Graduate student Kevin Frans co-founded OpenAI, a for-profit research lab that aims to provide free public access to artificial intelligence systems, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “Our mission is to put AI is the hands of everyone,” says Frans.
Fast Company reporter Nate Berg spotlights the grand opening of the redesigned MIT Museum. “Braiding the science and the art together, I think it places the science into the context that it is part of our culture and our lives, it’s not a white tower experience,” says Ann Neumann, director of exhibitions and galleries at the museum.
SeedLabs is working with a team including the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative to test out “microbes’ capabilities in space, potentially providing important advancements for both pollution reduction on earth as well as uses for astronauts during future lunar and Maritain explorations,” reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science.
The MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative is working with SeedLabs, the environmental division of Seed Health, to study how microbes perform in space. “Along with testing how the microbes perform in a zero-gravity, high UV radiation-environment, the experiment could also be the starting point to exploring a future in which astronauts have a system to recycle their plastic waste and turn it into new materials,” reports Kristin Toussaint for Fast Company.
A study co-authored by researchers from MIT found that a person’s ancestry can impact CRISPR’s ability to edit genomes as intended, “particularly in people of African descent, whose genomes are most likely to differ from those used to steer CRISPR to a specific gene,” reports Jocelyn Kaiser for Science.
Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi speaks with Popular Mechanics reporter Ncumisa Lerato Kunana about a recent study that found soccer scores are becoming more predictable. “Ultimately, when you’re talking about predictability, you’re asking how much does this outcome rely on chance?” says Hosoi. “And how much does it rely on the difference in skills of the two opposing teams or the two opposing players? I think the approach they took was great [and] thoughtful.”
GBH Open Studio reporter Jared Bowen explores the new MIT Museum in Kendall Square. “The reimagined MIT Museum looks at all the advances in technology and their positive – and controversial – effects on society, from genetic engineering to the increasing role that artificial intelligence is playing in art and media,” says Bowen.
Fortune reporter Sydney Lake spotlights MIT’s free online “Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python” course. “The course also covers topics including data structures and simple algorithms,” writes Lake.
Researchers at MIT have found indoor humidity levels can influence the transmission of Covid-19, reports Dennis Thompson for US News & World Report. “We found that even when considering countries with very strong versus very weak Covid-19 mitigation policies, or wildly different outdoor conditions, indoor — rather than outdoor — relative humidity maintains an underlying strong and robust link with Covid-19 outcomes,” explains Prof. Lydia Bourouiba.
MIT researchers have found that relative humidity “may be an important metric in influencing the transmission of Covid-19,” reports Sophie Mellor for Fortune, “Maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40% and 60% – a Goldilocks climate, not too humid, not too dry – is associated with relatively lower rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths,” writes Mellor.
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater recounts his visit to the Cambridge area to visit and explore a number of startups. Heater discusses his visit to The Engine; his time with Perch, a startup founded by MIT student athletes that is building a “professional strength training detection system used by several professional sports teams;” and his meeting with LeafLabs, an engineering services company founded by MIT graduates.
Boston Globe correspondent Scott Kirsner explores the growth of quantum computing from the field's roots “at a 1981 meeting in Dedham, at MIT’s Endicott House conference center.” Bharath Kannan PhD ’22, co-founder and CEO of Atlantic Quantum, notes that if researchers could develop a computer that was natively quantum mechanical, "it would be game-changing for a lot of industries.”
Postdoc Rohan Naidu speaks with CNN reporter Ashley Strickland about the significance of the James Webb Space Telescope. “With Webb, we were amazed to find the most distant starlight that anyone had ever seen, just days after Webb released its first data,” says Naidu.
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with GBH hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about why Democrats are pushing to raise the debt ceiling. “This is really about paying off the money that Congress approved to spend for all of the things the government does,” says Gruber.
Nature reporter Elie Dolgin writes that a new study by MIT researchers explores the role of the gene variant APOE4 in Alzheimer’s, and finds that the gene is linked with faulty cholesterol processing in the brain, impacting the insulation around nerve cells and potentially causing memory and learning deficits. “The work suggests that drugs that restore the brain’s cholesterol processing could treat the disease,” writes Dolgin.