Research

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found “the smallest asteroids ever detected within the main belt, which is a field between Mars and Jupiter where millions of asteroids orbit,” reports Sabrina Lam for The Boston Globe. “With new technology, we can find populations of asteroids that were inaccessible previously,” says Prof. Julien De Wit.  “Now we have the capability to be able to study this object further out, predict the orbit with much better accuracy, and decide what to do for potential or possible future impactors.”

Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Times Higher Ed’s Jack Grove about the importance of maintaining economic and political discussions in higher ed. “It is fine for academics to speak on such issues as long as you can keep that separate from your classrooms and for what constitutes high-quality research,” says Acemoglu. “There are special times when academics should speak out.”

Prof. Daron Acemoglu highlights the importance of adopting alternative technologies in the face of AI advancements, reports Jared Newman for Fast Company. “We need investment for alternative approaches to AI, and alternative technologies, those that I would say are more centered on making workers more productive, and providing better information to workers,” says Acemoglu.

Inside Higher Ed has included MIT on their list of favorite college holiday greetings this year, reports Johanna Alonso. In this year’s animated video, “A student walks through the snow-dusted hallway, eventually happening upon an atrium where her classmates are playing instruments crafted from ice, sledding and crafting a snow beaver in the image of the institution’s mascot,” writes Alonso. 

Prof. Abhijit Banerjee speaks with Financial Times reporter John Reed about global politics and the increased need for trust in economists. On his book, Poor Economics, Banerjee says, “I think we have always thought that economic ideas were too important to be left out of the public discourse. There is a sense in which we think economics does a disservice to ourselves and the world by wrapping ourselves in this omniscient jargon.” 

Prof. Rob Simcoe speaks with Knowable Magazine reporter Elizabeth Quill about the role of the James Webb Telescope in advancing scientific discoveries. “The tools that we can bring to bear now on studying this epoch of cosmic history are unlike anything we’ve had before,” says Simcoe. 

Newsweek reporter Tom Howarth spotlights MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems as they announced plans to “build the world's first grid-scale commercial nuclear fusion power plant” in Virginia. “The plant is expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 150,000 homes or large industrial facilities,” writes Howarth. 

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), MIT astronomers have spotted “small space rocks – including some just dozens of feet in length, the tiniest ever discovered in our solar system’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,” reports Robin George Andrews for National Geographic. “This work helps to fill in astronomers’ understanding of the asteroid belt, the wreckage left behind from the inner solar system’s formation—and it’s always nice to spy more of those rocky time capsules for future study,” explains Andrews. 

Forbes reporter Joe McKendrick spotlights a study by researchers from the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence evaluating “the performance of humans alone, AI alone, and combinations of both.” The researchers found that “human–AI systems do not necessarily achieve better results than the best of humans or AI alone,” explains graduate student Michelle Vaccaro and her colleagues. “Challenges such as communication barriers, trust issues, ethical concerns and the need for effective coordination between humans and AI systems can hinder the collaborative process.”

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinoff, plans to build “the nation’s first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia by the early 2030s,” reports Laura Vozzella and Gregory S. Schneider for The Washington Post. “Fusion is a long-sought source of power that can generate almost limitless energy by combining atomic nuclei,” they write. “It is unlike fission, the more common form of nuclear energy, in which the nucleus is split, and which generates large amounts of radioactive waste.” 

New York Times reporter Thomas B. Edsall spotlights research by Prof. David Autor examining how socioeconomic status influences the gender gap. The researchers noted that the “explanation lies in the disproportionate share of boys ranked at or near the bottom on measures of academic performance and behavior — what statisticians call the left tail or lower tail of the distribution,” writes Edsall.

MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems has shared their plans “to build its first commercial power plant” in Virginia, reports Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe. “Commonwealth aims to build a complete power plant with a fusion machine generating heat used to spin turbines and make 400 megawatts of electric power, enough to supply 150,000 homes, by the mid-2030s,” explains Pressman. 

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout, has announced plans to “build its first fusion power plant in Virginia, with the aim of generating zero-emissions electricity there in the early 2030s,” reports Raymond Zhong for The New York Times. “The proposed facility is among the first to be announced that would harness nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, to produce power commercially, a long-elusive goal that scientists have pursued for the better part of a century,” explains Zhong. 

MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems has announced plans to build the “world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia, to generate power by the early 2030s,” reports Timothy Gardner for Reuters. The project, “could revolutionize the global energy industry by tapping into a virtually limitless power source, similar to that which fuels the stars,” writes Gardner. 

Researchers at MIT and the Center for Strategic and International Studies have used a tabletop exercise to determine whether a further build-up of US nuclear capabilities would impact China’s nuclear weapon use in Taiwan, reports Kathrin Hille for Financial Times. “The US has 600-plus tactical nuclear weapons, and it is modernizing their delivery means,” explains Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham. “In the game, the one US team that employed tactical nuclear weapons used fewer than a dozen. In no cases did any of the participants ever say: ‘We need SLCM-N or some other system that is not in the inventory or being deployed under the current modernization plan.’”