In the Media

A study by graduate student Evan Soltas and Gopi Shah Goda, deputy director of Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, explores the economic toll of Covid-19, including acute illness and long Covid, reports Erin Prater for Fortune. The paper “also looks at the impact of other Covid-related medical consequences like organ damage, mental health issues, new kidney and heart problems, and the worsening of preexisting illness, in addition to the phenomenon of Covid forcing older workers into early retirement,” explains Prater.

Institute Professor Robert Langer has been honored as one of the recipients of this year’s Balzan Prize for his “pioneering research and advances in mRNA vaccines and tissue engineering,” the Associated Press reports. Langer has paved the way “for breakthroughs in the controlled release of macromolecules with many medical applications,” the Balzan Foundation noted in its citation.

MIT was named to the number two spot in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the best colleges and universities across the country, reports Shannon Larson for The Boston Globe. MIT also “led the pack of undergraduate engineering programs in which a doctorate is the highest degree offered,” and was also “recognized for its undergraduate business program, coming in at No. 2,” writes Larson. 

Writing for The Hill, Prof. Jonathan Gruber, Representative Ro Khanna (D-California) and Matt Hourihan of the Federation of American Scientists write that there’s “an unfortunate history of Congress authorizing ambitious boosts for science only to fall short in appropriations. Congress deserves credit for getting the CHIPS and Science Act across the finish line, but legislators shouldn’t rest on their haunches. Instead, our leaders should sustain the moment they’ve started and ensure robust support for federal innovation — our future depends on it.”

A study by MIT researchers finds that the screening test used for autism creates a gender gap that impedes diagnosis and treatment for women and girls, reports Sydney Murphy for Health Day. The researchers found that “a screening test often used to decide who can take part in autism studies seems to exclude a much higher percentage of women than men,” writes Murphy.

A study co-authored by graduate student Evan J. Soltas finds that illness caused by Covid-19 shrank the U.S. labor force by around 500,000 people, reports Gwynn Guilford for The Wall Street Journal. “If we stay where we are with Covid infection rates going forward, we expect that 500,000-person loss to persist until either exposure goes down or severity goes down,” said Soltas.

Researchers from MIT, the University of Southern California, Redfin, and the National Bureau of Economic Research found that property listings with flood risks were less likely to be looked at and bid on by potential homebuyers, reports Leslie Kaufman for Bloomberg.

WBUR’s Pamela Reynolds spotlights “Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere,” an upcoming exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center that explores “how organisms of different species live together and thrive because of it.” The exhibit highlights the work of over a dozen international artists and will be on display October 21 through February 26.

MIT researchers have “developed a free-floating desalination unit consisting of a multilayer evaporator that recycles the heat generated when the water vapor condenses, boosting its overall efficiency,” reports Nell Lewis for CNN. “Researchers suggested it could be configured as a floating panel on the sea, delivering freshwater through pipes to the shore, or it could be designed to serve a single household, using it atop a tank of seawater,” writes Lewis.

In a letter to the editor, Professor Emeritus Donald R. Sadoway writes to The New York Times about the importance of developing new batteries that utilize readily available materials. “We need to attack it the old-fashioned American way: Invent our way out,” writes Sadoway. “This means devise a new battery chemistry that requires no cobalt, no nickel, no manganese and no lithium, but instead is made of substances that are earth-abundant and readily available here in North America.”

The Venus Life Finder (VLF) developed by scientists at MIT will be launched on a Rocket lab Electronic in May of 2023 to search for life in the upper atmosphere of Venus, reports Mark R. Whittington for The Hill. “When it plunges into Venus’ atmosphere it will use an instrument called the ‘autofluorescing nephelometer’ that will use a laser to illuminate organic molecules that may or may not exist 50 kilometers above the planet’s surface,” writes Whittington.

A new study by MIT researchers finds that women being excluded from studies on autism can hinder diagnoses and the development of useful interventions for women and girls, reports Gianna Melillo for The Hill. “Female diagnoses could be missed altogether and an already small pool of study subjects is further reduced,” writes Melillo.

Prof. Jessika Trancik says that the tax incentive in the Inflation Reduction Act may help encourage the transition to electric vehicles due to the income cap for people to qualify, reports Lily Jamali for Marketplace. “I think it’s really important to structure them in such a way that the benefits are equitably distributed across the population,” says Trancik.

Laila Shabir ’10 speaks with Washington Post reporters Jonathan Lee and Marlena Sloss about how the subtle cultural reinforcement of gender roles inspired her to found Girls Make Games, a summer camp where girls and nonbinary children learn the basics of video game development. “It makes sense that kids are attracted to video games because everything that games represent, kids are into,” Shabir said. “If we want to reach people, if we want to make a difference, I think video games have a massive societal influence and we should be tapping into that collectively. Not just on an individual level but as a society and as an employer.”

Prof. Emeritus Stuart Madnick and Keri Pearlson, executive director of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan, write for The Wall Street Journal about the seven actions that corporate leaders can take to ensure that employees contribute to maintaining a secure organization. “New vulnerabilities emerge every day, as malicious cybersecurity actors find fresh ways to attack or infiltrate organizations. Technology can help, but it can only do so much,” write Madnick and Pearlson. “Just as important is a culture where all employees fill in the gaps—by noticing anomalies, questioning things that might look legitimate but are slightly off in some way, or stopping compromised processes that would otherwise proceed.”