Research

Luana Lopes Lara '18 and Tarek Mansour '18, MNG '19, co-founders of prediction market firm Kalshi, have been named to the Forbes World’s Youngest Billionaires list, reports Simone Melvin for Forbes.

A new essay by Profs. Daron Acemoglu, David Autor and Simon Johnson, has offered “a more hopeful vision for the future of human work,” in a world infused with AI, reports Greg Rosalsky for NPR’s Planet Money. The authors “spend much of the essay providing a thought-provoking analysis of how new technologies can affect human jobs in general,” writes Rosalsky. “In short, it's complicated. Yes, often they do kill jobs. Other times they can make jobs less lucrative by, for example, making those jobs easier to do — or ‘de-skilling’ them — which means the supply of workers who can do these jobs goes up and wages for the occupation can go down.” 

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from MIT and other institutions have determined that asteroid 2024 YR4 will not collide with the moon, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. “Every time we observe an asteroid, we reduce the range of possible trajectories,” explains Prof. Julien de Wit. “In this case, the JWST observations both provided very precise positional measurements and significantly extended the time span over which the asteroid has been observed.”

Graduate student Verena Bellscheidt has been awarded the Zonta Club of Wuaboag Valley Women in STEM award, reports The Republican. Bellscheidt is “dedicated to advancing the field [of theoretical physics] at the intersection of cosmology and particle physics while mentoring the next generation of female scientists.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed an “AI-driven optimization method that works like ‘ChatGPT for spreadsheets’ – a tabular foundation model designed to handle spreadsheet-style data common in engineering design problems,” reports Gene Marks for Forbes. “The AI system identifies which design variables matter most and focuses search efforts on those, making problem solving less cumbersome,” writes Marks. 

Prof. Alessandro Acquisti speaks with WBUR reporters Woodrow Hartzog and Neil Richards about privacy concerns surrounding consumer data. “The online advertising industry has long extolled the benefits of targeted advertising, presenting it as an economic win-win for publishers, merchants and consumers alike,” says Acquisti. “And yet, in reality, there is little robust empirical evidence that any stakeholder – other than the data intermediaries themselves – actually benefit from this type of advertising.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed “mini livers” that “can be injected into the body to help take over the functions of a failing liver,” reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “If realized clinically, the development could provide a lifeline for many of the more than 10,000 Americans with chronic liver disease currently waiting for a transplant,” writes Randall. 

A study by Prof. Taha Choukhmane and his colleagues has found that “by switching retirement contributions to the account with the higher match rate, 1 in 5 couples could increase their savings by an estimated $750 per year,” reports Lorie Konish for CNBC. “The absence of coordination can be a choice, but it’s a costly choice,” says Choukhmane. 

MIT researchers have “achieved a breakthrough towards building scalable quantum computers,” reports Prabhat Ranjan Mishra for Interesting Engineering, using “cryoelectronics to control ion traps, a key step toward realizing scalable quantum computers.”  The team says “this proof-of-principle experiment marks an important advancement toward building large-scale ion-trap quantum computing systems,” writes Mishra.

Prof. Robert Langer, Prof. Giovanni Traverso and former postdoctoral fellow Thomas von Erlach founded Vivtex, a biotechnology startup that has “created a high-tech system called a ‘GI tract on a chip’ that uses robotics and AI to test how drugs move through the human digestive system,” reports Beth Treffeisen for Boston.com. “The technology allows Vivtex to quickly test thousands of drug formulations and predict how they will be absorbed in people, much more accurately than traditional lab methods.” 

A study by researchers at MIT has found that high levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere is impacting the satellite orbits that typically force objects back to Earth, leading to an increased amount of space junk, reports Sachi Kitajima Mulkey for The New York Times. “[W]e’re losing this cleaning force that we rely on” says William Parker PhD '25. 

Profs. Robert Langer, Giovanni Traverso and former postdoctoral fellow Thomas von Erlach have founded Vivtex, a biotechnology startup specializing in “oral alternatives to drugs administered by injections,” reports Jonathan Satlzman for The Boston Globe. Vivtex, now working in collaboration with Novo Nordisk, is looking to develop a new class of “pills to treat obesity and diabetes,” explains Saltzman. 

A paper by Prof. Christopher Knittel and his colleagues explores the impact of climate change on inflation, reports Lydia DePillis for The New York Times. “We’re likely at this inflection point where costs are going to start growing more rapidly,” says Knittel. “The observed costs have been fairly linear so far. Going forward, that’s going to start increasing at an increasing rate.”

MIT researchers have built “the first complete model of pedestrian activity in New York City,” a template that could be applied to any U.S. city, reports Elissaveta M. Brandon for Fast Company. “The model, which maps foot traffic across all sidewalks, crosswalks and footpaths in NYC during peak periods, reveals surprising patterns about the way people move around the city, as well as where they are most vulnerable to vehicle crashes,” explains Brandon. “It could have tremendous benefits for city planners.” 

Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Fortune reporter Jake Angelo about his work studying the “origins of economic and political decay,” and the need for the U.S. to crack down “on economic inequality and tempering with job destruction.” “If we go down this path of destroying jobs [and] creating more inequality, U.S. democracy is not going to survive,” says Acemoglu.