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The Boston Globe

Lithios, a startup cofounded by Mohammad Alkhadra PhD '22 and Prof. Martin Bazant, is developing “a clean and relatively cheap way to access vast amounts of lithium,” reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “Lithios has developed a lithium-absorbing material that can be made into electrodes using the same technologies created to make electrodes for lithium-ion batteries,” explains Bray. 

Quanta Magazine

Since meeting as undergraduates at MIT, graduate student Ashwin Sah '20 and Mehtaab Sawhney PhD '24 have “written a mind-boggling 57 math proofs together, many of them profound advances in various fields,” writes Leila Sloman for Quanta Magazine. Now, in what is being praised as a “huge achievement” and “phenomenally impressive” by fellow mathematicians, Sah and Sawhney have “obtained a long-sought improvement on an estimate of how big sets of integers can get before they must contain sequences of evenly spaced numbers." 

TechCrunch

TechCrunch reporter Kyle Wiggers spotlights Codeium, a generative AI coding company founded by MIT alums Varun Mohan SM '17 and Douglas Chen '17. Codeium’s platform is run by generative AI models trained on public code, providing suggestions in the context of an app’s entire codebase. “Many of the AI-driven solutions provide generic code snippets that require significant manual work to integrate and secure within existing codebases,” Mohan  explains. “That’s where our AI coding assistance comes in.” 

Quanta Magazine

A team of MIT researchers discovered a hard limit for the “spooky” phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, reports Ben Brubaker for Quanta Magazine. The researchers found that quantum entanglement does not weaken as temperatures increase, but rather it vanishes above specific temperatures, a behavior dubbed the “sudden death” of entanglement. “It’s a very, very strong statement,” says Prof. Soonwon Choi of the findings. “I was very impressed.”

Quanta Magazine

Prof. Christoph Kehle and his colleagues have demonstrated “that there is nothing in our known laws of physics to prevent the formation of an extremal black hole,” reports Steve Nadis for Quanta Magazine. The mathematical proof is “beautiful, technically innovative and physically surprising,” says Princeton University Professor Mihalis Dafermos. It hints at a potentially richer and more varied universe in which “extremal black holes could be out there astrophysically.”

Quanta Magazine

Prof. Larry Guth and University of Oxford Prof. James Maynard have discovered a new proof for the Riemann hypothesis, which “automatically leads to better approximations of how many primes exist in short intervals on the number line, and stands to offer many other insights into how primes behave,” reports Jordana Cepelewicz for Quanta Magazine. “It’s a sensational result,” notes Rutgers University Prof. Henryk Iwaniec. “It’s very, very, very hard. But it’s a gem.”

Wired

Prof. Martin Bazant speaks with Wired reporter Emily Mullin about the importance of proper battery disposal to reduce waste and ensure the materials can be reused. “What we don’t want is to be losing critical minerals from the supply chain,” explains Bazant. “We have to be able to recycle them.”

Popular Mechanics

Prof. Larry Gurth and University of Oxford Prof. James Maynard have uncovered a new finding “about how certain polynomials are formed and how they reach out into the number line,” reports Caroline Delbert for Popular Mechanics. Gurth and Maynard “claim they’ve proven [Dirichlet] polynomials have a certain number of large values, or solutions, within a tighter ranger than before.” 

Scientific American

Prof. Larry Guth and University of Oxford Prof. James Maynard have improved a previously discovered mathematical estimate contributing to the process of solving the Riemann hypothesis – an open question in number theory and mathematics, reports Manon Bischoff for Scientific American. Guth and Maynard have “provided new food for thought to tackle the 160-year-old puzzle,” writes Bischoff.  

New York Times

New York Times reporter Siobhan Roberts highlights the various MIT faculty and students who have contributed to the “serious recreational mathematics” behind the Rubik’s Cube phenomenon. Various mathematicians, including Prof. Erik Demaine, organized a two-day special session to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube. 

The Wall Street Journal

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.  

Smithsonian Magazine

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that the sun’s magnetic field “could form much closer to the star’s surface than previously thought,” reports Will Sullivan for Smithsonian Magazine. “The findings could help improve forecasts of solar activity that can affect satellites, power grids and communications systems on Earth—and produce magnificent auroras,” explains Sullivan. 

TechCrunch

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new machine-learning model capable of “predicting a physical system’s phase or state,” report Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey for TechCrunch

Forbes

Prof. Roger Levy, Prof. Tracy Slatyer and Prof. Martin Wainwright are among the 2024 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship recipients, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. “The new fellows represent 52 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields and are affiliated with 84 academic institutions,” writes Nietzel.

The Boston Globe

Prof. Roger Levy, Prof. Tracy Slatyer and Prof. Martin Wainwright have been awarded John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships, reports Mark Feeney for The Boston Globe. A Guggenheim fellowship “is one of the most sought-after honors in academe, the arts, and culture,” explains Feeney. “It helps underwrite a proposed art or scholarly project.”