In an interview with Gizmodo reporter Ellyn Lapointe, Research Scientist Judah Cohen highlights his work understanding the “complex relationship between global climate change, polar vortex behavior, and extreme mid-latitude weather.” Cohen explains that: “In our research, we have demonstrated that polar vortex stretching events have accelerated in the era of accelerated Arctic change. Climate change in general, but Arctic change in particular, is favorable for forcing these events.
Research Scientist Judah Cohen explores the relationship between stretched polar vortex events and extreme weather in the United States, reports Andrew Freedman for CNN. “On the southern flanks of the polar vortex, over the US and Asia, and under that where that stretching is happening, there’s been an increase in severe winter weather,” says Cohen. “I’m not saying any one weather event is attributed to climate change, but I do think it loaded the dice here.”
Research Scientist Judah Cohen speaks with Associated Press reporter Caleigh Wells to explain how winter storm conditions can vary geographically. Farther south, “the snowflakes form, they fall and then they meet a warm layer, a layer above freezing, and they will melt,” explains Cohen. “But then there’s another layer near the surface that’s below freezing again, so they will refreeze before they hit the ground.”
In an appearance on the national "Diabetics Doing Things" podcast, MIT President Sally Kornbluth and Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels discuss their experience as Type 1 diabetics, the importance of scientific research to diagnoses and treatments that have impacted millions of fellow Type 1 diabetics across the country, and the impact on their own lives of decades of advances made at leading research universities like theirs. In conversation with host Rob Howe, they reflect on the salience of standing up for the scientific enterprise.
MIT has been ranked the No. 1 university in “arts and humanities, business and economics, and social sciences” in Times Higher Education’s Rankings by Subject for 2026, reports Patrick Jack for Times Higher Education.
Forbes reporter Craig Smith spotlights Prof. Regina Barzilay for her work using her personal health experience to develop transformative medical technology. In response to her breast cancer diagnosis, Barzilay “developed a deep learning model that analyzes mammography images to predict breast cancer risk up to five years in advance,” writes Smith.
Prof. Christopher Palmer speaks with WBUR On Point host Meghna Chakrabarti about Americans and credit card debt, and how an interest rate cap could affect households across the country. “Anytime you have a price control, it has unintended consequences,” says Palmer. “Sometimes they're subtle. In this case, they're not subtle to see. We have lots of countries, lots of places where we've studied the effect of a cap on interest rates, and we see all sorts of unintended consequences.”
GBH reporter Renuka Balakrishnan spotlights “True or False,” a game featured in the MIT Museum’s “AI: Mind the Gap” exhibit, which invites visitors to guess the difference between a real and deepfake video. The exhibit “provides tips visitors can use outside the walls of the museum to improve media literacy in real life,” writes Balakrishnan.
Research Scientist Judah Cohen speaks with Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein about how warm Arctic waters and cold continental land have led to a stretched polar vortex, leading to a massive winter storm that will impact a large swath of the country. According to Cohen, “as far back as October 2025, changes in the Arctic and low sea ice were setting up conditions for the kind of stretched polar vortex that brings severe winter weather to the U.S.,” writes Borenstein.
MIT’s Hayden Library held an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia, reports Dana Gerber for The Boston Globe. “It’s fun and it’s funny, and it often chronicles the totally ridiculous corners of the world, but we also take it super seriously,” says MIT librarian Pheobe Ayers. “I hope people realize that Wikipedia is imperfect. It's always in progress. It’s not finished. But we’re trying really hard to make it good.”
Research Scientist Christian Catalini, founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, speaks with CNBC reporter Trevor Laurence Jockims about state and national initiatives to implement cryptocurrencies on a public balance sheet. “Once you’ve made that bet on infrastructure and industry, adding some Bitcoin exposure at the treasury level is a natural next step,” says Catalini.
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek Daily hosts Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec about American politics. “In my mind, worryingly, there is a little bit of a theory which is that all of these actions are aimed at centralizing power in the hands of an executive presidency with fewer and weaker checks which come either from institutions or norms.”
Boston Globe reporter James Sullivan spotlights the annual MIT Mystery Hunt, “a weekend-long gaming tournament” dating back to 1981. “Created as a humble pastime for like-minded problem solvers, the hunt has grown into a multi-layered, internationally renowned competition, spawning dozens of imitators around the globe,” writes Sullivan.
A new analysis conducted by postdoctoral associate Rohan Naidu and his colleagues has found evidence that suggests “little red dot” galaxies may contain baby black holes, reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. “In ordinary black holes, what you actually see with your eyes is the tip of the iceberg of the total energy that is coming out of the system, but the little red dots we now understand should really be thought of as these puffed-up black hole stars,” says Naidu. “It seems that most of their energy is coming out at these wavelengths that we see with our eyes, so what you see is what you get.”
Prof. Barry Posen speaks with Newsweek reporter Andrew Stanton about the stockpile of United States weapons.