent radio signal from a far-off galaxy, billions of miles from Earth, that appears to be flashing with surprising regularity. The clear and periodic pattern of fast radio bursts may originate from a distant neutron star. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines Physicists discover a “family” of robust, superconducting graphene structures The findings could inform the design of practical superconducting devices. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Summer 2022 recommended reading from MIT Enjoy these recent titles from Institute faculty and staff. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Remembering Octavian-Eugen Ganea, a gifted MIT postdoc, AI researcher and beloved colleague The brilliant scientist was known for both the depth of his intellect and his kindness. [Full story via MIT News →](#) [MIT Heat Island]( Your friendly neighborhood architect Graduate student Justin Brazier lends his design skills to community projects in the Greater Boston neighborhoods where he grew up. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( An artificial intelligence model finds potential drug molecules a thousand times faster A geometric deep-learning model is faster and more accurate than state-of-the-art computational models, reducing the chances and costs of drug trial failures. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT # [Follow @MITEdgerton on Twitter →]( In the Media People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data show // The Washington Post A new analysis by Assistant Professor Anna Stansbury and University of Michigan graduate student Richard Schultz finds that two-thirds of U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics have a parent with a graduate degree. [Full story via The Washington Post→]( Why Shinzo Abe was such a towering figure in Japan // The Hill Professor Richard Samuels discusses the legacy of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe “sought to shift the center of gravity in Japanese political culture away from the pacifism that characterized most of the early to mid post-war period to a place that was, in his view, more normal,” Samuels says. [Full story via The Hill→]( This MIT astrophysicist will soon get to use the Webb deep-space telescope // WCVB-TV Professor Robert Simcoe and his team will receive 100 hours with the new James Webb Space Telescope to look at some of the first stars and galaxies to form after the Big Bang. “I’m tremendously excited,” says Simcoe. “We have been preparing for this moment since 2016, knowing that we were going to have time and starting to prepare our observations, and waiting for the telescope to be ready.” [Full story via WCVB-TV→]( Marlboro company close to delivering first-ever liquid metal battery // CBS Boston Ambri, an MIT startup that has developed a liquid-metal battery that can be used for grid-level storage of renewable energy, announced that it is months away from delivering its first battery to a customer. “We want to have a battery that can draw from the sun even when the sun doesn’t shine,” says Professor Donald Sadoway. [Full story via CBS Boston→]( Feds must step in or renewable energy will have nowhere to go, says MIT report // TechCrunch A report by MIT Energy Initiative researchers finds that in order to successfully transition to a renewable energy grid, the federal government must intervene to help build green energy storage at a scale that will meet the nation’s energy needs. [Full story via TechCrunch→]( Watch This # Completing a PhD can be daunting: “Graduate school is a time of intense intellectual and personal growth,” says Betar Gallant, part of the team that supports PhD students in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering. “It’s by definition a transitory time, which can feel unsettling.” In this video, recent alumni of MIT’s mechanical engineering graduate program reflect upon the challenges and triumphs of their PhD experience. [Fu](#)[ll story via MIT News]( | [W]( the video]( Did You Know? # Since 2011, [Employee Resource Groups]( have allowed MIT employees to meet for support, solidarity, advocacy, and more. ERGs help create a sense of belonging within communities that make up the Institute’s more than 14,000 employees. Groups are always open for new members to join, and many are looking for new co-leaders. If you would like to get involved, [explore the groups]( and sign up to connect. Anyone with questions can contact ERG co-chairs [Gabe Campos](mailto:camposg@mit.edu?subject=ERG%20Questions) and [Beatriz Cantada](mailto:bcantada@mit.edu?subject=ERG%20Question). [Learn more→]( Watch This # [Howie Bluestein]( ’70, SM ’72, PhD ’76 has been interested in extreme weather since he was 4 or 5 years old, but it wasn’t until he attended MIT that he realized he could have a career in meteorology. Now a professor at the University of Oklahoma, Bluestein and his fellow storm chasers use mobile radar to probe tornadoes and their parent thunderstorms. “Actually seeing the tornado is beautiful,” Bluestein says. “And at the very, very end, the analysis, that’s where you start to make the discoveries. You look at the data and you see things that you didn’t expect. That’s also very, very exciting.” [W](#)[atch the video]( | [Full story via Slice of MIT]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [a jump-start on MIT life](. 💻 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. 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