National Science Foundation (NSF)

MIT researchers have developed the Probabilistic Bias Correction (PBC) tool, which “uses machine learning to identify systematic bias in a model and make corrections” to improve weather forecasts, reports The Verge’s Justine Calma. “The researchers found that PBC improved the accuracy of a leading physics-based weather model by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for 98 percent of precipitation and 92 percent of temperature targets,” notes Calma. “The machine learning framework also doubled the accuracy of ECMWF’s new AI forecasting system in the study’s analysis.” 

Gizmodo’s Ellyn Lapointe spotlights the Probabilistic Bias Correction (PBC) tool developed by MIT researchers to “correct systemic errors in forecast models and improve the accuracy of their subseasonal outlooks.” “Extreme weather has the largest impact on our society and improved forecasts of these events can yield large societal benefits,” says Research Scientist Judah Cohen. “Interestingly, previous bias correction schemes actually made forecasts of extreme weather worse, and our model showed clear improvement of extreme weather forecasts.”  

MIT researchers have developed an AI system “that not only minimizes forecasting errors, but learns from its inevitable mistakes through a method called postprocessing,” writes reporter Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “Their AI postprocessing integration blew the existing forecasting models out of the water,” notes Paul. “Such massive improvements could soon help the farmers and energy providers who already rely on subseasonal forecasts, but the benefits may even save lives.” 

MIT researchers have found that the gravitational pull of a red dwarf star is “siphoning material” from a brown dwarf star 300 to 500 light-years from Earth, writes reporter Will Dunham for Reuters. “This is the first observed example of this phenomenon,” says graduate student Aaron Householder. “The two objects are so close together that the entire orbit would fit inside the sun.” 

Research Scientist Julian Klein and Prof. Frances Ross speak with speak with Physics reporter Akashni Raghubar Latchanna about an electron microscopy technique they developed to move atoms within a material, creating new possibilities for engineering electrical, optical, and quantum properties. “If we can control the electronic or optical functions of the materials, we might potentially make those devices more brain-like, more portable, and less power-hungry,” Ross said. 

MIT astronomers have discovered a “star slowly and steadily consuming material from another low-mass object,” writes Catherine Stoddard for Fox News. “At the rate which the star is feeding, it’ll take likely hundreds of thousands, or maybe even billions of years for it to completely consume its nearby neighbor,” notes Stoddard.  

MIT researchers have discovered “a red dwarf [star] slowly and steadily consuming its orbital object, a brown dwarf [star],” in a process that could continue for millions of years, writes reporter Mary Randolph for the Scientific American. The discovery was “a happy accident,” says graduate student Aaron Householder. “We’re excited to see if we can find a star eating a planet or maybe even two planets eating each other—different types of combinations of these objects.”  

MIT researchers have developed Ataraxos, an AI system capable of winning the challenging game Stratego. The system could one day help decision makers with real-world problems that involve hidden information, reports Jacek Krywk for Ars Technica. “Board games have fixed rules and clear winners, while real-world problems like negotiations, financial markets, or military conflicts usually don’t,” writes Krywk. “But the Ataraxos team argues the gap is smaller than it looks, since tackling any real problem starts with building a simplified model of it.” 

Cailin Plunkett speaks to the Scientific American’s Mary Randolph about her research discovering that 14% of black holes may be hierarchical mergers, made from the merger of two smaller black holes. “At minimum, we’re finding evidence that there are these highly spinning and weirdly tilted black holes in the dataset, and the most straightforward way to interpret that, the Occam’s razor answer, is that these black holes probably came from previous mergers,” says Plunkett.  

The Financial Times’ Anjana Ahuja highlights Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia and Senior Postdoctoral Associate Vardhman Kumar’s work developing injectable “mini livers,” tissue grafts that could “take on some of the life-saving functions of liver cells: helping with blood clotting, detoxifying the bloodstream and breaking down medicines. The injectable grafts, they suggest, could also be used as a bridging treatment while patients wait for a transplant, with booster injections able to dial up the dose,” writes Ahuja.  

MIT researchers have discovered space matter that has been ‘missing’ since the 1990s using Fast Radio Bursts, individual flashes of radio waves traveling through space and coming from the distant universe, reports WCVB 5’s Cindy Fitzgibbon. “The takeaway of the study is that by discovering the distribution of the missing matter around galaxies, we have found evidence for strong activities in galaxies,” says graduate student Haochen Wang, a co-author on the study. “In other words, galaxies are busier and messier than we thought.” 

Prof. Salvatore Vitale and graduate student Cailin Plunkett join John Batchelor and David Livingston, hosts of the Hotel Mars podcast, to discuss their discovery that 14% of black holes were created from the merger of two smaller ones, and their goal to use gravitational wave detectors to uncover the origins of the black hole in the Milky Way. “In ten years [with added gravitational wave technology and observatories], we’ll go from seeing the first gravitational wave ever to seeing them irrespective of where they happen in the universe—which would of course, be fantastic,” says Vitale.  

MIT researchers have developed a new, breathable hydrogel material that is “packed with microscopic air tunnels inspired by the way human lungs move oxygen” and allows heat and sweat to escape, reports Luis Prada for VICE. “The material proved to be about 10 times more breathable than conventional hydrogels and retained about 95 percent of its airflow even after being stretched 10,000 times,” explains Prada. 

MIT researchers have developed a low temperature process to extract battery-grade lithium from spodumene, the most common type of mineral containing lithium, using a reusable liquid reagent, writes Electronic Design’s Lee Goldberg. “The new process uses a liquid reagent to dissolve the rock into the useful forms of its constituent parts — not just battery-ready lithium salts, but also smelter-grade alumina and cement-ready silica,” writes Goldberg. “After the minerals are extracted, the solvent and reagent can be recovered and used again so that waste levels approach zero.”  

Cambridge Day’s Chloe Taft spotlights the 25th anniversary of The Fab Lab, digital fabrication network started at MIT, and its annual conference, FAB26, held this week throughout Cambridge. “We’re going to show things like rapid prototyping, making vehicles [at FAB26],” says Prof. Neil Gershenfeld. “[T]here’s examples of using the tools in the lab to make aquaponic and hydroponic systems for food, to make antennas and radios for data networks, to make shelter. You really can make almost anything today.”