This is why?

 

The NY Times notes:

 Declines this fall also appear to be stacking on top of losses in Ph.D. student capacity from last year. The A.A.U.D.E. collected data for fall 2025 and found that, for the 42 schools that responded, new enrollments dropped by 11 percent from the previous year. Enrollments and admissions are not the same, but tend to be good proxies for each other in doctoral education. The central takeaway, A.A.U. officials said, is that the data shows two years of a “substantial reduction in the number of Ph.D. students being admitted and ultimately enrolled at major research universities.” Sally Kornbluth, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a message to the campus in May that, while Congress restored some agency cuts, the money was “not actually flowing to M.I.T. the way it typically has.” She said new federal research awards were down 20 percent and also cited the effects of a new tax on the school’s endowment.

In my opinion this is one reason why. Students must take Humanities courses such as (you must take 8 of these things!):  

 21W.764J Computational and Experimental Writing Workshop

21W.765J Interactive Narrative

21W.766 Writing Fantasy

21W.770 Advanced Fiction Workshop

21W.771 Advanced Poetry Workshop

21W.773 Writing Longer Fiction

21W.774J Playwriting Methods

21W.776J Screenwriting

21W.780J Writing the Full-Length Play

21W.786J Social Justice and The Documentary Film

21W.790J Short Attention Span Documentary

CMS.150J Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies

CMS.301 Game Design Methods

CMS.303J DJ History, Technique, and Technology

CMS.305J Rap Theory and Practice

CMS.306 Making Comics and Sequential Art

CMS.307 Critical Worldbuilding

CMS.308 The Visual Story: Graphic Novel, Type to Tablet

CMS.309J Transmedia Storytelling: Modern Science Fiction

CMS.335J Short Attention Span Documentary

CMS.336J Social Justice and The Documentary Film

CMS.338 Innovation in Documentary: Technologies and Techniques

CMS.339 Virtual Reality and Immersive Media Production

CMS.344 Spatial Sound: Culture, Theory, and Practice

CMS.352J Japanese Cinema

CMS.374J Transmedia Art, Extraction, and Environmental Justice

CMS.418J Gender in the Visual Arts

 

Plus MIT instituted and continues its DEI program with Commissars in each Department ensuring compliance (Think Hunt for Red October).  

So what do they do, blame Congress! Perhaps a mirror would help. For example who ever had had put  the "toll booth" at all entrances really started the ball rolling.

 As a Note the 1961 MIT catalog stated:

The M.I.T. program in humanities and social sciences has several objectives. It seeks first to develop attitudes and skills basic to a life of effective thought , action, and appreciation as a responsible citizen and broadly educated human being. Secondly, it seeks to provide some understanding of man's experience at key points in his history and of the human problems which must be the concern of every civilized  man. Thirdly, it seeks to provide some sense of the intellectual discipline involved in a particular area in the humanities or social sciences, some cutting in depth in a field outside the student’s professional specialization. Finally, it seeks to develop skill in accurately and effectively communicating facts and ideas orally and in writing. Every candidate for a Bachelor's degree must take eight term subjects in the humanities and social sciences; normally these are distributed over the eight terms of his residence, one to each term. All  ndergraduates may take, if they choose, two additional humanities or social science subjects in place of two  professional electives. In his first two years each student takes a series of four subjects: INTRODUCTION TO THE HUMANITIES (21.01, 21.02) and MODERN WESTERN IDEAS AND VALUES (21.03, 21.04). Through intensive work with original texts he is given training in critical reading, a sampling of the liberal disciplines; notably history, philosophy, and literature and a foundation for more advanced study in these and related fields. Frequent written exercises, with criticism from his instructors in scheduled conferences, give him an opportunity to improve his writing ability.

Notice the drastic difference. It lacks focus, stresses "woke" elements, and most like has faculty less appropriate for science and engineering.
 

Amazon is Collapsing

 Amazon has lost, delayed, or otherwise failed to deliver on 10-10% of my orders. Today the managed 100%. I wonder who the incompetent, in my opinion, is who managed this fiasco! Maybe they are spending too much time in useless Data Centers. Remember, if all else fails listen to the customer!

