A timely reminder of how artful video game visual design can be.

The future of Elon Musk’s electric car company is murky. It may rest on Tesla's forthcoming self-driving taxi service, which Musk says will launch this summer.

Elon Musk's DOGE has access to 19 sensitive systems at HHS. In at least one instance, it appears that access was granted without the proper security training.

A new type of glue developed by researchers from MIT and Germany combines sticky polymers inspired by the mussel with the germ-­fighting properties of another natural material: mucus. To stick to a rock or a ship, mussels secrete a fluid full of proteins connected by chemical cross-links. As it happens, similar cross-linking features are found in mucin—a large protein that, besides water, is the primary component of mucus. George Degen, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and a coauthor of a paper on the work, wondered whether mussel-inspired polymers could link with chemical groups in mucin. To test this idea, he combined solutions of natural mucin proteins with synthetic mussel-­inspired polymers and observed how the resulting mixture solidified and stuck to surfaces over time. “It’s like a two-part epoxy. You combine two liquids together, and chemistry starts to occur so that the liquid solidifies while the substance is simultaneously gluing itself to the surface,” Degen says.  The resulting gel strongly adheres even to wet surfaces while preventing the buildup of bacteria. The researchers envision that it could be injected or sprayed as a liquid, which would soon turn into a sticky gel. The material might coat medical implants, for example, to help prevent infection. The approach could also be adapted to incorporate other natural materials such as keratin, which might be used in sustainable packaging materials.

Soon after MIT’s 18th president, Sally Kornbluth, was inaugurated in May 2023, she made it a priority to expand her early on-campus listening tour to alumni living and working around the world. She wanted to learn more about their priorities and their connections with MIT, while also engaging them in her expansive vision for its future.  This international “presidential welcome tour” brought Kornbluth to cities with large alumni communities, including New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, as well as London and Singapore. She mingled with alumni and friends, including MIT donors and the families of current students, at receptions that were followed by fireside chats with MIT alumni leaders. At these events, she underscored the ways alumni and friends can help promote the Institute’s mission—such as volunteering, donating, and spreading positive news from MIT throughout the world. “I think that communication about the wonderful things that are going on at MIT to the broader community is actually really important,” she said. “There’s no place like MIT to address the serious problems of our time.” The impact of the alumni community on MIT’s mission was further articulated by MIT Alumni Association CEO Whitney T. Espich, HM ’24. “You are the walking embodiment of MIT’s values and potential in the world,” she told alums. “It is this community that keeps taking on our toughest problems, healing our planet, leading on AI, and finding grand solutions in tiny quantum dots.” Past MITAA president R. Robert Wickham ’93, SM ’95, who moderated the conversation with President Kornbluth in London, noted that the event gave him and his peers a renewed sense of MIT’s role in meeting the world’s greatest challenges, such as combating climate change, ensuring ethical AI, and treating and curing disease. “Energizing the global connectivity of our community is something that’s very important to me as an international alum, so having Sally come to London and meet with so many of our European-based alums was very special,” says Wickham.  Natalie Lorenz Anderson ’84, the MITAA’s 2024–’25 president, traveled to Singapore for the tour’s final event. “I have found the president to be an excellent listener, very empathetic, attuned to the audience, and very wise in what she communicates,” says Lorenz Anderson. “There was such palpable energy, and alumni enjoyed hearing from her about the future of MIT. All five of these events have been a terrific way for alumni to get to know her.” 

