Recyclable electronics + sustainability science + elections + MIT’s Olympic legacy

[view in browser]( MIT Weekly [MIT Logo] August 10, 2024 Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.  Want a daily dose of MIT in your inbox? [Subscribe to the MIT Daily](. Recyclable Electronics #[Flexible electronics with the recyclable icon]( “Electronic waste is an ongoing global crisis,” says Thomas Wallin, assistant professor of materials science and engineering. His team has developed a new degradable material for flexible electronics that could allow the recycling of parts from many single-use and wearable devices. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines Scientists find a human “fingerprint” in the upper troposphere’s increasing ozone Knowing where to look for this signal will help researchers identify specific sources of the potent greenhouse gas. [Full story via MIT News →]( [News thumbnail]( MIT School of Science launches Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy The new center taps Institute-wide expertise to improve understanding of, and responses to, sustainability challenges. [Full story via MIT News →]( [News thumbnail]( New transistor’s superlative properties could have broad electronics applications Ultrathin material whose properties “already meet or exceed industry standards” enables superfast switching, extreme durability. [Full story via MIT News →]( [News thumbnail]( The study and practice of being human Professor Joshua Bennett’s scholarship, poetry, and teaching help students address core questions about values and meaning in life. [Full story via MIT News →]( [News thumbnail]( The state of elections Professor Charles Stewart III explores the way Americans vote, in all its extraordinary complexity. [Full story via MIT Spectrum→]( [News thumbnail]( An All-America Hall of Fame inductee and her superpower MIT’s only four-time Academic All-America honoree, Louise Jandura ’84, SM ’86 has been hitting it out of the park at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 35 years. [Full story via Slice of MIT→]( [News thumbnail]( #ThisisMIT #[Collage of five images: Black and white photo of Thomas Curtis standing proudly in his track uniform in front of a large American flag; Alexis Sablone smiles while holding a skateboard in her Team USA skateboarding uniform at the 2021 Olympics; Veronica Toro stands in her Puerto Rico rowing uniform, smiling with hands raised, against a backdrop of water; Black and white photo of Joseph Levis in fencing stance, wearing his uniform, with spectators watching at the 1932 Olympics; and Nicole Freedman competes at the 2000 Olympics, riding a racing bike with competitors behind her. Text via MITNews: Celebrating MIT’s Olympic legacy as the 2024 Paris Olympics kick off! Since MIT alum Thomas Curtis won gold in 1896 at the first modern Olympics, MIT has continued to excel on this global stage. In 2021, Alexis Sablone led the charge for the US skateboarding team and will serve as the women's team head coach for the Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 Games. Veronica Toro made history as Puerto Rico’s first female Olympic rower. Joseph Levis, Nicole Freedman, Michelle Guerette, Johan Harmenberg, Larry Hough, Nancy Vespoli, and Chinedum Osuji have also all showcased MIT’s commitment to excellence in sports and academia during their respective Summer Olympics. ( [Follow @MITnews on Facebook→]( In the Media “Sensational” proof delivers new insights into prime numbers // Quanta Magazine Professor Larry Guth and his colleagues have discovered a new proof for the Riemann hypothesis, which “automatically leads to better approximations of how many primes exist in short intervals on the number line, and stands to offer many other insights into how primes behave.” [Full story via Quanta Magazine→]( A Greek-Indian friendship driven by innovation // Kathimerini Dean Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer, and Pavlos-Petros Sotiriadis PhD ’02 sit down with Tassoula Eptakili of Kathimerini to discuss MIT’s unique approach to entrepreneurship, the future of AI, and the importance of mentorship. [Full story via Kathimerini→]( A new spray application technology for precision agriculture // Forbes Professor Kripa Varanasi and Vishnu Jayaprakash SM ’19, PhD ’22 founded AgZen, a company aimed at reducing pesticide use by employing a feedback-optimized spraying system. [Full story via Forbes→]( Skate parks are growing up // Bloomberg With skateboarding the sixth fastest-growing sport in the U.S. from 2019 to 2023, Bloomberg’s Alexandra Lange highlights how Alexis Sablone MA ’16, coach of the 2024 Olympic Women’s U.S. Skateboarding Team, a three-time X-Games gold medalist, and graduate of MIT’s Department of Architecture, recently “designed a set of sculptural skate elements for a former tennis court, formalizing and aestheticizing what had been an informal spot” at a park in Montclair, New Jersey. [Full story via Bloomberg→]( Watch This #[Daniela Rus video thumbnail]( In this installment of the “[World at MIT]( video series, Professor Daniela Rus, who grew up in Romania, recounts how an early interest in learning and working in a factory for a school requirement paved the way for her to study robotics. As the director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Rus works on “bringing together the world of science and math together with the world of making things” at the Institute and values what she’s learned from her students and colleagues. [Watch the video→]( Did You Know? #[Richard Binzel holds a meteorite next to a large boulder that has a plaque reading “The Johnstown meteorite fell near this location on July 6, 1924. Placed by the Johnstown Historical Society and the town of Johnstown July 6, 2024.”]( Professor Richard Binzel was recently on hand to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the falling of a meteorite in Johnstown, Colorado, where it was swiftly picked up and studied, ultimately linking it and other meteorites to the asteroid Vesta. In 1996, Binzel and colleagues imaged Vesta with the Hubble Space Telescope and discovered a 285-mile-wide, 8-mile-deep impact basin. They estimated some 1 percent of Vesta had been blown off by the impact that created it — “a volume sufficient to account for the family of small Vesta-like asteroids that extends to dynamical source regions for meteorites,” they later reported. The meteorite directly led to NASA’s Dawn mission, which sent a spacecraft to Vesta in 2011. “To me ... it’s the scientific link that makes it so incredibly special,” says Binzel. “And then the fascinating history of it, the story of its fall, is the icing on the cake.” [Full story via Astronomy→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [mit.edu in 1996](. 🌐 Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! —MIT News [Forward This Email]( [Subscribe]( [MIT Logo] This email was sent to {EMAIL} because of your affiliation with MIT, or because you signed up for our newsletters. [subscribe]( [update preferences]( [unsubscribe]( [view in browser]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( MIT News Office · 77 Massachusetts Avenue · Cambridge, MA 02139 · USA