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Prof. Giovanni Traverso and his colleagues developed a new technique that could one day be used to help protect cancer patients from the side effects of radiation therapy, reports Elie Dolgin for Science. The researchers found that providing brief pulses of a protein called “damage suppressor,” or Dsup could “shield injected tissues from radiation. They also found no evidence of acute toxicity with repeat doses, which bodes well for short-term use in clinical settings—for example, to protect nearby tissues during radiation treatment for a cancer,” Dolgin explains. 

MIT researchers have developed a new smart pill that could be used to help doctors track treatment more accurately, and ensure patients stay on their medication schedule, reports Kurt Knutsson for Fox News. “If you or a loved one relies on critical medication, this kind of technology could add an extra layer of safety,” Knuttson explains. “It may reduce guesswork for doctors and ease pressure on patients who manage complex treatment plans.” 

Prof. Lawrence Schmidt speaks with CNBC reporter Tom Huddleston Jr. about the influence of AI on the labor market. “It devalues existing expertise while simultaneously creating many new opportunities,” says Schmidt. “There's a sense in which AI may not be so distinct from past technologies.” 

Postdoctoral Associate Fatima Husain speaks with National Geographic reporter Theo Nicitopoulos about the various theories used to explain how living creature survived the Cryogenian era. “These surface settings could have enabled a diverse assemblage of life to persist and continue to evolve throughout the glaciations,” says Husain. “We keep learning more about how extreme the Cryogenian was… and that makes life persisting and diversifying dramatically after that, all the more amazing.” 

Jennifer Mnookin, PhD ’99, has been named the president of Columbia University, effective July 1, 2026. Mnookin earned “a doctorate in the history and social study of science and technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her academic work focuses on evidence, proof and decision making in the legal system,” writes Sharon Otterman for the New York Times.  

In an appearance on the national "Diabetics Doing Things" podcast, MIT President Sally Kornbluth and Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels discuss their experience as Type 1 diabetics, the importance of scientific research to diagnoses and treatments that have impacted millions of fellow Type 1 diabetics across the country, and the impact on their own lives of decades of advances made at leading research universities like theirs. In conversation with host Rob Howe, they reflect on the salience of standing up for the scientific enterprise. 

Writing for The Conversation, Research Scientist Judah Cohen and Mathew Barlow of UMass Lowell examine how the polar vortex and moisture from a warm Gulf of Mexico created a monster winter storm that brought freezing rain, sleet and snow to large parts of the U.S. “Some research suggests that even in a warming environment, cold events, while occurring less frequently, may still remain relatively severe in some locations. One factor may be increasing disruptions to the stratospheric polar vortex, which appear to be linked to the rapid warming of the Arctic with climate change,” they write. “A warmer environment also increases the likelihood that precipitation that would have fallen as snow in previous winters may now be more likely to fall as sleet and freezing rain.”

A new report by researchers from MIT’s Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy finds that the “world is on track to exceed key climate thresholds under current policies,” reports Ryan Krugman for Inside Climate News. The outlook is “based on MIT’s Integrated Global System Modeling framework, which links population growth, economic activity, energy use, and international policy decisions to changes in the global climate,” Krugman explains. “It’s not a reason to give up hope or stop the necessary action,” explains Sergey Paltsev, deputy director of the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy and a co-author of the report. “Limiting every degree possible matters, even every tenth of a degree.”

Writing for The Boston Globe, graduate student Jonah Prousky highlights the benefits and drawbacks of social media bans, and ways to protect kids from online harms. “We likewise need a cultural reckoning on screen time for kids, since heavy use is associated with anxiety, depression, attention fragmentation, and sleep deprivation,” writes Prousky. “Australia demonstrated that a law can be used to get the ball rolling.” 

Prof. Christopher Palmer speaks with WBUR On Point host Meghna Chakrabarti about Americans and credit card debt, and how an interest rate cap could affect households across the country. “Anytime you have a price control, it has unintended consequences,” says Palmer. “Sometimes they're subtle. In this case, they're not subtle to see. We have lots of countries, lots of places where we've studied the effect of a cap on interest rates, and we see all sorts of unintended consequences.” 

Forbes reporter Craig Smith spotlights Prof. Regina Barzilay for her work using her personal health experience to develop transformative medical technology. In response to her breast cancer diagnosis, Barzilay “developed a deep learning model that analyzes mammography images to predict breast cancer risk up to five years in advance,” writes Smith. 

GBH reporter Renuka Balakrishnan spotlights “True or False,” a game featured in the MIT Museum’s “AI: Mind the Gap” exhibit, which invites visitors to guess the difference between a real and deepfake video. The exhibit “provides tips visitors can use outside the walls of the museum to improve media literacy in real life,” writes Balakrishnan. 

In an interview with Gizmodo reporter Ellyn Lapointe, Research Scientist Judah Cohen highlights his work understanding the “complex relationship between global climate change, polar vortex behavior, and extreme mid-latitude weather.” Cohen explains that: “In our research, we have demonstrated that polar vortex stretching events have accelerated in the era of accelerated Arctic change. Climate change in general, but Arctic change in particular, is favorable for forcing these events.