New MIT Museum + Hynes wins Lasker Award + solving Wordle

MIT Weekly October 1, 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](. Sharing MIT's Magic # The new [MIT Museum]( is opening its doors in the heart of Cambridge’s Kendall Square. “We’re taking MIT’s great mission and making it more accessible to the wider community,” says Director John Durant. “The museum is all about turning MIT inside out.” [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines MIT biologist Richard Hynes wins Lasker Award Hynes and two other scientists will share the prize for their discoveries of proteins critical for cellular adhesion. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( How an algorithm solves Wordle Everyone has a different Wordle strategy. Through modeling, MIT researchers devised an algorithm that solves the game in the optimal manner without fail. [Full story via MIT Sloan→]( [MIT Heat Island]( Breaking through the mucus barrier A capsule that tunnels through mucus in the GI tract could be used to orally administer large protein drugs such as insulin. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( A more equitable and accessible future for higher ed A recent MIT Sloan panel explored current topics in higher education and what the future may hold for college admissions. [Full story via MIT Sloan→]( [MIT Heat Island]( Providing new pathways for neuroscience research and education Payton Dupuis finds new scientific interests and career opportunities through an MIT summer research program in biology. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT # [Follow @mitopenlearning on Twitter →]( In the Media To speed the end of fossil fuels, local researchers are designing a cheaper, safer battery // The Boston Globe Professor Emeritus Donald Sadoway discusses his work developing a safer, cheaper battery that could be used to store renewable energy. Sadoway notes that materials for the battery are “ethically sourced, cheap, effective, and can’t catch fire.” [Full story via The Boston Globe →]( Bam! NASA spacecraft crashes into asteroid in defense test // 7 News Professor Paulo Lozano discusses NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft, which slammed into an asteroid Monday, demonstrating how an asteroid threatening Earth might be deflected. Lozano notes that there are millions of space rocks in the solar system, “and these objects can basically take out a city. Being prepared for these kinds of events will be very important.” [Full story via 7 News→]( Quantum physics titans win Breakthrough Prize // Scientific American Professor Peter Shor has been named one of four honorees for this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for contributions to the field of quantum information. All of Shor’s work “led to new views of quantum mechanics and computing.” [Full story via Scientific American→]( Opinion: How remote work withers our social networks // The Boston Globe Professor of the practice Carlo Ratti delves into his research exploring the impact of remote work on social relationships. “There does not need to be a complete return to the office; remote work has undeniable benefits, not least flexibility,” writes Ratti. “However, businesses and organizations must develop a new work regime, a methodology that emphasizes the best of what physical space can do for us.” [Full story via The Boston Globe →]( Watch This # Before babies learn to talk, it’s almost impossible to know what they’re thinking. [Ashley Thomas]( a cognitive scientist at MIT’s McGovern Institute, has begun to unlock the mystery of babies’ brains using a very unusual tool: puppets. In this episode of “[McGovern Minute]( Thomas shows us that babies understand a surprising amount about the social world around them. [Watch the video→]( Digit $76,400,000 Amount in taxes MIT paid to the City of Cambridge in fiscal year 2022, representing 15.5% of the city’s revenue stream. The Institute is the longtime No. 1 taxpayer in Cambridge. [Learn more via the Office of Government and Community Relations→]( Astro Alumnus # This Hispanic Heritage Month, we spotlight Franklin Chang-Díaz ScD ’77, a retired NASA astronaut who flew seven space shuttle missions ([a record he shares with Jerry Ross](. Chang-Díaz was born in Costa Rica but moved to the United States to fulfill his dream of flying in space. He became a U.S. citizen in 1977, the same year he graduated from MIT with an ScD in nuclear science and engineering, with a focus on plasma physics. During his astronaut career, Chang-Díaz continued research in rocket propulsion based on high-temperature plasmas, and from 1983 to 1993 he was a visiting scientist at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he led plasma propulsion research. After logging over 1,600 hours in space, Chang-Díaz retired from NASA in 2005. He now leads the [Ad Astra Rocket Company]( which he founded. “My dream or my vision is a future for humanity where we will be completely free to pursue activities outside of our planet,” he says. “The Earth will then become sort of humanity’s national park, a protected area where our children and their children can all come back and know and enjoy the beauty of where their ancestors came from.” [Learn more via the American Physical Society→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [how to get away with rarely cooking](. 🌯 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