A working paper by Prof. Jonathan Gruber and his colleagues has found “that admitting more immigrations would help save the lives of Americans, particularly seniors,” reports Stuart Anderson for Forbes.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new 3D printing platform that can “produce a fully functioning linear motor in about three hours,” reports Justin Caffier for Gizmodo. The research team “explained how by retrofitting a printer with enough extruders to handle the various materials needed to make a working motor, they decimated the usual production time for such a device and brought the material costs down to around $0.50,” writes Caffier.
In a letter to The Boston Globe, Prof. Emeritus Robert B. McKersie spotlights Jesse Jackson’s legacy as a “brilliant and visionary leader.” Jackson’s program, Operation Bread Basket, “was a brilliant concept of using Black patronage of the stores as leverage to help wax companies, banks, and many others expand their businesses,” writes McKersie. “I served on the ‘attunement’ committee that ensured that the businesses lined up with the philosophy of Operation Bread Basket and were willing to share some of the proceeds from expanded business with Jackson and his organization.”
Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi and Jerry Lu MFin '24 speak with Eli Chavez of the Boston Business Journal about their work using AI technologies to help athletes improve their performance. Lu notes that the AI tool he created for figure skating allows athletes to not only evaluate themselves, “but it also lets you analyze pretty much everybody in history: your idols, your mentors, your coaches, or even your competitors, and you can make these measurements without having to ask them to do anything.”
Researchers at MIT have used “recycled plastic to 3D-print construction-grade beams, trusses, and other structural elements,” reports Soo Kim for Newsweek. The new design method “could offer a lighter, modular, and more-sustainable alternatives to wood-based framing,” explains Kim.
Increase, a startup founded by alumnus Darragh Buckley, has been named to the Forbes The Future of Business to Business Banking: Fintech 50 2026 list, reports Brandon Kochkodin for Forbes. “Increase provides banking infrastructure that lets fintechs and businesses move money, store deposits and access payment rails without building direct bank connections,” writes Kochkodin.
Kalshi and Común, two startups founded by MIT alumni, have been named to the 2026 Forbes Fintech 50 list. Kalshi is a prediction market that “had 1.2 million active users in 2025, and total trading volume hit $24 billion” while Común “offers digital banking geared toward Hispanic immigrants,” reports Jeff Kauflin for Forbes.
Boston Globe reporters Patricia Harris and David Lyon highlight their recent visits to the MIT Museum, List Visual Arts Center, and the Hart Nautical Gallery. “We always feel at least marginally smarter after a day in the galleries at MIT,” they write. “Setting aside high-school anxieties about an upcoming science lab, it turns out that many of the exhibits are engagingly interactive and — dare we say it — even fun.”
Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with New York Times reporter Claire Brown about the development of AI data centers and the potential of increased utility costs. “If it’s just a few industrial customers with behind-the-meter power plants, it doesn’t really matter,” says Knittel. [As data centers grow and expand] “these things are going to matter so much. We can get it right, but sadly, too, if we don’t do it right, we can get it really wrong.”
Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi and Jerry Lu MFin ’24 speak with Edgar B. Herwick III, host of GBH’s Curiosity Desk, about their work at the intersection of sports and technology. “We founded the [MIT] Sports Lab about 10 years ago and the idea was to give MIT students and MIT faculty a chance to apply their technical expertise to problems in sports, to advance the state-of-the-art, to help athletes achieve the maximum that they can achieve,” says Hosoi.
Forbes reporter Jeff Kauflin spotlights Andres Santos MBA '21, co-founder of Común, as one of the six entrepreneurs making their debut on the Forbes Fintech 50 list. Común is a “digital bank for Hispanic immigrants,” writes Kauflin. “Customers can open checking accounts through an app using a passport or ID from their home country and use it for direct deposit, a debit card and international money transfers.”
“In Event of Moon Disaster,” a short deepfake film on display at the MIT Museum’s “AI: Mind the Gap” exhibit depicts an alternate reality where the Apollo 11 mission ended in disaster, reports Mark Feeney for The Boston Globe. The “unnervingly realistic deepfake” depicts President Richard Nixon addressing the nation regarding the failed mission. The film “manages to be both frightening, in showing how convincing deepfakes can be, and, however paradoxically, inspiring,” writes Feeney.
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with NBC News about the U.S. government airlifting parts of a nuclear reactor across three states and the future of nuclear power in America. “[It is] very positive. There is finally a sense of urgency and a push to increase our reliance on nuclear,” says Buongiorno. “I think nuclear has a lot of attractive features as an energy source. As I said earlier, it’s clean, it’s compact, it’s reliable.”
Mitali Chowdhury '24 has been named a 2026 Gates Cambridge Scholar, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. Beginning this fall, Chowdhury will pursue “a PhD in Sensor Technologies and Applications [at the University of Cambridge]” explains Nietzel. “Her research will focus on CRISPR-based diagnostics to assess antimicrobial resistance, with the goal of expanding equitable access to health care.”
Prof. Anna-Christina Eilers and postdoctoral associate Rohan Naidu speak with Scientific American reporter Rebecca Boyle about the discovery and study of Little Red Dots, mysterious, red spots that showed up in images from the James Webb Space Telescope. The dots, which astronomers dated to 600 million years after the big bang, “are in every single image the telescope takes,” says Naidu. “We have to find out about them if we want to tell a complete story about the early universe."