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Prof. Paul Lozano and alumna Amelia Bruno PhD ‘25 join John Batchelor, host of the "Hotel Mars” podcast, to discuss their work developing a new propulsion system that could improve small satellite mobility. “This technology [electrospray thrusters] came from our own research on how to miniaturize propulsion for small satellites,” says Lozano. “There is a big need to actually provide these little satellites with mobility, so that we can actually explore space and use it more effectively.” 

USA Today reporter Anthony Thompson explains that researchers from MIT, UMass Amherst and the Center for Coastal Studies have found evidence of invasive Manila clam reproduction at multiple sites from Boston Harbor to Cape Cod. "We do need more research to understand the Manila clam’s potential effects on the shellfishing industry and ecological communities," says Research Scientist Carolina Bastidas. "There could also be positive impacts." 

Prof. Raphael Zufferey and his colleagues developed a winged robot that can swim underwater and fly through the air, writes New York Times reporter K.R. Callaway. The robot was inspired by data from nearly 100 species of diving birds. “There was a very good chance that this [design] would have not been possible at all,” says Zufferey. “I took that risk because I believed that if birds could do it, with good engineering we might also be able to.” 

MIT researchers have created a new building design model that could enable engineers to construct buildings and bridges that use less materials, writes Tech Briefs’ Andrew Corselli. “Traditional topology optimization essentially starts with a blank space and tries to figure out at each point in this blank space: ‘Should there be material,’ ‘should there not be material’ from an efficiency standpoint,” says Prof. Josephine Carstensen. “Our approach populates the space with a bunch of lines that are instead candidates for ‘should there be material’ or ‘should there not be material.’ By using this line approach, we have the opportunity to have more control.” 

Fast Company’s Adele Peters spotlights “Project Obsidian,” a new geothermal power plant developed by MIT spinout Quaise Energy. The findings of former Senior Research Engineer Paul Woskov helped Quaise develop their tech. “Paul’s epiphany was realizing that if we can use the same energy to heat plasmas to millions of degrees Celsius to get fusion, why not use that for heating and drilling through rock at a much more modest temperature?” says Matthew Houde, Quaise co-founder.  

Writing for the Observer, Michael John Gorman, director of the MIT Museum, points to the 1976 Cambridge Experimentation Review Board, a group of citizens tasked with weighing the risks and benefits of DNA splicing technology, as a solution to modern debates over AI. “The dominant assumption in the AI debate is that there are only two options: reckless acceleration or fearful prohibition,” writes Gorman. “Cambridge in 1976 proved there is a third path, and that it runs through the public rather than around it.” 

To explain the longevity of a 1,900-year-old latrine, Scientific American’s Sam Macdonald highlights a study by Prof. Admir Masic that found the bright white chunks, or lime clasts, in Roman concrete may help preserve ancient structures. Masic explains that the findings strengthen “the idea that carbonates are more dynamic in these systems and play a fundamental role, not a marginal one.”  

Prof. Alessandro Acquisti speaks with NPR’s Scott Neuman about privacy issues related to surveillance by autonomous vehicle (AV) companies. “There already exist laws that govern duty to report or even duty to protect [for AV companies],” Acquisti says. “The privacy problems arise when and if driverless carrier companies used such laws or ethical obligations as a pretext for blanket, indiscriminate accumulation of identifiable data for unspecified future purposes.” 

Times Higher Education ranks MIT as the number one university for business degrees in their 2026 World University Rankings list, highlighting the Sloan School of Management’s MBA courses, executive training programs, and broad undergraduate management course offerings. “There is an emphasis on innovation across all these topics. Many influential new ideas in business, including the field of system dynamics, were born out of work at the Sloan School.”

Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. Carlo Ratti makes the case that “the answer to imperfect peer review is better peer review, not political supervision.” Ratti shares: “Replacing scientific judgment with political alignment risks undermining the very engine of discovery. Faced with the risk that a project could be cancelled when the political weather turns, the rational researcher abandons the ambitious idea for the safe one.” 

Bloomberg’s Catarina Saraiva reports on a new study by Profs. Daron Acemoglu and David Autor and graduate student Keelan Beirne, which finds that aging and shrinking populations raise, rather than lower, the country’s Gross Domestic Product per worker. “In cross-country data, declining birth rates lead to higher total factor productivity, larger capital stocks, a shift toward exports in high-tech industries, and more labor-saving patenting,” the authors write.

WBUR’s Amelia Mason highlights the MIT Museum’s acquisition of the project archives of renowned architect I.M. Pei ’40, which includes details from some of Pei’s most famous works, such as the Louvre’s glass pyramid and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. “ It's an exciting moment for MIT,” says Jonathan Duval, MIT Museum assistant curator of architecture. “I.M. Pei's archive really belongs here. This is where he started his architectural career and education. It’s a homecoming.”

Research Affiliates Mathilde Poyet and Mathieu Groussin are featured by The New York Times Magazine reporter Jeneen Interlandi for their comprehensive fieldwork collecting diverse, microbial samples from communities across the globe to understand how differences in diet, lifestyle and industrialization affect microbiome health. “Microbes don’t like antibiotics, for obvious reasons,” Groussin says. “They don’t like C-sections, which rob them of the opportunity to colonize new human territory. And they hate ultra processed diets. All three of those are more prevalent in an industrialized world.” 

Financial Times reporter Michael Peel features CubeSat, a proposed satellite sensor by Associate Prof. Areg Danagoulian, able to identify hidden nuclear weapons in space.  “If one state suspects another of placing a nuclear weapon in orbit, the absence of a verification mechanism makes the crisis harder to manage,” says Danagoulian. “If a bad-faith actor knows that their attempt will be discovered via inspection, they will be more likely to decide it's not worth pursuing.”