What are they talking about?

 

In a Science article the authors, some folks from a Southern Business School, opine on how R&D should be conducted. The recognize that research is now well established in the University, Venture funded entities are able to convert that research into services and products, and large corporations can often, but not always, industrialize these entities. The fail to note than many start ups continue to grow independent of a third party, but let that slide.

They then state:

 One lesson is clear: The American research university is the indispensable foundation for innovation. Industrial research in America arose partly because university research was underdeveloped, but over time, the two flourished together, reinforcing each other. It is not necessary to choose between universities, start-ups, and corporate laboratories. Instead, the institutions that connect them must be strengthened, and the scientific foundations that make those connections possible must be protected.

My question is simple: what are the institutions that connect them? I spent a few years after having done my own start ups and tried to go to the university and then commercialize them. Not a single success. The university research often lingers in the valley of death, where the researcher holds on to the idea but simultaneously wants to keep their academic position. That is a bad example of the wing-walkers rule, never let go of something until you have a firm hold of something else. The result may be half of you stays on the two aircraft. 

I wonder why these academics postulate some undefined solution. It appears they have no hands on experience. At the best, one may license a patent from an institution. However that can be a painful process, I also have done that. You often are still stuck with the researcher. The problem is that researchers live in silos. Thus they may have a great technology, but have no idea as to how to manufacture it. I would get a test tube worth but need tons!

This three step process is weak. Lots of great ideas and technology but getting it to a viable start up phase is complex. The worst I have ever seen was MIT starting its VC fund. A university should not be in the position of choosing winners and losers. Research is research. It is not product development. It lacks the ruthless hand of management. 

Happy 4th

 From NASA telescope. I shall be working in the field of lilies. 

Gross Incompetence?

 NJ Transit is in my opinion and my experience one of the most incompetently run entities in the world! Warped tracks, broken equipment, filthy train stations (NY Penn especially), nasty employees, failed management. The list could go on. In the NY Times they note:

New Jersey train passengers could be in for a rough ride. NJ Transit, the state’s rail service, announced a number of delays and cancellations because of the extreme heat, and warned that the problems could persist through Saturday. High temperatures can cause overhead electrical equipment to sag and tracks to expand, potentially leading to long delays. The agency also warned that air conditioning systems on aging trains and buses, many of which are overdue for replacement, could be spotty. On Thursday morning, a number of NJ Transit trains traveling along the Northeast Corridor, which connects busy stations in New Jersey to Penn Station in Manhattan, were canceled because of mechanical issues and lack of available equipment, according to the agency. And delays and cancellations were announced on other trains, including some on the Morris & Essex Line, Pascack Valley Line and Main/Bergen County Line.

 Perhaps these are Acts of God, to keep people from going into NYC! 

 

MDS: Whack a Mole?

 I went to an interesting conference on microplastics syndrome (MDS), at Columbia Medical School, and had an interesting insight.

Namely, take prostate cancer. There are two schools of thought. The first is, "how does it occur?". This is the gene, mutation, etc question, generally occurring inside the cell. One may also consider external factors such as inflammation, but ultimately it results inside the cell. For simplicity I call this the "WHY" school. There are many silos that are focused upon, many relate to genes, RNAs proteins etc.

The second school is call  the "EXTERNAL", which focuses on how to kill the malignant cell. Thus HER2+ uses ADC, antibody drug conjugates, to target the malignant cell and kill it with a drug. This school cares less as to why the malignant cell arose. This school tries to uniquely identify the enemy and attack it. Many immunotherapies are part of this school as well.

The WHY school looks at the internal elements and perhaps if they can identify a targetable one such as imatinib in CML. The recent work on JAK inhibitors fall in the scheme. 

The WHY school in MDS seems to be quite expansive. Each time an internal target is found another appears. This is the "whack a mole" syndrome. Which of these targets are best. In hematological cancers the EXTERNAL school may not be effective since it may just destroy a whole line of blood cells. 

It is interesting to see this yin and yang approach from inside and outside.