Carolyn Blais

I've been telling stories for over a decade. I started out in publicity--writing press releases for non-profit organizations. I moved on to journalism and was lucky enough to work for a magazine that focused on two of my greatest passions: art and literature. I then decided to throw in seven years in Hollywood as a humor writer for good measure. Nowadays, I can be found in Cambridge, MA, bumming around one particular higher education institution, busting out science and engineering content. But what I love to write most just so happens to be what I love to read most: human interest stories. I strive to write thought-provoking pieces that captivate and engage readers, connecting them to the subject at hand. 

Contact: carolynblais@gmail.com

MIT News •

MIT News: Keeping confidence

Catalina Romero, a first-year student at MIT, bustles in the kitchen of her dorm, quickly putting the finishing touches on her arepas, or Colombian corn pancakes. She has been making arepas with her mother for years. Tonight, she is making them for her classmates at MIT. Growing up in Gurnee, Illinois, Romero was fascinated by outer space and dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Her parents, who emigrated from Colombia before she was born, worked long hours at Medline, a medical supplies company.
Lemelson-MIT employee Leigh Estabrooks
MIT News •

MIT News: Leigh Estabrooks wins Society of Women Engineers WE Local Engaged Advocate Award

Leigh Estabrooks, the invention education officer at the Lemelson-MIT Program, was recently awarded the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) 2020 WE Local Engaged Advocate Award in her home state of North Carolina. Estabrooks received the award for her contributions to the advancement of women in engineering. She has engaged young women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through inventing over the past 15 years at the Lemelson-MIT Program, part of MIT’s School of Engineering.
Filmaker Christopher Coppola

Forth Magazine: The Fusion of Technology, Storytelling, and a Modern Art form An Interview with Christopher Coppola: The DigiVangelist

Author, Ursula K. LeGuin once said, “There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” In the modern world, technology has progressed far beyond the wheel, and aspects of storytelling have also evolved by making use of advanced technology. For writer, director, producer, and all-round filmmaker extraordinaire, Christopher Coppola, technology and storytelling complement each other like PB & J.
Cartoon drawing of the bride of Frankenstein being struck with a lightning bolt under the sea
Mit Engineering •

MIT School of Engineering | » How did life on Earth begin?

It started in the depths of the ocean. Or maybe underneath the ice caps… The truth is, we don’t know for certain where and how the first living thing on Earth came to be. However, many scientists and engineers think that life may have started in protected places on Earth, like the bottom of the ocean. This way, early life would avoid dangers on the surface of the planet like radiation from the sun, explains David Miller, the Jerome Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. Wit
Doug Hac photograph of a blond woman dancing in a club with colorful lights flashing all around her

Forth Magazine: Doug Hac Private Sunset & Vine Gallery Showing

Los Angeles is a curious city—massive in population and geography, but broken down into different areas and neighborhoods like downtown, Hollywood, The Valley, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and the list goes on and on. From the 20th floor penthouse of Sunset Vine Tower, the tallest building in Hollywood, I was able to see the very vastness of this metropolis. From high up, looking out onto the great expanse, LA looks like one, big, glistening glare of brake lights and neon signs extended for miles.
Cartoon drawing of a half human, half robot
Mit Engineering •

MIT School of Engineering | » When will AI be smart enough to outsmart people?

In some ways, it’s already happening. In other ways, it depends on your definition of “outsmart.” In a paper published last year, titled, “When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts,” elite researchers in artificial intelligence predicted that “human level machine intelligence,” or HLMI, has a 50 percent chance of occurring within 45 years and a 10 percent chance of occurring within 9 years. But anyone who has ever had a conversation with Siri or Cortana, (some of the virtu
MIT Student Isabel Lloyd
MIT News •

MIT News: Featured video: Engineering joy

MIT senior Isabel “Izzy” Lloyd will graduate this spring with not only a degree in mechanical engineering, but with the pleasure of knowing she accomplished a goal she set for herself as a freshman: to impact those around her in a truly positive way. Lloyd has worn many hats during her MIT career — from captivating audiences with her a cappella group The Chorallaries, to helping Parkinson’s patients with a device that helps manage tremors, to spreading a simple message of compassion and kindnes
Cartoon drawing of a duck dressed as a
Mit Engineering •

MIT School of Engineering | » Will we ever run out of music?

As long as someone is listening, the beat will go on. Eran Egozy, professor of the practice in music technology at MIT, suggests we consider a traditionally thought of piece of Western music like Johann Sebastian Bach’s first Cello Suite. Recognizable from commercials and movies, Suite No. 1 was written in G Major for solo cello, and its first movement is comprised almost entirely of sixteenth notes in about forty bars of music. So that’s forty bars of sixteenth notes each, or 640 notes total,
MIT Student Virginia Adams
Mit Engineering •

MIT School of Engineering | » Decoding Language Barriers

A passion for both human and machine languages leads to a MISTI internship in Shenzhen, China for Virginia Adams ’18 Video and photo by Lillie Paquette; Written by Carolyn Blais “Learning a new language gives you a window into someone else’s world,” says Virginia Adams, who graduated from MIT this past May. For Adams, learning Chinese has given her a glimpse into a fascinating, fast-paced culture where technology is rapidly advancing. As a MISTI (MIT International Science & Technology Initiati
Cartoon drawing of Queen Elizabeth doing her queen wave from a propeller plane
Mit Engineering •

MIT School of Engineering | » Is it possible to make solar-powered airplanes?

Yes it is. But maybe don’t pack your bags yet. Actually, maybe forget the luggage altogether. Believe it or not, the sun has actually been powering aircraft in sustained flight since the 1980s, says Tony Tao, a PhD student in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. Tao explains that NASA and its subcontractors have been at the forefront of progress for solar-powered aircrafts, having built the Pathfinder, Centurion and most recently, Helios. All three aircrafts are remotely piloted, use batteries
MIT professor Cem Tasan
Mit Engineering •

MIT School of Engineering | » Modern Metallurgist

A technical look at how materials science professor Cem Tasan is working on novel metals and materials for the future. Video and photo by Lillie Paquette; Written by Carolyn Blais If humans are going to be able to travel to Mars one day, Cem Tasan’s research on metals just might play a role in the mission. Tasan, the Thomas B. King Career Development Professor in Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, works to produce metals that will bend with the changing t