“The Age of Living Machines” honored by the American Institute of Physics | MIT News
Stability has always been essential to MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield. Whether or not navigating the administrative troubles of a earth-class research college or championing new designs of interdisciplinary research — and frequently both equally at the exact time — Hockfield has a keen appreciation for bringing disparate aspects together for the larger very good.
Her e-book, “The Age of Dwelling Devices,” published in April 2019 by W.W. Norton & Business, celebrates the individuals and science tales driving the “convergence revolution,” which integrated the lifetime sciences with engineering and the physical sciences to reshape the scientific enterprise. The American Institute of Physics honored her crafting with a 2020 Science Interaction Award, citing the narrative’s breadth of practical experience and optimism as vital aspects in “speaking from anti-science and achieving the community.”
“The abiding fascination of non-researchers and non-engineers, my goal viewers, to realize why they may have assurance in a far better long term was a powerful inspiration,” Hockfield says.
“At a time when it is quick to feel that self-assurance in science is at a very low position, the enthusiasm of non-researchers and non-engineers for the achievable long run systems inspired me to compose technology stories they could understand.”
“The Age of Dwelling Machines” describes how scientists from several disciplines, at MIT and somewhere else, are transforming elements of the pure entire world, these as proteins, viruses, and biological signaling pathways, into “living” remedies for some of the most critical — and difficult — needs of the 21st century, these types of as offering sufficient electrical power, food stuff, water, and health treatment for the world’s escalating population. The AIP judges observe that Hockfield gives “a equilibrium of details without overloading the reader” and simply call it a “joy to examine, each fascinating and entertaining.”
AIP has introduced its Science Interaction Awards each individual calendar year considering the fact that 1968 to recognize the most effective science creating of the earlier calendar year. The award acknowledges the writers’ endeavours to improve the normal public’s appreciation of the actual physical sciences, astronomy, math, and associated scientific fields.
Hockfield is president emerita, a professor of neuroscience, and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. From 2004 to 2012, she served as the 16th president of MIT, the initial lifetime scientist and very first lady in that function. As a biologist, she pioneered the use of monoclonal antibody technological innovation in brain exploration, determining proteins that impact brain growth by neural action early in existence.