Mike Rockwell, the new head of Siri, is reportedly turning over much of the development work to his previous team for Apple Vision Pro.Efforts to update Siri with Apple Intelligence are now falling to Apple Vision Pro teamsFirst Apple "fixer" Kim Vorrath moved to the Siri team, then previous head John Giannandrea was abruptly replaced by Apple Vision Pro chief Rockwell. Now, according to Bloomberg, Rockwell has restructured the Siri team specifically to bring in people from his Vision Pro work.The restructuring has begun with Ranjit Desai, being placed in charge of the underlying Siri system group. Rockwell reportedly told staff that Desai would help Siri reach a "new level" because of his knowledge of "high-performance, low-latency systems." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Apple is continuing to investigate making roller screens for iPhone and iPad, where a user can pull at the ends to make the display large or small as needed.It won't look like this - but it could. Apple's patent includes drawings similar to this. (Scroll source: Fae on Wiki CommonsPicture Caesar, or more probably a minion, standing at the Colosseum, holding forth the decree of the land, read from parchment stretched out between two cylinders. Now change Caesar to Tim Cook, switch Apple Park for the Colosseum, and you're seeing how Apple might introduce a future roller iPhone.It's not likely to happen at this year's iPhone 17 launch, and actually it may never happen at all. Apple's latest exploration of this roller display idea comes in a newly-granted patent, and Apple applies for thousands of patents a year. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The EU architecture community is mourning the loss of Kristin Feireiss-Commerell, the founder of the vital Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin and a significant name in the realms of architecture and urban development, after her passing recently at the age of 82. Feireiss-Commerell, whose advocacy with Helga Retzer led to the museum’s creation in 1980, was also active in other pursuits within architecture, including serving as the Commissioner for the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale twice. The Aedes Architecture Forum has staged over 500 exhibitions since its founding. "Their respective institutions only sporadically touched upon the topic of the built environment," the museum said in 2020. "In founding Aedes, both women were merely following their intuition that engaging in a discussion of architecture and urban space as important facets of everyday life with a broader public was a worthwhile endeavour: an open dialogue that would reflect changing societal conditi...

The total number of construction starts was shown to have gone up 3% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.1 trillion, according to the latest Dodge Construction Network data.  According to the new March index, the number of nonresidential starts grew by 6%, whereas residential starts decreased by 5% and nonbuilding starts increased by 9%. On a year-to-date basis, starts were down 1% from last year. Nonresidential starts were down 9%, residential starts were down 5%, while nonbuilding starts were up by 16% over the same period.  For the 12 months ending March 2025, total construction starts were up 4% from the 12 months ending March 2024. Residential starts were up 2%, nonresidential starts were up 3%, and nonbuilding starts rose 8% over the same period.  Related on Archinect: Dodge Momentum Index sees 7% pullback caused by weaker commercial planning"Construction activity grew over the month, but sector-specific data continued to show mixed trends," Eric Gaus,  chief e...

A Minecraft Movie has been proving itself to be quite successful. According to IGN, the movie has now made more than $700 million in the worldwide box office. This weekend will also mark the fourth one for A Minecraft Movie staying in theatres. Over this last weekend, A Minecraft Movie made $41 million in the domestic box office, making $16 million on Friday and $15.8 million on Saturday. Sunday saw it make an another $9.5 million, according to the stats provided by Box Office Mojo. In totality, A Minecraft Movie has made more than $343 million in the domestic box office, and $374 million in the international box office. This totals up to more than $717 million in the worldwide box office. Currently A Minecraft Movie is trailing behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is the highest grossing movie to be adapted from a video game franchise so far, having made $1.3 billion when it was still in theatres. Interestingly, A Minecraft Movie had beaten The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s opening box office results, having made $157 million in the domestic market, compared to The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s $146 million opening weekend. For the sake of comparison, The Super Mario Bros. Movie ended up being the most profitable movie of 2023. The movie was able to beat out heavy hitters of the year, including Barbie, Oppenheimer, and even the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The movie was made with a total budget of around $400 million, with $100 million of the production cost being split 50-50 by Nintendo and Universal. A sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie has also been confirmed to be in the works. While not too many details have been revealed so far, the movie is being targeted for release some time in 2026. Back in October, Toad voice actor Keegan-Michael Key spoke about how the sequel will be “broader in scope” than its predecessor. In light of A Minecraft Movie‘s success, it is likely that talks for a sequel might have begun behind the scenes. Microsoft Gaming head Phil Spencer has previously spoken about wanting more movies and TV shows adapted from video games in the past. In an interview, Spencer spoke about learning from the mistakes Microsoft had made when it came to the Halo TV series. “We’re learning and growing through this process, which is giving us more confidence that we should do more,” said Spencer back in March. “We learned from doing Halo. We learned from doing Fallout. So all of these build on themselves. And obviously we’ll have a couple that miss. But what I’d say to the Xbox community that likes this work is, ‘You’re going to see more, because we’re gaining confidence and we’re learning through this.’” In the meantime, we’ve also been seeing plenty of adaptations getting quite popular on the small screen. More recently, HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us kicked off its second season. Amazon also saw quite a bit of success for its adaptation of Fallout.