“Wakanda Forever” at MIT + light-control device + new Alzheimer’s science

Researchers have developed a programmable optical device for high-speed beam steering.

In people carrying APOE4, a key brain cell mismanages cholesterol needed to insulate neurons — another sign APOE4 contributes to disease by disrupting brain lipids.

For some MIT Leaders for Global Operations graduates, a research passion becomes a full-time career.

Scientists from around the world, including researchers at MIT, found evidence of past chemical reactions between liquid water and carbon compounds on Mars. “We believe we have found these kinds of liquid water environments and organic compounds together,” explains postdoc Eva Linghan Scheller. “That’s sort of the limit to how we can describe what we call habitability.”

A report by Associate Professor Kevin Esvelt provides a roadmap for how to prepare for the next pandemic. In it, Esvelt emphasizes that: “We’re not helpless, whether against nature or malign actions by human beings. We do have to invest in actually being prepared, but if we’re prepared, we could weather even a worst-case scenario: a deliberate release of a human-made virus engineered to be both extra deadly and extra contagious.”