In the Media

Research Scientist Peter Gloor speaks with Forbes reporter Vibhas Ratanjee “about how we can learn from the natural world—specifically social insects—to improve teamwork and innovation in modern workplaces.” Ratanjee notes that: “Gloor is a strong advocate for biophilic design—an approach that integrates nature into work environments to boost well-being and creativity. And the science backs him up: Studies have found that employees who work in spaces with natural light, plants and open-air designs report higher job satisfaction and lower stress levels.” 

Evan Ehrenberg PhD '16 co-founded Waterlily, a company that “uses artificial intelligence to predict a family’s future long-term care needs and costs” with the right care and financial planning, reports Mary Ann Azevedo for TechCrunch. “Ehrenberg — who had previously founded and sold Clara Health — helped with early research and was struck by the industry’s response,” writes Azevedo. “Curious, he tested the platform and was shocked by his long-term care predictions — so much so that he changed his diet, hired a personal trainer, and updated his financial plans.” 

Georgina Campbell Flatter SM '11 has been named the chief executive of Greentown Labs, the “nation’s largest clean-tech incubator,” reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “This is a pretty critical time for energy and climate, and we all need to lean in,” says Flatter. 

Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Karilyn Crockett explores the history of the Home for Aged Colored Women and its residents, noting that “uncovering the stories of these women, many of whom worked for decades as domestic servants for wealthy Boston families, has been a revelation." Crockett explains that: “using US Census records, Ancestry.com, and materials from the Massachusetts Historical Society and National Park Service, students painstakingly sifted through newspapers, birth certificates, and cursive-laden archival records to bring these women to life.” 

In this interview (in Spanish), graduate students Suhan Kim and Yi-Hsuan (Nemo) Hsiao speak with Telemundo correspondent Miriam Arias about their work developing insect-sized robots to assist with agricultural needs. “There might be one year where you have a lot of bees in the field that help you pollinate everything. Maybe the next year, it might be affected by the temperature or something [and] you just don’t have enough bees to help you do so,” explains Hsiao. 

In a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe, Lecturer Chloe Garcia Roberts spotlights the important role of books and literature in general in the greater Boston area’s culture and community.  “If you throw a pebble in a crowd here, you are likely to hit a practicing, lauded, or aspiring writer,” writes Roberts. “A number of the area’s treasured bookstores survived, albeit shakily, the onslaught of the chains and Amazon. It is part of our culture here that many of us go out of our way, trudging through the wintry mix if necessary, to attend author events and buy books at these independent stores. When they go, they won’t be replaced.” 

In an article for The New York Times, Prof. Pranav Rajpurkar of Harvard and Prof. Eric J. Topol of Scripps highlight a recent study by MIT researchers that examined “how radiologists diagnose potential diseases from chest X-rays.” They write that the study’s findings “broadly indicate that right now, simply giving physicians A.I. tools and expecting automatic improvements doesn’t work. Physicians aren’t completely comfortable with A.I. and still doubt its utility, even if it could demonstrably improve patient care.”

Postdoctoral Associate Pat Pataranutaporn speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Heidi Mitchell about his work developing Future You, an online interactive AI platform that “allows users to create a virtual older self—a chatbot that looks like an aged version of the person and is based on an AI text system known as a large language model, then personalized with information that the user puts in.” Pataranutaporn explains: “I want to encourage people to think in the long term, to be less anxious about an unknown future so they can live more authentically today.” 

MIT engineers have developed a new training method to help ensure the safe operation of multiagent systems, including robots, search-and-rescue drones and self-driving cars, reports Jijo Malayil for Interesting Engineering. The new approach “doesn’t focus on rigid paths but rather enables agents to continuously map their safety margins—the boundaries within which they must stay,” writes Malayil. 

In a discussion with Metropolis reporter Francisco Brown, Prof. Carlo Ratti, curator of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, discusses his vision for this year’s festival. “I think the biggest challenge of architecture today, which we are trying to address both with our practice at CRA (Carlo Ratti Associati) and our research at MIT, is to create a better alliance between natural and artificial systems,” Ratti explains. 

Prof. Taylor Perron speaks with USA Today reporter Kate S. Petersen about the evidence that humans are changing the Earth’s climate. "What's alarmingly different about the global warming happening now is how fast it's happening and how it's clearly associated with humans adding greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to the atmosphere," says Perron. "Rapid warming in the geologic past, long before there were humans, led to mass extinctions. And times when it was only slightly warmer than now, like before the last ice age, had sea levels high enough to flood most of today's coastal cities."

Postdoctoral associate Mostafa Hamouda speaks with Washington Post reporter Scott Dance about the recent cold blast that is bringing “frigid air that normally swirls above the North Pole to places much farther south.” Hamouda explains: “You need really cold air in the pole to have a very fast-spinning polar vortex.” Any warming “slows the whole circulation down.”

Prof. John Hansman speaks with Boston Herald reporter Rock Sobey about airline safety after the recent plane and helicopter collision in Washington D.C. “We have an incredibly safe system with very good procedures and good training, but there’s always the small chance that something happens — that someone gets distracted,” says Hansman. “When we have an incident like this, it can be stunning, but I wouldn’t overreact to it. I don’t think it’s an indication of a major problem with the system and air traffic control.”

Prof. Albert Saiz reflects on a recent study from LendingTree which has found that “single women own more homes than single men in the United States,” reports Claudie Bellanger for Boston.com. Saiz, suggests “that education is a factor, especially in Massachusetts,” writes Bellanger. “The demand for labor in Massachusetts is biased toward highly skilled laborers who have a bachelor’s degree or higher,” says Saiz.

Forbes reporter Nina Bambysheva spotlights Michael Saylor '87 and his professional career after co-founding MicroStrategy and his company’s approach to investing in Bitcoin. “We adopted bitcoin out of frustration and desperation, and then it became an opportunity, and then it became a strategy, and then it became an identity, and then it became a mission,” says Saylor.