Lung nanoparticles + greener concrete + purpose vs. profit + women of MIT

MIT Weekly April 1, 2023 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](. Gene Editing in the Lungs # A new type of nanoparticle can be administered to the lungs, where it can deliver messenger RNA encoding useful proteins. With further development, these particles could offer an inhalable treatment for cystic fibrosis and other diseases of the lung. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines New additives could turn concrete into an effective carbon sink MIT engineers discover new carbonation pathways for creating more environmentally friendly concrete. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( How to balance purpose and profit Leaders at the MIT Sloan Retail Conference describe practices that support stakeholder and societal value. [Full story via MIT Sloan →]( [MIT Heat Island]( MIT School of Engineering welcomes new faculty Eleven new faculty members join six of the school’s academic departments and institutes. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( How young children communicate could reveal fundamental truths about the nature of conversation MIT experts in early language development corroborate a long-debated theory about presupposed content in sentences. [Full story via MIT SHASS →]( [MIT Heat Island]( A portfolio that’s out of this world Following an influential career at NASA, Ezinne Uzo-Okoro SM ’20, PhD ’22 now shapes space policy as a top White House advisor. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT #[Alt text: Video thumbnail with three players standing on volleyball court with knees bent while anticipating a ball. Referee is in background. Text via @‌NCAA: For the Margetts family, MIT Athletics is a family tradition! [MIT Volleyball’s] Ashley Margetts shares what it means to play volleyball at the same school as her mother and being a woman in STEM to celebrate Women's History Month.]( [Tweet via @NCAA→]( In the Media Where does the Boston accent come from? // Boston.com In discussing the origins of the Boston accent, Professor Edward Flemming explains how the “softening” and eventual dropping of “r” sounds appears to have spread from the south of England through ports up and down the eastern coast of America, influencing the accents found in cities like Charleston and New York City. [Full story via Boston.com→]( This MIT-designed device can measure air pollution anywhere // Fast Company MIT researchers have developed a low-cost air quality sensor that can be 3D printed using open-source instructions and used by people around the world. [Full story via Fast Company →]( Mel King, whose 1983 mayoral campaign ushered in a new era in Boston race relations, dies at 94 // The Boston Globe Adjunct Professor Emeritus Melvin “Mel” King, a political activist, former Massachusetts state representative, and the first Black person to reach a Boston mayoral general election, has died at 94. “[In 1971], he founded the Community Fellows Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became an adjunct professor of urban studies and planning.” [Full story via The Boston Globe →]( Under a microscope, mouse colons and mutant pollen become art // Popular Science Popular Science spotlights a sampling of the winning images from this year’s MIT Koch Institute Image Awards, an annual competition showcasing some of the images produced as part of life science and biomedical research at MIT. [Full story via Popular Science →]( Digit 643 Number of exchange, visiting, and special students at MIT in the 2022-23 academic year [Learn more via MIT Facts→]( Watch This #[Three by three grid of black and white images featuring headshots of nine women in front of the glass door entrance to MIT’s Lobby 7]( “Storied Women of MIT” is a series of short videos from [Teaching Excellence at MIT]( that introduces some of the iconic women in the Institute’s history. From early students and faculty to MIT’s first female president and more recent professors, the videos provide a snapshot of excellence and leadership across various fields of inquiry. [Watch the videos→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [switching from coffee to tea](. 🍵 Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! —MIT News Office [Forward This Email]( [Subscribe]( [MIT Logo] Massachusetts Institute of Technology 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