Research

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that while AI systems could help doctors come to the right diagnosis more often, the diagnostic gains aren’t always distributed evenly, with more improvements tied to patients with lighter skin, report Daniel Payne, Erin Schumaker, and Ruth Reader for Politico. “AI could be a powerful tool to improve care and potentially offer providers a check on their blindspots," they write. "But that doesn’t mean AI will reduce bias. In fact, the study suggests, AI could cause greater disparities in care.”

Senior Lecturer Richard Price and his colleagues have scored a touchdown by uncovering the physics behind a spiral pass, “those perfect throws where the football leaves the player's hand and neatly spins as it arcs through the air,” reports NPR Short Wave host Regina Barber.

Elemind Technologies, a neuro-tech startup founded by scientists from MIT and elsewhere, is developing, “an approach that redirects brain wave through non-invasive stimulation – using sound, light, touch and electric pulses –  to potentially address a range of neurological conditions in a more targeted ways than drugs,” reports Robert Weisman for The Boston Globe. 

Fast Company reporter Kristin Toussaint spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new map detailing how the shift to clean energy could impact jobs around the country. The researchers found that workers could be most impacted in areas that drill for oil and gas, as well as “regions with a high concentration of manufacturing, agriculture, and construction—all industries that rely heavily on coal, oil, and gas.” 

Writing for Bloomberg, Prof. Carlo Ratti and Arianna Salazar-Miranda SM '16, PhD '23 explore the possibility and potential of developing 15-minute cities in America. “If implemented correctly, the 15-minute city can be an agent of freedom: freedom from traffic jams, freedom to live in a healthy environment and freedom to be outside,” they write. “It is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but our research shows that almost every community in America could benefit from a few more well-placed amenities.”

Researchers at MIT have discovered 18 supermassive black holes that “are tearing apart nearby stars in ‘oddball’ tidal disruption events,” reports Ava Berger for The Boston Globe. Graduate student Megan Masterson says, “the events are powerful tools to understand the most extreme parts of our universe. They happen about once every 50,000 years, and help scientists learn more about the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and black holes in general.”

New York Times reporter Ana Swanson spotlights a working paper co-authored by Prof. David Autor which suggests “the sweeping tariffs that former President Donald J. Trump imposed on China and other American trading partners were simultaneously a political success and an economic failure.” Autor and his colleagues found that “the aggregate effect on U.S. jobs of the three measures — the original tariffs, retaliatory tariffs and subsidies granted to farmers — were ‘at best a wash, and it may have been mildly negative.’”

A more than $40 million investment to add advanced nano-fabrication equipment and capabilities to MIT.nano will significantly expand the center’s nanofabrication capabilities, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. The new equipment, which will also be available to scientists outside MIT, will allow “startups and students access to wafer-making equipment used by larger companies. These tools will allow its researchers to make prototypes of an array of microelectronic devices.”

MIT researchers have discovered 18 new tidal disruption events (TDEs), “which are huge bursts of energy released as a star is shredded by a black hole,” reports Jess Thomson for Newsweek. “These new discoveries have also helped scientists learn more about what TDEs really are and where they occur,” explains Thomson. “The previous stock of TDEs had only been found in a rare form of galaxy known as a ‘post-starburst’ system, which once created a number of stars but has since stopped.”

BostInno reporter Isabel Tehan spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a model to predict how different shoes will impact different individual runners. “The model takes into account runner height, weight and other body dimensions, and the properties of the shoes — including stiffness or springiness — and can predict how that individual would run in a particular pair of shoes,” writes Tehan. “Ideally, we could make a shoe that's right for you and the way you run,” explains postdoc Sarah Fay.

MIT researchers have discovered that “stars at the edge of our home galaxy appear to be moving more slowly than expected,” reports Jess Thomson. This discovery “implies that the galaxy itself may be structured differently from how scientists first thought, with the core of the Milky Way possibly containing less dark matter and, therefore, being lighter in mass than first assumed,” explains Thomson.

Researchers from MIT have developed liquid metal printing, a new technique that can be used to quickly 3D print large-scale objects such as furniture, reports Designboom. The researchers say this technique can enable 3D printing, “ten times faster than a comparable metal additive manufacturing process, and the process of melting the metal may be more efficient than some other methods, given that metal is also more accessible with the abundance of scraps that can be recycled,” writes Designboom.

MIT researchers have developed a 3D printing technique called liquid metal printing (LMP) that capable of printing large aluminum parts at least 10 times faster than a comparable metal additive manufacturing process, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. LMP “utilizes a bed of 100-micron glass beads to create a structure into which molten aluminum is deposited — a process not entirely dissimilar from injection molding,” explains Heater. “The beads are capable of standing up to the intense temperature, while allowing the heat to quickly dissipate as the metal solidifies.”

New York Times opinion writer Peter Coy spotlights the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative, a new effort aimed at analyzing the forces that are eroding job quality for non-college workers and identifying ways to move the economy onto a more equitable trajectory. Nothing is “inexorable,” said Prof. Daron Acemoglu during the project’s kickoff event. “The answer in most cases is, AI will do whatever we choose it to do.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed an AI model that is capable of identifying 3 ½ times more people who are at high-risk for developing pancreatic cancer than current standards, reports Felice J. Freyer for The Boston Globe. “This work has the potential to enlarge the group of pancreatic cancer patients who can benefit from screening from 10 percent to 35 percent,” explains Freyer. “The group hopes its model will eventually help detect risk of other hard-to-find cancers, like ovarian.”