Writing Together Online offers structured time to help you spring into writing and stay focused this semester. We offer writing sessions every workday, Monday through Friday. Join our daily 90-minute writing sessions and become part of a community of scholars who connect online, set realistic goals, and write together in the spirit of accountability and camaraderie. The program is open to all MIT students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and affiliates who are working on papers, proposals, thesis/dissertation chapters, application materials, and other writing projects. For more information and to register, go to this link or check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with colleagues and friends.Register for Spring 2025 Writing Challenge 1Choose those sessions that you want to attend during Challenge 1: February 10th through March 21stMondays 9:00–10:30amTuesdays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amWednesdays 9:00–10:30amThursdays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amFridays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amMIT Students and postdocs who attend at least 5 sessions per challenge will be entered into a raffle of three $25 Amazon gift cards. The raffle will take place on Friday, March 21st. The more you participate, the more times you will be entered into the raffle of prizes.For more information and to register, check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with peers and friends.The funding support for this program comes from the Office of Graduate Education

Writing Together Online offers structured time to help you spring into writing and stay focused this semester. We offer writing sessions every workday, Monday through Friday. Join our daily 90-minute writing sessions and become part of a community of scholars who connect online, set realistic goals, and write together in the spirit of accountability and camaraderie. The program is open to all MIT students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and affiliates who are working on papers, proposals, thesis/dissertation chapters, application materials, and other writing projects. For more information and to register, go to this link or check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with colleagues and friends.Register for Spring 2025 Writing Challenge 1Choose those sessions that you want to attend during Challenge 1: February 10th through March 21stMondays 9:00–10:30amTuesdays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amWednesdays 9:00–10:30amThursdays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amFridays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amMIT Students and postdocs who attend at least 5 sessions per challenge will be entered into a raffle of three $25 Amazon gift cards. The raffle will take place on Friday, March 21st. The more you participate, the more times you will be entered into the raffle of prizes.For more information and to register, check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with peers and friends.The funding support for this program comes from the Office of Graduate Education

The next session on February 4th will be held on Zoom.Meet other expecting and first time parents of infants under one year to connect, share information, and support each other. Bring your concerns, questions, and experiences to the group. And of course, your babies are welcome! This peer led group is organized by MS&PC members Kathrin and Maria.Contact Kathrin hauserkathrin1994@gmail.com or Maria maria.korompili24@gmail.com for more information.

Title: Amygdala projections to the pons promote motor programs of ingestionSpeaker Andrew Lutas, PhD Stadtman Investigator Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health,Abstract Overconsumption of energy-dense, palatable food leads to obesity. We investigated neural circuit mechanisms that allow for the overconsumption of food despite visceral satiety signals. Hypothalamic and amygdala inhibitory circuits targeting the hindbrain can drive motor programs of ingestion. Here we focused on a projection from the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) to the pons region of the hindbrain, where CeA targets the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) that relays visceral sensory signals as well as the nearby premotor circuits that control orofacial behaviors. Using fiber photometry and two-photon microscopy, we recorded the activity of CeA GABAergic axons within the pons. These axons were highly active during bouts of ingestion, with activity levels correlated to the duration of each bout and did not dependent on physiological state or palatability, suggesting that this pathway modulates consummatory behaviors. Optogenetic activation of CeA to pons axons in head-fixed animals triggered distinct orofacial motor behaviors, including licking and biting, as well as excessive drinking of any available liquid, regardless of palatability. In freely moving, ad libitum-fed mice, photostimulation induced biting, chewing, and swallowing which led to overconsumption of food when the stimulation occurred nearby, but not away from, food. Recordings of dopaminergic input to the CeA suggest a role for dopamine in modulating these consumption-correlated neural activity. Together, these findings support a model that CeAàPons photostimulation enables a state of orofacial behavioral disinhibition that remains controlled by external and internal contextual cues.Bio Dr. Lutas is a Stadtman tenure-track investigator at NIH since 2022 where he is a member of the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch and the acting chief of the Neuromodulation and Motivation Section. He received his PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard University, conducting his research with Dr. Gary Yellen. There he investigated the regulation of ion channels and neuronal excitability by cellular metabolism and found that the sodium leak channel NaLCN is regulated by glycolysis to control intrinsic spontaneous firing rates. For his postdoc research, he joined Dr. Mark Anderman at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he focused on amygdala cellular and circuit mechanisms for associative learning finding a role for unsigned dopamine signaling in learning salience. In the process, he helped develop new optical and behavioral approaches to study G Protein-Coupled Receptor signaling via the cAMP pathway. His lab at NIH now uses these molecular and system neuroscience tools to study amygdala and hindbrain circuits controlling ingestion.

Speaker Noah Nathan will be presenting joint research conducted with Paige Bollen (Ohio State University).Abstract: The physical structures in which urban life occurs are an underappreciated determinant of how grassroots urban politics unfolds. In many rapidly growing cities, housing scarcity forces residents into multifamily buildings that create daily exposures to neighbors. We argue that these exposures affect political behavior by shaping residents’ access to political information and capacity for collective action. We focus on the informal, vernacular architecture of West Africa’s dominant urban housing form — the compound house. Compound house residents in urban Ghana participate more in politics than similar residents of other housing types. Leveraging an original survey, including novel measures of tenants’ spatial network centrality within their residential buildings, we suggest that key mechanisms for this relationship emerge from the effects of architectural design on visibility and social ties among co-tenants. Ultimately, built environments must be studied alongside demographic environments to best understand contextual effects on political behavior.Lunch will be available from 12:15pm. Please RSVP here.Speaker:Noah Nathan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT. His research focuses on electoral politics, political economy, and urban politics in Africa. His most recent book, The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland (Cambridge University Press, 2023), explores long-term effects of state-building in the rural periphery on economic inequality, elite capture, clientelism, and violence. His first book, Electoral Politics and Africa’s Urban Transition: Class and Ethnicity in Ghana (Cambridge University Press, 2019), examined urbanization's impacts on ethnicity, clientelism, and the emergence of programmatic politics. Other research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Politics, and World Politics. He received his PhD in Government at Harvard in 2016.Contact Kate Danahy at kdanahy@mit.edu with any questions.Join our mailing list here to learn about upcoming CIS Global Research & Policy Seminars.

