One of my favorite websites is called Read Something Wonderful. It's a curated list, compiled by the Matter team, of essays from scattered corners of the Internet on all kinds of topics, with no particular theme. Some of the essays were written by entirely unknown authors, whereas others were written by esteemed figures such as Steve Jobs or Isaac Asimov. None of the essays are newsworthy or timely, but all contain some evergreen idea or insight unlikely to diminish in importance over time. While curation is a contribution that we often regard as less important or impressive than original writing, it is highly valuable. For one, it can lead readers to something they never would have found on their own. When I first found Read Something Wonderful, I spent weeks sifting through its essays and 'discovered' perhaps a dozen writers that I quickly subscribed to (and still read today, more than a year later.) In my planner, I marked a note to read two per day; my small way to spread their wealth over a longer length of time. I feared that, if I read too many essays in one day, they'd jumble together in my brain, and I'd lose track of some of the ideas contained within. (Indeed, I was following advice from another essay, entitled 'Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket.')...

It's no question that graduate school in fundamental research was never for the faint of heart, but academia's nationwide funding disruptions threaten not just research happening now, but the critical pipeline for the next generation of scientists. 'What's keeping me up at night is the uncertainty,' says MIT Institute Professor and Nobel laureate Phillip A. Sharp, who is also professor of biology emeritus and intramural faculty at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. In the short term, Sharp foresees challenges in sustaining students so they can complete their degrees, postdocs to finish their professional preparation, and faculty to set up and sustain their labs. In the long term, the impact becomes potentially existential ' fewer people pursuing academia now means fewer advancements in the decades to come. So, when Sharp was looped into discussions about a gift in his honor, he knew exactly where it should be directed. Established this year thanks to a generous donation from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, the Phil Sharp-Alnylam Fund for Emerging Scientists will support graduate students and faculty within life sciences....

Biology can be hard to intuit, in part because it operates across vastly different scales, from single atoms all the way up to entire ecosystems. Students of biology therefore often first meet its agents and mechanisms through metaphors: molecules are charged balls connected by sticks! evolution designs organisms to maximize their fitness! mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell! While metaphors give us qualitative handles to grasp, they often oversimplify complex ideas. This is because most metaphors fail to address specifics ' especially regarding numbers. Consider another common bio-metaphor: DNA is the blueprint of the cell. That's useful for conceptual understanding, but how big is this blueprint' Is it as big as a novel or an encyclopedia' How much space does it take up' It's possible to look up or calculate the answers to these questions; the human genome is 6.2 billion base pairs, which takes up about 10 cubic microns.1 But how big is that compared to the total volume of a cell' Is it most of it or just a tiny fraction'...

Li, who has been a member of the department since 2015, brings a history of departmental leadership, service, and research and teaching excellence to his new role. He has received many awards, including a Sloan Research Fellowship (2016), an NSF Career Award (2019), Pew and Searle scholarships, and MIT's Committed to Caring Award (2020). In 2024, he was appointed as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator. 'I am grateful to Gene-Wei for joining the leadership team,' says department head Amy E. Keating, the Jay A. Stein (1968) Professor of Biology and professor of biological engineering. 'Gene will be a key leader in our educational initiatives, both digital and residential, and will be a critical part of keeping our department strong and forward-looking.' Li says he was inspired to take on the role in part because of the way MIT Biology facilitates career development during every stage ' from undergraduate and graduate students to postdocs and junior faculty members, as he was when he started in the department as an assistant professor just 10 years ago....