Science communications

The Atlantic highlights a section of Prof. Alan Lightman’s forthcoming book, “The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science.” Lightman writes, “I call myself a spiritual materialist. As a scientist, I’m a materialist. Not in the sense of seeking happiness in cars and nice clothes, but in the literal sense of the word: the belief that everything is made out of atoms and molecules, and nothing more. Further, I believe that the material stuff of the universe is governed by a small number of fundamental laws. Yet I have had transcendent experiences.”

Fast Company reporter Nate Berg spotlights the grand opening of the redesigned MIT Museum. “Braiding the science and the art together, I think it places the science into the context that it is part of our culture and our lives, it’s not a white tower experience,” says Ann Neumann, director of exhibitions and galleries at the museum.

MIT Museum Director John Durant speaks with Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney about the significance of the new location of the MIT Museum and what makes the museum such a special place. Of the museum’s new home in the heart of Kendall Square, Durant says, “I think MIT is committing itself here to the importance of its museum as a kind of gateway institution, as a way of helping the wider community understand what MIT is about.”

The new MIT Museum, a “purpose-built exhibition and gathering space in the heart of Kendall Square,” writes Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay, “seeks to demystify some of the school’s opaque inner workings, makes itself broadly approachable with expanded gallery space, forum areas, learning labs, and a maker hub where visitors can work on museum-led projects.” MIT Museum Director John Durant explains: “We want people to feel that this is their museum.”

The Engine has moved into a new building situated between Kendall and Central Square in Cambridge, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Katie Rae, chief executive and managing partner of The Engine, said having a physical place for startups to work was a crucial part of the original ‘tough tech’ concept,” writes Chesto.

The new MIT Museum opens to the public this weekend in its new location in Kendall Square, which is “quite significant because this is the heart of innovation,” notes GBH’s Jared Bowen. Museum visitors will not only get a sense of MIT’s long history of innovation, but also get a sense of the scientific process, with exhibits featuring “part of the machinery that was used to help sequence the human genome, [and] the star shade petal that allowed NASA to photograph exoplanets,” Bowen explains.

Prof. Seth Mnookin, director of the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing, writes for The Boston Globe about the debate over the banning and then unbanning of Juul e-cigarettes. “The reactions to those two moves ­ — first banning Juul to combat youth vaping and then reversing course to further study the science ­ — represent an unprecedented division in the field of tobacco control,” writes Mnookin.

Knight Science Journalism Director Deborah Blum writes for The New York Times about Frank Close’s book ‘’Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass,” which highlights Nobel Prize winner Peter Higgs. “Using the known rules of physics, from electromagnetism to quantum mechanics, Higgs raised the possibility of an unstable subatomic particle that, through a series of fizzing interactions, could lend mass to other particles,” writes Blum.

Kealoha Wong ’99, Hawaii’s first poet laureate, shares his excitement at being selected to deliver the keynote address at the graduation celebration for the classes of 2020 and 2021. “It’s a huge honor, I never would have thought in a million years that something like this would happen,” says Kealoha. “I feel as if I am ready to let these words fly.”

Nature Physics senior editor Silvia Milana spotlights “Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus” a new book written by MIT News Deputy Editorial Director Maia Weinstock. “Carbon Queen does not only capture the journey into the personal and professional life of an outstanding figure in carbon science, it is a careful account of the evolution of societal attitudes towards women from the 1950s to today” writes Milana.

Boston Globe reporter Nina MacLaughlin spotlights how the MIT Press, MIT Press Bookstore and the MIT Libraries have launched a new reading series called authors@mit. The series will kick off with Maia Weinstock, deputy editorial director at MIT News, and her new book, “Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus.”

Ariana Remmel spotlights “Carbon Queen,” a new book written by MIT News Deputy Editorial Director Maia Weinstock, which highlights the career of Institute Professor Mildred S. Dresselhaus. “Weinstock navigates the complexities of theoretical physics and research bureaucracy deftly,” writes Remmel. “She describes of carbon – from diamond to graphite – and their properties with sleek diagrams and colourful analogies that unpack basic principles and broader implications.”

Science writer Maia Weinstock, deputy editorial director at MIT News, has written a new book titled “Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus,” which highlights the career of Institute Professor Mildred S. Dresselhaus, reports Vijaysree Venkatraman for Science. “In “Carbon Queen,” Weinstock has pieced together Dresselhaus’s story using decades of profiles, print interviews, oral histories conducted with the scientists herself, and new interviews with her contemporaries,” writes Venkatraman.

Physics World reporter Jesse Wade spotlights “Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus,” a new book by Maia Weinstock, deputy editorial director at MIT News. “With Carbon Queen, Weinstock does more than tell the story of a brilliant scientist’s life,” writes Wade. “She transports you into a world of curiosity and wonder, driven by enthusiasm and persistence.”

Isabella Cueto, a Cuban American journalist who has worked as a newspaper and radio reporter in Florida, South Carolina, and California, has been named the first recipient of the Sharon Begley-STAT Science Reporting Fellowship, reports STAT. “Named in honor of Begley, an award-winning science writer for STAT who died in January from complications of lung cancer, the fellowship combines a paid reporting position at STAT with an educational component provided through the prestigious Knight Science Journalism program.”