Prof. Alan Guth chats with Scientific American reporter Joseph Howlett about the future of the field of cosmology and his advice for early-career physicists for “The Young American Scientists” special section. Guth shares that thanks to advances in technology, “we’re able to unravel, to make sense out of, what we’re observing. A lot of progress has been made on those lines.”
For the Scientific American special section “The Young American Scientists,” Institute Prof. Robert Langer speaks with Megha Satyanarayana about the “spectacular” history of American innovation and education, and why he feels it’s important to celebrate scientific achievements in the same way we honor celebrities and sports stars. “I’m just a big believer in the resilience of people,” says Langer. “I look at the history of American innovation and education over the past 250 years, and it’s been spectacular. We’ve had world wars, you know, we’ve had depressions, and people keep persisting and keep learning. They keep discovering and they keep inventing.”
For Scientific American’s “The Young American Scientists” special section, reporter Tara Haelle interviews Prof. John Urschel, a former NFL player, exploring his views on the benefits for aspiring young scientists of having a broad background of different interests and passions to draw upon. “A lot of good research happens when people can draw on tools, techniques and insights from different areas, disciplines and even fields,” says Urschel. “I hope we can encourage promising young scientists to establish strong, broad backgrounds and to communicate frequently with those outside their particular areas.”
Prof. Alan Lightman details how his childhood fascinations with science experiments and writing helped shape his self-confidence, humanity, and connection to the physical world in an essay for Scientific American’s special section, “The Young American Scientists.” Lightman writes: “Science has given us automobiles, antibiotics, computers. The humanities have given us values and guidance on how to live our lives. Now more than ever, when much of the world, including the U.S., has lost its moral compass, leading to a dog-eat-dog mentality, we need science combined with literature, philosophy, history and art.”
In an interview with U.S News & World Report, Prof. Bradford Skow and Prof. Alex Byrne, two of the co-directors of the MIT Civil Discourse project, explain how the effort is aimed at helping students productively debate challenging issues using the Braver Angels format. “Lectures on how to ride a bike are useless; you learn by hopping on and pedaling,” they explain. “Lectures on civil discourse are marginally more effective, but learning how to discuss hard topics with people you disagree with ultimately requires seeing it done and doing it yourself.”
Prof. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero was named a winner of the 2026 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience for his “foundational work that established the field of twistronics,” reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. Nietzel explains that when using twistronics, "scientists can induce new properties in materials without changing their basic composition."
Prof. Richard Binzel goes interstellar and chats with Boston Globe reporter Nick Stoico about the science behind the meteor that exploded over Cape Cod Bay recently, noting that the event offered a rare opportunity for people to connect with a phenomenon that usually goes unnoticed. “It’s great when people find a connection to the greater universe,” said Binzel. “It’s a great perspective to think beyond the surface of the Earth.”
Prof. Charles Stewart III speaks with Newsweek reporter Jasmine Laws about the speed of ballot-counting in California. "California’s Legislature has decided to listen to election rights groups more than other states in an effort to make sure that every vote counts," said Stewart.
During her OneMIT Commencement address, Lisa Su 90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, shared her views on the critical role humans should play in the development and use of AI technologies, reports Courtney Connley-Hampton for Forbes. “For everything that AI can do, AI can’t decide which problems are worth solving. It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcomes. These are actually our responsibilities and they matter now more than ever,” Su emphasized. “Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like—the best people do.”
Prof. Emeritus Paul Osterman speaks with Fortune reporter Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez about how a number of company layoff announcements recently have blamed the introduction of AI technologies for staff reductions. He notes that some layoffs are also likely tied to the increasing number of contract, gig and temporary workers used by employers, who can be cut at any moment. “We created a stable employment system of high wages and shared prosperity in the past,” he said. “That’s what we should be thinking about doing now.”
In her address to the Class of 2026 during the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony, Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, emphasized that “the world does not just need people who know how to use powerful tools, it needs people who know what to use them for, people with a sense of purpose, judgment, courage.” She added: “For everything that AI can do, AI can’t decide which problems are worth solving. It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcomes. These are actually our responsibilities, and they matter now more than ever.”
During MIT’s 2026 OneMIT Commencement ceremony, Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, urged graduates to “run toward the hardest problems,” reports Aayushi Datta for The Boston Globe. In her address, President Sally Kornbluth underscored the value and power of curiosity-driven science, noting that: “shrinking the pipeline of basic discovery research means choking off the flow of future solutions, innovations, and cures.”
Prof. William Oliver speaks with Scientific American reporter Adam Becker about the future of quantum computing. “Quantum computing is real, it’s happening, and it’s going to take time,” Oliver says. “It’s going to take engineering, and there’s still science to do as well. It’s not all buttoned up.” He adds that, in the future, we will be using quantum computers "to better understand, from a scientific standpoint, the world around us.”
Prof. Richard Binzel shares his insights into the recently discovered school-bus sized asteroid that will fly by Earth next week with CNN reporter Jacopo Prisco. “2026JH2 will pass safely by the Earth,” said Binzel. “This is actually a rather normal occurrence, car-sized objects pass between the Earth and the Moon every week. At the size of a school bus, these pass through our neighborhood several times per year. We are only recently developing surveys that are sensitive enough to see them.”
Profs. Elisabeth Reynolds and Simon Johnson joined Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Surveillance to discuss their new book, "Priority Technologies: Ensuring U.S. Security and Shared Prosperity," which highlights six key areas where advances in technology can drive the U.S. economy and support national security. “Quantum is the next frontier and opens up billions of dollars of opportunity,” says Reynolds. “Not just for defense and encryption issues, but also across all sorts of applications in financial services and biopharma.”