In the Media

A new study by MIT researchers suggests sea sponges may have been the “first animals to inhabit the Earth,” reports Maria Azzura Volpe for Newsweek. “In their work, the researchers linked so-called ‘chemical fossils’ found in ancient rocks to the ancestors of a class of modern-day sea sponges known as demosponges,” explains Volpe. “These chemical fossils—the molecular remnants of once-living organisms that have been buried, transformed, and preserved in sediment over time—were discovered in rocks that date back to more than 541 million years ago, during the Ediacaran Period.” 

WBUR contributor Jonathan D. Fitzgerald spotlights Prof. Kieran Setiya’s book, “Midlife: A Philosophical Guide.” “Setiya defines and provides a history of the midlife crisis, tracing its origins – perhaps not as far back as we might think – to a 1965 essay by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques, titled ‘Death and the Mid-Life Crisis,’” explains Fitzgerald. “Setiya indicates that his intended audience goes beyond the stereotypical; rather, the book is for ‘anyone coping with the irreversibility of time.’” 

Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Financial Times reporters Claire Jones and Melissa Heikkilä about the economic implications of the AI boom. “There is a lot of pressure on managers to do something with AI… and there is the hype that is contributing to it,” says Acemoglu. “But not many people are doing anything super creative with it yet.” 

George Smoot '66, PhD '70, a recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work “finding the background radiation that finally pinned down the Big Bang Theory,” has died at age 80, reports the Associated Press. 

MIT researchers have uncovered new evidence that suggests some of Earth’s first living creatures are ancestors of the modern sea sponge, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. The researchers identified 541 million-year-old chemical fossils embedded in sediment that they believe may indicate that some of Earth’s earliest creatures were the ancient relatives of today’s sea sponges. 

Noman Bashir, a fellow with MIT’s Climate and Sustainability Consortium, speaks with Smithsonian Magazine reporter Amber X. Chen about the impact of AI data centers on the country’s electric grid and infrastructure. Bashir notes “that the industry’s environmental impacts can also be seen farther up the supply chain,” writes Chen. “The GPUs that power A.I. data centers are made with rare earth elements, the extraction of which Bashir notes is resource intensive and can cause environmental degradation.” 

ABC News reporter Will Reeve spotlights the AGNES, a suit developed by MIT AgeLab researchers in an effort to help wearers experience the effects of aging on the body. “One of the greatest challenges that we’ve uncovered here at the AgeLab and elsewhere is that we really can’t envision our future self,” says Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab. “If everyone could wear AGNES, they would be in better touch with what their future self is, and what I would hope is they would invest in themselves physically [and] cognitively.” 

New Yorker reporter Julian Lucas spotlights Prof. Emeritus Tim Berners-Lee’s role in the creation of the world wide web and his current focus on online data protection and regulation. The creation of the web “took companies giving up their patent rights, it took individuals giving up their time and energy, it took bright people giving up their ideas for the sake of a common idea,” says Berners-Lee. 

In an effort to better understand how protein language models (PLMs) think and better judge their reliability, MIT researchers applied a tool called sparse autoencoders, which can be used to make large language models more interpretable. The findings “may help scientists better understand how PLMs come to certain conclusions and increase researchers’ trust in them," writes Andrea Luis for The Scientist. 

Writing for The Guardian, Prof. Emeritus Tim Berners-Lee describes his original concept for the world wide web as a platform for everyone, and his current efforts aimed at online data protection and regulation. “I gave the world wide web away for free because I thought that it would only work if it worked for everyone,” explains Berners-Lee. “Today, I believe that to be truer than ever. Regulation and global governance are technically feasible, but reliant on political willpower. If we are able to muster it, we have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders. We can re-empower individuals, and take the web back. It’s not too late.” 

Undergraduate student Kendree Chen has been named one of the 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholars, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. “This year’s group, the 61st in the program’s history, consisted of 161 outstanding high school seniors, who were selected for their accomplishments in academics, the arts, and career and technical education fields as well as for commitments to community service and leadership,” explains Nietzel. 

The MIT Museum presents “Remembering the Future,” a new installation by artist Janet Echelman in collaboration with Prof. Caitlin Mueller, reports Kat Barandy for DesignBoom. The installation suspends above the museum’s grand lobby and will be open to the public through fall 2027. “The work transforms climate data into a three-dimensional form that invites visitors to engage both visually and conceptually,” Barandy explains.

Researchers at MIT have developed magnetic transistors, “which could enable faster and more energy-efficient semiconductors,” reports Alex Knapp for Forbes. “Researchers have been trying to use magnets this way for years, but the materials used so far haven’t been optimal for computing functions,” explains Knapp. “That changed after experimenting with chromium sulfur bromide, which replaces the silicon in a conventional microchip and enables the transistors to be switched on and off with an electric current.” 

Prof. Pierre Azoulay speaks with WBUR’s Martha Bebinger about a new study examining the potential impact of NIH budget cuts on the development of new medicines. Azoulay and his colleagues found that “more than half of drugs approved by the FDA since 2000 used NIH-funded research that would likely not have happened if the NIH had operated with a 40% smaller budget,” Bebinger explains. 

Prof. Caitlin Mueller has been named Innovator of the Year by Architectural Record for her work advancing a “vision for building design and construction that unites these disciplines with computation to create structure that are sustainable, high performing, and delightful,” reports Architectural Record. “Her group develops computational design and digital fabrication methods that integrate efficiency, performance, material circularity, and architectural expression,” Architectural Record notes. “This work spans robotic assembly of optimized trusses, fabrication of low-cost earthen and concrete systems, and algorithmic strategies for reusing salvaged wood and reassembled concrete parts.”