Hurricane scaling
The destruction wrought by Hurricane Isaac — with its 11-foot surge, seven dead, power knocked out in half of Louisiana and nearly $2 billion in damage - has renewed debate among forecasters about how best to warn people of coming storms.
Design will cost users, but thrills Apple’s partners
The iPhone 5 has plenty of new features to keep Apple fans happy. But there is one feature Apple unveiled on Wednesday that is likely to annoy many: a new connector on the phone’s base.
Fresco’s closes after 21 years of service to community
Fresco’s Cafe and Grille, a restaurant on the northwest corner of Vassar and Mass. Ave., will be closing after 21 years of operation.
Number six? Not too shabby
MIT is tied with Stanford for the sixth place spot in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 national college rankings. Ranked ahead of the Institute stand Columbia tied for fourth with University of Chicago, Yale in third, and Princeton tied for first with Harvard.
The first 71 days of office
President L. Rafael Reif, MIT’s 17th, has begun his “freshman year” at MIT, as he told the Class of 2016 during its Convocation. He is now entering his third month in office since assuming the role on July 2. The Tech interviewed Reif about his first summer on the job and his plans for the future.
New lung cancer study suggests more-tailored drug treatment
The first large and comprehensive study of the genetics of a common lung cancer finds that more than half the tumors from that cancer have mutations that might be treated by new drugs that are already in the pipeline or that could be easily developed. For the tens of thousands of patients with that cancer — squamous cell lung cancer — the results are promising because they could foretell a new type of treatment in which drugs are tailored to match the genetic abnormality in each patient, researchers say.
Hockfield appointed to the HKS
Former MIT President Susan J. Hockfield will be the Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) Marie Curie Visiting Professor this academic year, the school’s Dean, David T. Ellwood, announced on Friday. Ellwood and other members of the HKS faculty had several discussions with Hockfield, after which she was nominated and approved by tenured faculty. She will be affiliated with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and will continue to serve as a professor of neuroscience at MIT.
Alcator C-Mod may lose funds
President Obama’s budget request to Congress for fiscal year (FY) 2013, announced in February, proposed to shut down MIT’s federally-funded Alcator C-Mod, a tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement device). To give itself six more months to agree on a formal appropriations bill, Congress will pass a continuing resolution this month. The resolution will likely sustain funding for Alcator C-Mod at current levels until the final budget for FY 2013 is out. If the final budget passed by Congress is in line with the president’s request, technical, engineering, and administrative staff would be laid off, and some 30 PhD students in Nuclear Science & Engineering (Course 22) would be forced to graduate by October 2013.
Far from ‘junk,’ DNA dark matter crucial to health
Among the many mysteries of human biology is why complex diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and psychiatric disorders are so difficult to predict and, often, to treat. An equally perplexing puzzle is why one individual gets a disease like cancer or depression, while an identical twin remains perfectly healthy.
Differing views on Koch’s Main Street
One of the side issues in the city’s planning process is the Main Street streetscape at the new Koch Institute, Building 76.
Three fraternities join rush
Fraternity rush was busier than ever this year, with three additional fraternities joining the recruitment craze — Phi Beta Epsilon (PBE), which was on rush suspension for two years; Alpha Sigma Phi (Alpha Sig), whose founding fathers are expanding their group; and Beta Theta Pi (Beta), which is recruiting a group of founding fathers to start anew.
MIT unresponsive on Kendall development
With six hours of public meetings on Kendall and Central Squares this week across two committees, the city is trying to decide between competing plans for Kendall Square, but MIT has still not weighed in definitively on its intentions.
EdX to offer proctored exams worldwide
Yesterday, edX announced a partnership with Pearson VUE that would allow students the option of taking a proctored final exam for their online class. Under the agreement, those enrolled in an edX course will have the option of taking the course final exam at one of over 450 Pearson VUE test centers in more than 110 countries, for a nominal fee. The proctored test will be the same rigorous test that those who take it fully online experience.
Redditor President
There are many ways to measure the traction of a social media platform: time spent, page views or unique users. But it might be useful to add one more metric: if the leader of the free world stops by to answer questions from your users, you’re probably doing OK.
Summer recap
As you enjoy your burrito from the new Chipotle that opened up in Kendall this June, you may wonder what else has changed on campus over the summer. Here’s a summary of some of the topics The Tech has covered to get you up to speed.