Record highs possible Friday
The United States’ East Coast has experienced a period of unusual warmth this week. High temperatures in Boston have been in the 50s and 60s (°F) nearly every day for the past week, and we haven’t seen a high temperature below 50°F (10°C) since all the way back on Oct. 25. Normally, temperatures like this are more often observed in the first few days of autumn than in the first few days of November.
Cancer research partnership between Harvard and MIT gets $20 million gift
In the hope of moving more results from cancer research labs into the clinical setting, the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research announced yesterday a $20 million donation to the Bridge Project, a collaboration between the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
Sit-in for divestment by president’s office hits one-week mark
Members of student group Fossil Free MIT are staging a sit-in outside of President L. Rafael Reif’s office in protest of what they see as inadequacies in MIT’s climate action plan.
Harvard law library to make resources available to the public online
Shelves of law books are an august symbol of legal practice, and no place, save the Library of Congress, can match the collection at Harvard’s Law School Library. Its trove includes nearly every state, federal, territorial and tribal judicial decision since colonial times — a priceless potential resource for everyone from legal scholars to defense lawyers trying to challenge a criminal conviction.
Full release of Stellar’s replacement expected next year
Most students searching for class materials or grades have encountered a new interface this semester. MIT IS&T is progressively phasing out Stellar in favor of a new modular learning management system, which will be fully released next year.
Standing firmly by industry ties, MIT climate action plan has everything but divestment
See here for an updated version of this article.
Students meet to discuss dorm to be built in storage warehouse
On Monday, the Dormitory Council held a meeting about the current architectural plans for turning the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse on Mass. Ave. into an undergraduate dorm. The organization’s executives discussed the dorm’s proposed layout, addressed student concerns, and requested additional ideas.
MIT will not divest, announces climate change 'action plan' with key role for industry partners
MIT said Wednesday it would not divest from fossil fuels, instead announcing efforts to strengthen collaboration with industry — seeking $300 million in new energy research at MIT over five years — as part of a much-awaited “plan for action on climate change.”
Class council election had posters, free candy, and strong victor in end
By a wide margin, John S. Brown ’19 was elected president of the class of 2019 last week. Trevor L. McMichael ’19 was elected vice president.
Up and down end-of-week weather
There will be a lot of variability in Cambridge’s weather through the weekend as we experience a few different frontal passages. A warm front passing through will bring very warm weather this afternoon, with the high reaching into the low 70s °F. The warmth will be short-lived, however, as a cold front moves through tomorrow, dropping the high down to the mid 50s °F and the overnight low to around freezing. There is a chance of rain this evening and the possibly more rain on Sunday.
Next House rebuilds and redesigns haunted house escape challenge
For the second year in a row, the Next Haunt student group will host a Halloween-themed escape-the-room challenge.
Can MIT divest while accepting oil money? An activist weighs in.
In anticipation of President L. Rafael Reif’s upcoming announcement about MIT’s climate action plan, The Tech spoke with Geoffrey Supran, a graduate student in materials science, about his work on the MIT Climate Change Conversation Committee and student group Fossil Free MIT. We asked about his expectations for the announcement, his thoughts around divestment, his own research, and how he became a climate change activist.
Hearing procedures to change as reports of sexual assault rise
A year after MIT released the results from its first community sexual assault survey, the Institute has implemented many of its accompanying recommendations and has begun launching new initiatives.
Course 16 alumna named director of MIT Medical
Cecilia Warpinski Stuopis ’90 will assume her new role as director of MIT Medical before the end of the year, MIT announced Oct. 13.
Brace for a brief blast of cold
The Institute will get its first real dose of chilly fall weather this weekend as an Arctic air mass ushers in some of the coldest temperatures this area has seen in months. The frigid air will begin to make its intrusion after the passage of a cold front tomorrow afternoon. The frontal passage will be accompanied by a shift in the wind from southwesterly to westerly, and an increase in wind speed. After the front moves out, a mass of anomalously cold air will make its way down from Canada through New England over the course of the weekend. The result will be that by Sunday, low temperatures will be below 40°F (4°C) and the high may not even reach 50°F (10°C). The last times that low and high temperatures that cold were recorded in Boston were May 2 and June 2, respectively. By Sunday night, temperatures could even threaten to break the freezing mark for the first time since April 2. The predicted temperatures are also particularly low compared to the normal high and low of 61°F (16°C) and 46°F (8°C) for this time of year. It will likely take until Tuesday of next week to return to warmer, more seasonable temperatures.
Alumna runs for city council seat, joins slate
Mariko Davidson MCP ’13, who earned a master’s degree in city planning at MIT, is running for Cambridge City Council. Two other MIT alumni are currently up for reelection.
Dissolve 'Unconference' seeks to address inequality
The Dissolve “Un-conference” — which despite the name is hosted in collaboration with the ongoing Solve — will tackle questions of global inequality Thursday.