Institute Professor Philip Morrison’s life was the stuff of legend. He was famed for his astrophysical research, his role in the Manhattan Project and then in nuclear arms control, his mentorship for generations of MIT students and his accomplishments in public science education–among them, the PBS miniseries The Ring of Truth. Morrison “was spectacular at explaining physics to the public,” recalled Marc Kastner, now MIT’s Dean of Science. “He was the only person I ever knew who spoke not just in compete sentences, but complete paragraphs.” Morrison told some of his stories in a 1997 book of essays, Nothing Is Too Wonderful to Be True. You can find many others in a tribute website for Morrison and his wife, Phylis Hagen Morrison. We’d love to hear more about Philip Morrison, and you can add comments here.

While voting for the MIT 150 Exhibition chugs along, so do the nominations, and we’re seeing a wave of items that shed light on curiosities from MIT’s cultural history.  Among the most recent is George Eastman’s nose.  Does this ring a bell? What’s your favorite story about luck, good and bad, at the Institute?

In response to some (*ahem*) overzealous voting, we’ve had to make some corrections to the results. It’s nice to see that people are interested enough in promoting their favorite item to take the time to do a little hacking. However, please remember that this is meant to be a fun exercise in helping to shape the 150 Exhibition. MIT Museum staff will make the final curatorial decisions, but this popular vote will weigh in their choices.

Please remember to show your support for your favorites by contributing stories about them in the comments section!

We’ve been very pleased with the first few days of voting for the MIT 150 Exhibition. The Baker House stalwarts are still dominating the early results, but other favorites are emerging, including Smoots, Brass Rats and hacks. (Okay, no surprises there!) We’re also seeing new nominations, such as last year’s wonderful waterfall hack, below.

Yes,  it’s finally election day, and you now can vote for your favorite 10 contenders for the MIT 150 Exhibition. The polls are still open–in fact, they’re open until January.  The early leader is the fabled Baker House Piano Drop, because we grandfathered in the 400-some thumbs-up it received. (Why aren’t other living groups competing for this record?) Second at the moment are the 1970 Grateful Dead concerts. Then come the Glass Lab (below), Project Athena and Building 20, which no longer exists.  Okay, what are your favorites?

As we prepare for voting on MIT 150 items later this week, we’re looking over many colorful stories. But quiet moments like the one embodied below also can make you pause. Here are three world-famed MIT biologists, at the opening of the MIT-affiliated Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in 1984. They’re still highly active today (David Baltimore at Caltech) in research, their profession and the public eye. 25 years ago may seem like ancient days in biomedicine, but it’s only a sixth of the way back in time toward the founding of the Institute. In the MIT 150 Exhibition, we hope to help preserve many such notes, be they triumphant or quiet.

This week our tech guru Allan Doyle is polishing the balloting system for the MIT 150 Exhibition, figuring how best to let you vote for your 10 favorite items for display. This is no small trick, given the 350-or-so nominations already made. Next week, MIT 150 voting “officially” launches here on Tuesday November 3 (yes, Election Day!). The online polls will be open until January 1. During this period, you also can nominate new objects. (There’s no time like the present!) Famed physicist Victor Weisskopf, below, is among the most recent nominations.

Next door in Boston the mayoral race is down to two candidates. Here at the MIT Museum we’re readying for another election with no fewer than 350 candidates. Late this month we’ll kick off voting for the MIT 150 Exhibition, giving everyone who visits this website a chance to pick 10 favorite items, and to add their own write-in candidates. Unlike the Boston event, this virtual town meeting is open until January 1. The results will be grist for the design mill for the Exhibition, which opens a year from January. Take a minute or two now to check out all your options, currently running from 10-250 (the lecture room) to Zork (the computer game).

“The Baker House Piano Drop is a celebration of the student spirit, where a (non-functioning) piano is dropped six stories from the roof of Baker House to the ground below,” one alumni writes. This famed ritual is by far the most popular nomination ever for the MIT 150, receiving more than 400 thumbs-up votes as Baker House alums spread the word and posted  a rich set of comments. You also can see Piano Drop videos, ranging from 1973 to 2009, on YouTube. Check out this colorful history and add your own memories or thoughts–or nominate other fabled MIT traditions!

“There are more Norbert Wiener stories than you can imagine,“ says Deborah Douglas, Curator of Science & Technology at the MIT Museum. “For people of a certain generation at MIT, he was an exceptionally colorful member of the faculty.” The extraordinarily gifted Wiener graduated from high school at 11 and received his doctorate from Harvard at 18. He is best known outside MIT as the father of cybernetics and for  major contributions to pure and applied mathematics. “Wiener’s eccentricities are also a part of his legacy at MIT,” as the Math department website notes politely. Most of the Norbert Wiener stories we’re hearing haven’t yet made it onto the MIT 150 website, but check these out, and if you’ve got one of your own, please add it!