Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed Boltz-2, an open-source generative AI model that can help researchers find new medicines faster, reports Alex Knapp for Forbes. The tool “can not only predict the structure of proteins, it can also predict its binding affinity–that is, how well a potential drug is able to interact with that protein,” explains Knapp. “This is crucial in the early stages of developing a new medicine.”
Prof. Danielle Wood speaks with Nature reporter Elizabeth Gibney about Africa’s first continent-wide space agency, the African Space Agency (AfSA). “It’s a new era,” says Wood. “Where in the past, it may have seemed that the opportunities were outside Africa, right now we can say there’s many opportunities for collaboration inside Africa.”
Felice Frankel, a research scientist in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering and a science photographer, speaks with Science Friday host Flora Lichtman about science communicators can more effectively engage the public and make a better case for the importance of scientific research.
A study by researchers from the MIT AgeLab examines “how to reduce collisions between vehicles and pedestrians,” reports Ed Garsten for Forbes. The research looked at how vehicles and pedestrians “interact and communicate with each other, along with how automated systems and technology affect driver behavior.”
Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang and his colleagues have developed a sodium-air fuel cell that “packs three to four times more energy per pound than common lithium-ion batteries,” reports Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe, which could serve as “a potentially groundbreaking clean power source for airplanes.” Pressman adds that: “Ultimately, a sodium-air fuel cell could power a regional jet carrying 50 to 100 passengers on flights as long as 300 miles.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu, Prof. Peter Diamond and Prof. Simon Johnson are among the six Nobel laureate economists that warn the “massive budget bill passed by Housemakers last month… would weaken key safety-net programs while greatly lifting the federal debt,” reports Alain Sherter for CBS News. The economists also said that “large tax cuts under the legislation, combined with the hits to Medicaid and food stamps, would increase inequality,” writes Sherter.
Prof. Tali Sharot speaks with Darian Woods of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money about why members of Gen Z may be feeling financial dysmorphia. “In order to be happy and satisfied, we need to see ourself progressing,” says Sharot. “That is true on every level, whether it is intellectually or whether it's financially.”
A study by Prof. Noelle Selin has found that climate change will impact our ability to curb smoke and smog pollutants, reports Vivian La for WBUR. The researchers “used computer models to predict how air pollution will develop in the Eastern United States over the next few decades,” explains La. Selin underscored the importance of policies that reduce air pollution noting that: “what we’re doing to the atmosphere has impacts and it’s important not to roll these back.”
Prof. Emeritus Stanley Fischer PhD '69, an economist and central banker who helped “guide global economic policies and defuse financial crises for decades,” has died at the age of 81, reports James R. Hagerty for The New York Times. While at MIT, “Mr. Fischer became a magnet for graduate students,” writes Hagerty. “He encouraged them to visit him every week, ‘especially if you have nothing to say.’”
Prof. Emeritus Stanley Fischer PhD '69, “one of the most influential economists of recent decades,” has died at age 81, reports Greg Ip for The Wall Street Journal. Through his various roles, “Fischer helped shape how an entire generation of central bankers and economic policymakers do their jobs,” writes Ip.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. David Mindell spotlights how “a new wave of industrial companies, many in New England, are leveraging new technologies to create jobs, empower workers, and address climate change.” Mindell notes that “young Americans — new industrialists — are devoting themselves to making things for the common good.” He adds: "The country needs this generation of builders who are excited about working with their hands, about the satisfactions of building the world, and who see that work as building our communities.”
Forbes reporter Michael Nietzel spotlights MIT’s Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM), “an institution-wide effort intended to promote and advance the future of U.S. manufacturing.” Nietzel notes that the INM is part of an effort to “rethink how MIT could help shape the future of manufacturing through workforce training, advanced technologies, and industry collaborations. It will focus on enhancing the future manufacturing capacity and sophistication of several major industries.”
Gizmodo reporter Isaac Schultz writes that MIT astronomers have uncovered the most distant galaxy ever detected, dubbed MoM-z14, using the James Webb Space Telescope. Schultz notes that MoM-z14 “isn’t just some dim smudge, either—it’s unexpectedly luminous, echoing a growing theme in JWST’s discoveries. MoM-z14 now joins a strange new class of young galaxies that shine far more brightly than anyone expected.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Dominique Mosbergen spotlights how Prof. James Collins and his lab have built their “own algorithms to trawl chemical databases, such as those of existing pharmaceutical drugs, for potential antibacterial compounds.” Collins’ His lab is “also experimenting with using generative AI to design completely new molecules that could kill bacteria,” writes Mosbergen.
Prof. Ariel Furst has been named to Chemical & Engineering News’ 2025 Talented 12, which spotlights early-career scientists who are using their “chemistry know-how to make a real-world impact.” “By combining the power of biology with chemistry and materials engineering, Furst develops technologies to tackle crucial problems such as environmental remediation, sustainable agriculture, and carbon sequestration,” writes Prachi Patel. “Pretty much everything that agrochemicals do, there are microbes that we think do it better,” says Furst. “They do it more precisely and maintain the overall balance of the ecosystem much more effectively.”