Study: With masking and distancing in place, NFL stadium openings in 2020 had no impact on local Covid-19 infections

As with most everything in the world, football looked very different in 2020. As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, many National Football League (NFL) games were played in empty stadiums, while other stadiums opened to fans at significantly reduced capacity, with strict safety protocols in place. At the time it was unclear what impact such large […]

Patrick Hale, former executive director of System Design and Management, dies at 72

Patrick “Pat” Hale SM ’84, former executive director of MIT System Design and Management, passed away on Feb. 4 at the age of 72 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Hale oversaw the progression of SDM from a small experiment to a renowned program in engineering and management. Hale served in the U.S. Navy […]

Sources: Spotify will rename its live conversation product, from Greenroom to Spotify Live, and plans to integrate the content into its main app in Q2 (Ashley Carman/Bloomberg)

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: Sources: Spotify will rename its live conversation product, from Greenroom to Spotify Live, and plans to integrate the content into its main app in Q2  —  Spotify Technology SA is renaming its live conversation product and integrating the content into its main streaming app to make the service …

Sony releases PS4 and PS5 updates; the PS5 will gain Variable Refresh Rate in the coming months, syncing a display’s refresh rate to the PS5’s graphical output (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge: Sony releases PS4 and PS5 updates; the PS5 will gain Variable Refresh Rate in the coming months, syncing a display’s refresh rate to the PS5’s graphical output  —  Sony says VRR will be available in the coming months on the PS5  —  Sony is planning to release a Variable Refresh […]

Unlocking the power of collaboration in contracts

At the heart of nearly every purchase, sale, partnership, acceptance, and rejection is a contract. Businesses depend on people’s ability to build and understand contracts, especially in response to unique and fast-changing circumstances — like a global pandemic, for example. Even before the pandemic, many businesses were struggling to keep up with accelerating changes to […]

Building bridges, not silos

The MIT campus is built to connect people. Some structures, like the Stata Center, the Sloan building, or the Media Lab building, offer large lobbies, flexible labs, and common spaces to enhance collaboration. MIT’s Infinite Corridor — which is one-sixth of a mile long — mixes thousands of people together daily. Aerial walkways connect campus […]

Sources: Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is raising $100M in a token sale from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, a previous backer, and Khosla, at a $3B valuation (The Information)

The Information: Sources: Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is raising $100M in a token sale from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, a previous backer, and Khosla, at a $3B valuation  —  Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency startup co-founded by former Y Combinator president Sam Altman, is raising $100 million …

A simple diagnostic tool for gastrointestinal disorders

As food moves through the digestive tract, contracting muscles along the tract keep things flowing smoothly. Loss of this motility can lead to acid reflux, failure of food to move out of the stomach, or constipation. Dysmotility disorders are usually diagnosed with a catheter containing pressure transducers, which can sense contractions of the GI tract. […]

Ride-hailing without the traffic snarls?

In theory, competition among ride-hailing companies should be a good thing, providing more options for consumers. In practice, having too many ride-hailing vehicles adds to urban congestion. How can cities balance these factors? A new study co-authored by MIT researchers, in collaboration with the Institute for Informatics and Telematics of the National Research Council of […]

Alibaba increases its share buyback program from $15B to $25B, sending its Hong Kong-listed shares up by 11%+; Alibaba has so far purchased ~$9.2B in shares (Arjun Kharpal/CNBC)

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: Alibaba increases its share buyback program from $15B to $25B, sending its Hong Kong-listed shares up by 11%+; Alibaba has so far purchased ~$9.2B in shares  —  – Alibaba said on Tuesday it will increase the size of its share buyback program from $15 billion to $25 billion, effective for a […]

The Lapsus$ group releases ~37GB of alleged source code from Microsoft, covering Bing, Cortana, and other services; Microsoft says it is investigating (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: The Lapsus$ group releases ~37GB of alleged source code from Microsoft, covering Bing, Cortana, and other services; Microsoft says it is investigating  —  The Lapsus$ hacking group claims to have leaked the source code for Bing, Cortana, and other projects stolen from Microsoft’s internal Azure DevOps server.

Rights group Global Witness says Facebook approved eight paid ads that it submitted containing hate speech inciting violence and genocide against the Rohingya (Associated Press)

Associated Press: Rights group Global Witness says Facebook approved eight paid ads that it submitted containing hate speech inciting violence and genocide against the Rohingya  —  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A new report has found that Facebook failed to detect blatant hate speech and calls to violence …

Yukiko Yamashita, unraveler of stem cells’ secrets

When cells divide, they usually generate two identical daughter cells. However, there are some important exceptions to this rule: When stem cells divide, they often produce one differentiated cell along with another stem cell, to maintain the pool of stem cells. Yukiko Yamashita has spent much of her career exploring how these “asymmetrical” cell divisions […]

A malicious cartoon rendering Android app that steals Facebook credentials has been downloaded 100K times and is still available on the Google Play Store (Bill Toulas/BleepingComputer)

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: A malicious cartoon rendering Android app that steals Facebook credentials has been downloaded 100K times and is still available on the Google Play Store  —  A malicious Android app that steals Facebook credentials has been installed over 100,000 times via the Google Play Store, with the app still available to download.

Digital banking app Dave raises $100M in a convertible note from FTX Ventures; FTX US will be the exclusive partner for any crypto offerings by Dave (Brandy Betz/CoinDesk)

Brandy Betz / CoinDesk: Digital banking app Dave raises $100M in a convertible note from FTX Ventures; FTX US will be the exclusive partner for any crypto offerings by Dave  —  FTX US will serve as the exclusive partner for any crypto offerings offered by Dave.  —  Dave (DAVE), a publicly-traded banking app …

3 Questions: Jackson Lu on the “bamboo ceiling” in some graduate schools

In the U.S., ethnic East Asians are often depicted as a “model minority” and assumed to be thriving in educational and professional terms. But reality is more complex. A new study co-authored by Jackson Lu, the Mitsui Career Development Professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management, finds that students of East Asian descent often […]

Making quantum circuits more robust

Quantum computing continues to advance at a rapid pace, but one challenge that holds the field back is mitigating the noise that plagues quantum machines. This leads to much higher error rates compared to classical computers. This noise is often caused by imperfect control signals, interference from the environment, and unwanted interactions between qubits, which […]

Cascade, which offers a single tool to centralize project management, KPIs, and outcome tracking, raises a $29M Series A led by Telescope Partners (Paul Sawers/VentureBeat)

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: Cascade, which offers a single tool to centralize project management, KPIs, and outcome tracking, raises a $29M Series A led by Telescope Partners  —  Cascade, a strategy execution platform used by companies such as Johnson & Johnson, American Express, and AstraZeneca, has raised $29 million in a series A round of […]

The CEO of lithography machine maker ASML says chipmakers’ expansion plans will be constrained by a shortage of its critical equipment over the next two years (Financial Times)

Financial Times: The CEO of lithography machine maker ASML says chipmakers’ expansion plans will be constrained by a shortage of its critical equipment over the next two years  —  Intel admits expansion to be restricted as it works with ASML to boost capacity  —  Chipmakers’ multibillion-dollar expansion plans …

FTX launches crypto exchange services in Australia, including crypto derivatives and spot market offerings, operating out of a Sydney headquarters (Sebastian Sinclair/Blockworks)

Sebastian Sinclair / Blockworks: FTX launches crypto exchange services in Australia, including crypto derivatives and spot market offerings, operating out of a Sydney headquarters  —  FTX is hoping to get ahead of the regulatory curve by appeasing policymakers and working “proactively” with regulators