Tushar Shah '93, PhD '00 will join a six-member crew on Blue Origin’s upcoming New Shepard mission to space, reports Valerie Stimac for Forbes. “The mission represents another milestone in Blue Origin’s ongoing effort to expand access to commercial spaceflight,” writes Stimac.
Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner spotlights Lybra Bio, an MIT startup that is developing a “patch to treat skin conditions like psoriasis and alopecia areata, which causes hair loss.” Kirsner notes that Lybra “envisions a patch that could deliver drugs to precisely where they’re needed on the skin — like the scalp, in the case of alopecia.”
Prof. Richard Binzel, Prof. Julien de Wit, and Research Scientist Artem Burdanov speak with NBC 10 Boston reporter Matt Fortin about their new asteroid-detecting method that will be used to track the newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 and help protect Earth. “By refining and applying their technique, my colleagues [de Wit and Burdanov] have basically turned the JWST into the most capable asteroid-tracking system in history,” explains Binzel.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with CNN reporter Ashley Strickland about the trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4. “YR4 presents a challenge because it is small and headed away. Telescopes on the ground can track it for a few more months. Then we’ll call (the James Webb Space Telescope) into service to track it even further, if needed,” says Binzel. “While certainty for 2024 YR4 missing the Earth is the outcome we expect, it’s not up to us. It’s for nature to decided. In fact, nature already has settled the question. We just don’t know that answer yet. That’s why our tracking efforts continue.”
Tye Brady SM '99 speaks with Fortune reporter John Kell about his career in robotic development and the role of generative AI in future advancements. “We’re using generative AI in just about everything that we’re doing inside of robotics,” says Brady.
Writing for Project Syndicate, Prof. Daron Acemoglu addresses the potential benefits and risks posed by AI advancements. “AI, properly developed and used, can indeed make us better – not just by providing ‘a bicycle for the mind,’ but by truly expanding our ability to think and act with greater understanding, independent of coercion or manipulation,” explains Acemoglu. “Yet owing to its profound potential, AI also represents one of the gravest threats that humanity has ever faced. The risk is not only (or even mainly) that superintelligent machines will someday rule over us; it is that AI will undermine our ability to learn, experiment, share knowledge, and derive meaning from our activities.”
Prof. Arnold Barnett speaks with New York Times reporter Christine Chung about airplane safety and risks. “Twelve million people board planes every day, on average, each year,” says Barnett. “The overwhelming majority of days not a single passenger is injured let alone killed.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif highlights the fundamental contributions made by universities across the United States in the advancement of scientific and technological innovations, and the role of government funding in these sectors. “Since World War II, the ideas born in university research laboratories have helped to make America great,” writes Reif. “Universities’ contributions should be recognized, and the systems that allow them to contribute should not be recklessly derailed.”
CBS News reporter Chris Tanaka spotlights the 20th anniversary of the Catalyst Collaborative – a collaboration between MIT and two non-profit theater companies aimed at creating and presenting plays that deepen public understanding of science and technology. "I think some of the scientists gave ideas, stories of science to the theater people, some of which later became plays,” says Prof. Alan Lightman on the Catlyst Collaborative. “And I think the scientists learned the way that artists think.”
The nondenominational MIT Chapel was named by Financial Times readers as one of the best places of worship in the world. “The Eero Saarinen-designed chapel at MIT is otherworldly,” they write. “This is what spiritual contemplation probably looks like in another galaxy.”
“Pedro Gómez-Egaña: The Great Learning,” the newest exhibition at the List Visual Arts Center, features “an orchestra of sculptures meticulously curated with hidden instruments to create sound,” reports Marianna Orozco for The Boston Globe. The show will be on display through July 2025.
MIT’s Artfinity festival kicked off with a performance of “SONIC JUBILANCE” at the newly opened Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, reports Maddie Browning for WBUR. The campus-wide festival, which runs through May 2, is open to the public and features student, faculty and staff participation in “concerts, augmented reality experiences, exhibitions, films and more,” writes Browning. Artfinity is an opportunity "to show that the arts are very important and very central to the lives of people at MIT,” said Prof. Marcus Thompson, festival co-lead.
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with GBH’s Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about the CARD Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “There is a legitimate role for credit in our society for those who use it appropriately,” explains Gruber. “And you don’t want to shut that down… We need to really be rethinking how we do regulation in the U.S.”
Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with GBH reporter Robert Goulston about the potential impact of tariffs on imported metals and lumber. “When you place a tariff on an imported good, it’s not just the price of the imports that increase, but it’s also the price of the domestically manufactured products that increase,” explains Knittel. “Obviously the cost of importing steel and aluminum will increase, but domestic manufacturers will also raise their price because they can.”
Steve Mann PhD '97 has been awarded the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for his contributions toward the development of virtual reality, augmented reality, wearable technology, eXtended Reality products and services, reports Thomas Coughlin for Forbes. “Widely regarded as ‘the father of wearable computing,’” Mann “invented, designed, and built the world’s first smartwatch capable of downloading and running a wide variety of apps for health, well-being, and fitness tracking, ushering in a new era of personal health,” explains Coughlin.