MIT News

A study co-authored by MIT scholars finds social media sharing affects news judgment, but a quick exercise reduces the problem.

Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have designed a new face mask that they believe could stop viral particles as effectively as N95 masks. Unlike N95 masks, the new masks were designed to be easily sterilized and used many times.

Like this year’s seniors, the Class of 1970 had its final semester disrupted: Fifty years ago, growing unrest over the Vietnam War led to the cancellation of MIT classes. In this podcast, Karen Arenson ’70 and senior Bahrudin Trbalic share their experiences.

A paper co-authored by an MIT economist proposes a new way to handle medical shortages during the COVID-19 crisis.

Samantha Farrell is the assistant to Vladimir Bulović, the director of MIT.nano, as well as a professional musician. Here, she talks about how music is keeping her focused, productive, and sane and how in times like these, “. . . the arts really shine, people’s humanity can really shine, and musicians and filmmakers and artists are needed more than ever.”

A rapidly assembled volunteer team of engineers, physicians, computer scientists, and others, centered at MIT, is working to implement a safe, inexpensive alternative for emergency use, which could be built quickly around the world.

As the world grapples with the public health crises and myriad disruptions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, many efforts to address its impact are underway. Several of those initiatives are being led by companies that were founded by MIT alumni, professors, students, and researchers.

Keeping our distance from each other for an extended period of time is the most effective way to reduce COVID-19’s spread. But the prospect of prolonged social isolation is uncharted territory for many of us. To get some insight on how we might navigate this period of social separation, MIT News checked in with MIT alumna and former astronaut Cady Coleman, who perhaps had the ultimate isolation experience.

Frontline health workers represent the lifeblood of many health care systems in low- and middle-income countries around the world. CommCare, a product developed by the MIT spinout, Dimagi, allows frontline health workers to build useful tools that can be accessed even offline by cell phones of all types. 

MIT researchers report that more than half of all air-quality-related early deaths in the United States are a result of emissions originating outside of the state in which those deaths occur.