Prof. Bob Langer and Prof. Giovanni Traverso have co-founded Syntis Bio, a biotech company that will use technology to “coat the stomach and potentially other organ surfaces, [change] the way that drugs are absorbed or, in the case of obesity, which hormones are triggered,” reports Allison DeAngelis for STAT.
Prof. Hal Abelson speaks with Inside Higher Ed reporter Lauren Coffey about AI policies in academia. “We put tremendous emphasis on creating with AI but that’s the sort of place that MIT is,” says Abelson. “It’s about making things. Other places have a very different view of this.”
Prof. Devavrat Shah is interviewed by Forbes’ Gary Drenik on balancing AI innovation with ethical considerations, noting governance helps ensure the benefits of AI are fairly distributed across society. “Our responsibility is to harness [AI’s] potential while safeguarding against its risks,” Shah explains. “This approach to promoting responsible AI development hinges on governance rooted in collaboration, transparency and actionable guidance."
Prof. Netta Engelhardt talks to New Scientist’s Thomas Lawton about the possibility of singularities existing outside black holes. Theorists can now probe singularities from a deeper perspective, using insights into the possible quantum foundations of gravity. This new approach “flips the script” on how we think about singularities, says Engelhardt.
Writing for Climatewire, Scott Waldman interviews experts about New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to pause congestion pricing. David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, says “I think other cities will keep looking at it no matter what happens in New York.” He adds: “But I would say that, if congestion pricing goes forward in New York, that can basically turbocharge efforts in other cities to adopt it.”
Writing for The New York Times, Kenji López-Alt '02 slices into his research with Rui Viana '05 on the best method for cutting an onion. Using “computer models of the cross section of an onion,” López-Alt and Viana simulated “various cutting geometries and to calculate basic information, such as the number of pieces cut with each method, their average size and the standard deviation from the norm within that group" to see which method is a cut above the rest.
A new paper by Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. Simon Johnson uses the impact of automation in the textile industry to predict potential similar effects from AI, writes Bloomberg’s Andy Mukherjee. Noting the parallels between the Indian textile industry and disruption currently underway in tech outsourcing, the economists write “the impact of automation on workers today is more complex than an automatic linkage from higher productivity to better wages.”
Prof. Susan Solomon speaks with Guardian reporter Killian Fox about her new book “Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again,” and her research addressing climate change. “For goodness sake, let’s not give up now, we’re right on the cusp of success,” says Solomon. “That’s the fundamental message of the book.”
Brandon Hanks, a software developer with MIT’s Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Needleman about how Gen Z is putting their own spin on the heart sign. Hanks notes that “it looks more difficult” to master than the Millennial version—“and it is!”
Tomás Vega SM '19 is CEO and co-founder of Augmental, a startup helping people with movement impairments interact with their computer devices, reports Popular Science’s Andrew Paul. Seeking to overcome the limitations of most brain-computer interfaces, the company’s first product is the MouthPad, leveraging the tongue muscles.“Our hope is to create an interface that is multimodal, so you can choose what works for you,” said Vega. “We want to be accommodating to every condition.”
MIT is the world’s No.1 university for the 13th year in a row, according to the latest global university rankings from publisher QS Top Universities.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Research Scientist James Aloisi, director of the MIT Transit Research Consortium, highlights the current difficulties facing transportation funding, arguing for congestion pricing as a “highly agile and strategic revenue tool.” "Congestion pricing is one of the most feasible approaches to replacing the gas tax," writes Aloisi, "and providing a stable, fair, and equitable approach to raising revenue for both transit and roadways."
Prof. Kristala Prather, head of MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering, speaks with Nature reporter Alessio Lavino about what inspired her research on metabolic engineering and how her work in industry helped shape her career in academia. “The potential to educate, encourage and support the next generation of scientists and engineers in an educational setting gives me a chance to amplify my impact far beyond what I could ever personally do as an individual,” says Prather. “I cannot think of any higher honor than serving in a capacity that enables me to facilitate their emergence.”
MIT scientists have published a new study questioning the use of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) planned for next-generation U.S. nuclear reactors, writes Timothy Gardner for Reuters. "This material is directly usable for making nuclear weapons without any further enrichment or reprocessing," explains Prof. Scott Kemp, noting while the uranium is enriched to levels of up to 20%, compared with about 5% for most reactor fuel, 10% to 12% would be far safer.
More than 40% of employer matches go to the richest 20% of workers, according to a new report on retirement savings. Marketplace’s Caleigh Wells interviews finance experts, including Prof. Taha Choukhmane, who says white employees tend to benefit most, “whereas those who are single parents of kids, those who are Black or Hispanic, those who have lower-income parents tend to contribute less and make less in these matching contributions.”