Plonts, a plant-based cheese company co-founded by Nathaniel Chu PhD '19, uses microbes to develop “nutritious, inexpensive and sustainable” cheese alternatives, reports Christine Hall for TechCrunch. Chu says “microbes, whether mold, bacteria or yeast, are important to create that flavor. The microbes themselves are tiny sacs of hundreds of different enzymes with many different combinations,” writes Hall.
Prof. Jonathan Gruber joins GBH’s All Things Considered to discuss stock market jitters, AI hype and interest rates, urging calm and a long-term view. “No one who’s in the market should be overreacting to one day’s movement,” Gruber says. “These short-run reactions are really overreactions to individual bits of news.”
Writing for Nature, Marinko Sarunic and Cynthia Toth memorialize the life and work of Joseph A. Izatt PhD '91, who “had a special gift, and commitment, to reaching out and working with students and clinicians to create transformative technology." After undergraduate studies at MIT, Izatt focused on applied optics for his graduate work, with his mentors Prof. Michael Feld and Prof. James Fujimoto.
Let’s Get Set, a company founded by Clare Herceg MBA '20 aims to tackle “financial challenges low-and moderate-wage households face,” reports Geri Stengel for Forbes. “Based on extensive user research, the company's innovative savings account allows borrowers to access emergency funds without falling into a debt trap,” writes Stengel. “This approach addresses a critical need highlighted by national data on financial shocks and inadequate savings.”
The Logarhythms, a student a capella group at MIT, have debuted “Log Log Land,” a movie that takes a musical journey through the experiences of students grappling with their interest in pursuing the arts, reports Emily Wyrwa for The Boston Globe. Undergraduate student Reuben Fuchs - who wrote, directed and edited the film - hopes “Log Log Land” serves as "a reminder to people that putting time toward their passions is always important, regardless of their careers,” writes Wyrwa. “I hope people see bits of themselves in the movie,” explains Fuchs.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Washington Post reporter Lizette Ortega about Apophis – an asteroid estimated to fly past Earth in April 2029. “Nature is performing this once-per-several-thousand-years experiment for us,” says Binzel. “We have to figure out how to watch.”
By analyzing isotopes of potassium and rubidium in the lunar soil, Prof. Nicole Nie and her team have demonstrated that micrometeorite impacts are the main cause of the moon’s thin atmosphere, reports Isabel Swafford for National Geographic. “Understanding the space environments of different planetary bodies is essential for planning future missions and exploring the broader context of space weathering,” says Nie.
MIT scientists have solved a decades old mystery by demonstrating impact vaporization is the primary cause of the moon’s thin atmosphere, reports Eric Lagatta for USA Today. The findings, “have implications far beyond determining the moon's atmospheric origins,” writes Lagatta. “In fact, it's not unthinkable that similar processes could potentially be taking place at other celestial bodies in the solar system.”
Prof. Simon Johnson and Prof. David Autor speak with New York Times reporter Emma Goldberg about the anticipated impact of AI on the job market. “We should be concerned about eliminating them,” says Prof. Simon Johnson, of the risks posed by automating jobs. “This is the hollowing out of the middle class.”
Bloomberg’s David Westin talks with Prof. Kristin Forbes at the Aspen Economic Strategy Group meetings focused on monetary and fiscal policy. Despite progress in the inflation fight, "we as economists forget that this price of a basket of goods matters to people. Things are more expensive," she says.
Amrita Saigal '10 is the founder and CEO of Kudos, a company that has developed a “sustainable diaper that uses some plastic but is 100% lined with cotton and incorporates other degradable materials like sugarcane and trees,” reports Gabrielle Fonrouge for CNBC. “I care so much about being premium, but accessible,” says Saigal. “That is exactly what I want to do, so that we are accessible to as many people, and cleaner materials are not out of reach.”
In an essay for Project Syndicate, Prof. Simon Johnson underscores for the need for countries around the world to “make strategic investments in key technologies, to create more good jobs, and to stay ahead of increasingly aggressive geopolitical competitors.” Johnson emphasizes: “If you want more good jobs, invest in science, facilitate the commercialization of the technology that results from it, and make it easy for people to build companies where the product was invented.”
Chanyeol Choi MS '19, PhD '21 and Subeen Pang MS '21, PhD '24 cofounded Linq, an AI startup that “helps hedge funds speed up their research into thousands of listed companies worldwide,” reports John Kang for Forbes. The company’s software “automates time-consuming equity research tasks, such as scanning for company announcements and news, building financial models and summarizing earnings reports and call transcripts,” explains Kang.
MIT scientists analyzed lunar soil samples and discovered that meteorite impacts likely created the moon’s thin atmosphere, reports Nicola Davis for The Guardian. “Our findings provide a clearer picture of how the moon’s surface and atmosphere interact over long timescales, [and] enhance our understanding of space weathering processes,” explains Prof. Nicole Nie.
By analyzing lunar soil samples, MIT scientists have found that the moon’s thin atmosphere was created by meteorite impacts over billions of years, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. “Many important questions about the lunar atmosphere remain unanswered,” explains Prof. Nicole Nie. “We are now able to address some of these questions due to advancements in technology.”