The Engine Ventures' CEO and Managing partner Katie Rae talks to Forbes’ Alex Knapp about its recent round of fundraising for investments in startups focused on sustainability, health and infrastructure. Rae also sees opportunities in quantum computing and other new hardware, saying “power and climate and compute all go together.”
Prof. Hugh Herr joins the BBC’s Shiona McCallum to discuss a program by the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics aimed at bringing prosthetics to those who suffered forced amputations during the Sierra Leone Civil War. “When we train a young person on how to construct an arm or leg prothesis we’ve impacted the country for solidly forty years,” Herr says. “That person’s going to be living in that country and contributing to their community for a very long time. That’s exciting.”
Researchers at MIT have discovered the composition of primordial black holes, “potentially discovering an entirely new type of exotic black hole in the process,” reports Jacopo Prisco for CNN. “We were making use of Stephen Hawking’s famous calculations about black holes, especially his important result about the radiation that black holes emit,” says Prof. David Kaiser. “These exotic black holes emerge from trying to address the dark matter problem — they are a byproduct of explaining dark matter.”
MIT researchers have discovered “a new way to interfere with a certain bacterial enzyme that may lead to a new class of antibiotics,” reports Meryl Davids Landau for National Geographic.
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have “outlined the costs and benefits of artificial intelligence in health care, education and the workforce,” reports Ruth Reader, Daniel Payne, and Carmen Paul for Politico. The researchers say “policymakers should study the real-world implications of the technology and consider using AI to inform policy,” writes Politico.
Ronald Davis III '18, SM '22, PhD '24 speaks with Jason Groves of Las Cruces Sun-News about how his research at both MIT and an Army Department of Defense lab inspired his interest in applying AI technologies to improve wireless communications, work he is now using as the foundation of his startup VectorWave. "When I think of a student earning multiple degrees from a school such as MIT along with a Ph.D., I'm blown away that it could come from a small place like Las Cruces [New Mexico]," says Brandon Sprague, Davis’ former high school mathematics teacher.
Prof. Christopher Palmer joins Infotrak host Chris Witting to discuss his recent study that found logistical assistance increases the likelihood that low-income families will move to neighborhoods that offer better economic opportunity. Palmer and colleagues asked “how come more people with vouchers aren’t availing themselves of the opportunity to move to better neighborhoods? That was a prime motivation for our study.”
Mario Ho '17, cofounded NIP Group, "an esports organization with a team of 125 pro gamers from China, Europe and Brazil," reports Zinnia Lee for Forbes. “NIP Group said it plans to expand into new markets such as Southeast Asia, North America, the Middle East, Japan and Korea,” explains Lee. “The company added that it would further expand its businesses in areas including esports education, digital collectibles and licensing of intellectual properties.”
Asadej Kongsiri MBA '99 has been named the new President of The Stock Exchange of Thailand, reports Anuchit Nguyen for Bloomberg. The stock exchange says “with Asadej’s extensive experience in the financial markets, board members ‘are confident in his ability to lead and navigate the evolving financial landscape,’” writes Nguyen.
MIT researchers have created an amber-like material that preserves DNA so it can store data, improving on current methods that use particles of silica or require freezing, reports Pandora Dewan for Newsweek. The team “demonstrated their material by embedding and subsequently removing a DNA sequence encoding the music for the Jurassic Park theme song,” Dewan explains. “Following this process, they sequenced the molecule and confirmed that no errors had been introduced into the DNA sequence.”
Prof. Sherry Turkle warns against AI systems that simulate deceased partners, making it hard for the bereaved to “let go,” reports Dan Milmo for The Guardian. Breakthroughs in generative AI are enabling realistic conversations, but experts harbor concerns about the vulnerability of users and lack of regulation. “It’s something we are inflicting on ourselves because it’s such a seductive technology,” Turkle says.
Postdoctoral associate Adam Forrest Kay’s book “Escape From Shadow Physics: The Quest to End the Dark Ages of Quantum Theory,” is reviewed by Andrew Crumey for The Wall Street Journal. “Consistently interesting” and “energetically written,” the book, “eloquently explains the history behind hydrodynamic quantum analogs,” writes Crumey.
Prof. Sara Seager, Prof. Robert Langer and Prof. Nancy Kanwisher have been awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize for their work in the three award categories: astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience, respectively, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. According to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, this award honors scientists with outstanding research “that has broadened our understanding of the big, the small and the complex,” writes Nietzel.
MIT researchers used tools of computational complexity and mathematical concepts to prove that no analysis of the Super Mario Bros video game level “can say for sure whether or not it can ever be completed,” reports Matthew Sparkes for New Scientist. “The idea is that you’ll be able to solve this Mario level only if this particular computation will terminate, and we know that there’s no way to determine that, and so there’s no way to determine whether you can solve the level,” says Prof. Erik Demaine.
MIT scientists have discovered that metals become harder when heated under certain conditions, reports Isabelle Dume for Physics World. In an interview, Prof. Christopher Schuch says by bombarding metals with tiny bits of sapphire small enough to avoid shock waves, “the result is a clean and quantitative set of data that clearly reveals the counterintuitive ‘hotter-is-stronger’ effect.”