Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a “black-hole triple, the first known instance of a three-body system that includes a black hole, which is not supposed to be part of the mix,” reports Dennis Overbye for The New York Times. The researchers propose that the black hole “could have resulted from a sort of immaculate conception whereby the progenitor star disappeared from the universe without any fireworks.”
Postdoctoral associate Peter Slattery speaks with Forbes reporter Tor Constantino about the importance of developing new technologies to easily distinguish AI generated content. “I think we need to be very careful to ensure that watermarks are robust against tampering and that we do not have scenarios where they can be faked,” explains Slattery. “The ability to fake watermarks could make things worse than having no watermarks as it would give the illusion of credibility.”
Prof. Simon Johnson, one of the recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, speaks with Times Higher Education reporter Jack Grove about his journey from a childhood in Sheffield as the son of a screw manufacturer to studying for his PhD at MIT and serving as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Speaking about how to help ensure AI is used to benefit society and workers, Johnson explains: “Big tech doesn’t like us, but we need a plan for this, and the role of economists like us is to get ideas like this out there so they can be hammered out in the policy world.”
Astronomers from MIT and elsewhere have “identified a black hole that appears to have come into being through the collapse of the core of a large star in its death throes, but without the usual blast,” explains Will Dunham for Reuters. “Black holes have previously been spotted orbiting with one other star or one other black hole in what are called binary systems,” explains Dunham. “But this is the first known instance of a triple system with a black hole and two stars.”
Using a sonar-based technique called Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS), researchers at MIT and elsewhere have tracked a swarm of cod off the coast of Norway eating millions of migrating capelin fish, reports Ed Cara for Gizmodo. Cara notes that in the future this technique could potentially allow “researchers and others to more easily monitor the health of these important fish and other life in marine ecosystems.”
Alumna Jessica Galica speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kara Baskin about women in the workforce, and how to create better work-life balance while also pursuing meaningful work. “In 2024, power is the freedom and flexibility to make choices that you want,” says Galica. “I do see women choosing to pause and choosing to downshift as a form of power — because they’re actively and intentionally making that choice. This is a way to exhibit that power, and to go after what you want.”
MIT Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein speaks with Boston Globe reporter Christine Mehta about his new book "Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation.” “Epstein is not the first to argue that a secular phenomenon has become a religion (the list grows longer every year), but to him, obsessions like the American workplace, sports, or CrossFit are at best middling cults,” writes Mehta. “Technology, on the other hand, is the religion of today’s world, Epstein says, displacing the influence of everything else on our lives.”
MIT researchers have developed a new training technique called Heterogeneous Pretrained Transformers (HPT) that could help make general-purpose robots more efficient and adaptable, reports Christopher Isak for TechAcute. “The main advantage of this technique is its ability to integrate data from different sources into a unified system,” explains Isak. “This approach is similar to how large language models are trained, showing proficiency across many tasks due to their extensive and varied training data. HPT enables robots to learn from a wide range of experiences and environments.”
Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. Fiona Murray highlights the importance of developing a new approach to capital gains tax increases. “By focusing on the underlying behaviors we want to incentivize, we can structure taxes more effectively,” explains Murray. “When we provide tax breaks to companies for spending on R&D, we do it to spur behavior we know is good for the overall health of the economy.”
Prof. Donald Sull speaks with Fortune reporter Lila Maclellan about his research studying the impact of evolving business models in a company’s success. “Business history is littered with the corpses of companies that have fallen prey to active inertia,” reports Sull.
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with Nature reporter Davide Castelvecchi about how AI has increased energy demand and the future of nuclear energy.
Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with Boston Globe reporter Scooty Nickerson about how to prevent and address data breaches. “Do not put all your eggs in one basket,” says Madnick. “Assume they are breaking in, and make it so they can’t break into every one of [your] systems.”
MIT researchers developed a new method to model how climate change will impact the number of “outdoor days” and found that Southern states in the U.S. will lose a significant number of outdoor days, reports Kristin Toussaint for Fast Company. Prof. Elfatih Eltahir explains that the concept of outdoor days is, “an attempt for me to bring the issue of climate change home. When someone tells you global temperatures are going to increase by 3 degrees, that’s one thing. If someone tells you that your outdoor days will be dropping by 20% or 30%, that’s another thing.”
MIT scientists have discovered a complex form of carbon, crucial for life on Earth, outside our solar system for the first time, demonstrating how “the compounds needed for life could come from space,” reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. “Now, we’re seeing both ends of this life cycle,” explains Prof. Brett McGuire. He explains that we can see the chemical archaeological record in our solar system in asteroids and on Earth, “and now we’re looking back in time at a place where another solar system will form, and seeing these same molecules there forming. We’re seeing the start of the archaeological record.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have discovered a black hole triple – a black hole with two orbiting stars around it at varying distances – for the first time, reports Jess Thomson for Newsweek. The researchers believe this “first-of-its-kind discovery could help unravel the mysteries of how black holes form and how they enter into binaries or triples,” writes Thomson.