GLIMPSE Podcast

GLiMPSE returns with an archived interview from 2019 with physicist and author Alan Lightman, the John E. Burchard professor in MIT’s department of Media Studies and Writing. Lightman held posts in astrophysics at Cornell, Harvard, and MIT before turning to a lifelong love of words and an exploration of science as a writer. Since 1981, […]

This episode was recorded live in collaboration with Harvard University’s Science In The News for their Science by the Pint series. Together we hosted MIT professor Angelika Amon at Saloon Davis Square, where she shared her lab’s work on chromosome imbalance and cancer. She gave an overview of her lab’s impressive work in this area, […]

In this episode Tim chats with Phil Sharp, Nobel laureate, Institute Investigator at MIT and member of the Biology Department as well as the Koch Institute. Phil confronted the question of how large protein complexes assemble inside of cells nearly 30 years ago, but had no way to address it at that time. He tells […]

Cells: A Genetic Blueprint or Molecular Machines? In this episode, Tim and Max interview two MIT professors for a live event with Taste of Science Boston. Taste of Science is a nationwide science communication festival that brings scientists into bars and cafes to talk about their research with the public and answer questions in a […]

In the previous episode (“Better Questions”), we sat down with MIT Institute Professor Bob Langer and explored his story through the lens of revolutionary questions.  But that’s just one side of the innovation coin.  Asking better questions, that points a researcher in the right direction, but to deliver an answer, you must invent.  In part […]

Bob Langer is one of ten Institute Professors at MIT.  His numerous innovations in materials used in medicine have had a significant positive impact on the world.  In the first of a two-part series, we examine Bob’s story through the context of the revolutionary questions he has asked. Episode Transcript For more information please visit: […]

This episode is with Dr Rozzeta Dolah, a postdoctoral fellow in Prof Rohit Karnik’s Microfluidics and Nanofluidics Research Laboratory at MIT. Her work revolves around process optimization in renewable energy field focusing on converting waste from palm oil production into biofuels  using the Taguchi method. This effort is part of Malaysia’s plan to turn 95 […]

In the previous episode (“Getting the Data”), we learned about the many neuroscience tools Prof. Ed Boyden (MIT Media Lab, McGovern Institute) and his team have invented and disseminated to control, map, and observe the brain.  In this second episode, join GLiMPSE for a discussion of the ‘illusion of reductionism’ in biology, new developments in […]

Ed Boyden is a professor in the MIT Media Lab (Synthetic Neurobiology) and McGovern Institute.  He’s developed several revolutionary tools for researchers, including optogenetics — for controlling neurons — and expansion microscopy — for generating molecular models of brain circuits.  Furthermore, he’s currently creating high fidelity technologies for monitoring brain activity, in situ.  In this first episode […]

GLiMPSE joined forces with the MIT Postdoctoral Association for their Postdoc Homecoming on March 15, 2019. Our own founder Alex moderated a discussion with a distinguished panel of former MIT postdocs about their experiences. As the event wound down, Tim sat down with panelist Brent Grocholski, who currently serves as an editor at Science specializing in […]

We are excited to present our interview with Prof. Bryan Bryson, Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. Prof. Bryson is challenging the dogma of active and latent tuberculosis. His work suggests that every patient’s immune cells (macrophages) will vary in their capacity to control disease. He seeks to understand what specific mechanisms lead to […]

This is the second in a two-part series (first episode: ‘Bad Bugs’).  Dr. César de la Fuente-Nunez is a postdoc working in Tim Lu’s lab at MIT.  In this episode, we discuss probiotics – bacteria that have a beneficial effect on our health – and how improved fundamental understanding of these ‘good’ bugs has the potential […]

Dr. César de la Fuente-Nunez is a postdoc working in Tim Lu’s lab (Synthetic Biology Group; Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science).  César investigates humans’ complex relationship with bacteria in order to produce advanced antibiotics, therapeutics, and diagnostic tools. The first in a two-part series, this episode examines our relationship to ‘bad’ bacteria – […]

Dr. Zoya Bylinskii is a recent PhD graduate from CSAIL at MIT under the supervision of Frédo Durand and Aude Oliva. Her work uses AI to decipher human attention and memory. Where are people looking? What images are most memorable? In this episode we discuss algorithms, neural networks, and a threat bigger than sentient AI […]

Diana Orghian is a social psychologist interested in how people perceive and extract meaning from the surrounding social world. She is a postdoctoral associate in the Collective Learning group (at Media Lab, MIT) working on Person Perception, Behavioral Economics, and Data Visualization. In this episode we discuss growing up in a foreign country, the optimism-mystique […]

Dr. Mike Shah is a lecturer in the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University. He studies how to improve the speed of computer software and make coding intuitive to the uninitiated. We discuss his research, outreach efforts, and his five rules to being an effective lecturer. This episode was recorded, hosted and […]

Sydney Levine is a postdoc working jointly with Iyad Rahwan (Scalable Cooperation Group, MIT Media Lab), Joshua Tenenbaum (Computational Cognitive Science Group, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences), and Fiery Cushman (Moral Psychology Group, Harvard). She is interested in moral judgements in adults, children, and artificial intelligence. In this episode, we discuss the morality of preschoolers, […]