Prof. Dylan Hadfield-Menell is interviewed by Wired’s Will Knight about CriticGPT, a new tool developed by OpenAI that will assist human trainers in developing AI. “It might lead to big jumps in individual capabilities, and it might be a stepping stone towards sort of more effective feedback in the long run,” Hadfield-Menell says.
Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel, senior group leaders from the Broad Institute have created a gene-editing tool to combat prion diseases, reports Karen Weintraub for USA Today. The approach “should also work against diseases such as Huntington's, Parkinson's, ALS and even Alzheimer's, which result from the accumulation of toxic proteins,” Weintraub writes.
BioBuilder, a program spun out of MIT that is being used in 1,000 high schools across the country, aims to provide high school students with an opportunity to experience engineering and problem solving in the classroom, reports Kelly Sullivan for Boston 25 News. “We’re really hoping to help attract students to the field and get them interested and, train them up so that the industry can have the talent they need,” says BioBuilder Executive Director Natalie Kuldell.
Researchers from MIT and other universities, businesses and government agencies are working to help the state of Massachusetts become a leading producer of climate technology innovations, reports Jeff Young for Newsweek. “Some MIT grads launched a climate tech incubator in Cambridge called Greentown Labs in 2011 and it now hosts hundreds of startups,” explains Young. “The area's venture capital and finance communities are attuned to the climate sector and are investing in companies tackling some of the biggest climate challenges.”
MIT scientists have developed a “four-fingered robotic hand which is capable of rotating balls and toys in any direction and orientation,” reports Maisie Lillywhite for BBC News. “The improvement in dexterity could have significant implications for automating tasks such as handling goods for supermarkets or sorting through waste for recycling,” Lillywhite writes.
Melissa Choi, who has served as assistant director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory since 2019 and has decades of experience working across the lab’s different technical areas, has been named the next director of Lincoln Laboratory, reports Isabel Tehan for the Boston Business Journal. “Under Choi’s leadership, the lab will continue to focus on long-term development of defense systems,” writes Tehan, “as well as quick-moving prototyping, both with the goal of protecting the U.S. from advanced threats.”
Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with CNBC reporter Trevor Laurence Jockims about cybersecurity attacks on American water systems. Madnick explains that while a population’s water has not been shut off due to a hack, but “we have demonstrated in our lab how operations, such as a water plant, could be shut down not just for hours or days, but for weeks. It is definitely technically possible,” Madnick explains.
MIT scientists have developed a new model to analyze movements across the Antarctic Ice Sheet, “a critical step in understanding the potential speed and severity of sea level rise,” writes Ava Berger for The Boston Globe. “The flow of glaciers is really the thing that could lead to catastrophic sea level rise scenarios,” explains Prof. Brent Minchew. The findings take “a really big and important step toward understanding what the future is going to look like.”
Prof. David Kaiser joins Grammy winning producer Jack Antonoff and host Matt White of Sing for Science to discuss the nature and perception of time. Kaiser helps illustrate, “the idea that we're experiencing things that can seem to take a long time or short time, and that has to do with our state in the world, and not only about what the clock is saying on the wall.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Cady Coleman ’83 reflects on her career as an astronaut and Air Force colonel. “I am an astronaut,” writes Coleman. “Even after 24 years at NASA, two space shuttle missions, and six months living aboard the International Space Station, it thrills me to say those words, and yet there is a part of me that’s still surprised by them.”
STAT lists “The Exceptions: Sixteen Women, MIT, and the Fight for Equality in Science,” by Kate Zernicke as a “best book on health and science to check out this summer.” The book focuses on Prof. Nancy Hopkins’ “career, which culminates in not only numerous scientific successes but also a collaborative effort with 15 other women faculty demonstrating evidence of gender discrimination at MIT,” explains STAT. “This work led to studies to address gender equity at nine other universities.”
Applying models that simulate erosion on Earth to Saturn’s largest moon, MIT scientists have determined that waves of methane and ethane on Titan likely shaped the moon’s coastlines, writes Elisha Sauers for Mashable. “If Titan's oceans exhibit waves, that could give scientists insight into the moon's climate,” Sauers writes. “They could then begin predicting the strength of wind on this world and infer what direction it's often blowing — factors that might be necessary to power such waves.”
Science reporter Paul Voosen spotlights Tropics “a four-CubeSat mission launched by NASA last year” and led by Lincoln Laboratory Fellow William (Bill) Blackwell. The mission has “yielded unprecedented observations of the evolution of hurricanes cores,” writes Voosen.
Graduate student Jaida Elcock speaks with WBUR reporter Katie Cole to address misconceptions about sharks. "I think that honestly, one of the biggest dangers to humans is humans not understanding what different wildlife is and feeling free enough to touch it," says Elcock. "There's a lot of stuff in the ocean that's venomous or spiny or whatever the case may be. So, if you see it, that's awesome, you take a picture from a safe distance."
MIT scientists have shown a simple paper-strip test can detect the flu and identify the specific strain, which could prove useful in improving outbreak response and infection care, writes Dennis Thompson for HealthDay. Jon Arizti-Sanz PhD ’24 says “being able to tease apart what strain or subtype of influenza is infecting a patient has repercussions both for treating them and public health interventions.”