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Forbes

Steve Mann PhD '97 has been awarded the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for his contributions toward the development of virtual reality, augmented reality, wearable technology, eXtended Reality products and services, reports Thomas Coughlin for Forbes. “Widely regarded as ‘the father of wearable computing,’” Mann “invented, designed, and built the world’s first smartwatch capable of downloading and running a wide variety of apps for health, well-being, and fitness tracking, ushering in a new era of personal health,” explains Coughlin. 

Nature

Nature reporter Elizabeth Gibney spotlights QuEra, an MIT spinout that uses atoms and lasers to encode quantum bits or “qubits.” Gibney notes that in the QuEra system, “physicists trap an array of rubidium atoms using laser light and store quantum information in the energy levels of their electrons.”

WBUR

Prof. Jeff Gore speaks with WBUR Here & Now host Peter O’Dowd about retiring the U.S. penny. “I think that the primary cost of continuing to mint the penny is the fact that it means we feel we actually have to use it,” explains Gore. “I think that the value of our time that is wasted handling pennies is worth even more than the wasted materials.” 

WBZ Radio

Research Scientist Artem Burdanov speaks with WBZ News Radio reporter Chaiel Schaffel about his team’s work developing a new detection method that could be used to track potential asteroid impactors like 2024 YR4 and help protect our planet. Burdanov and his colleagues used the new method to detect “138 asteroids ranging in size from a bus to the size of Gillette Stadium.” Burdanov explains that he and his colleagues "used a clever technique to find asteroids that are hidden in the noise.” 

The Boston Globe

During a town hall-style discussion at the Museum of Science, Prof. David Kaiser explored the importance of scientific exploration in a democracy and its role in spurring on national progress, reports Brian Bergstein for The Boston Globe. “Science, which needs a lot of resources, has to be political,” says Kaiser. “We have to make the case in a persuasive way about why this kind of activity is worthy of support.” 

Beyond The Valley

Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with CNBC “Beyond The Valley” podcast hosts Arjun Kharpal and Tom Chitty about concerns surrounding the future of AI systems. “I think, on an optimistic note here, we can have almost everything that we’re excited about with AI,” says Tegmark, “if we simply insist on having some basic safety standards before people can sell powerful AI systems.”

New Scientist

MIT physicists have measured kinetic inductance for two layers of stacked and twisted graphene and found that the superconducting current is much “stiffer,” meaning it resists change more than predicted by any conventional theory of superconductivity, reports Karmela Padavic-Callaghan for New Scientist. The findings could do more than “shed light on why graphene superconducts – they could also reveal key properties required for room-temperature superconductors.”

CNN

MIT astronomers have analyzed the scintillation – or glistening - produced by a fast radio burst (FRB) to help identify the location of the pulses, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. “We discovered that this FRB exhibits ‘twinkling,’ similar to how stars appear to twinkle in the night sky,” explains postdoc Kenzie Nimmo. “Observing this scintillation indicates that the region where the FRB originated must be incredibly small.”

Forbes

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a new vaccine that “could be potentially used against a broad array of coronaviruses like the one that causes Covid-19 and potentially forestall future pandemics,” reports Alex Knapp for Forbes. “The vaccine involves attaching tiny pieces of virus that remain unchanged across related strains to a nanoparticle,” explains Knapp.

USA Today

USA Today reporter Eric Lagatta writes that a new study by MIT researchers fins that X-ray flashes emanating from a supermassive black hole located 270 million light-years from the Milky Way could be caused by a dead stellar remnant, or white dwarf. The researchers believe that the white dwarf could be “spinning precariously on the edge of the black hole, causing the explosions of high-energy light.” 

Reuters

MIT astronomers have detected X-ray flashes erupting from a supermassive black hole that seem to be caused by a nearby white dwarf, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. “It is probably the closest object we've ever observed orbiting around a supermassive black hole,” says graduate student Megan Masterson. “This is extremely close to the black hole's event horizon.”

Mashable

MIT astronomers have witnessed flashes of X-rays shooting out of a black hole and believe that a dead star, or white dwarf, passing close by the black hole could be causing the eruptions, reports Mark Kaufman for Mashable. “The astronomers ran simulations of what could drive these unusual bursts of energy,” writes Kaufman. “The most plausible outcome is this brazen white dwarf (the spent core of a sun-like star), which is about one-tenth the mass of our sun. It's shedding its dense, outer layer and triggering these pulses of X-rays.” 

Space.com

Space.com reporter Robert Lea writes that using the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope, MIT astronomers have observed bursts of X-rays erupting with increasing frequency from a supermassive black hole, a behavior they think could be caused by a “dead stellar core, or white dwarf, daringly teetering on the edge of the black hole.” Lea explains that “if the source of these strange episodes is a finely balanced white dwarf, the researchers theorize that it could be detected using ripples in space and time called gravitational waves emitted from the system.”

Quanta Magazine

Quanta Magazine reporter Charlie Wood spotlights how MIT researchers have contributed to the recent discoveries of new superconductive materials. Prof. Long Ju and his research team “placed a five-layer graphene flake on an insulator at a twisted angle and observed a rare electron behavior that normally requires a strong magnetic field to induce,” explains Wood. 

National Geographic

Prof. Anna Frebel spotlights the work of Cecilia Payne, whose research “laid the foundation of stellar astrophysics,” reports Liz Kruesi for National Geographic. “It is such a fundamental piece of understanding for humanity,” says Frebel of the importance of Payne’s work discovering that stars are mainly made up of hydrogen and helium