Injectable hydrogels + inspiring through art + living cities

MIT Weekly February 4, 2023 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](. Injectable Hydrogels #[Closeup of squishy hydrogels making a rope. They look like fish eggs or clear water balloons, with pink and yellow light.]( Gel-like materials that can be injected into the body hold great potential to repair or replace diseased tissues. A new framework could help researchers design these materials, speeding up what has until now has been a trial-and-error process. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines Physicists observe rare resonance in molecules for the first time The findings could provide a new way to control chemical reactions. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Paying it forward When she’s not analyzing data about her favorite biomolecule, senior Sherry Nyeo focuses on improving the undergraduate experience at MIT. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Engineers invent vertical, full-color microscopic LEDs Stacking light-emitting diodes instead of placing them side by side could enable fully immersive virtual reality displays and higher-resolution digital screens. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Changing the world through art Through her work, multimedia artist Erin Genia SM ’19 helps educate others about Indigenous philosophies, especially Dakota philosophy. [Watch the video]( | [Full story via Slice of MIT→]( [MIT Heat Island]( Why 1968 still matters Professor Heather Hendershot’s new book about that year’s Democratic National Convention explores how anger at the media became part of our culture wars. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT #[Instagram photo of Tanya Khovanova wearing a yellow and blue mathematical crochet on their head. Text via @mitmathematics: To raise money for the Yulia’s Dream project, PRIMES head mentor Tanya Khovanova created beautiful mathematical crochets in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and in the shape of hyperbolic surfaces for auction, with bids accepted in prime numbers only! The PRIMES program also held a winter warm clothes and toys drive for Ukrainian children.]( [Follow @mitmathematics on Instagram→]( In the Media How MIT’s all-women leadership team plans to change science for the better // Radio Boston President Sally Kornbluth, Provost Cynthia Barnhart, and Chancellor Melissa Nobles speak with Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing about the importance of representation for women and underrepresented groups in STEM. “One of the most important pieces of having women in leadership is not just bringing a diverse perspective, but honestly being role models so that girls see that there is a possibility for them to be doing the kind of high-tech, heavy research that MIT does,” says Kornbluth. [Full story via Radio Boston→]( US company gets $120 million boost to make “green steel” // Associated Press Boston Metal, an MIT startup, is developing technology aimed at decarbonizing steel production. “Boston Metal said it can eliminate all carbon dioxide from its steel production and hopes to ramp up production to millions of tons by 2026.” [Full story via Associated Press→]( To all the econ papers I’ve loved before // NPR Kyle Greenberg PhD ’15, a professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and Nancy Qian PhD ’05, a professor at Northwestern University, discuss the papers that helped them fall in love with economics. Greenberg notes his inspiration was a paper by Professor Joshua Angrist examining how serving in the military impacts future earnings. [Full story via NPR→]( How Boston is beating cancer // Boston Magazine MIT researchers are developing drug-delivery nanoparticles aimed at targeting cancer cells without disturbing healthy cells. Essentially, the nanoparticles are “engineered for selectivity,” explains Professor Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering. “We’re trying to get cancer cells to love the nanoparticle and healthy cells to hate it.” [Full story via Boston Magazine→]( Scene at MIT #[Four individuals sit in lounge chairs and walk around a brightly lit two-room lounge separated by glass doors]( With the recent opening of the MIT Alumni Lounge, some 143,000 alumni who once walked the Infinite Corridor as students now have a permanent home there. “The MIT campus — the Infinite Corridor, Killian Court, Kresge, the Student Center, research labs, dorms — will always hold special memories for alums as the place we spent countless hours learning and growing together,” says Annalisa Weigel ’94, ’95, SM ’00, PhD ’02, president of the MIT Alumni Association at the time the lounge opened last year. “Now there is a place right in the heart of campus that we alumni can really call our own.” [Learn more via Slice of MIT→]( [“] Cities are organic living things, just like a plant or a human body. You need to elevate the health of what’s there. —Nicholas de Monchaux, professor and head of architecture at MIT, in a recent article on designing for anything and everything at the Institute [Full story via MIT Spectrum→]( Watch This #[Screenshot of Liala Jama sitting in a workshop and smiling, with spools and drawers behind her]( [MITES Saturdays]( formerly known as SEED Academy, is a multiyear STEM program at MIT for 7th-12th graders in Boston, Cambridge, and Lawrence, Massachusetts. Participating scholars gain exposure to a variety of science and engineering fields, explore the ethical implications of technology, and learn about the intersectionality of STEM and the humanities. Students bond over fun and complex projects, find their passions, and inspire each other. In this video, recent participants explain how MITES Saturdays helped them to gain skills and confidence and to reach for dream careers that address the world’s most challenging problems. [Watch the video→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [rodent friends](. 🦫 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