Microfluidics made easy + Mark Rober + Remembering Emily Wick

The popular YouTuber, engineer, and inventor works to engage young people in science and technology while encouraging curiosity and resilience.

A new optogenetics-based tool allows researchers to control how neurons respond to electrical input.

Michael Birnbaum has been recognized as Committed to Caring for his wide-reaching support of students and his departmental leadership.

Professor Danna Freedman discusses the inspiration for her research and the significance of being named a 2022 MacArthur grant fellow. “What was really an under designed idea was taking molecules and using them for quantum information science,” says Freedman. “There is a lot of data, but less intention, and realizing this wide-open space and this possibility was really tremendous to me because having a new opportunity to design inorganic molecules is very exciting.” 

A new study by MIT scientists finds that silent synapses — a type of memory-forming synapse — are present in the adult brain. The discovery of these silent synapses, explains Associate Professor Mark Harnett, “is a lever for us to get into understanding learning in adults and how potentially we can get access to make it not degrade over the course of ageing or disease.”