MIT Free English Class is for international students, sholars, spouses. Twenty seven years ago we created a community to welcome the nations to MIT and assist with language and friendship. Join our Tuesday/Thursday conversation classes around tables inside W11-190.

The Chaplains invite you to take a brief pause for refreshments and conversation as you cross campus this month. Find us in the Stata Street on Tuesday afternoons. Look for the rocking chairs!

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

Please join us in this book talk with Alice Rothchild ft. Judy Norsigian, co-founder and past executive director, Our Bodies Ourselves and Steven E. Ostrow, Research Affiliate and Lecturer (retired), History Faculty, M.I.T.“Inspired and Outraged: The Making of a Feminist Physician” tells the story of Alice Rothchild's journey from 1950's good girl to irreverent, feisty, feminist obstetrician-gynecologist forging her own direction in the contradictory, sexist world of medicine. As a child who came of age in the turbulent 1960s, she was compelled to create a path in the often outrageous, male-dominated medical field, repeatedly finding herself to be a first: accepted into an ob-gyn residency, opening an all-woman practice, working with midwives, challenging the status quo, shaped by her early involvement with Our Bodies Ourselves. Rothchild's poems are steeped in the often-shocking history of medicine and the conflicted sexual politics of the second half of the twentieth century. More about Alice RothchildFood will be provided.This event is cosponsored by MIT History.

Speakers: Dan Mangoubi (Hebrew University)

Writing a journal article can be a daunting task, characterized by frustration instead of progress. This four-part workshop series will breakdown the task of writing an empirical journal article into manageable pieces so that you can move your project forward. Led by WCC lecturer Adrienne Tierney, Ed.D, we will discuss how to approach each section and how to use writing as a problem-solving tool in creating a meaningful paper that conveys your research clearly and effectively. We encourage you to attend all sessions of the series, but you are also welcome to sign up for separate sessions.Part 1. Getting Started: Creating a Plan and Drafting an IntroductionTuesday, February 11th, 4:00-5:30pmPart 2. Getting to the Data: Methods and ResultsTuesday, February 18th, 4:00-5:30pmPart 3. Interpreting Your Findings: DiscussionTuesday, February 25th, 4:00-5:30pmPart 4. From Paper to Publication: Revision and SubmissionTuesday, March 4th, 4:00-5:30pm

Olivia Bordeu (Princeton)

This yoga practice provides the opportunity to relax and de-stress as well as to stretch, strengthen, and balance your body. The practice begins with a meditative centering followed by warm-ups, a posture flow, and a restful final relaxation. We conclude with a closing and some time for connecting with your fellow yogis.The yoga postures are led at a moderate intensity. Lower intensity modifications are always offered and there is absolutely no obligation to do any posture. The goal is to make the class accessible to beginners as well as experienced practitioners. Listening to your body is the key to safety, especially in this online format.Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this website, you'll need to create one. This is fee-based class and open to the entire MIT community.

The MIT wrestling club holds practices in the du Pont Wrestling Room on weeknights 5:30-7pm. All levels of experience welcome! Whether you're looking to learn how to grapple or just want to get in a good workout, wrestling practice is a good time to learn technique, get in some live goes, and have fun with a great group of people.Current schedule is: structured practice MTRF, open mats W, and technique sessions 9-10:30am on Saturday. For more information, contact wrestling-officers@mit.edu.

"Do you ever feel that life holds a deeper meaning beyond what you currently understand? The truth is profound—there are countless mysteries of existence, divinity, and the self that lie beyond our awareness. There is so much we don’t know, and even more that we don’t realize we don’t know."Join us on this exciting journey of Discover Your Self to explore the unknown territories of life and delve into the science of spirituality. This course, based on the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, will equip you with proven methods to achieve true inner joy and answer your deepest questions about life's higher principles. This Course explains Proven methods to attain the true inner joy of heart and gives answers to all the Inquiries about Higher Principles in life like the pathway for unlimited and everlasting happiness from the eyes of scriptures like Bhagavad Gita in a scientific perspective.Salient Features:Discover the Game of LifeDiscover Inner SelfDiscover The Ultimate GeniusDiscover Manual of LifeDiscover Lasting SolutionDiscover Sublime Joy Through SoundDiscover The Real Eternal LoveDiscover The Happy PlanetYou are invited to join us every Tuesday 6:00-7:00 pm. To your pleasure we have free delicious sattvik vegetarian dinner is available after every session.Event details:6:00 pm-6:10 pm: Mantra Meditation and kirtan6:10 pm-6:50 pm: : Session7:00pm : Dinner along with Q&A.Venue: MIT Room 56-180, 32 Vasaar Steeet, Cambridge MA Kindly RSVP here https://forms.gle/DEXUz6ig6dJZoU1k7Regards, MIT Vedic Vision Forum

Time: 11:00 AMLocation: Lancaster, Pa.