Technology

Every Monday, more than a hundred members of Giovanni Traverso’s Laboratory for Translational Engineering (L4TE) fill a large classroom at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for their weekly lab meeting. With a social hour, food for everyone, and updates across disciplines from mechanical engineering to veterinary science, it’s a place where a stem cell biologist might…

When Madonna Yoder ’17 was eight years old, she learned how to fold a square piece of paper over and over and over again. After about 16 folds, she held a bird in her hands. The first time she pulled the tail of a flapping crane, she says, she realized: Oh, I folded this, and…

On November 2, 2000, NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd, OCE ’78, SM ’78, and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko made history as their Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station.  The event marked the start of 25 years of continuous human presence in space aboard the ISS—a prolific period for space research. MIT-trained…

Institute Professor Mildred “Millie” Dresselhaus forever altered our understanding of matter—the physical stuff of the universe that has mass and takes up space. Over 57 years at MIT, Dresselhaus also played a significant role in inspiring people to use this new knowledge to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges, from producing clean energy to…

Take a stroll along the Infinite Corridor these days and you’ll encounter a striking new space, in a prominent location on the first floor of Building 11. With bright blue seating modules, orange accents, and an eye-catching design, it looks like a futuristic space station, sleek and ultramodern—but also welcoming and fun.  This is the…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna Instead of relying on the same old recipe biology has followed for a billion years, give or take, stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna is coaxing the beginnings…

Shantana Hazel often thought her insides might fall out during menstruation. It took 14 years of stabbing pain before she ultimately received a diagnosis of endometriosis, an inflammatory disease where tissue similar to the uterine lining implants outside the uterus and bleeds with each cycle. The results can include painful periods and damaging scar tissue.…

When the Palestinian stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna was stopped while entering the US last May, airport customs agents took him aside and held him for hours in “secondary,” a back office where you don’t have your passport and can’t use your phone. There were two young Russian women and a candy machine in the room…