2025-06-25 12:14:49
July/August 25
Guest edited by Edward Faulkner ’03
May/June 25
Guest edited by Frank Rubin ’62
March/April 25
Guest edited by Michael S. Branicky ’03
January/February 25
Guest edited by Dan Katz ’03
November/December 24
Guest edited by Edward Faulkner ’03
September/October 24
Guest edited by Mark Douma ’63 and Frank Rubin ’62
July/August 24
Puzzle Corner Editor Emeritus Allan Gottlieb ’67 signs off
September/October 23
Edited by Allan Gottlieb ’67
May/June 23
Edited by Allan Gottlieb ’67
January/February 23
Edited by Allan Gottlieb ’67
Allan Gottlieb ’67 launched Puzzle Corner in 1966 and edited the column for 58 years. It first appeared in the MIT student-run magazine Tech Engineering News (now defunct) and began running in Technology Review in the summer of 1966. Back issues from 1966 through 2022 are available at cs.nyu.edu/~gottlieb/tr.
2025-06-25 05:00:00
Two new studies from MIT and Harvard Medical School add to a growing body of evidence that infection-fighting molecules called cytokines also influence the brain, leading to behavioral changes during illness.
By mapping the locations in the brain of receptors for different forms of IL-17, the researchers found that the cytokine acts on the somatosensory cortex to promote sociable behavior and on the amygdala to elicit anxiety. These findings suggest that the immune and nervous systems are tightly interconnected, says Gloria Choi, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and one of both studies’ senior authors.
“If you’re sick, there’s so many more things that are happening to your internal states, your mood, and your behavioral states, and that’s not simply you being fatigued physically. It has something to do with the brain,” she says.
In the cortex, the researchers found certain receptors in a population of neurons that, when overactivated, can lead to autism-like symptoms such as reduced sociability in mice. But the researchers determined that the neurons become less excitable when a specific form of IL-17 binds to the receptors, shedding possible light on why autism symptoms in children often abate when they have fevers. Choi hypothesizes that IL-17 may have evolved as a neuromodulator and was “hijacked” by the immune system only later.
Meanwhile, the researchers also found two types of IL-17 receptors in a certain population of neurons in the amygdala, which plays an important role in processing emotions. When these receptors bind to two forms of IL-17, the neurons become more excitable, leading to an increase in anxiety.
Eventually, findings like these may help researchers develop new treatments for conditions such as autism and depression.
2025-06-25 05:00:00
Over the past decade, Institute Professor Paula Hammond ’84, PhD ’93, and her students have used a technique known as layer-by-layer assembly to create a variety of polymer-coated nanoparticles that can be loaded with cancer-fighting drugs. The particles, which could prevent many side effects of chemotherapy by targeting tumors directly, have proved effective in mouse studies. Now the researchers have come up with a technique that allows them to manufacture many more particles in much less time, moving them closer to human use.
“There’s a lot of promise with the nanoparticle systems we’ve been developing, and we’ve been really excited more recently with the successes that we’ve been seeing in animal models for our treatments for ovarian cancer in particular,” says Hammond, the senior author of a paper on the new technique along with Darrell Irvine, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute.
In the original production technique, layers with different properties can be laid down by alternately exposing a particle to positively and negatively charged polymers, with extensive purification to remove excess polymer after each application. Each layer can carry therapeutics as well as molecules that help the particles find and enter cancer cells. But the process is time-consuming and would be difficult to scale up.
In the new work, the researchers used a microfluidic mixing device that allows them to sequentially add layers as the particles flow through a microchannel. For each layer, they can calculate exactly how much polymer is needed, which eliminates the slow and costly purification step and saves significantly on material costs.
This strategy also facilitates compliance with the FDA’s GMP (good manufacturing practice) requirements, which ensure that products meet safety standards and can be manufactured consistently. “There’s much less chance of any sort of operator mistake or mishaps,” says Ivan Pires, PhD ’24, a postdoc at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a visiting scientist at the Koch Institute, who is the paper’s lead author along with Ezra Gordon ’24. “We can create an innovation within the layer-by-layer nanoparticles and quickly produce it in a manner that we could go into clinical trials with.”
In minutes, the researchers can generate 15 milligrams of nanoparticles (enough for about 50 doses for certain cargos), which would have taken close to an hour with the original process. They say this means it would be realistic to produce more than enough for clinical trials and patient use.
To demonstrate the technique, the researchers created layered nanoparticles loaded with the immune molecule interleukin-12; they have previously shown that such particles can slow growth of ovarian tumors in mice. Those manufactured using the new technique performed similarly to the originals and managed to bind to cancer tissue without entering the cancer cells. This lets them serve as markers that activate the immune system in the tumor, which can delay tumor growth and even lead to cures in mouse models of ovarian cancer.
The researchers have filed for a patent and are working with MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation in hopes of forming a company to commercialize the technology, which they say could also be applied to glioblastoma and other types of cancer.
2025-06-25 05:00:00
Hundred-year storm tides could strike every decade in Bangladesh
Tropical cyclones can generate devastating storm tides—seawater heightened by the tides that causes catastrophic floods in coastal regions. An MIT study finds that as the planet warms, the recurrence of destructive storm tides will increase tenfold for one of the world’s hardest-hit regions.
New electronic “skin” could lead to lightweight night-vision glasses
MIT engineers have developed a technique to grow and peel ultrathin “skins” of electronic material that could be used in wearable sensors, flexible transistors and computing elements, and sensitive compact imaging devices.
Technology makes pesticides stick to plant leaves
A new pesticide application system developed by MIT researchers and their spinoff company could significantly cut use of pesticides and fertilizers, saving farmers money and reducing polluting runoff.
These tough yet bendy materials could be made into tear-resistant textiles, flexible semiconductors, electronic chip packaging, and durable yet compliant scaffolds on which to grow cells for tissue repair.
2025-06-25 05:00:00
It was a banner year for the Engineers in 2024–’25, with four MIT women’s teams all clinching NCAA Division III national titles for the first time.
After winning their fourth straight NCAA East Regional Championship, the cross country team claimed their first national title in November with All-American performances from Christina Crow ’25 (pictured), Rujuta Sane ’26, and Kate Sanderson ’26. In March, the indoor track and field team scored 49 points—the most ever by an MIT women’s team at a national indoor meet—to win their first national title. A week later, the swimming and diving team won three individual and four relay titles and captured their first national title. Kate Augustyn ’25 ended her MIT career with four individual and four relay national championships and 27 All-America honors. Then in May, the outdoor track and field team claimed their first national championship, making MIT the first to sweep the Division III national titles in women’s cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field in the same year.
2025-06-25 05:00:00
As an MIT visiting scholar, rap legend Lupe Fiasco decided to go fishing for ideas on campus. In an approach he calls “ghotiing” (pronounced “fishing”), he composed nine raps inspired by works in MIT’s public art collection, writing and recording them on site. On May 2, he and the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble debuted six of them, performing in front of a packed audience in Kresge for the final performance of the MIT Artfinity festival. The concert featured arrangements of Fiasco’s music done by Kevin Costello ’21, grad student Matthew Michalek, students in Fiasco’s Rap Theory and Practice class, and professor Evan Ziporyn. Produced in collaboration with the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Fiasco’s “Ghotiing MIT: Public Art” project also lets campus visitors scan a QR code and listen to his site-specific raps on their phones as they view the artworks in person.
Click here to go on a virtual tour of seven pieces from MIT’s public art collection as you listen to Lupe Fiasco’s raps inspired by each piece.
WBUR’s coverage of the project is available here and you can also read more about it in the Boston Globe and The Guardian.
