In the Media

Writing for Financial Times, visiting scientist Ariel Ekblaw SM '17, PhD '20 makes the case that “we need to see space as an emerging market — one that requires strategic attention.” “As a factory floor, space offers a set of unique properties. Microgravity assists new assembling habitats that may enable breakthroughs. Pharmaceutical companies have studied protein crystallization on the International Space Station,” Ekblaw writes. “The infrastructure that we build in orbit can directly benefit Earth.” 

Interesting Engineering reporter Saoirse Kerrigan spotlights a number of MIT research projects from the past decade. MIT has “long been a hub of innovation and ingenuity across multiple industries and disciplines,” writes Kerrigan. “Every year, the school’s best and brightest debut projects that push the boundaries of science and technology. From vehicles and furniture to exciting new breakthroughs in electricity generation, the school’s projects have tackled an impressive variety of subjects.” 

Researchers at MIT have created “a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it,” a development that could “significantly speed up the 3D-printing process,” reports Andrew Corselli for Tech Briefs. Graduate student Nicholas Diaco explains that this new method “allows us in a single 3D print, to create structures that either dissolve or don't dissolve away. That lets us automate the most difficult and most expensive step of 3D printing, which is removing support materials after the printing is done.”

Prof. Noelle Selin speaks with Fast Company reporter Kristin Toussaint about the importance of air quality monitoring. “It’s really important to encourage people to understand their environment and to democratize access to measurements and science,” says Selin. 

Prof. Sherry Turkle speaks with NPR’s Ted Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi about her research on the impact of AI usage on people’s relationships with their technology. “You know, we built this tool, and it's making and shaping and changing us,” says Turkle. “There is no such thing as just a tool. And looking back, I think I did capture the new thing that was happening to people's psychologies, really because of my method, which was just to listen to people. And I think that my work was not esoteric in the sense that it spoke directly to those feelings of disorientation. The culture had met something uncanny, and I tried to really speak to that feeling.”

Prof. David Autor speaks with CNBC about how Chinese industrial policies could impact the United States. “The U.S. needs to recognize that it would be much more effective if it worked with its allies,” says Autor. 

Ten years after scientists detected gravitational waves for the first time using the LIGO detectors, Rachel Feltman of Scientific American's “Science Quickly” podcast visits the MIT LIGO Lab to speak with Prof. Matt Evans about the future of gravitational wave research and why Cosmic Explorer, the next generation gravitational wave observatory, will help unearth secrets of the early universe. “We get to look back towards the beginning of the universe, in some sense, with gravitational waves as we look at these sources that are farther and farther away,” says Evans. “With Cosmic Explorer we’ll have not just one or two but hundreds of thousands of sources from the distant universe. So it’s a really exciting way to explore the universe as a whole by looking at this stellar graveyard.”

Chronicle spotlights Miguel Rosales SM '87 and his work developing over 12 bridges in Boston, including the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. “Boston is my city,” says Rosales. “I’ve been here over 40 years. How these bridges have changed so many parts of the city… that is very important in my life.” 

Prof. John Ochsendorf speaks with Chronicle about his work teaching students how to build bridges while highlighting the importance of history in the process. Ochsendorf emphasizes the importance of bridge maintenance, noting "our economies depend on it, and our daily life depends on it. We would like to see more research and investment in the maintenance and assessment of existing bridges because this is really a frontier for the US today.” 

Writing for The New York Times, Prof. David Autor and Prof. Gordon Hanson of Harvard explore how China is “aggressively contesting the innovative sectors where the United States has long been the unquestioned leader." To avoid a second China Shock, they emphasize that the United States “must nourish industries that have high potential for innovation, funded by joint investments by the private and public sectors.” 

Undergraduate student Mason Estrada was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 MLB Draft, reports Jesse Borek for MLB News. “Pro baseball was never really on Estrada’s radar until his freshman year at MIT when he reared back, fired and got a radar gun reading of 95 mph,” writes Borek. “There aren’t many humans walking the earth capable of that, let alone ones that willingly enlist in a thermodynamics course.” 

Prof. David Autor speaks with ABC News reporter Max Zahn about how AI will affect the job market. "We're not good at predicting what the new work will be; we're good at predicting how current work will change," says Autor.

Prof. Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, “an experimental physicist who helped to develop an atomic clock that became an essential part of global positioning systems (GPS),” has died at the age of 92, reports Dylan Loeb McClain for The New York Times. In addition to his work in atomic clocks, Kleppner also “helped to discover a rare fundamental state of matter predicted by Albert Einstein and his fellow theoretical physicist Satyendra Nath Bose,” writes McClain. 

In an opinion piece for Bloomberg, Gautam Mukunda PhD '10 highlights the importance of federally funded scientific research. “Today, the federal government’s best investment is scientific research,” writes Mukunda. “The Federal Reserve estimates that support for science has a 150% to 300% return. Few investors have a track record as good.” 

In his new book, “The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence,” Prof. Benjamin Mangrum explores how comedy can be a useful tool in a world “increasingly shaped by algorithms, automation, and artificial intelligence,” reports Ed Publica. “As we move deeper into an era of smart machines, digital identities, and algorithmic decision-making, Mangrum’s book reminds us that a well-placed joke might still be one of our most human responses,” they write.