In the Media

Writing for The Boston Globe, President Sally Kornbluth emphasizes the importance of investment in discovery science, what she calls “curiosity on a mission." Kornbluth notes: “When someone we love needs therapies that could have emerged but didn’t or when other countries now investing in science can launch new science-based industries or run their societies on vast resources of fusion energy or reap the benefits of quantum computing power or advanced medical breakthroughs, America will wish it sustained its leadership in scientific research here and now.”

Researchers at MIT have developed a new online tool called the “AI Labor Exposure Map,” which breaks down different job tasks by those that can be performed by AI, and those that cannot. The team found that, “[i]n many cases, the human-centric parts of a job are still essential,” reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “Instead of laying off workers, an employer could use the research to identify tasks that could be automated, so that the workers can be reassigned to handle only the uniquely human tasks.” 

John Richardson, a senior lecturer in Sloan, and Attia Qureshi co-authored a piece for CNBC with tips on how to say "no" in negotiations. "Saying “no” can be hard for many people. We want to be polite, even if we think a proposal is unattractive," they write. "The goal here is to give an unequivocable “no” in a way that lets you gracefully exit the interaction, while still preserving the relationship." 

During a live interview in the GBH studios with Curiosity Desk host Edgar B. Herwick III, Research Scientist AJ Perez shares his work developing a new method to reuse recycled plastic to 3D print construction-grade materials for home building, which could help reduce home construction costs. “This all started with the idea of trying to build the roughly one billion homes the world needs,” says Perez. 

7 News reporter Polikseni Manxhari spotlights Erin Dawicki Sloan Fellow MBA ’24 and her work developing LymeAlert, an at-home kit that can test ticks for Lyme disease. “We really see this as a community-based healthcare initiative where we can all contribute significant information and hopefully figure out how to stop these little buggers in their tracks,” says Dawicki. 

Washington Post reporter Kevin Schaul examines the impact of AI on a number of fields, highlighting a recent study co-authored by graduate student Anand Shah that found that over the past few years there appears to have been an increase in self-represented and AI-generated legal filings. “Every system that has decreased cost to entry from AI should expect increased demand,” says Shah. 

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, joins NBC News Now hosts Kate Snow and Zinhle Essamuah to discuss how Americans can prepare for retirement, reviewing several questions that can help individuals prepare for a longer life. “Most of us start thinking about retirement as somewhere between health and wealth, and that’s not incorrect, but it’s incomplete,” says Coughlin.  

A new at-home test developed by Erin Dawicki Sloan Fellow MBA ’24 can identify Lyme disease in a tick in just 15 minutes, Juli McDonald for CBS Boston. "Our goal is to get this into everybody's medical kits. Not everyone finds the tick, but when you do, if you can test it immediately at home and know you've been exposed," Dawicki explains.

MIT researchers have developed a new method for precisely moving columns of individual atoms within a material, which could give rise to exotic quantum properties and shed light on quantum behavior, reports Tim Wogan for Physics World. “I’m excited because of the scalability of this that allows us to look at the interactions between the defects rather than just creating a defect itself,” explains Prof. Frances Ross. 

Prof. William Oliver speaks with Scientific American reporter Adam Becker about the future of quantum computing. “Quantum computing is real, it’s happening, and it’s going to take time,” Oliver says. “It’s going to take engineering, and there’s still science to do as well. It’s not all buttoned up.” He adds that, in the future, we will be using quantum computers "to better understand, from a scientific standpoint, the world around us.”

Prof. Richard Binzel shares his insights into the recently discovered school-bus sized asteroid that will fly by Earth next week with CNN reporter Jacopo Prisco. “2026JH2 will pass safely by the Earth,” said Binzel. “This is actually a rather normal occurrence, car-sized objects pass between the Earth and the Moon every week. At the size of a school bus, these pass through our neighborhood several times per year. We are only recently developing surveys that are sensitive enough to see them.”

In an effort to defend medical devices against quantum attacks, MIT researchers have engineered an ultra-efficient microchip that can protect wireless biomedical devices, such as insulin pumps and pacemakers, reports Katie Hunt for CNN. The microchip, which is around the size of an extremely fine needle tip, “includes built-in protection needed for post-quantum cybersecurity. The device achieved between 20 and 60 times higher energy efficiency than other post-quantum security techniques.”

A study by MIT scientists uncovered the culprit in the deep-sea mystery of what was reducing the ocean’s carbon-trapping capacity: dense microbe ‘cities’ living inside marine snow (slowly sinking particles of fish poop and other debris), reports Scientific American reporter Damien Pine. “Ultimately everything that’s happening at these microscales—that’s really what’s terraforming our planet,” explains Prof. Andrew Babbin.

Prof. Taha Choukhmane co-authored a new study examining how Americans are using AI in their financial planning and found that “AI consistently gave better advice to people who asked better questions,” reports Daniel de Visé for USA Today. “It might be that AI is going to be a little more useful for people who already know a little bit about finance and financial literacy,” Choukhmane explains.

Writing for Bloomberg, Prof. Paul Osterman examines the rising use of contractors, freelancers and gig-workers by employers around the country. “While not all workers need to be forced into standard employment, they deserve some minimum level of protection and benefits—that includes gig workers and freelancers, who often don’t have any,” Osterman notes. “Workers need not pay a high price so employers can secure the flexibility they need.”