In the Media

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from MIT and other institutions have determined that asteroid 2024 YR4 will not collide with the moon, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. “Every time we observe an asteroid, we reduce the range of possible trajectories,” explains Prof. Julien de Wit. “In this case, the JWST observations both provided very precise positional measurements and significantly extended the time span over which the asteroid has been observed.”

Prof. Simon Johnson speaks with Associated Press reporter Paul Wiseman about how the conflict with Iran has impacted the global economy. “The Strait of Hormuz has to be reopened,” says Johnson. “It’s 20 million barrels of oil a day going through there. There’s no excess capacity anywhere in the world that can fill that gap.” 

Researchers from MIT and other institutions uncovered the use of a “prized synthetic pigment imported from ancient Egypt” that was used to paint the walls of a home in ancient Pompeii, reports James Imam for The Times. “The quality of the decoration is unbelievable… It’s very rare, even unique, to find a completely blue sacrarium,” says Prof. Admir Masic. “These owners were really very, very wealthy.” 

Graduate student Verena Bellscheidt has been awarded the Zonta Club of Wuaboag Valley Women in STEM award, reports The Republican. Bellscheidt is “dedicated to advancing the field [of theoretical physics] at the intersection of cosmology and particle physics while mentoring the next generation of female scientists.” 

Prof. Simon Johnson speaks with CNBC Squawk Box reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin about the state of private credit. “The opacity of this sector has become a problem,” says Johnson. “I think disclosure, at least to the authorities and publicly, would be healthy for everyone.” 

Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with Bloomberg reporter Stacey Vanek Smith about increased gas prices. “Gas is something we tend to buy on a weekly basis,” says Knittel. “But also, we see the price hundreds of times a day. Even if you’re not buying it, you see the price, so the salience of gas prices is like no other.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed an “AI-driven optimization method that works like ‘ChatGPT for spreadsheets’ – a tabular foundation model designed to handle spreadsheet-style data common in engineering design problems,” reports Gene Marks for Forbes. “The AI system identifies which design variables matter most and focuses search efforts on those, making problem solving less cumbersome,” writes Marks. 

Prof. Catherine Wolfram speaks with Politico reporter James Bikales about the price of oil and gasoline in the United States. “Economists talk about what’s called rockets and feathers — that gas prices go up like rockets when oil prices go up, but then if oil prices go back down … they go back down like feathers,” says Wolfram. “Especially if you’re coming into the period when [gas prices] tend to rise because of summer driving, they might just stay high, even if oil prices go back down.”

The Jewish Herald-Voice takes an interstellar journey to the past, spotlighting how thirty years ago Prof. Jeffrey Hoffman set off on an expedition into space on the Space Shuttle Columbia, bringing with him the “first kosher Torah scroll in history to be taken into space.” Hoffman was the “first Jewish-American male astronaut to fly into space and saw the act of bringing religious objects into space as part of bringing his practice of Conservative Judaism with him.” He noted that: “It wasn’t that space made this Torah special; it was more that the Torah made space special.” 

Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with GBH’s Morning Edition host Mark Herz about the potential impact of rent control in Massachusetts. “Capping the price doesn’t solve the problem,” says Gruber. “It simply allows the existing set of people to have their prices not increase at the expense of other people who might benefit from living in Massachusetts.”

Prof. Richard Teague speaks with CNN reporter Asuka Koda about how an international team of astronomers have “captured the most complete, high-resolution map of the cold gas at the center of the Milky Way, which contains the raw material from which stars and planets are made” using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA. “I think astronomy on this scale is really no longer about small individual people pushing in their labs, but about huge international collaborations,” says Teague. “And I think that’s what’s particularly impressive about this piece of work, just the scale of that collaboration that you need to make it happen.”

Prof. Sara Beery speaks with Smithsonian Magazine reporter Mike Bock about the benefits of AI use in ecological research. “There’s an increasing need to build strong machine learning skills directly in the ecological community,” says Beery. “These students don’t need to be AI researchers. But they do need access to the skills to apply these techniques to their research problems.” 

Prof. Alessandro Acquisti speaks with WBUR reporters Woodrow Hartzog and Neil Richards about privacy concerns surrounding consumer data. “The online advertising industry has long extolled the benefits of targeted advertising, presenting it as an economic win-win for publishers, merchants and consumers alike,” says Acquisti. “And yet, in reality, there is little robust empirical evidence that any stakeholder – other than the data intermediaries themselves – actually benefit from this type of advertising.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed “mini livers” that “can be injected into the body to help take over the functions of a failing liver,” reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “If realized clinically, the development could provide a lifeline for many of the more than 10,000 Americans with chronic liver disease currently waiting for a transplant,” writes Randall. 

Times Higher Education features President Sally Kornbluth among the world’s top 10 universities led by women in 2026, reports Patrick Jack for Times Higher Education. “Of the top 200 institutions in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026, 58 have a female vice-chancellor or president – 29 per cent of the total,” writes Jack.