The Crimson reports that Cambridge's two larger institutions of higher education are selling their edX portal to some for-profit concern and that they'll use the money to build a new non-profit aimed at improving the online educational experience, in particular for "under-resourced and historically disadvantaged populations."

Michael Crestohl reports Steve Finberg of Cambridge, who started "Swapfest, the Flea at MIT" in 1985 and ran it for 35 years, died Friday. Read more.

MIT reports some of its researchers have figured out how to use X rays to virtually unravel and even read centuries-old letters that were carefully folded and "locked" in the days before envelopes were invented and offered some measure of privacy. Read more.

The New Haven Independent reports on what has become a national manhunt for Qinxuan Pan (shown right), who is considered armed and dangerous. Kevin Jiang was shot to death on Feb. 6.

Jiang was recently engaged to a woman who graduated from MIT before moving to New Haven to become a doctoral student herself at Yale.

Lawyers for Gang Chen, an MIT nanotechnology expert, today asked a federal judge to sanction local US Attorney Andrew Lelling for what they said was his attempt to gin up Chen's charges of failing to properly fill out grant applications by making it sound like the professor was somehow engaged in something far more nefarious. Read more.

MIT News reports on efforts at the Institute to study the human microbiome - all the zillions of microorganisms that cohabit in your body - to see if there are ways to improve human health. One example: Microorganisms living in the digestive tract have been linked to several diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, several cancers and Alzheimer's.

Update: Babson, too.

The MIT Tech reports campus health officials suspended in-person teaching for first-year MBA students at the Sloan School of Management Nov. 5 through Thanksgiving due to a rash of positive Covid-19 tests among them. Read more.

A number of local colleges and universities are posting daily or weekly Covid-19 testing results; to date, the numbers show much lower infection rates among students who have come to Boston even if that means taking classes in their dorm rooms and prohibitions against parties. Read more.

MIT and Harvard today asked a federal judge to block a new ICE ruling that would force foreign students already enrolled in college here to either find schools that would teach them in person or leave the country. Read more.