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Prof. David Kaiser and graduate student Alexandra Klipfel speak with New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye about their theory that a neutrino detected zipping through the Mediterranean Sea in February 2023 may have come from an exploding primordial black hole. “Dr. Kaiser and Ms. Klipfel concluded that if primordial black holes were the explanation for long-sought dark matter, scientists should expect about 40 black-hole explosions to occur each year in every cubic light-year near the Milky Way,” Overbye notes. “You’ll never, ever hope to see Hawking radiation if the only black holes ever were ones that formed from dead stars,” says Kaiser. Primordial black holes have different masses and different lifetimes, he noted: “Some go bang right now.”

Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with Associated Press reporter Paul Wiseman about the economic impact of the U.S. conflict with Iran. “A week ago or certainly two weeks ago, I would have said: If the war stopped that day, the long-term implications would be pretty small,’’ says Knittel. “But what we’re seeing is infrastructure actually being destroyed, which means the ramifications of this war are going to be long-lived.’’

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that “one in five couples could boost retirement savings by reallocating contributions,” reports Caroline Castrollon for Forbes. “There are pretty large gains to coordinating your finances,” explains Prof. Taha Choukhmane. “We find that couples leave quite a lot of money on the table every year.”

A new study by Prof. Daniel Varon and his colleagues has found that “parts of the U.S. may be emitting much more of one of the most potent greenhouse gases than previously thought,” reports Julia Jacobo for ABC News. “Satellite observations suggest that methane emissions in urban areas may be ‘widely underestimated’ – up to 80% higher than noted in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Inventory,” explains Jacobo. 

Prof. Dava Newman speaks with USA Today reporter Sara D. Wire about NASA’s plans to return to the moon and, hopefully, Mars in the 2030s.  The “moon is a three-day trip," Newman explains. "Mars, you need eight months. Those are very different targets.” 

Writing for Forbes, Senior Lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota 08, SM '16, MBA '16 explores how businesses can best prepare for the rapid advancements underway in the field of neurotechnology. “I believe that one of the most important steps companies can take regarding this emerging technology is to act now, without waiting for regulatory clarity first,” writes Hayes-Mota. “Treat neural data as categorically sensitive from day one—not because you are forced to, but because you understand that operating this close to the human mind demands a higher threshold of trust than almost any technology before it.” 

Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Christopher Knittel and graduate student Fischer Espiritu Argosino make the case that in Massachusetts the “current compensation structure for the electricity produced by solar panels turns a climate solution into an inequitable cost shift that burdens many residents.” They add: “The state needs to prioritize large-scale wind and solar deployment and fix how residential solar exporters are compensated…. Massachusetts has long been a clean-energy leader. It can remain one by showing that decarbonization and affordability can go hand in hand.”

In an article for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes that: “Retirement planning can no longer be framed solely as a question of how much to save or how to invest. It must also account for how to live in a world where stability is less certain, shocks arrive in close succession, and the systems that underpin daily life — energy, supply chains, and healthcare — are more exposed to disruption than the standard retirement playbook assumed.”

Senior Research Scientist C. Adam Schlosser, deputy director of the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy, speaks with Joshua Miller of The Boston Globe’s Camberville & Beyond newsletter about weather, climate and how warming temperatures could impact the Northeastern US. Schlosser explains that: “warmer air can carry more moisture, more vapor. So, imagine again a future for the Northeast where everything is risen by a few degrees. It's not just the daytime temperatures, but the nighttime temperatures. The amount of vapor in the air has a big impact on nighttime temperatures, and on hot, humid nights, your body's ability to cool is diminished.” 

While excavating “a small room inside a lavish home in ancient Pompeii,” researchers from MIT found the walls were covered with Egyptian blue paint, a bright blue pigment estimated to “have cost more than half the annual salary of a Roman foot solider,” reports Sonja Anderson for Smithsonian Magazine.  

New York Times reporter Holly Bass spotlights Prof. Joshua Bennett’s newest works, “We (The People of the United States)” and “The People Can Fly.” Bennett’s “texts remind us there is power in the collective body of a people and their culture,” writes Bass. “There is power in pressing on in the face of obstacles and opposition.”