Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a “new filtration material based on natural silk and cellulose that removes a wide range of PFAS, while having antimicrobial properties that prevent fouling by bacteria and fungi.”
The MIT women’s cross-country team won its first national championship, securing the Division 3 title, reports Amin Touri for The Boston Globe. “Junior Kate Sanderson of West Hartford finished 16th, leading five Engineers to score in the top 40, the only team to do so as depth delivered for MIT,” writes Touri. “Rujuta Sane, Christina Crow, Liv Girand, and Lexi Fernandez rounded out the scoring for MIT, but Heather Jensen and Gillian Roeder were just seconds back as all seven Engineers finished within a span of 33.4 seconds.”
Using cephalopods, like squid, as inspiration, researchers from MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Novo Nordisk have developed a capsule that can deliver drugs directly into the digestive track without using needles, writes Corinna Singleman for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. “The capsule design is highly adaptable and was intentionally developed to handle a wide range of drug types,” said Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
The Consortium for Climate Solutions, which is led by MIT, Harvard and Mass General Brigham, is enabling the development of a solar farm in Texas and a wind farm in North Dakota, which should generate enough renewable energy annually to power 130,000 homes, reports Martha Bebinger for WBUR. The effort is intended to “cut annual carbon dioxide emissions by 950,000 tons, about the equivalent of the carbon that trees covering 600,000 acres of forest would absorb in a year.”
Prof. Alan Lightman speaks with Boston Globe correspondent Kate Tuttle about his new book, “The Miraculous from the Material: Understanding the Wonders of Nature,” in which Lightman “celebrates the phenomena that inspire awe.” Lightman explains: “I think the humanities are even more important now in a period of exponentially advancing technology. We really have to think hard about what makes us human. Like having compassion for other people. The ability to fall in love, the ability to appreciate beauty.”
Research Scientist Susan Amrose speaks with Knowable Magazine reporter Lele Nargi about the use of inland desalination for farming communities. Amrose, who studies inland desalination in the Middle East and North Africa, is “testing a system that uses electrodialysis instead of reverse osmosis,” explains Nargi. “This sends a steady surge of voltage across water to pull salt ions through an alternating stack of positively charged and negatively charged membranes.”
Prof. Kripa Varanasi speaks with BBC News reporter Chris Baraniuk about his work developing a “range of coatings that make surfaces slippery and therefore resistant to the formation of biofilms.” Baraniuk notes that: “Tests of one such coating in an experiment carried out on board the International Space Station found that it worked as intended.”
Prof. Arnold Barnett speaks with Bloomberg reporter Charley Locke about the increased safety of air travel. “These events we fear have become extraordinarily rare,” says Barnett. “Of course these events are unnerving, but generally, as soon as they happen, the pilots know what to do and bring the plane back safely.”
In an effort to make higher education more accessible, MIT has announced that undergraduate students with families earning less than $200,000 per year will receive free tuition beginning fall 2025, reports Alexandra Petri for The New York Times. “We believe MIT should be the pre-eminent destination for the most talented students in the country interested in an education centered on science and technology,” explains Stu Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services, “and accessible to the best students regardless of their financial circumstances.”
MIT has been named to the top spot in Times Higher Education’s inaugural Interdisciplinary Science Rankings, reports Rosa Ellis. Provost Cynthia Barnhart notes that the original design of MIT’s campus was “one large, interconnected building, and the intention was to provide our faculty and our students – all of them – opportunities to bump into one another, to share knowledge and collaborate. Then over the years, other structures, like labs and centers, institutes and, most recently, a college, have been created to enable and facilitate interactions across disciplines.”
MIT has been named the top university on the Times Higher Education 2025 Interdisciplinary Science Rankings, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. The ranking “benchmarked universities by measuring their performance in three areas: inputs (funding); process (measures of success, facilities, administrative support and promotion); and outputs (publications, research quality and reputation),” writes Nietzel.
The Economist covers new work by Prof. Giovanni Traverso and his colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Novo Nordisk, who have developed an ingestible capsule that can “get medication into patients without having to jab them at all, by copying the jet-propulsion techniques used by squid and their kin.”
Undergraduate students with a family income of less than $200,000 can expect to attend MIT tuition-free starting fall 2025, reports Maria Papadopoulos for Boston 25. “MIT is one of only nine colleges in the US that does not consider applicants’ ability to pay as part of its admissions process and that meets the full demonstrated financial need for all undergraduates,” Papadopoulos reports. “Graduates benefit from the lifelong value of an MIT degree, with an average starting salary of $126,438 for graduates entering industry.”
Undergraduate students at MIT with families earning less than $200,000 can expect to attend MIT with free tuition beginning fall 2025, reports Travis Anderson for The Boston Globe. “The $200,000 threshold for free tuition was raised from the current level of $140,000, while the $100,000 threshold is an increase from this year’s ceiling of $75,000,” Anderson writes. “MIT said it has earmarked $167.3 million for need-based financial aid this year to undergraduates, up roughly 70 percent from a decade ago.”
As part of an effort to increase affordability for students and families, MIT undergraduate students with a family income below $200,000 a year can expect to attend MIT tuition-free, starting in fall 2025, reports Emily Piper-Vallillo for WBUR. “Many families are concerned about the cost of college,” says Stu Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services. “We really want to send a message that coming to school at MIT is affordable and that cost should not stand in the way of a student applying.”