MIT researchers have developed a new filtration material, created from natural substances, that could be used to remove “forever chemicals” like PFAS and heavy metals from drinking water, reports Matt Fortin for NBC Boston. "That's a huge advantage of our system, which is that we are using fully renewable, biodegradable and compatible material to resolve this long-lasting problem," explains postdoc Yilin Zhang.
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Bloomberg reporters John Lee and Katia Dmitrieva about the social and economic impacts of AI. “We don’t know where the future lies,” says Acemoglu. “There are many directions, the technology is malleable, we can make different choices.”
TechCrunch reporters Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey spotlight a new generative AI model developed by MIT researchers that can help counteract conspiracy theories. The researchers “had people who believed in conspiracy-related statements talk with a chatbot that gently, patiently, and endlessly offered counterevidence to their arguments,” explain Wiggers and Coldewey. “These conversations led the humans involved to stating a 20% reduction in the associated belief two months later.”
IEEE Spectrum reporter Willie D. Jones spotlights Prof. Wesley Harris, who has “not only advanced the field of aerospace engineering but has also paved the way for future generations to soar.” Jones notes Harris’ commitment to “fostering the next generation of engineers, particularly students of color.” Harris explains: “I’ve always wanted to be like my high school teacher—a physicist who not only had deep knowledge of the scientific fundamentals but also compassion and love for Black folks.”
WBUR’s Erin Trahan highlights how the MIT Museum will be presenting selections from the Woods Hole Film Festival with “monthly titles that broadly encompass ‘science on screen.’” Trahan notes that on “Oct. 26, the MIT Glass Lab co-presents a documentary about a master Italian glass blower, ‘Sono Lino.’ Erik Demaine, MIT professor of computer science, and Peter Houk, MIT instructor and artistic director of the Glass Lab, will introduce the film.”
A study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere has found that both lawyers and non-lawyers use legalese when asked to write about laws, reports June Casagrande for The Los Angeles Times. The "researchers tested the hypothesis by asking 200 participants to write laws prohibiting crimes like drunk driving and burglary,” explains Casagrande. “Then they asked them to write stories about those crimes. The laws they wrote contained unnecessarily long, labyrinthine sentences with lots of parenthetical explanations crammed in. The stories, however, were written simply, without the parenthetical information stuffing.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that LLM-based AI chatbots are more effective at implanting false memories than “other methods of trying to implant memories, such as old-fashioned surveys with leading questions or conversations with a pre-scripted chatbot,” reports Jeremy Kahn for Fortune. “It seems the ability of the generative AI chatbot to shape each question based on the previous answers of the test subjects gave it particular power,” explains Kahn.
A new study by researchers from MIT and elsewhere has found that “most drivers are likely to multitask and get distracted if their vehicles are equipped with partial automation software,” reports William Gavin for Quartz. The researchers “studied how drivers with cars that have the technology behaved after it was enabled,” explains Gavin.
Research Scientist Josh Bendavid PhD '13 and his colleagues have “produced a new value for the W boson mass,” a "fundamental particle that is crucial for processes like nuclear decay and setting the mass of the Higgs boson,” reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. The result is in line with predictions made in the standard model of particle physics. “The standard model survives for the moment,” said Bendavid of the findings.
New research by Prof. David Rand and his colleagues has utilized generative AI to address conspiracy theory beliefs, reports Marie Boran for Newsweek. “The researchers had more than 2,000 Americans interact with ChatGPT about a conspiracy theory they believe in, explains Boran. “Within three rounds of conversation with the chatbot, participants’ belief in their chosen conspiracy theory was reduced by 20 percent on average.”
Science News reporter Emily Conover spotlights a new study by MIT researchers that proposes a new method to search for microscopic primordial black holes, which, if they exist, “could explain some or all of the universe’s dark matter.” The researchers suggest that when a primordial black hole passes close to a planet, it could “produce noticeable effects despite its tiny size.”
A new study by MIT researchers suggests that miniscule black holes could briefly wobble the orbit of Mars and that these tiny black holes may pass through our solar system once every decade or so, reports Jess Thomson for Newsweek. “The researchers modeled the orbits of every large body in the solar system,” writes Thomson, “and found that tiny wobbles in the orbit of Mars could indicate one of the asteroid-mass black holes passing through.”
MIT physicists have found that “the presence of a tiny black hole speeding through the solar system could be identified by the gentle gravitational nudge it exerted on the Earth and other planets, which would alter their orbital paths by no more than a few feet,” reports Noah Haggerty for The Los Angeles Times. “It’s just fantastic that the most conceptually conservative response is to say, ‘It’s just super tiny black holes that were made a split second after the Big Bang,’” says Prof. David Kaiser. “It’s not inventing new forms of matter that have not yet been detected. It’s not changing the laws of gravity.”
Writing for Nature, Prof. Ritu Raman explores how she drew upon her childhood experiences attending different schools across three continents to inform her teaching practices. “Although my pedagogy is still very much a work in progress, my current philosophy involves three main factors: pipettes (knowing when to put on some gloves and teach hands-on); practice (learning when to step aside and enable independent exploration); and patience (centering optimism in my view of students and science),” writes Raman. “With pipettes, practice and patience, I hope to embrace and enjoy the nonlinear nature of teaching and learning.”
Researchers from MIT and Stanford University have found “staff at one Fortune 500 software firm became 14% more productive on average when using generative AI tools,” reports Olivia Solon and Seth Fiegerman for Bloomberg.