About Angles
Remembering Umaer Basha
Editors’ Note
Personal Essays
Whatever It Takes by Brendan Chang
I think about volleyball every day. Not because I necessarily want to, but I just can’t help it. It happens when I’m in class, walking between classes, trying to do homework, anytime really. It just happens.
Before it fell, Reunion Arena squatted in Dallas’s southwest corner, outside the shadow of the downtown skyscrapers.
An icy gust of wind hits the right side of my face. I quickly turn my head to the left, sheltering my face from the full force of the wind.
“Stick to your group. Form a line, and we will make our way to the DR!”
A wall of dense, humid air hits my entire body, making my steps falter as I slowly exit the plane. It’s that initial blast after being immersed in the stale atmosphere within an aircraft for almost a full day of flying that I always dread after landing in Taiwan.
Beautiful Rust by Alex Leffell
Rust speckles her body like leaves freshly fallen on a withering lawn, blemishing any surface that once shone.
I grip my toes on the side of the pool. The tile is slimy and cold under my feet. I reach up and fidget with my goggles, securing them tightly on my face.
Curtain Call by Sebasthian Santiago
It’s the usual Monday morning. I’m dressed in my school uniform, eating breakfast, and watching the news with my mom at the kitchen table. They run a segment about gay rights.
Investigative Essays
Everything by Christian Cardozo-Aviles
When man entered this world, his one natural tendency must have been to wonder. How to find his next meal, what to do with it, when to search for it?
The System: Football for Sale by David Christoff
For the vast majority of football’s history, coaching knowledge has been disseminated freely through personal interaction. Coaches spent their offseasons in conventions and meetings sharing information and learning from their colleagues….
Spontaneous Collaboration by Michael Holachek
I first saw MIT’s campus as a ten-year-old, through the glossy pages of a coffee-table book. Flipping through the pages, I admired the historic architecture of Walker Memorial, the Sailing Pavilion, and the Great Dome.
Anorexia: A Matter of Life and Breadth by Minyi Lee
Ann is a twenty-year-old white female from a middle-class family. She consistently performed well in high school and was involved in many school activities, almost to the point of excess (but no one told her to stop, only complimented her on her success).
The Truth about Stem Cells by Clare Liu
Many debilitating diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Type 1 diabetes, are caused by the failure of certain organs or types of cells in the human body. In theory, it is possible to cure or treat these diseases by replacing the damaged organs or cells with functional ones.
The Origin of Mass by Sam Moore
Why is a bowling ball so heavy? You might answer that the bowling ball has a lot of material packed in its spherical shape. But suppose I were to ask what gives weight to that material.
Our Guts, Our Bodies, Ourselves by Dalia Walzer
On May 27, 2004, the scientific journal Nature released a historic publication. The special issue celebrated the culmination of the Human Genome Project….
Reviews
A Maze of Computation by Michael Holachek
A tall metal cabinet towers over the corner of a second-floor exhibit at the MIT Museum. It doesn’t look like art, however; it seems instead like a relic that should hide in a decommissioned telephone closet in the basement.
Ode to Bob Marley by Theresa Santiano-McHatton
Hello, old friend. We’ve never met, but I’ve heard a great deal about you. No, not the man you were crafted after, but you—the incredible holograph likeness of Mr. Marley residing in the MIT Museum, far from Marley’s island of origin in so many more ways than location and temperature.