In the Media

Boston Globe reporter Emily Spatz spotlights how a number of key technologies – including the internet and the first widely used electronic navigation system – were developed by MIT researchers with the support of federal funding. The development of the internet has “MIT’s fingerprints all over it,” Prof. John Guttag emphasizes. Prof. David Mindell explains: “Federal funding for these ecosystems has been enormously important over a long time period.” Mindell adds that GPS alone probably “generated more economic value” over a 40-year period than the budgets of the government agencies that helped launch the navigational system.

MIT researchers have developed Boltz-2, an AI algorithm “that unites protein folding and prediction of small-molecule binding affinity in one package,” reports Laura Howes for Chemical & Engineering News. “The researchers say their new AI model approaches the level of accuracy achieved by traditional computational chemistry—such as methods involving free-energy perturbation calculations—but much more quickly and cheaply,” explains Howes. 

A study by researchers at MIT examines how the use of large language models impacts the human brain, reports Elizabeth Hlavinka for Salon. Research scientist Nataliya Kos'myna says the results “suggest large language models could affect our memory, attention and creativity.” 

Kurt Knutsson of FOX News spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new mobile robot, dubbed E-BAR, designed to help physically support the elderly and prevent falls at home. “What stands out about E-BAR is how it's designed with real people in mind, not just as a tech gadget,” Knutsson explains. “It's easy to see how something like this could make a big difference for seniors wanting to stay independent without feeling tied down by bulky or uncomfortable devices.”

Postdoc Isabella Loaiza speaks with ABC News reporter Max Zahn about her study examining how jobs and tasks across the U.S. economy shifted between 2016-2024. Loaiza and her colleagues found that “rather than dispense with qualities like critical thinking and empathy, workplace technology heightened the need for workers who exhibit those attributes,” Zahn explains. “It is true we’re seeing AI having an impact on white-collar work instead of more blue-collar work,” says Loaiza. “We found that jobs that are very human-intensive are probably more robust.” 

Graduate students Anika Jane Beamer, Nanticha Ocharoenchai, Pratik Pawar and Paulina Rowińska write for GBH to highlight health care deserts in the Boston area. “There are no hospitals or emergency care facilities in Mattapan,” they write. “With the closure of Carney Hospital, the nearest emergency room is at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, over three miles away. Getting there can be difficult.” 

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed Boltz-2, an open-source generative AI model that can help researchers find new medicines faster, reports Alex Knapp for Forbes. The tool “can not only predict the structure of proteins, it can also predict its binding affinity–that is, how well a potential drug is able to interact with that protein,” explains Knapp. “This is crucial in the early stages of developing a new medicine.” 

Prof. Danielle Wood speaks with Nature reporter Elizabeth Gibney about Africa’s first continent-wide space agency, the African Space Agency (AfSA). “It’s a new era,” says Wood. “Where in the past, it may have seemed that the opportunities were outside Africa, right now we can say there’s many opportunities for collaboration inside Africa.” 

Felice Frankel, a research scientist in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering and a science photographer, speaks with Science Friday host Flora Lichtman about science communicators can more effectively engage the public and make a better case for the importance of scientific research. 

A study by researchers from the MIT AgeLab examines “how to reduce collisions between vehicles and pedestrians,” reports Ed Garsten for Forbes. The research looked at how vehicles and pedestrians “interact and communicate with each other, along with how automated systems and technology affect driver behavior.” 

Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang and his colleagues have developed a sodium-air fuel cell that “packs three to four times more energy per pound than common lithium-ion batteries,” reports Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe, which could serve as “a potentially groundbreaking clean power source for airplanes.” Pressman adds that: “Ultimately, a sodium-air fuel cell could power a regional jet carrying 50 to 100 passengers on flights as long as 300 miles.” 

Prof. Daron Acemoglu, Prof. Peter Diamond and Prof. Simon Johnson are among the six Nobel laureate economists that warn the “massive budget bill passed by Housemakers last month… would weaken key safety-net programs while greatly lifting the federal debt,” reports Alain Sherter for CBS News. The economists also said that “large tax cuts under the legislation, combined with the hits to Medicaid and food stamps, would increase inequality,” writes Sherter. 

Prof. Tali Sharot speaks with Darian Woods of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money about why members of Gen Z may be feeling financial dysmorphia. “In order to be happy and satisfied, we need to see ourself progressing,” says Sharot. “That is true on every level, whether it is intellectually or whether it's financially.” 

A study by Prof. Noelle Selin has found that climate change will impact our ability to curb smoke and smog pollutants, reports Vivian La for WBUR. The researchers “used computer models to predict how air pollution will develop in the Eastern United States over the next few decades,” explains La. Selin underscored the importance of policies that reduce air pollution noting that: “what we’re doing to the atmosphere has impacts and it’s important not to roll these back.” 

Prof. Emeritus Stanley Fischer PhD '69, an economist and central banker who helped “guide global economic policies and defuse financial crises for decades,” has died at the age of 81, reports James R. Hagerty for The New York Times. While at MIT, “Mr. Fischer became a magnet for graduate students,” writes Hagerty. “He encouraged them to visit him every week, ‘especially if you have nothing to say.’”