Why Do You Ask?
The power of wanting to know
Fall 2017
Questions
Every idea or invention born at MIT began the same way as MIT’s mission statement: with the imperative to advance knowledge.
How Do Plants Use Light?
What Gabriela Schlau-Cohen discovers about the proteins responsible for photosynthesis could be critical to agriculture and energy
How Can We Measure Damage?
Quantifying radiation damage in materials is the first step toward safer reactors and better nuclear compliance, says Mike Short
How Are Poverty and Geography Linked?
Amy Glasmeier’s map of the country has a lot to say about economic opportunity
Why Should Companies Invest in Employees?
Zeynep Ton’s win-win theory of labor management
How Can Computers Apply What They’ve Learned to New Situations?
Developing this capacity in machine learning could better equip it for human interaction and a host of medical applications
From the President
Spotlight
What Questions Drive MIT Grad Students?
Gifts to MIT supporting graduate fellowships make it possible for exceptional students to come to MIT in search of answers
Spotlight
How Does Water Behave at the Nanoscale?
Hint: not how you’d expect
How Will the MIT Libraries Help to Answer Tomorrow’s Big Questions?
“We connect people to ideas and knowledge that they didn’t know they were looking for,” says director Chris Bourg
How Do Governments Shape the Course of Innovation?
Economist Daron Acemoglu examines how inclusive political structures embrace disruptive change
How Can We Transform 21st-Century Education?
The new Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab will develop and scale up solutions for all learners
How Can We Defeat the Growing Threat of Antibiotic Resistance?
For MIT researchers working to hold the line against infection, step one is to know your enemy
How Does the Brain Connect Smells with Behaviors?
For Gloria Choi, olfactory cues are a gateway to some of the brain’s greatest mysteries
What Planets Beyond Our Solar System May Harbor Life?
The TESS mission will scan our cosmic neighborhood to identify 50 top candidates
How Can an MIT Undergrad Help to Tackle Heart Disease?
Through SuperUROP, Ebenezer Nkwate ’17 spent his senior year learning to build synthetic genetic circuits
A Community of Trust
Unrestricted gifts signal a strong belief in MIT’s mission
The MIT Better World Tour: The Road Traveled, the Road Ahead
Coming soon to Houston, Seattle, and Miami
Fully Immersed
Remarks by Julia Sun ’15 at MIT Better World (London)
Investing in the Greater Good
Patricia Dineen PhD ’80
A Call to Action
Warren ’95 and Teresa Ross
Actions and Outcomes
Behind the syllabus of a deep dive into science and policy
A New Environment and Sustainability Minor
When it comes to the environment, MIT students aim not only for understanding but for action
Artifacts of the Future
Architect William O’Brien Jr. opens archetypal forms to new interpretations
Prototyping Real-World Problems
An excerpt from Luis Perez-Breva’s “doer’s manifesto” on innovating
The New Robot in School
Tega, the fuzzy friend who tells stories to kids